Lifestyle matters! This year’s National Nutrition Month® (NNM) is “BITE INTO A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE ” with the spotlight on YOU! The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is encouraging you to review your own lifestyle. Consider what might work best for YOU to promote your overall health and well-being. (Note that all images in this blog post are the property of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and only displayed in honor of the Academy’s celebration of National Nutrition Month® and National Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day).
Category: Behavior Change
Sensory Elements Can Set the Tone For Mealtimes
Since it is springtime, we thought it would be a good time to share some infotainment relative to various sensory elements that can set the tone for mealtimes. Those sensory elements can include, but are not limited to, ones which are visual in nature, or are from sound, are aromatic, pertain to taste, or are textural, all of which can influence the tone at mealtimes. Sensory elements may interplay in multiple ways in terms of mealtime atmosphere as well, but that’s a topic for another time. These principles can be especially beneficial to keep in mind if you have any
Beyond the Blue Zone—The Search for Happiness
Although researchers have studied locations around the world described for their “Blue Zone” longevity status, some researchers ultimately went elsewhere in the world to seek out information about characteristics of “happiness” per se. They were seeking to find individuals, some of whom are more affected by the modern day world and industrialized society, who expressed being happier in their lives.
Blue Zones, Habits, Longevity Part 2
In the first blog post in this two-part series, we mentioned that Dr. Michel Poulain, a Belgian demographer researching longevity, along with Dr. Gianni Pes, a medical statistician tied to the University of Sassari, Italy, coined the name Blue Zone. Why choose the name Blue Zone you ask?
Healthier Employee Motivators: Carrots or Sticks?
Health care costs continue to spiral upwards out of sight. The sad reality is that experts are estimating that health care costs will just keep on climbing at a rate of 8-9% or more per year unless Americans as a nation positively change their health related behaviors. The population health of Americans overall continues to decline. Current health care reform legislation does NOT address a way to actually lower health care costs overall. Employers looking at employee benefits & risks and reviewing current health currency statistics are concerned and with good reason. Consulting firms such as Towers Watson estimate per employee
Habit of Food Journaling May Reap Many Rewards
Registered Dietitians (RDs) aka Registered Dietitians Nutritionists (RDNs) are health care professionals who are fond of saying that good food habits beat out fad diets any day. Habits have been a prime time topic in the media for decades. Research is now showing that indeed some habits may be keystone ones that dramatically influence one’s chances of success in achieving what one really desires.
Behavior Change & 2013 Resolutions Part 1 of 3
We’ll start off this blog post with a true story about a chance encounter with someone in the supermarket who appeared to be ready to make behavior change just this week. While shopping on the day before New Year’s Eve, a fellow shopper was staring at various salad making packages in the produce section. He seemed to be trying to decide if he should get a package and if so, which one to get. He had put a package with added seasoning packets into his cart, then just as our cart was reaching that section, turned right around and put the
Behavior Change & 2013 Resolutions Part 2 of 3
In Part 1 of 3 of this blog series we mentioned a chance encounter in a supermarket with a man who had reached the produce section and wanted to buy more salad vegetables, but was stymied once he was actually in the store at the point of purchase. He almost walked away without any salad ingredients because he was still going through the stages of making an actual behavior change. All he needed was a little encouragement, information & support in his decision making once he was right there in the store. Timing can make such a huge difference in life!
Behavior Change & 2013 Resolutions Part 3 of 3
In Part 2 of 3 of this blog series we mentioned that you’ve probably heard of the “stages of readiness” for making actual behavior change based on the work of Prochaska & other colleagues. In Part 1 of 3 of this blog series we talked about what to expect from a professional resource and even touched on the subject of health coaching. In Part 1 of 3 of this blog series we also cited an example of a chance encounter we had in the produce section of a supermarket highlighting that timing is everything and how it provided an opportunity to