by kelsey | Nov 29, 2016 | Cooking Tips, Diet, Food, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day! Yes, you have probably heard this before, but are you a breakfast eater!? Having a good breakfast is a great way to start out the day. It’s not only important for our body, but our mind too. Many times we’ll have excuses such as I was running late, I didn’t feel like eating, I’m not hungry in the morning, and this actually accounts for about a 1/4 to a 1/3 of the population! Starting the day without breakfast is like driving your car on a low tank of gas. We know we can’t go on forever on a low tank of gas, so we shouldn’t do that to our bodies either! Those that skip breakfast tend to snack more on high fat and lower nutritious foods…and are more likely to overeat at lunch because they are over-hungry. Studies have also shown that those working on weight loss are more successful when they eat breakfast as this really jump starts their metabolism and starts their day off right. In addition, eating a healthy breakfast helps our kids excel in school as it helps fuel the brain!
So what should you eat for breakfast? It’s important to get a balance at your meals and especially include a source of protein and a whole grain as these provide satiety. Here are some examples for you:
- Ready-to-eat cereal (>3g fiber, <2-3g fat, a ratio of greater than 4 g carbohydrate:1 g sugar)
- Hot cereal (oatmeal)
- Bagel with low-fat cream cheese or peanut butter
- Yogurt Parfait
- Fruit and yogurt smoothie
- Peanut butter or hummus on whole-wheat toast
- Breakfast quesadilla with low-fat cream cheese and sliced fruit
- Breakfast burrito or taco
- Toasted whole-wheat English muffin with lean ham and low-fat cheese
- Toasted pita with scrambled egg and low-fat cheese
- Low-fat milk and 100% fruit
If you are one who is not a fan of breakfast but understands the importance of it, I encourage you to try a variety of these options and see which one works best for you. I also encourage you to plan ahead. You may need to wake up 5 minutes earlier to fit breakfast in or make your smoothie the night before so all you have to do it pull the bottle or container out of the freezer or fridge in the morning and drink it on your way to work. Starting your day with a full tank will provide long lasting benefits to you and your body!
-Kelsey
by Dan | Nov 27, 2016 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Holidays, Motivation, Wellness/Health
At this time of year, it is easy to start thinking about what you are thankful for. Here Nick, Sarah, and I are getting ready for the annual Turkey Day 5k held on Thanksgiving. The weather was great, and it is a great way to start off the day exercising…and a great way to make room for all the food we plan on eating that day. It is an annual run and walk, and attendance was the largest yet!
After everybody gets done running/walking, you get treated to a piece of pumpkin pie before everybody takes off to go spend time with family.
Thank you Watertown DASH for holding this event again, originally started by the Hiedeman family. If you have never tried participating before, get out there next year!
We had many of the Watertown Run Club members made it out for the annual run as well. Sarah, Nick, and Jill Makepeace, and Steve Arbogast.
And of course, the McElroy’s…we were just missing Gracie, who was sick that morning. But Jenn, Kate, and Owen made it out.
Paula, Paul, and Jackie ran as well.
It was all worth while. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, watching football, and eating! It was good to get out and move before hand. This way we could earn our food feast for the day. Thanksgiving turkey is one of my favorite meals!
So, now it is time to sit back and be thankful for what we have. Keep in mind your health, your family, and your friends. Spend time with them, appreciate them. We won’t have them forever. Being thankful shows how you become better, and more appreciative as well. We don’t know when things are going to change for us. The next slide sums it up for me!
Thank you! Here is to hoping everybody has great holidays coming, that you keep working on increasing your exercise habits, and working on your healthy eating as well. All of this is important for you to becoming a better you. Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3348
by kelsey | Nov 22, 2016 | Cooking Tips, Diet, Food, Holidays, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
Happy Thanksgiving to you! The Thanksgiving holiday is always a fun one enjoyed by all as we stuff ourselves and then resort to the couch to watch football or the start of the holiday tv shows. Here are some tips for you to get through the holiday without putting on all those undesired extra pounds.
- Survey the entire table before you take any food. Decide what foods are worth eating and what can be ignored, and then stick to that decision. Why waste calories on foods that don’t bring you pleasure?
- Eat a snack before you leave home. If you arrive at a party starving, you’ll be more likely to overindulge.
- Eat your calories instead of drinking them. Stick to lower calorie or calorie-free drinks (diet sodas, water, light beer, or wine spritzer) instead of punches, eggnogs, and mixed drinks that can have up to 500 calories per cup.
- Sip a large glass of water between every alcoholic drink or non-alcoholic punch or eggnog. This will help keep you hydrated and you’ll drink fewer calories by the end of the night.
- When you are the host or hostess, include nutritious and lower-calorie foods like fruits, vegetables, and lean meats on the menu. When you are a guest, bring along a lower-calorie dish to share.
- Try not to hang out near the food. Find a comfortable spot across the room and focus on people instead of eating.
- Watch your portion sizes. Don’t cover your plate completely with food. In most cases, especially when it comes to holiday sweets and alcoholic beverages, less is better. Use a smaller plate or bowl and have just a sliver of pie like the picture shows.
- Drop out of the “clean plate club”. Leave a few bites behind every time you eat, especially if you are eating something you don’t really care for.
- Enjoy your favorite holiday treats but take a small portion, eat slowly, and savor the taste and texture of the wonderful foods of the season.
- Skip the pie crust and go for the filling.
- Choose light meat over dark meat.
- Use home-made cranberry sauce over canned cranberries that are jam packed with added sugars.
- In soups, sauces, puddings, and desserts: Replace whole milk or cream with low-fat milk, evaporated fat-free milk, or nonfat dry milk.
Lighten up your recipes:
- To make dips and toppings: Use low-fat or nonfat cottage cheese or sour cream, or non-fat Greek yogurt.
- To make salad dressings: Use nonfat Greek yogurt or low-fat buttermilk.
- In place of 1 whole egg in recipes: Use 2 egg whites or 1/4 cup egg substitute.
- In place of regular cheese: Use fat-free or reduced-fat cheese.
- In place of full sugar: replace half with Splenda or reduce half completely.
- In place of fats: use unsweetened applesauce or oil (1-1 replacement), or prune puree (1 cup of fat=1/2 cup puree).
More importantly is ENJOY your family and friends and all that have to the THANKful for!
-Kelsey
by Dan | Nov 20, 2016 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
We all get 24 hours in a day. We all get 7 days in a week, 365 days a year. So why does it always seem like there is never enough time to get things done? Why is everybody always in a rush to get something done, when the majority of those things really are not that important anyway? The secret in life is to prioritize those things that are important in our life, and then making sure we have enough time to get these done. The center of all of this should be around those people most important to us. After all, who is going to miss us when we are not here? As a physician, I am helping people all of the time in their final days of life, helping them to make that final journey. I hear all of the time how they did not have enough time to do things they wanted, especially when it came to spending time with family and friends. I have never heard anybody yet tell me, “You know Doc, if I could just spent more time working!”. Think about it…what is important to you? This Summer I had all of my kids home for a short time, and we went to a twins game, and spent a few days in the Twin Cities. Family time. We even went to a play in Chanhassen.
As the kids continue to grow up, these are the times that they are going to remember…the times we spent together as a family. That is always how exercise has helped make us a closer, stronger family. We all exercise! It is a great way to spend family time together. But you need to slow down, (except when we are running a race!), and learn to enjoy things more.
Sometimes if we are in too big of a rush, we are going to have important things pass right by us, and we are not going to have a clue until it is too late. Take the time to slow down! Enjoy life as it comes. Enjoy that full day for everything it brings. We all have 24 hours, we are all busy, but not too busy that we can’t make room to take care of ourselves. We have to take time to exercise, and to spend time with those important to us. Sometimes that can even be at the same time!
It is amazing what you all can appreciate more if you take the time to look…take the time to appreciate…even just taking the time to take the time! We need to figure out for ourselves where that can work for us. Where can you take a break to slow down, just sit and observe, and enjoy…and just think. Think about how you can do things better, and more efficient. It may just surprise you by doing this, how much more productive you can be during the day, and still have that time to spend with family. These are some of my favorite places to sit and think.
A rocking chair overlooking the lake. Just you and nature.
Lots of park benches along the bike trail here in Watertown. You can sit and relax and watch the world go by.
Watching a sunset out on Lake Kampeska. Amazing the things that go through your head, and the things you can come up with solutions for, by just sitting and taking the time to think. I will sometimes be out for a run along the lake, and just stop and watch for awhile…and think. Or if I am out running/walking along the trail by the lake, how peaceful it is, and how your mind can just take you away for all of the stress in your life…and you are out exercising as well!
Remember this! Make it part of your routine. Slow is fast! Taking the time to think about things will make you more productive, and happy. It can be one of the secrets to making you a better you!
Keep moving everybody…and slow is good!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3341
by kelsey | Nov 16, 2016 | Cooking Tips, Diet, Eating Out, Food, Weight Management, Wellness/Health
The American Dietetic Association has a great public feature to their site that offers great nutrition tips. I thought I’d share these with you as you work to trim your waistline. These tips don’t require huge changes, however will give you great results!
- Downsize Your Dishes. Use smaller plates and bowls to help you eat less. We tend to fill up the dish we’re using and then eat it all. Our brains also think we are getting more when the same amount of food is placed in a smaller dish.
- Savor Your Meals. Eating slowly helps you consume only what your body needs to feel satisfied. Eating too quickly, in less than 20 to 30 minutes, leads to overeating and feeling uncomfortably full afterwards.
- Leave Some Food on Your Plate. This is especially important if you grew up in the “clean plate club.” By leaving even a few bites, you can focus more on your internal signals of satisfaction and less on eating food just because it is there.
- Don’t Eat Out of a Bag or Box. When you eat out of a package, you are likely to keep eating until it’s all gone – no matter how many servings the package actually contains. Pour one serving into a small bowl.
- Choose Your Glass Wisely. Here’s another place where our eyes play tricks on us. When glasses are short and wide, we tend to fill them with more fluid and to drink more. Use a slender glass for any beverage except water.
- Rethink Your Drinks. High-calorie beverages like soft drinks, juice drinks, energy drinks, specialty coffees and alcohol add calories just like solid foods. Whenever possible, replace these drinks with plenty of water.
http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6849
-Kelsey
by Dan | Nov 13, 2016 | Exercise, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
The ancient greeks defined happiness as: “Happiness is the joy that you feel when we’re striving after our potential”. In regards to happiness, Eleanor Roosevelt stated: “Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could do both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.” Good words to go by! Being active is crucial in staying happy. If you are happy you don’t sit at home and do nothing. Happy people are out doing things they are passionate about, and doing things that are meaningful to them. Their activity is empowered by purpose. Success is happiness, and as I stated on the previous post, the message on the back on my shirt I wear in the marathons states: Success: A journey, not a destination. The journey is life…life with all it ups and downs, good times and bad times…but it is your journey. Your journey to make without having to have someone else’s approval.
Success is happiness!
Happy people also have their times when they feel sad, or upset, or their dreams don’t always comes true. It is what they do under those circumstances that define who they are, and what they are made of. They are working continuously on how to become better…not better than somebody else, but better than they were previously. Happiness also means having fun. We need to do things that make us happy. This could be something different for all of you. When we exercise, and watch what we eat, we overall physically feel better, and everything that comes each day, both good and bad, we are able to handle better. Don’t be afraid to express your happiness. If might just rub off on somebody else, and actually make them smile, or even perhaps…make their day! Our run group is a great example of showing happiness. We all love to run. When we can’t run, things in life do go as smooth. We are crabby, more easily frustrated, quicker to anger…we are not happy! So when we can run, we are eager to show this off as well.
Some day we may physically not be able to run…today is not that day. We will come up with something else, I am sure, to replace this. Some other type of activity/exercise. Sitting around is not all it is cracked up to be. Life is much more fun and adventurous when you are on the move! The times we spend after a run are also very good. There are a time to relax, and enjoy life…enjoy and celebrate our ability to run!
Life is about choices…having choices, and making choices. You can choose happiness, or not. The decision is up to you. But, choosing happiness will definitely make you better. It will make you a better you!
For me, staying active, and especially running, is my passion. I feel better! I function better! I do better! It is helping me to become a better version of me! It is a runderful life!
Choose wisely! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3334
