National Nutrition Month

March is National Nutrition Month and March 10 is Registered Dietitian appreciation day. What better time to make a promise to yourself to improve your health with better nutrition! I think that when it comes to health it's best to focus on what you will do instead of what you won't do. When you say you won't eat any of a certain food it becomes like the forbidden fruit...you want it even more. So instead of listing off all the foods you will avoid focus on what you WILL do using the healthy habits I've listed below as a guideline. It might be easiest to pick a couple of points to work on first, and once those become habits add in a couple more, and so on, instead of trying to change everything at once. Remember, good nutrition is a work in progress. No one's diet is perfect on a daily basis and there are always little changes that can be made to make your diet even better. I'm not telling you that to discourage you. I'm saying it because you should not expect perfection. You should feel good about yourself as long as you are making healthy changes...like the ones below!

• Habit #1- increase water consumption. Take your body weight in pounds and divide that number by 2. That's about how many ounces of fluid you should be drinking on a daily basis.
• Habit #2- exercise daily. For general health you should aim to exercise at a moderate intensity (meaning it actually gets you breathing heavier than usual) for at least 30 minutes a day. For weight loss you need to get 60-90 minutes of daily physical activity. It doesn't have to be all at once. Three 20 minute walks are just as good and one 60 minute one. It doesn't have to be at the gym either. Walking the dog, taking a dancing lesson, walking the stairs at work and extra time or two- it all counts.
• Habit #3- increase fruits and veggies. Aim to have at least 2 fruits and 3 vegetables everyday. Different colors indicate different nutrients so try to eat a wide variety of fruits and veggies, not just carrots and apples.
• Habit #4- focus on whole grains. Ideally, all of your grains should be whole but if you are a white bread person, make it your goal to change at least half of your grains to the whole version. You'll get more fiber and vitamins/minerals.
• Habit #5- choose unsaturated fats over saturated. Nuts, seeds, soy, avocado, fish, flaxseed, and vegetable oils such as olive and canola are all good sources of healthy fats. You don't want your total daily fat to get too high (it should be 20-30% of your total daily calories, see the post Healthy Fat, Healthy People) so substitute unsaturated for saturated instead of adding it to your regular diet.
• Habit #6- make whole foods the basis of your diet. I could go on and on about why whole foods are better than processed (more nutrients, less added sugar, salt, and additives etc). Fruits, vegetables, lean meats, dairy, whole grains....these are what should form the basis of your diet, not boxed, processed, pre-prepared foods. When at the grocery store you should spend most of your time shopping the perimeter. That's where most of the whole foods are. When shopping the center aisles look at nutrition labels and think the less ingredients the better.

Good luck and Happy National Nutrition Month!