Week #1: Nutrition - Focus on Fruits & Vegetables

I'm starting with this because it's the top "issue" for the majority of my clients. We all know that a healthy diet should contain lots of fruits and veggies, however most people I know do not meet the USDA recommendations for their daily intake. I believe the main reason for this is that our busy lifestyles have led to a cooking style that does not focus on fresh food. The typical vegetables served up with dinner are often just microwaved frozen chunks or an emptied can, presented with no pizzazz and little flavor or texture. Is that true for you as well?

With just a little bit of creativity, you can serve up delicious vegetable dishes!

Let's talk a little about how many vegetables & fruits are enough. The USDA now uses the ChooseMyPlate graphic to describe daily intake of food groups. You can find this graphic and other information provide by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or USDA at http://www.choosemyplate.gov.

For many people, this graphic makes meal planning easier. However, it has its drawbacks. It can be difficult to use if you don't eat regular meals every day and it gives no guidelines about snacks.

When it comes down to how many servings of fruits and vegetables you should eat per day (meals and snacks), I suggest that for the average person, 2-4 servings of fruits and 3-5 servings of vegetables per day would be appropriate. Note that while fruits and vegetables are often grouped together into one food group, they are not interchangeable. Eating 9 servings of fruit per day would not be a healthy option. This is because fruits tend to be quite high in sugar; and fruits and vegetables have different vitamin profiles, making both important. When it comes to eating fruits and vegetables I have 2 suggestions:

1) Eat more vegetables than fruit.

2) Variety really is the spice of life. Yes it prevents boredom, but it is also the best way to get the variety of vitamins and minerals your body needs.

If you are not a big veggie eater, this can seem like a lot, I know! Don't let this overwhelm you. Remember, you don't have to do it all today! Let's break it down.

First, let's start by looking at what a serving size is:

A typical serving size of a fruit is about 1 cup cubed fresh fruit, ½ cup dried fruit or 1 cup fruit juice. Examples of this would be 1 small orange, ½ a grapefruit, 2 plums, ¼ cup raisins.

A typical serving size of a vegetable is 2 cups leafy vegetable, 1 cup others and 1 cup vegetable juice. Examples of this would be 2 cups raw spinach, 1 cup steamed broccoli or cauliflower, 1 large sweet potato.

Check out the USDA website for further information regarding the MyPlate graphic, food groups and serving sizes. There is a lot of good, up to date information there.

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/

Second, take a moment to think about what you typically eat. How many fruits and vegetables do you eat on a typical day? It may be helpful to use the Food Tracker provided as Appendix 2 or write out everything you ate for the last couple of days to give yourself a realistic view of your eating habits (be sure to accurately assess serving sizes). Make a copy of Appendix 2 or print it directly from my website at:

http://www.holisticwellnesswithtracy.com/90-days-to-holistic-wellness-goal-list.html

In my experience, people grossly over estimate their ingestion of healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables.

Because this is such an important item, I would recommend that if you discover you are far away from meeting the USDA guidelines, you may want to consider spending a couple of weeks on this step before moving on, to slowly work on adding more fruits and veggies into your diet. Add 1 additional daily serving this week, and then 1 more daily serving next week. (Another option would be to add 1 daily serving this week and revisit this week's action later in the 90 day process, by adding additional repeat weeks in-between others). Meeting the USDA minimum requirement is very important, so make this change a priority! But remember, you are more likely to stick with the changes if you make them slowly. You may not be ready to fully meet the USDA recommendation for weeks or months ... just make steps to move in that direction now. Remember, change is an ongoing process.

Ideas for adding more fruits &vegetables to your diet:

- Start your day with a piece of fruit for breakfast. I love to eat ½ grapefruit with breakfast. If you eat on the go, a banana, apple or grapes make great travel foods.

- "I should've had a V8". Remember that commercial? Have a serving of vegetable juice as a morning snack. V8 has a low-sodium, spicy blend that's pretty tasty. Add a little dab of horseradish and a stick of celery and you have a virgin Bloody Mary! Or if you are feeling real adventurous, get a juicer and make your own!

- Add Green Leaf lettuce and a couple slices of tomato to your sandwich. Or, get more adventurous and add roasted red peppers, onion, and cucumbers.

- Have a cup of vegetable soup for lunch (look for a low sodium version or make a big batch of soup from scratch).

- Make a veggie omelet for Sunday breakfast – fill it up with every vegetable you love. I like mine with broccoli, bell pepper, onion, mushrooms and a sprinkle of cheese.

- Start dinner with a side salad. Iceburg is good, but other lettuces are so much better. Include greens like spinach, romaine and arugula. Look for prewashed, bagged salad greens to speed up dinner preparation. Experiment!

- Instead of a soda, grab an orange juice.

- Munch on raw veggies as an afternoon snack. Bored already, thinking of nothing but carrot sticks? Include pea pods, green beans, cauliflower, grape tomatoes, celery, bell peppers, even asparagus! Dip them in a yummy flavored hummus. Have these all prepped and ready to eat in your refrigerator for easy snacking all week long.

- Fill half your plate with veggies. Beware, steamed gets boring – roast and grill your veggies for better flavor! Short on time? Look for pre-chopped veggies in your produce department. They cost a tad more, but they can be quite the time saver. Visit my blog for simple recipe ideas: http://www.holisticwellnesswithtracy. com/blog/category/recipes

- Pizza for dinner? You can do better than just pepperoni! Veggies make delicious toppings!

- Have a veggie entrée like grilled eggplant parmesan or Mediterranean stuffed portabella mushrooms.

- Make salad for dinner. Imagine a beautiful green salad with red bell peppers, cauliflower, yellow tomatoes and ½ a sliced chicken breast ... dressed with a homemade lemon-mustard dressing and sprinkled with sunflower seeds.

- Fruit for dessert. Strawberries macerated with a small sprinkle of sugar and a splash of red wine vinegar (trust me!)

Note:

Don't overdue on the fruits. Many people find it easier to add more fruits to their diets, but too many fruits can lead to increased sugar/calories. Stick with one serving of fruit for every two servings of vegetables.

Now comes the part that leads to actually changing something:

Come up with a plan for adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet. What are you going to add and when? Take a moment to think this through then decide and write it down. Keep it simple. Examples: "Eat a piece of fruit for breakfast every day this week", "Have vegetable soup for lunch weekdays and a salad with dinner on weekends". "I will snack on 1 serving of raw vegetables every afternoon", "I will roast a variety of vegetables on Sunday to easily fill half my plate with them for every weeknight meal". Make it specific enough that you can plan it and track your activity. If you just vaguely say your goal is to eat another serving of vegetables every day, you aren't likely to do it. You need a specific plan to actually follow through on. Enter this into your goal tracker for week 1.

Go shopping and stock your kitchen. Prep what you can so it's ready and waiting, making it as easy as possible to include these foods (if you want a snack and the produce still needs to be washed and chopped, you are more likely to go for another option). Leave a fruit bowl on the kitchen table. Pack lunches the night before so you don't rush out of the house without it. Experiment with different foods, different cooking methods and different spices. There are many wonderful and delicious ways to prepare veggies. If you find your food choices boring, you can't blame it on the "healthy" food ... you can only blame it on the preparation.

Need help planning out meals & making your shopping list? Print the Meal Planning Shopping List tool from appendix 3 or print from my website:

http://www.holisticwellnesswithtracy.com/90-days-to-holistic-wellness-goal-list.html

Note:

If you are meeting the USDA recommendations, you could move on to the next chapter, or you could consider if there are still any changes you could make here. If you eat pretty much the same few fruits and vegetables, spend this week experimenting with some new produce. If you tend to douse your salads with high fat dressings try homemade vinaigrettes. Then carry these new changes with you into the future.

Week #2: Fitness - Just Move

Many of us spend too much time sitting. We watch too much TV, we sit at the computer and we sit in the car or on the train.

It is recommended that we get 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. If you do the math, that's 30 minutes/5 times a week. That can be difficult to manage in our busy world. I know, that statement sounds a bit like an oxymoron; we are so busy we don't have time to move? For many of us, that seems to be the case. We don't have labor intensive jobs and we live in communities where walking or biking just isn't a viable option.

Why do we care so much about exercise? We all know that exercise can help control weight, but did you know it is also a mood enhancer, helps prevent several diseases, increases energy levels, helps you sleep better and even improves your sex life? If you want to read more about these benefits, check out: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/fitness/ in-depth/exercise/art-20048389.

Hopefully you agree that regular exercise is beneficial for a happy and healthy life. If you doubt this for even a moment, consider how it feels having the strength to lift a bag of groceries, the range of motion to pick something up off the floor and the energy to play with your dog versus feeling weak, stiff and fatigued. Which scenario feels best to you? The goal of exercise is not to make you look like a supermodel or to prep you for the cover of GQ ... it is to make you comfortable in your body, feeling energetic and healthy.

If you don't already get the amount of exercise recommended, then it's best to start with increasing your exercise level just a small amount. Now, I can already hear many of you chiming in "I really don't have the time!" I can assure you, while I make the same excuses some days, it really just isn't true. There are people far busier than us, who manage to exercise every day. How? They make it a priority.

Take a good, hard, honest look at the activity you get every week. Are you getting less than 30 minutes / 5 days a week? Since this is most likely the case, this week we will focus on increasing your movement. You can do this in several different ways. Keep in mind that the exercise does not have to occur in one 30 minute session. It can easily be broken down into three 10 minute sessions, if that fits your lifestyle and schedule better.

Ideas for adding more exercise to your day...even just 10 minutes:

- Start your day with a 10 minute walk around your neighborhood.

- If you work in a large building, use the bathroom that is furthest away.

- Make a habit of parking your car far away from your destination.

- Walk during your lunch break.

- Go for an evening walk after dinner with a spouse/ child/neighbor.

- Go for a bike ride.

- Play kickball with your kids/grandkids/nieces/nephews.

- Instead of meeting a friend for a drink, meet them for a walk.

- Do some stretching and/or crunches while watching TV.

- Carefully stretch for 5 minutes after showering in the morning. Then do a few lunges to work your legs.

- Rather than calling or sending an email to a coworker, get up and walk to their desk.

- Wear a pedometer to measure your steps. Every day, aim for more steps than the previous day and don't sit down for the evening until you've done it!

- Take your dog outside to play fetch.

This week, in addition to including your additional daily serving of veggies, you will add a new change that involves adding 10 minutes of activity to your daily routine. Consider what would work best for you. What time of the day would be easiest for you? Will you have to get up a few minutes earlier or call a friend to plan evening walks? Determine how you can most successfully add additional activity into your day and then add it to your goal tracker sheet for week 2. Remember, be specific. ... examples: "I will walk 10 minutes at lunch during the week, and take a 20 minute bike ride on Sunday", "I will walk the dog around the block every day before I shower".

Use the tracker forms to log your progress. You can copy these tools from the appendix or print it directly from my website at: http://www.holisticwellnesswithtracy.com/90-days-to-holistic-wellness-goal-list.html

Note:

If you are already meeting or exceeding the 150 minutes/week recommendation, consider mixing things up by trying something new!

Week #3: Meditation

For many people, meditation is a scary word. When you think of meditation, do you think of a monk sitting like a pretzel for hours on end? Or do you think it's only for someone with hours of spare time? Meditation, in its simplest definition, is just mindfulness. It is about being present in the moment. It's about taking some time to let your mind be quiet. It's about giving your left brain a mundane focus so your right brain has time to shine.

How often do you simply sit in silence? In this day and age, with Facebook, smart phones, kindles and our perpetual to-do lists, we rarely just sit ... disconnected from the world. We don't take the time to learn who we are when we aren't interacting with others or reading what others think. Technology can be wonderful, but it has robbed us of this gift. Meditation is the simplest way for you to enjoy silence, experience peace and to connect with yourself and the divine (because really, they are one and the same). For most of us, the answer to the question "how often do you simply sit in silence?" is rarely or never. Because of this, we often find ourselves stressed, frantic, and lost in judgment ... our judgment of others and our worries of how others are judging us. Meditation is one sure-fire way to let go of the mental clutter and chaos, to let go of judgment, to get to know and love ourselves for who we really are.

If you have never tried meditation before or weren't impressed with it before, let go of your preconceived judgments. Mediation is simple, natural and there are many easy ways to include meditation in your day. While I have heard several teachers say that you need to meditate 20 minutes, twice a day. That is simply not a viable option for most people, especially if you are new to meditation. And, more importantly, it just isn't true. Just one minute can bring a sense of calmness. ... more is nice, but there is nothing wrong with starting small, it's how we do things here, right? Let's talk a little more about meditation.

In my mind, meditation is one of the single most important things you can do to live your life from a place of holistic wellness (along with eating your vegetables). Why? Meditation affects every aspect of your being. In the beginning of the book I shared a 2x2 square depicting Holistic Wellness. Below is the same grid, but this time it's filled with benefits of meditation.

A picture (or graphic) is worth a thousand words! So, now that you understand the many, many benefits of meditation, I think you will agree that it's worth including this in your daily life!

To clarify, let's discuss meditation just a little more and then I will present ideas for the practice of meditation.