by kelsey | Jun 1, 2017 | Diet, Family, Food, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
Summer has officially started now that school is out! The kids are back home and they’re going to be eating more of the foods that you keep stocked for them at home. Active children burn through their energy stores very quickly and need to replenish them often. Snacking is an important part of keeping your kids energized for their play-filled summer days.
Snacks should be a combination of fiber and protein so that they are filling and satisfying. Pistachios are a good snack as they contain both fiber and protein. You can also pick out two foods that will meet the fiber and protein combination needs. Some ideas are:
- An apple and a teaspoon of peanut butter
- String cheese and a few whole wheat crackers
- Baby carrots and hummus
- Low-fat yogurt and almonds
- Mixed nuts and raisins
- Celery sticks filled with peanut or almond butter
Just be sure to keep in mind that snacks are just to get by until the next mealtime, so snacks should not be a significant source of calories. Kids have small stomachs so keep the portion sizes small as well. This is a good time to instill healthy habits in your child so try to avoid having the TV or video games going during snack time in order to discourage mindless munching. Any fruit, vegetable, low-fat dairy product, or whole wheat grain product makes a good snack so find out what your child likes and get creative with the combinations!
-Kelsey Raml, MS, RD, LN
by kelsey | May 31, 2017 | Diet, Etc., Goals, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
Fad diets are short-term quick fixes that promise great results, but actually set up most dieters for failure in weight-loss. If you find a product or routine that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
One of the most popular diets to take over social media lately is THRIVE by Le-Vel. This is an 8 week program that promises a completely different person at the end. It utilizes a few products as well as goal setting for weight loss. Marketers claim that individuals will “Live, look and feel ultra premium like never before” through the use of Derma Fusion Technology (skin patches), shake mixes and lifestyle capsules. Their products are said to be naturopathic, synergistic, and gender specific. However, science has not found any reason for grouping together the vitamins and minerals in any of the products.
The idea of setting an 8-week goal for weight loss is a good one, but you can accomplish the same results with a balanced diet paired with exercise at a much lesser cost.
Another popular diet to hit the market recently is The Optimal Weight 5&1 Plan by Take Shape For Life. This plan is based around the routine of consuming 6 small meals everyday instead of three large meals. Five of these meals consumed are purchased from the company and they are meal replacements. The sixth meal is a lean and green meal.
One of the biggest fallbacks of this diet is the cost of the meal replacements purchased; the 30-day bundle available is just under $430, which calculates out to be about $15 every day. The 5&1 diet plan utilizes a very structured routine that promotes quick weight loss, but fails to teach clients the basics of a healthy, well-balanced diet. When this is the outcome, dieters usually see the weight that they lost come back on as soon as they step away from the diet.
What healthy weight loss SHOULD look like:
- Fill half of your plate with veggies
- Eat whole wheat/whole grain breads, pastas, etc. instead of white.
- Get 30-60 minutes of exercise most days of the week.
- Limit consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (Pop, juice, sports drinks, etc.) and alcohol.
- Water does wonders for our bodies!
- 13 cups for men (3 liters); 9 cups for women (2.2 liters)
- Eat smaller portions
- Don’t skip meals…especially breakfast!
- A healthy weight loss is 1-2 pounds each week
- This may seem slow, but a steady weight loss such as this is much more likely to be kept off in the long run.
- Track your intake
- We often don’t realize the quality and quantity of the food we feed our bodies until we have it drawn out in front of us.
- Be mindful when you eat
-Written by Kala Nurnberg, SDSU Dietetic Student
NOTE: Usually we get desperate and succumb to the promises the fad diets make us and we sign up. However down the road we realize that it’s too expensive, can’t stick with, we want normal food again, etc etc. If you are wanting to work on weight loss or nutrition and lifestyle improvement, please come visit me in the clinic! We can work out an individual plan that you can do and stick with long term…and it will be much cheaper and more enjoyable than these fad diets! Call or email me!
Kelsey Raml, MS, RD, LN
Direct Dial: 884-4226
Email: strive2survive@brownclinic.org
by kelsey | May 25, 2017 | Etc., Exercise, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
The Watertown Intermediate School recently added Girls on the Run to their list of school activities. Girls on the Run inspires girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum, which creatively integrates running. This program is a nation-wide non-profit organization dedicated to creating a world where every girl knows and activates her limitless potential and is free to boldly pursue her dreams.
The program in Watertown specifically involved a group of 19 5th grade girls ages 10-11 led by a group of 6 women from the community. Meeting twice a week for 10 weeks, the girls were given great opportunities to build relationships with their coaches and peers.
Each week focused on one of the following themes: empowerment, Responsibility, Intentionality, Diversity, Connectedness, Joy, Optimism, Gratitude, Nurturing, Healthy, Open-hearted, and Compassion. The themes are then used to create a warm-up, lesson, activity, and motivation for that session. All of these themes fall under one main goal of the program: self-confidence.
The girls would spend a large portion of the sessions learning to run a 5K by running laps around the school. For each lap they ran throughout the 10 weeks, they were given a bead. At the send off session, the girls were given a bag with all of the beads they had earned and string to make jewelry that represented their accomplishments. In addition to jewelry making, the girls were each given an award unique to them in celebration of their individuality.
At the end of the 10 week program, the Watertown coaches held a local 5K for the girls to show off their progress. Families, teachers, and peers came to the event to cheer on the girls. In addition to the local 5K, the girls were invited to attend the state-wide Girls on the Run 5K in Sioux Falls. However, the state-wide 5K was cancelled due to poor weather conditions.
Girls on the Run-Watertown plans to continue this program in the coming school year, however, they are unsure of age groups and session dates at this time. To learn more about this program you can contact Michelle Achterberg at michelle.achterberg@k12.sd.us. This is an awesome program to encourage wellness and fitness along with self confidence and individuality! Thank you Michelle, Jill Makepeace, Paula Nurnberg, Erika Zink, Jennifer McElroy, Dr.Sarah Reiffenberger, and many others for getting this program up and running and inspiring these young women! You rock!!
-Written by Kala Nurberg, SDSU Dietetics Student
-Kelsey Raml, MS, RD, LN
by kelsey | May 24, 2017 | Cooking Tips, Diet, Food, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
The official kick off to summer and picnic season is this weekend: Memorial Day Holiday! This time of year always bring great cookouts and picnics. Typical picnic foods consist of burgers, brats, hotdogs, chips, and high calorie salads such as macaroni and potato salads. These are all very tasty foods, but they are also all very high in calories, fat, and sodium. Cookouts don’t have to bust the calorie bank. Choose your foods wisely and plan your menus to include a few healthy options and make substitutions like the meal examples below to help you fully enjoy each cookout while aiding in a healthy heart and waistline.
Choose This
90% lean hamburger with whole wheat thin bun
Grilled chicken breast
Grilled shrimp
One small tossed Salad with 1Tbsp light dressing
Fresh veggies with light ranch dip
Baked chips
½ c fruit salad
One small slice of angel food cake with light cool whip and strawberries
Unsweetened Tea with Lemon
Not That
80% lean hamburger with white bun
Hot dogs
Brats
Excess portions of: macaroni salad, potato salad, baked beans
Brownies
Kool-Aid
Regular pop
-Kelsey
by kelsey | May 23, 2017 | Etc., Weight Management, Wellness/Health
We live in a wonderful time of technological accessibility. Nearly all the information we could ever need is one search away. This wealth of information paired with today’s unprecedented realm of convenience has been shown to cause a conundrum of sorts in the field of healthcare. We see the line between a trained medical expert and a thorough internet researcher becoming treacherously blurred. This abundance of information can be dangerous without the expertise to provide accurate interpretation. One example of this seen in the nutritional field is the Body Mass Index.
The Body Mass Index (BMI) was developed to be a very simply calculation to quantify body composition. Though it is a common tool used by medical professionals, it can also be used by anyone who can crunch a few numbers on his/her calculator. Medical professionals have varying opinions on the tool; some see it as an excellent resource, while others fear its convenience and ease creates a means to a potentially inaccurate self-diagnosis.
The calculation was created to be a tool that very simply offers an idea of one’s body composition by creating a weight to height ratio and comparing it to a scale ranging from underweight to obese. The problem is, as all professionals will agree, there is much more to a person’s body composition than their height and their weight. This becomes a problem when the public, though well-intended, begins to punch in their own numbers into this equation. Without the interpretation of an expert, they could come to some extreme conclusions.
Humans possess an enormously varied spectrum of body shapes and sizes, and yet the BMI scale tries to standardize it. Variance is an idea that is being lost in this age of standardization. While the BMI scale can be very useful as an initial tool, it is flawed. The best example of this are athletes. LeBron James, widely regarded as one of the top athletes in the world has a BMI of 28. At the 2014 Olympics, the average BMI for participating athletes was found to be over 26. In 2016, the World Champion Denver Broncos had a collective average BMI of over 30. The healthy range for BMI? That would be 18.5-24.9. According to the scale, LeBron James and Olympic athletes are overweight, while the entirety of the Denver Broncos is obese.
The BMI scale can be dangerous without proper interpretation. As with WebMD and many more, these easily accessible tools have evolved from something designed for convenience to something that has led to insufficiently educated self-diagnosing. We see people without any medical education jumping to their own medical conclusions far too often. While a useful and convenient tool, the Body Mass Index can be problematic for the growing number of people who are turning to the internet to assess their health. As a general public, we lack the understanding and education to properly interpret BMI results. If you would like to learn more about your own BMI and/or your body composition and what it means, please schedule an appointment with Kelsey Raml, dietitian at Brown Clinic. She can assess, review, and educate on your individual needs and help you reach your goals!
-David Brown, SDSU Dietetic Student
