Happy March Everyone, I hope that all your New Years’ Resolutions and your nutrition goals are going well! Though, if you haven’t had luck keeping up with your resolution, you aren’t the only one. If you are having troubles sticking with your nutrition goals, I’m here to give you some tips and tricks to staying on track with your nutrition goals.
Tip 1: If your initial nutrition goals this year were too lofty and you’re still having a hard time attaining the goal, you should start smaller. You shouldn’t expect to go from skipping breakfast and lunch every day, to initiating daily meal prep for a healthy, balanced breakfast and lunch. This huge jump is attainable for very few people. Try starting with small steps, like having a healthy, easy snack or meal at your breakfast and lunch times (especially if your job demands that you take only 10-15 minutes for breaks). This could be a Greek yogurt for breakfast and a salad kit for lunch. These products are made for those of us who have so little time that we need to grab-&-go.
You can also take non-perishable or freezer meals to work so that if you forget breakfast or don’t have time to prep, you can still have something at work! Get a box of healthy cereal, Kind bars or Bada Bean Bada Boom flavored dried beans to have something available if you forget a meal.
After that, you can start to implement more meal preparation and invest a little more time in your health and wellness. You can start to spruce up your yogurt with berries, nuts, granola, a side of fruit or change it up completely! You can make protein pancakes, egg bake, breakfast burritos or hard-boiled eggs with whole wheat toast and homemade nut butter. These are easy breakfast or lunch meals that take a little prep time and are very nutritional.
Tip 2: Make your healthy meals in bulk and freeze the leftovers! This is such a simple and effective way to ensure you have healthy meals available all the time. Freeze your soups, pork roast with carrots and cauliflower, zucchini boats with shredded beef and salsa, veggie lasagna, fajita meat with onions and peppers, frittatas, chicken and bean enchiladas, pumpkin & peanut butter protein pancakes, turkey meatloaf with green beans, whole grain with blueberry and pumpkin muffins, spaghetti with zucchini or spaghetti squash noodles – the options are endless. Of course, you could also do meal prep and make any of these meals specifically to freeze them. Many people plan on doing a meal prep day every week and make meals during this time. If you have time for a couple hours of meal preparation every week, you can then focus on making whole family-sized meals and/or individual meals to freeze as well as fresh meals, such as salads with fresh grilled chicken/turkey/salmon, sandwiches, parfaits and protein boxes (google search this, there are so many options for protein boxes).
Tip 3: If you eat out frequently, take a look at the nutrient information online for your favorite restaurants. (Just google “*business name* nutrition” and you can normally find their entire menu in PDF format with all their nutrient information). You’d be absolutely astonished by not only the calorie and fat amounts in your normal meals, but if you also look at the sodium levels, they are ridiculously high (which is especially important for those of you with high blood pressure). For example, I looked over the nutrient information for one of my favorite fast food restaurants today. At this restaurant, you can substitute zucchini noodles for wheat noodles in any of the pasta dishes on the menu, which seems like such a healthy substitute. What they hide from you is the amount of sodium that is added to their “plain” Zucchini – before sauce, before cheese and before any other ingredients are added. A normal zucchini has 4mg of salt; their zucchini has almost 1000mg of sodium (normal daily limit is 2000mg). Somehow, before they even make your meal, they add 1000mg of sodium to these zucchini noodles, so look at the menus of your favorite restaurants to see if your meal choices are truly healthy choices. At the end of the day, if you are having troubles formulating your own nutrition goals, come on in for a free 30-minute discovery visit. We can talk about how to set (and achieve!) realistic and attainable nutrition goals through forming an individualized plan that will help you succeed. Medical Nutrition Therapy with a Licensed Registered Dietitian may even be covered by your insurance if you have BMI over 30, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, renal insufficiency or you have a family history of any of these diseases! Worried about finding out what your insurance covers? I will figure that out for you when you come for your free discovery visit.
If any of this sounds like you, or if you’re having a hard time with your nutritional wellness or you’d just like some general nutrition guidance, give us a call today!
Kyah Armitage LRD, RDN
Total Balance Physical Therapy and Fitness
1461 Broadway N Fargo, ND 58102
P: 701-293-6037 | F: 701-293-0242
