March brings us National Nutrition Month.  There are some days that I wonder if I missed my calling to be a registered dietician-I find food, the chemistry of creating something for the body, and how the body  uses it for energy absolutely fascinating.  While I ultimately chose the exercise and movement route, I did minor in nutrition because I enjoyed studying it so much.

As an exercise physiologist, I thought that I would never have any problems maintaining a healthy weight.  I knew all of the pitfalls, risk factors, and I was motivated to exercise regularly so that I would always be healthy.  Guess what? Five years ago, I suddenly found myself creeping up towards 200 pounds and shocked about how that happened.  I thought I was doing everything right-how could I have been so far off?  The truth is, you can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet, which was exactly what I was trying to do.  

I am not going to write the USDA Healthy Plate guidelines in this blog (you can find them here, but personally, I prefer the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate model, as it is more comprehensive) because for the most part, we all know generally what healthy eating looks like.  Instead, I am going to share some tips that took me years to figure out that they were actually really effective in weight loss and management.  Hopefully this will help you shortcut your way to your goals!

• Eat vegetables!  I know I have said this in the past, but eating low calorie, high water vegetables fill you up and are crucial in creating a calorie deficit.  Eating a variety of vegetables also helps you to get all of the vitamins and minerals your body needs to thrive.  Apparently I decided that as an adult, I didn’t have to eat vegetables if I didn’t want to and apparently there was a reason that my parents always served a vegetable with every meal growing up.  As an adult, you are still responsible for eating your vegetables.
• Limit refined carbohydrates: I love my  carbs, especially since I am a recovered competitive runner!  But as I aged, decreased my mileage, and my cortisol levels spiked with stress from work and family commitments, my body craved refined carbohydrates as a stress response and then held onto that weight.  Try to maximize whole grains and consider low-carb breads or wraps, as these tend to have more fiber and sometimes more protein!
• Drink water and other sugar-free beverages: I haven’t had a problem drinking enough water, having one kidney stone will be enough to reinforce that habit! Water will increase your fullness without increasing your calorie intake.  I don’t mind plain water, but I do enjoy the Hint naturally flavored water as an afternoon treat or an occasional Coke Zero.  Find what tastes good to you so that it becomes a sustainable practice.  
• Eat lean sources of protein: research shows we lose muscle mass as we age.  To curtail this, it’s important to get enough protein to build more muscle.  One gram of protein offers the same number of calories as one gram of carbohydrates and protein will also help keep you fuller longer (do we see the theme?  We want to stay fuller, longer, so we can create a calorie deficit if you are trying to lose weight). 

My tips are geared towards weight loss, but all of these are crucial for weight management as well.  If you are at a healthy weight, you don’t want to eat a surplus of calories to gain weight.  The difference is that you have more flexibility in weight management because you aren’t trying to create a calorie deficit.  

Perhaps the biggest lesson of all is do not be defined by a number on the scale-there are so many factors that go into “being healthy” and how you feel will be better than a number any day!