FitSugar

Alexa Fishback's 12 Healthy Habits

FitSugar — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:30:04 PST

Who couldn't use a little outside help when it comes to eating right? Part of the grand prize of our Get Fit For 2010 community group and contest is a year of personalized nutrition plans by nutritionist Alexa Fishback, as well as a copy of her book The Daily Fix. Here are the 12 healthy habits Alexa recommends to make healthy living easier. The habits are organized to guide you throughout the day from your morning caffeine fix to bedtime, with a few general habits that are important for any time of day. Here they are:

1. Guiltless and Enjoyable Morning Drink	2. Breakfast on Protein and Fiber	3. Don't Forget to Snack Twice a Day
4. Lunch on High Fiber and Lean Protein	5. Indulge Your Sweet Tooth Daily	6. Enjoy Your One Daily Alcoholic Drink

To see the final six healthy habits,

Tyra Gets a Nutritionist to Get Her Shape in Shape

FitSugar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:00:17 PST

You may already know that Tyra's made a lifestyle change, thanks to a little healthy competition with her girlfriends that began last January. While being more active and committing herself to regular cardio sessions certainly helped her tone up, an episode of Tyra's show this week reveals that her slim-down is in large part due to working with a nutritionist and drastically changing her eating habits. With recent studies debating that weight loss has less to do with exercise, and is more about food, Tyra's revelation seems a timely bit of healthy advice.

Overall, I'm totally impressed with Tyra's take on getting fit - proclaiming the episode "Get Your Shape in Shape," she emphasizes the focus on individual body type, rather than on being skinny, and offers constructive tips for shaping up your shape - like making a decision to get healthy for yourself and keeping a food journal to monitor what you're eating.

A true believer in the power of food, Tyra also claims that new eating habits put and end to her "stomach attacks," which she suffered from since she was 10, and reveals that her weight loss is 80 percent attributable to diet and 20 percent attributable to exercise - she didn't even hire a personal trainer. Are you a believer yet?

Photo Courtesy of Warner Brothers

Weekend Reading: The Daily Fix by Alexa L. Fishback

FitSugar — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 04:55:49 PST

Alexa L. Fishback is my kind of nutritionist: one who understands that nutrition isn't always easy for young working women on the go. Her book The Daily Fix: Your Guide to Healthy Habits For Good Nutrition, released last week, acknowledges that work happy hours can tempt us from working out and that lunch meetings are a necessary but often unhealthy obligation.

To these modern-day challenges, The Daily Fix offers all kinds of solutions, depending on your lifestyle. Fishback recommends everything from keeping a food journal to setting BlackBerry reminders for your workouts and healthy snack times. She explains how to deconstruct those catered-lunch sandwiches to make them healthier and explores how one chai latte a day can really add up in terms of calories. For all the tasty details,

read more. The book is an easy, breezy, and fun read that's also packed with pointers from how to shop smart for groceries to dealing with dining out. She illustrates her lessons with real-life case studies where she solves individual women's nutritional needs. Fishback even has a chapter called "Things We Don't Like to Discuss" that deals with health issues like IBS, PMS, and other "girly" maladies. I particularly love the Savvy Girl Tips scattered throughout, such as "Make a pact with yourself not to purchase food unless you are in a grocery store or a restaurant," to avoid impulse buys at places like Blockbuster and Walgreens. If you're into a healthy (but realistic) lifestyle, I highly recommend picking up this surprisingly hearty book.

Dietitian vs. Nutritionist

FitSugar — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:30:00 PDT

A dietitian is an expert in food and nutrition. They give dietary advice, help promote healthy eating habits, develop specific diets for people, and participate in nutrition research. In the U.S., nutrition professionals include the registered dietitian (RD), and the dietetic technician, registered (DTR). They are regulated by the American Dietetic Association (ADA). They must meet strict educational and professional prerequisites and pass a national exam before they are registered dietitians.

Nutritionists are health specialists who are interested in food and nutritional science, preventative nutrition, diseases related to nutrient deficiencies, and the use of food and nutrients to cure disease and ailments.

They also are not regulated. They have varying degrees of education in nutrition – some have very little and some have a masters or phD. Since the term "nutritionist" isn't regulated, anyone can call themselves a nutritionist and dispense nutritional information without having any education whatsoever - they even write books.

Fit's Tips: If you want advice on your diet, food, or nutrition, I'd see a dietitian unless a nutritionist could prove to you how much education they've had.

Source

You Asked: The Science of Snacking

FitSugar — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:45:00 PDT

Dear FitSugar-
Do you know how many calories you can allow in a day for snacking? What should a snack consist of nutrition wise?

I love snacking and I too had some questions about snacking so I consulted nutritionist Rania Batayneh, MPH of Essential Nutrition For You. Here's what she had to say:

One key factor you should think about when you snack in between meals is that it is all about SMART SNACKING. If you are simply adding calories to your day that may result in weight gain depending on your activity levels. You want to make sure that your snacks are between 100 – 200 calories and ideally you will want to fuel your body every 3-4 hours, so you may end up having both a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon snack.
Now, one purpose of snacking is to prevent over-eating or being starved at lunch or dinner. With that said, you want a snack that has a balance of protein, carbohydrate and some fat. For example a string cheese and an apple comes it at 160 calories, a non-fat fruit flavored yogurt averages from 60-140 calories, or 1/4 cup of nuts comes in at 200 calories.

Need some more inspiration when it comes to healthy snacks, check these Snack Attack ideas for all your snacking needs. You should also take advantage of Rania's free 15 minute consultation if you would like to talk about creating an eating strategy that is right for you.

Is Bottled Water Better for You Than Tap?

FitSugar — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 02:30:00 PDT

I just read some alarming news on Reuters.com, well alarming to me at least. Did you know that 25% of all bottled water is actually just repackaged tap water? I definitely did not know that.

Nor did I know this: Because bottled water is considered a food, it is regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration. Tap water is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. However, both types of water are subject to testing for contaminates. Furthermore, since 60 to 70 percent of all bottled water in the U.S. is packaged and sold within the same state, it is exempted from the FDA regulation. And 1 in 5 states do not regulate that bottled water. Basically, it's a crapshoot.

22 percent of all the bottled water tested was found to have man-made chemicals, bacteria and arsenic. It doesn't end there, tap water in the 19 U.S. cities tested was found to contain arsenic, lead, and pesticides. Boy let me tell you, nothing says refreshing like arsenic. Luckily for us, most healthy adults' systems can handle the contaminants but this is not always the case for those with weakened immune systems (like children and cancer patients).

So what's the moral of the story? Bottled water is not necessarily better. To get the most out of your water, buy bottled water treated with reverse osmosis and/or drink distilled water or city tap water with a filtering system certified by the National Sanitation Foundation.

National Nutrition Month: Seeing a Nutritionist

FitSugar — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:00:00 PDT

There is so much nutritional information out there to process and at times it just gets overwhelming. Since, March is National Nutrition month I thought I would go see a nutritionist to help me weed through all the information and get some personalized info too. Let me tell you it was a pretty cool experience.

I met with Rania Batayneh of Essential Nutrition For You, who is also a wellness coach. I have to say this combo makes a lot of sense since we want to eat well so we can live well. Rania holds a Masters in Public Health with a Nutrition focus, but you can also choose to meet with a Registered Dietitian. While many seek the advice of a professional when they are stalled dieting, there are other reasons to work with a nutritionist or dietitian - like to improve energy, to eat healthier, regain the feeling of your fitness level from yesteryear.

Here's highlights of what to expect:

Initial Phone Interview: Assess and clarify your goals and discuss your basic health and eating history. This is an informational interview for you too, so use it to get a feel of the person and see if they are someone you want to work with.
Food Journal: Track all that you eat for 5 days including a weekend (from experience Rania knows a lot of structure and good habits fly out the door on Saturday and Sunday). This is valuable information for the nutritionist to learn how and what you eat.

There's more, so

Metabolic Rate: This measures how efficiently your body burns calories so you know how many calories you can consume to maintain your weight, or how many calories you can healthily cut if you are looking to lose weight. The test is done after a 12 hour fast.

The nutritionist will analyze all this information and figure out how to optimize your diet based on your goals. For instance if you suffer from an energy drop in the afternoon, you might be told to have a protein/carb snack and then learn foods that meet these requirements. You will hopefully learn that changing your diet doesn't mean suffering and eliminating an entire category of food. Rather than being told exactly what to eat, you leave with a bigger picture - what to eat and why, as well as eating, cooking and shopping strategies. Reminds me of the saying "If you give a man a fish he will eat for the day. Teach him how to fish, and he will eat forever." All and all, I would say it was an informative experience. After an initial meeting, you can choose to meet weekly which is beneficial if you are working with a wellness coach. Or you can meet in person every three to four weeks, but chances are high you will keep in touch with your nutritionist via e-mail. Just e-mail your food journal, the nutritionist analyzes it and sends back food suggestions and new strategies if needed. Pretty cool and easy to fit into the busy life that likely got you off the healthy track in the first place.

Researchers Call For a Tax on Sugar

Jenny Sugar — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:37:19 PST

According to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, sugar is as dangerous as alcohol and tobacco. And just like other legal vices, they think regulators should put restrictions on its sale and availability by taxing any processed foods that have added sugar, including soda, some juices, chocolate milk, and sugared cereal, as well as proposing age limits when it comes to buying sugary foods.

In an article published today in the journal Nature, UCSF doctors feel the rise in obesity, diabetes, and other diseases has gone too far, and it's time for the government to get involved. The research team also feels sugar should be removed from the FDA's Generally Regarded as Safe list.

The idea of restricting sugar isn't a new thing. The debate on issuing a soda tax has been discussed for years, as well as limiting sugary foods when it comes to food stamp programs and availability of chocolate milk and sodas in schools. But a tax on sugar in general? Not everyone is in agreement. Since there's no evidence that such health issues as obesity and diabetes are caused by a single food or nutrient, some nutritionists don't believe taxing sugar will even be effective. Instead of focusing solely on sugar, cofounder of the Yale Prevention Center says, "The focus should be on the overall nutritional quality of foods, not just one nutrient." What do you think?

Brownie Recipe With an Unexpected Secret Ingredient!

Zelana Montminy — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:15:39 PST

Who doesn't love a brownie? Nutritionist and registered dietitian Cynthia Sass has created a recipe to healthify the treat: she adds spinach to the batter. Fear not! Your taste buds will have no idea these brownies are fortified with green stuff. Watch the video to learn just has she does it! To see the recipe keep reading.

Get Started on Your New Year Transformation Now!

Sponsor — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:00:00 PST

Are you ready to jump-start those New Year's resolutions? Then you're in luck! Just in time for the new year, ABC's The Revolution is an uplifting and inspiring new show all about health and lifestyle (emphasis on style). Whether you want to get back in shape, revamp your wardrobe, or learn to put yourself first, the expert cohost panel, including the likes of fashion guru Tim Gunn and celebrity trainer and nutritionist Harley Pasternak, is here to support you.

The Revolution is all about giving you the tools to make personal changes, big or small. Each week, the show will highlight the transformation of women, just like you, who have mastered the tips and tricks of self-improvement and show you how to do the same. Don't miss the exciting premiere of The Revolution on Monday, Jan. 16, and keep watching weekdays at 2 p.m. EST/1 p.m. PST/C on ABC.

Can't wait to watch? Check out the sneak peek below.

The Revolution premieres today at 2 p.m. EST/1 p.m. PST/C on ABC.

7. Use Meals Out as a Chance to Eat Fish	8. Make Dinner at Home Once a Week	9. Get a Good Night's Sleep
10. Move Every Day: Walk and Exercise	11. Drink Plenty of Water	12. Stay Healthy on the Road