Brown Bag Lunches

Bringing your lunch to work or school everyday may not be a top priority because of convenience or preference for fast foods or restaurants. However, packing a lunch daily can lead to many positive changes in your wallet and your waistline.

Lower Calories and Fat
Undoubtedly, if you pack your own lunch, you will save calories and fat. Fast food joints and restaurants buy food that is convenient, and convenient food tends to be fattier and saltier than food we would make in our homes. While it is true many eatery places are offering healthier and lighter options, they still have many unnecessary added calories and fat, from the dressings they use on salads or the cooking methods they use.

Cost and Quality
In general, when you brown bag it rather than eating out your wallet grows. On average it costs about $3 to bring a sack lunch while it costs about $10 to buy one out. These savings can add up quickly. Another benefit being that you know what you are putting in your foods. When we eat out, we cannot be certain what has gone into our food. We know the quality of the food we are eating when we pack our own lunch.

Food Preferences
The great part of bringing your own lunch is that you don't have to settle on what you are eating. You can bring your favorite foods for lunch rather than stopping by the most convenient fast food establishment and just picking anything on the menu. When you choose foods spontaneously without much thought and you are hungry when doing so, we tend to choose fattier, high-calorie foods that look and sound appetizing.

Bring your lunch to work or school. It will save you calories and money!

Caffeine

Feeling tired this afternoon? Many of us turn to caffeinated drinks like coffee and tea to pick us up when our energy is low. While caffeine has its benefits, it is important to know both the upside and downside to the stimulant.

Up side to caffeine: improves alertness, increases energy, improves productivity, increases mood

Down side to caffeine: causes increased tiredness later in the day, can interfere with normal sleep, elevates blood pressure, can increase anxiety

The Mayo Clinic recommends a maximum of 200-400 mg caffeine daily, about 2-4 cups of coffee per day. I recommend staying at 1-2 cups of coffee or 1-2 cans of soda, however, because caffeine is not needed for our bodies to work properly. It also can start replacing foods that have nutritional value.

Fitness prescription: Walk 15 minutes at a brisk pace, do 15 sit ups, walk up 1 flight of stairs (up and down counting as one flight).

 

Focus on Fitness

Before the daily nutrition and fitness prescription, we need a response for how many Cynergy Health Challenge participants would be interested in taking fitness classes at Wilson's Fitness. Wilson's has generously agreed to team with us for our challenge. They are willing to offer classes for just our participants if enough are interested.

If you are interested, please email us back with whether you prefer a 4-week class or 6-week, how many times weekly you would like the class, and what time would you prefer classes.

We hope you can take advantage of this opportunity!
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Make an effort to increase your activity today. Take a walk on a break or at lunchtime. Park further away at the grocery store, at work, or at school. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Anything to get you moving.

Bring your lunch to work tomorrow if you normally eat in the cafeteria or at a fast food establishment. Pack your lunch the night before if you are usually short on time in the mornings. Remember food safety if you do not have a refrigerator available at work. If this is the case, a peanut butter sandwich will be safer than bringing something that may spoil, like a deli sandwich.

Try to get a variety of the food groups in your packed lunch: grains, proteins, vegetables, fruits, dairy.

Example:
3 thin slices of deli ham
2 pieces wheat bread
1 cup baby carrots
1 small banana
6 oz yogurt

Fitness prescription: walk 15 minutes at a brisk pace, do 15 jumping jacks, do 10 lunges

Keep it up! If you have any questions, remember our dietitian, Megan, is here to help!

Healthy Tailgating Snacks

Tailgating is one of the great parts of college football games. While it is associated with unhealthful snacks, there are ways to make those high calorie and high fat foods we love so much lighter and healthier.

Traditional snack: Nachos & Cheese

Swap the fried tortilla chips for baked lentil chips to save you total fat, trans fat, and calories. Replace the processed cheese for a tomato-based salsa. You will be surprised at how satisfied this snack will leave you feeling, with fewer calories and grams of fat.

Traditional snack: Pizza

Swap the deep dish takeout pizza for a homemade pizza. Use a whole wheat tortilla or pita bread to save calories. Replacing a thick crust with a thin one goes a long way. Use part-skim mozzarella cheese to cut down on fat, and load up on veggie toppings.

Traditional snack: Buffalo Wings

Instead of frying chicken wings, try baking or broiling. You use less butter and add less fat when you bake rather than fry. Add cayenne or crushed red pepper and any other spices for taste.

Next time you tailgate, bring a more health conscious snack. Small changes in your diet can make a big impact on weight and health in the long-run.

Make Your Plate Like MyPlate

Make your dinner plate look like "MyPlate" tonight. MyPlate (below) is a visual plate intended to help you eat a balanced diet at each meal. According to MyPlate, half your plate should be fruits and vegetables, while the other half of your plate should be split between grains and proteins. And don't forget about your dairy! Check out choosemyplate.gov to read more about a balanced diet.



An example of a balanced meal: grapes, salad, brown rice, baked chicken (all making up one-fourth of a plate) and a glass of skim milk on the side.

Post-Exercise Snacking

Regular exercise plays an important role in health and wellness. Many people focus on pre-exercise snacking to help them go the distance but a proper snack after strenuous physical activity is also important. Eating a healthy snack after exercise can help your body repair muscle tissues and replenish glycogen stores.

For after-exercise snacking, focus on getting a protein and carbohydrate combination. Proteins help repair muscle tissues; carbohydrates replenish glycogen stores.

Some examples:

Hummus & Whole Wheat Pita 
Yogurt & Berries
Nut Butter & Apple Slices
Cottage Cheese & Peaches
Tuna & Whole Wheat Toast

A protein and a high fiber carbohydrate snack will help you feel satisfied while also helping your body replenish after a workout. 

Healthful Grocery List

Having a general grocery list to reference makes grocery shopping less stressful. Below is a list of healthful products to guide your purchases at the store.

fresh fruits (example: citrus fruits, berries)
fresh vegetables (example: leafy green or orange vegetables)
skim or 1% milk
light yogurt
low-fat cottage cheese
lean meat (example: tenderloin, sirloin, 90% lean ground beef, skinless chicken breast, skinless turkey breast, salmon, herring, trout, tilapia)
whole wheat bread
whole grain cereal (with <6 grams sugar per serving)
oatmeal

Two important rules to follow during grocery shopping are to not go when you are hungry. People tend to buy more food and more temptation foods when they go grocery shopping when they haven't eaten for awhile. The next rule is always look at food labels. The claims on the box are not always true so do your research!