Annie’s Healthy Weight & Eating Blog

It’s been hot on Nantucket this week, so anywhere else it must be nasty. I have a longtime smoothie habit, and have gotten into adding crushed flax seed to my morning blend. I knew that coffee grinder would come in handy someday. I’ve been re-evaluating the benefit of nutritional supplementation, and it just feels better to me to get a little omega-3 this way rather than through a pill.
Here’s a new piece I’ve posted to suite 101 on Smoothie Savvy. Enjoy.

I have a very beautiful group of women that I’m working with on Nantucket this month. Hi everyone!

One of you asked that I make the ‘emotionally healthy habits & affirmations’ slides from Dr. Gould’s work into a handout, and here it is:

Emotionally Healthy Habits & Affirmations

I’m also including the Steps to Lifestyle Manifestation handout so that you can continue to use it as a framework as you work with different aspects of lifestyle:

Steps to Lifestyle Manifestation

Lastly, I’m attaching a Inquiry Food Journal, that you can use as an exercise to delve deeper into what you’re eating, and why/how. As I mentioned in our group, keeping a food journal can be difficult, but can also provide you lots of info and support. Most of us eat much more healthfully when we know that we’re writing it down! There was a recent study that suggested that people who use food journals lose twice as much weight as those following a similar program without tracking.

I suggest that you do your journaling in groups of 3 days, and try to plan 3 different but somewhat typical sorts of days. For example one week day, one weekend day, and a family gathering day (if these are typical for you). Then take time to ‘digest’ your journal, looking for ideas on how you can shift your environment or your habits to support healthy choices.

Here it is:

Inquiry Food Journal

See you on Tuesday!

Annie

Nobody. And I mean nobody, likes to keep a food journal. It’s time consuming, and requires you to face up in a big way to what, how much and when you eat. But, if you really want to improve your diet, it’s a terrific tool and worth the temporary discomfort. Think of it as growing-conscious pains. What I tell people is to remember that it’s not forever, but to take a few days, particularly if you are going to work with a nutritionist, and dive in.

Here’s the link to the Kaiser Study, which was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH, and will be published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.