Healthy Easter Tips

Lean & Green Easter Brunch Crustless Veggie Quiche Ingredients 8 egg whites ½ cup Milk 1 clove Garlic, minced 1/4 cup diced onion Black Pepper, to taste 1 cup shredded Gruyere Cheese (about 4 oz.) 2 cups steamed Organic Baby Spinach, squeeze out excess moisture ½ cup Yellow Cherry Tomatoes, halved 4 pieces Roasted Red Peppers, sliced in strips Instructions Preheat oven to 350°. Roast the red peppers for about 30 minutes. (can also be charred on a gas stove or grill to save time) Cook the onion and garlic in a pan sprayed with Pam for a few minutes until tender. Beat together Egg Whites, milk and cheese. Add the onion and garlic. Layer spinach, peppers and tomatoes and peppers in a buttered deep dish glass pie plate, arranging top layer attractively. Carefully pour egg mixture over layers. Bake 40 to 45 minutes until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let sit 15 minutes before cutting. Heirloom Tomato Salad What You’ll Need: 3 heirloom tomatoes 1 ripe avocado 1/2 cup basil leaves, whole Fig balsamic vinegar (or your favorite flavored vinegar) How to Make It: Thinly slice tomatoes crosswise into rounds Thinly slice avocado crosswise into rounds Take a platter and create a bed of basil leaves as your base. Layer different colored tomatoes and avocados until the plate is covered Drizzle with balsamic and garnish with basil chiffonade. Quiche & salad together provides 3 full lean and greens with 2 condiments and 2 healthy fats. (Slice quiche into 6 slices and serve each person 2, plus 2 cups of Heirloom salad.) Inspiration Corner Typical results are 2-5 lbs per week for 2 weeks and 1-2 lbs per week thereafter. Our client Mike lost 70 pounds with our program and this last weekend competed in his first CrossFit competition and won his division! Mike has 4 children and will be running around with them and modeling health for his family for a long time to come. Through our habits of health system, Mike and his wife Stefanie (who lost 65 lbs) are living in maintenance and finding new ways to improve their health. GREAT job Mike! Tips for Easter Gatherings A few tips from Dr. A, author of Dr. A's Habits of Health... As the adult who is making a serious effort to lose weight and restore health (or maintain health), here’s 3 B’s to remind you how to enjoy the Easter/Passover holiday without falling into old calorie indulging traps. Be Prepared. Have a meal replacement before you arrive at your family or church gathering. This takes the edge off your appetite so you can make sensible choices. This is also the time to keep a bar in your purse or pocket in case dinner is served later than you expected. Be Picky. Look over everything at the buffet or on the table before making choices. If you are eating at a restaurant, ask the server to have your food prepared without gravy or butter and request substitution of green vegetables for potatoes. When eating with the family, make the same request of the hostess. If you feel that you cannot ask, then do your best to adapt the food or eat less of it without sparking a family drama. Be People Centered (rather than food centered). This weekend is about spiritual connections, family and celebration. Stay focused on the reason that this time is special. Plan to spend twice as much time talking as eating. As with any holiday overstuff on good conversation and you will “gain” wonderful memories. What can you do to help your children during Easter? Keep in mind the 3 B’s: Be Creative. Instead of a basket, get an appropriately sized beach bucket with shovel and some sand toys for summer play. Add in crayons, coloring book, card games, small toys, dried fruit snacks, raisins or trail mix. If you don’t have the courage to say “no” to candy, then at least choose sugar free candies. Be Realistic. Holidays are prime times for retailers to push sweets and junk that they want you to believe you must have. You don’t have to buy what they push. Holidays have meaning, and it’s not found on the candy aisle. Be Future Minded. Think about the mixed messages with sweets and junk that send children on the road to diabetes, heart disease and other medical conditions, which are further compromised by obesity. We are your COPE certified health coaches! Please let us know how we can assist you or someone you love. We love what we do and find coaching YOU in your health to be fun and fulfilling! Ready to get started on program? Call us (Jill) 541-852-2261 or (Shane) 503-559-2445 or click here. Happy Easter! Shane & Jill

Healthy Families

Family Lean & Green Dinner Roasted Tomatoes with Shrimp & Feta 1 1/2 lb Shrimp, medium 2 tbsp Garlic, minced 1/2 cup Parsley, fresh 5 Tomatoes, large, sliced 2 tbsp Lemon juice 3/4 tsp Black pepper, freshly ground 3/4 tsp Kosher salt 3 tbsp Olive oil 1 cup Feta Place de-veined shrimp, garlic and chopped or sliced tomatoes in a baking pan. Sprinkle with parsley, lemon juice, salt, pepper and feta and drizzle with a minimal amount of olive oil. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until shrimp is completely done. Serves 3. Each serving has 1 lean, 2 condiments, 2 healthy fats and 1 green. (Add 2 more servings of vegetables to complete your lean & green!) Inspiration Corner Today I am bragging on my beautiful friend Molly, who used our health program to lose 142 pounds and gain energy, health and beauty! Her daughter Matilda will never remember that "before" Mommy but instead enjoys an active vibrant mom who matches her step for step! Suffice it to say that their family will never be the same! How Do I Make a Change? Psychological Barriers to Action – and How to Deal with Them Let’s face it; weight loss and keeping it off is hard. We’ve all heard the statistics about weight regain and the grim numbers about the obesity epidemic we’re facing in this country. But what really makes it so difficult to lose weight and then maintain? Well, let’s first take a look at what we know. What we know to be true is that those individuals who do adhere to their weight loss and maintenance regimens achieve and sustain weight loss; pretty simple, right? If you stick to the plan, it works! However, many people struggle to do this. Now, the problem can present itself as being about lack of knowledge or lack of motivation or a lack of willpower but what it really comes down to is non-adherence to the plan; i.e. simply not sticking to it. Now, if setting goals and trying hard to achieve them were enough to ensure success, the task of achieving Optimal Health would be a lot easier. Unfortunately, when it comes to making positive life changes many people will encounter psychological barriers to sticking to the plan. The most common are summarized, most appropriately, by the acronym FEAR: F = Fusion with Unhelpful Thoughts. This basically means that we’re so caught up in our thoughts that we aren’t even aware that we’re thinking and then those thoughts dictate our behavior. It’s like we’re being pushed around by our thoughts or allowing our thoughts to tell us what to do. When a person sets out to make a change, it’s normal for their mind to generate “unhelpful” thoughts like: I’m too busy, I can’t do it, I’ll fail, It’s too hard, and so on which can prevent them from moving forward. It’s a common misconception that our thoughts control our behaviors. They certainly influence our behaviors but ultimately we have a choice. However, when we get all entangled, caught up, or carried off by these thoughts they dominate our attention and we can’t focus on what is truly important to us. Becoming ‘fused’ with unhelpful thoughts throws us off-track. E = Excessive Goals. If a person’s goals exceed their resources, they’ll either give up or fail. Necessary resources could include a person’s skills, ability, social support, time, money, and physical health. Setting goals that are too difficult or impossible will only result in frustration and abandonment of their weight loss and maintenance plans. A = Avoidance of Discomfort. The practice of new way of eating and living can be difficult and tedious for some; and the pursuit of goals that pull us out of the “comfort zone” almost always generates significant anxiety. This discomfort is inevitable when it comes to lifestyle changes. So, if we are unwilling to make room for that discomfort, then we will not take action. R = Remoteness from Values. If a person loses touch with their values that underlie their goals – if it doesn’t seem meaningful or important to them – then they will lose motivation. Values can provide a deep motivation that helps to sustain the practice of new skills, or the pursuit of challenging goals, even when it’s difficult, tedious or anxiety-provoking. The practice of using Structural Tension Charts can be a big help to realize and set goals with Primary and Secondary Choices and action steps to follow. This is found in the first few chapters in “Dr. A’s Habits of Health” as well as “Discover Your Optimal health” and the Workbook. So, how do we address these barriers? Well, the antidote to FEAR is DARE: D = Defusion from Unhelpful Thoughts. The mind is a reason-giving machine, and as soon as we think about doing something that pulls us out of our comfort zone, it cranks out all the reasons why we can’t do it, shouldn’t do it, or shouldn’t have to do it. And if we wait until the day when our mind stops reason-giving before we do the things that really matter in life… we’ll never get started. So, if fusion with reason-giving is a major barrier to action, then naturally we target it with defusion. This means separating or distancing ourselves from unhelpful thoughts, letting them come and go instead of being caught up in them. In other words, defusion means looking at thoughts, rather than from thoughts; noticing thoughts rather than being caught up in thoughts; and letting thoughts come and go rather than holding on to them. One of the simplest ways of separating from thoughts is to write them down. This helps a person to take a step back and see the thoughts for what they are: a string of words. Nothing more, nothing less. A = Acceptance of Discomfort. This means making room for painful thoughts and feelings, not because they like them or want them, but so they can do what matters. So, we can ask ourselves “Am I willing to feel some discomfort, in order to do what matters most to me?” If a person is unwilling to make room for the inevitable discomfort, they may need to clarify and connect with their values or set easier goals. Both of which we will discuss next. R = Realistic Goals. If a person’s goals exceed their resources then they need to create a new goal to acquire those resources if possible, or accept the limitations of their reality and change their goal to adapt in the best way possible. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. So, if a goal seems to big, make it smaller. If walking for 30 minutes is too much, cut it back to ten. If doing it daily is unrealistic, do it every other day. Ask yourself: “On a scale from zero to ten, where ten is ‘I’ll definitely do this no matter what’ and zero is ‘There is absolutely no change I’ll ever do this’ – then how likely are you to actually do this?” If you score less than seven, best change the goal to something smaller and easier. E = Embracing Values. If a person is lacking motivation, then they need to reflect on why they’re doing this. What’s important and meaningful about this action? Does it truly matter? If so, why? Ask yourself: “Is this really important to me? Which of my values underlie this action? How would doing this make a positive difference in my life and the lives of others?” If we can link our new behaviors to something personally meaningful, we’re far more likely to do it! So, there you go. Those are the most common psychological barriers to someone taking action to change their lifestyle and the most effective ways to target and overcome those barriers. BY: Nick Frye (Behavioral specialist) I need accountability! We are your COPE certified health coaches! Please let us know how we can support you. We love what we do and find assisting YOU in your health to be fun and fulfilling! Ready to get started on program? Call us (Jill) 541-852-2261 or (Shane) 503-559-2445 or click here. From our family to yours, Shane & Jill

Halloween Doesn't Have to be Scary



Here are some amazing health tips from a nurse that works with our program, Lori Andersen....................

 

 

 Halloween doesn’t have to be SCARY!

 

When I think of Halloween I think of candy!!! Loads of it…and that can be scarier than the goblins toting it around!!!  For those of us with a sweet tooth…what is to become of us on Halloween night? Well, there are a few helpful tips to remember when your sweet tooth is twitching…..

1)    DO NOT buy any Halloween candy! Or, buy candy that you do not like. It is better to give out small packets of pretzels or play-dough or fruit roll ups.

2)    Keep in your mind that there will always be candy, but you are choosing to improve your health right now, and candy will not help you reach your goal!

3)    Make your own fudgesicles by freezing the chocolate shakes.

4)    Freeze crystal light for a fruity, candy-like desert.

5)    Sugar free Jell-o is a great candy-like snack

6)    Do not stay at home on Halloween handing out your treats.  Instead, grab a bottle of water and take a nighttime walk around the neighborhood to take in all the ghoulish sights!

7)    Bring healthy snacks to work (see Healthy Snack list) to keep from being tempted by candy in the office.

8)    Cut up a healthy snack such as a Medifast bar and put it in a baggie.  Freeze it for a sweet treat later!

9)    A great idea to help keep the piles of candy from going into your children’s body…Have them pick out 5 pieces of candy out of their bag and “buy” the rest of the bag from them for 10 dollars and then take them to the toy store to get a prize! Remember to throw the bags of candy away or give to a shelter!!!!!!

  10) Stay in touch with your Health Coach, we can help you stay strong

 

Remember, a great analogy is the concert pianist… If you were a child, and you wanted to be a concert pianist (primary goal) you would need to practice every day (secondary goal), and make choices that may not be your favorite (not get to play with friends, travel, lessons, miss parties, miss play dates, etc…) But… you would perform these secondary goals if it helps you to reach your primary goal.

Well, we are doing the same thing… our primary goal is to lose weight and get healthy.  Some secondary goals are…exercise daily, drink water, stay away from extra carbohydrates and starches, do not drink alcohol, possibly decide not to go to some parties, and do not eat Halloween candy!  And we will make these secondary choices because it will help us to reach what is most important to us right now… to lose weight, feel great, and to look and be healthy!!  It is your choice.  It will always be your choice :-)

 

Lori Andersen

Living in Maintenance -- Long Term Healthy Habits

One of the primary goals we have when working with clients is to help them establish healthy habits that will last a lifetime. Near the top of that healthy habits list is knowing how to live a life of maintenance (staying at a healthy BMI/weight).

Everyone is at a different stage in the health journey so this post will be more meaningful to some than others, but I thought I would share a glimpse into an average day of maintenance, what a typical day might look like in my life. So here is what my day looked like yesterday.

Breakfast (45 minutes after waking up)
 - Oatmeal w/ almond flakes, sunflower kernels, agave nectar and craisins

This is my go to choice for breakfast...I probably have it 5+ days a week. It's a great way to start the day and is quite tasty too. I used to think that the only way oatmeal tasted good is if it was drowning with butter and brown sugar, but the mix of fruit and nuts I now use tastes just as good and is much healthier.

Here is the nutrition profile for this meal:
By the way this is about 2/3 cup of oatmeal (dry) which is a pretty good size bowl.

This picture is from an app I use on my iPhone called MyFitnessPal. It's super easy to use and is a good tool for anyone wanting to track calories and nutrition. I use it occasionally just to check in and see how I'm doing with my nutrition. I've also used it in the past when I was training for a marathon to make sure I was getting enough of the right kinds of calories.

Mid-morning snack:
 - One Apple

Exercise
 - 25 Minute Jog/Walk during lunch

Lunch
 - Campbell's Split Pea with Ham Soup
 - Lowfat Yogurt with Granola

Mid-Afternoon Snack
 - Snap Peas and Baby Carrots

Dinner
 - Salad with Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Black Beans and Sauted Chicken
 - Banana Bread

Evening Snack
 - Seedless Red Grapes

All in all I consumed about 2,050 calories during the day.

For those of you that really like charts and graphs here is a nice pie chart of the Carb/Protein/Fat split

My  TEE (Total Energy Expenditure) without exercise for my age, height, weight and average activity level is 2,130 calories, but I also jogged a bit so my total calories burned for the day was over 2,500. So I was a little under my goal for the day, which results in my app giving me this screen at day's end:

I'm currently 165 pounds so this shows I'd lose about a pound a week if I ate and exercised like this every day.

Oh, and also important is that I consumed somewhere around 60 or 70 oz of water throughout the day as well.

So that's that. Hopefully this helps give you an idea of what a healthy day of nutrition look like.

Until next time,

Shane

Have you ever carried around something heavy and then set it down with great relief? Is your body ready for some healthy relief?

 Email me and I'll see if you would be a good candidate for our program. I specialize in helping people get to and live at a healthy weight. 

Many people sacrifice areas of their life, health included, in pursuit of success. Success is great, but if you aren't healthy, your enjoyment of it will be greatly diminished. Reach out if you are ready for a life in balance, with energy to pursue your dreams.

Jill
jill.a.riddle@gmail.com

Family getting healthy together!

Can I get a hallelujah for finding health together with family? Meet Mike & Stefanie, our precious cousins and friends who decided to get healthy and together have lost over 130 pounds!!

Love them, love their journey, their honesty and their beautiful smiles. I love what I do!

Eric's New Life

Meet Eric! He lost 95 pounds with our program. Here's his story in his own words...

"I had high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high stress & no energy to do the things & time my kids deserved from a father. Now my cholesterol & blood pressure is great & I am now able to do the activities & spend the time with my kids they thought was never possible. Oh ya...after over a year of maintaining a loss of 95 lbs my life insurance has rated me Select Preferred which they told me only 3% of the US does. Which has saved me over $100+ a month in premiums."

I hope this picture will help you know that hope and health are SO possible. I love checking my texts and emails every morning and hearing from my clients who are losing weight, getting off of medications, and learning the tools they need to sustain their weight loss and be healthy for life!

Results vary, typical weight loss is 2-5 lbs per week for 2 weeks and 1-2 lbs per week thereafter.