Healthy Eating and Summer Sojourning

For many people, summertime means vacation time! That should mean time to relax and unwind, reconnect with family and friends, or explore and adventure far from home.


What I hear from students and clients, though, is that summer is far from stress-free, as far as weight management is concerned. Summer vacations, traveling, staying with friends and family, or hosting visitors can make it challenging to maintain healthy habits.


In particular, students and clients worry about what they can do to maintain their healthy eating habits. This can be especially challenging if you're staying with friends or family members who don't share your perspectives when it comes to healthy eating. So, what you can do? Here are some ideas to help you stay on track with your eating habits, no matter where you sojourn this summer.


You may not have any say-so over what you eat while you're out on the road, staying with friends or family, or traveling in a foreign country. That does not mean you're powerless! You still have choices about when, how much, and why you eat. Eat only when you're hungry, and stop when you're satisfied. Use assertive communication to set limits. Be aware of portion sizes. Manage your emotions away from the table. In short, work all of your weight management skills and tools -- don't rely on healthy food choices alone.


That said, make it your goal to focus on the healthiest foods available at any particular meal or snack. Yes, you may be choosing between the lesser of two evils -- but it's still the lesser, so choose wisely!


Whenever possible, make half your meal fruits and non-starchy veggies. That said, fruits and non-starchy veggies can be hard to find when you're out on the road. Consider bringing it with you whenever you can, or plan ahead to purchase it when you arrive. When I visit my family-in-law, I bring a small cooler and stuff it with non-starchy veggies and lowered-fat dips. My family-in-law enjoys noshing with me, and they dive right in! I plan ahead for trips to the grocery store or farmer's market (which can be an exciting adventure unto itself) to restock my non-starchy veggie supply.


Be especially aware of what you drink, as well as what you eat. Make water your go-to beverage, and plan ahead for how you'll have water with you wherever you go. Sodas, juices, and alcoholic beverages won't keep you hydrated the way water does, and the calories add up all-too-quickly.


Next week, we'll take a look at ways to work in physical activity, no matter where your travels take you this summer. In the meantime, if you have a tip for managing healthy eating while you're out and about during the summer, post below and let us know! :)

To Juice, or Not To Juice?

The juicing craze is still going strong! I've had several students in my online classes ask me my opinion on juicing, and participants in my parenting classes are asking the same question. Personally, I don't own a juicer; I'm old enough to remember the last juicing craze, back in the 1970s, and I haven't seen evidence that juicing is beneficial enough to warrant splurging on yet another kitchen appliance.

 

That said, juicers can be useful. I think it's a great idea for people to make their own fruit- or veggie-based beverages that they can tweak to their preferences, use the produce they grow in their own garden, or increase their fruit and veggie intake. 

Unfortunately, juicing also encourages people to prepare and drink concoctions unpleasant enough that they're posting pictures on social media and complaining about the taste, noting that they're drinking it "because it burns fat" or "cures disease." That's unfortunate, as although fruits and veggies are nutritional powerhouses, the perspectives some people have are less than accurate -- they're usually based on truth, but not quite true.

  

I have other concerns with juicing, too. Although non-starchy veggies are incredibly low in calories, they do contain calories -- and juicing is one way to get a lot of non-starchy veggies into you very quickly. It's much faster and easier to drink 200 calories of tomato-carrot juice than it is to eat 200 calories from tomatoes and carrots. (On a related side note, most people with type 2 diabetes can eat 200 calories from tomatoes and carrots. However, many would see a blood sugar rise from 200 calories' worth of tomato-carrot juice.) Because fruit contains more than twice the calories of non-starchy veggies, this is even more true for fruit-based juices.

 

Juicing can also get in the way of a healthy eating pattern. I love fruits and veggies, but we need more -- protein, calcium, B vitamins, iron, etc. Although it's possible to choose a balance of different kinds of fruits and veggies, because of the nature of juicing, it's easy to fall into the trap of drinking a lot of a certain kind of fruits or veggies, and miss out on the possibilities of a wider variety of fruits and veggies. It can be all-too-easy to get full on fruits and veggies, and miss out on all the nutrition you need.

So, overall, juicing can be part of a healthy eating pattern, but a juicer isn't an essential appliance. Fruits and veggies should indeed be part of your day, every day, but whether you eat them or drink them is entirely up to you!