Hi friends! Things look a little different around here, don’t they!? I am so happy to have finally made the transition. Soon I will be switching over to gypsydietitian.com also, but for now the site appearance change is the only thing we have to deal with! I am still updating all of the tabs including adding to my Services, which I am very excited about! The meal plans are still rockin’ and rollin’ as well as the detox, so if you haven’t already, be sure to check them out!
The main thing that I am most frustrated with is that Facebook won’t let me change the name of this site’s Facebook page. I am trying to decide whether to leave it as is, hoping that Facebook allows me to do this one day soon, or just create an entire new page. What are your thoughts on this? Leave it or make a new page?
Anyway, I have an entire post written about my transition and goals with The Gypsy Dietitian, LLC, however… it is saved on my computer… which I left at Dustin’s parents house… an hour away. I’ll be sure to share that with you when my computer returns to me, but until then, I’ll let the obvious site changes do the talking.
But on to todays business…
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Yesterday, I attended a webinar titled “What’s Your Healthy?” hosted by Aetna and well-known dietitian Keri Gans. Keri is a very well-respected dietitian and someone I certainly look up to as a new dietitian, so when I was invited to attend the webinar, you better believe I was excited.
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The point of the webinar was to review a survey conducted by Aetna to determine how Americans define healthy. I was interested to learn that 34% of Americans say that they are living healthier today than they were five years ago and that American’s score their current health status a 70 out of 100. How would you rate your current health status?
I was also interested to learn that, according to the study, 67% of Americans want to lose weight, a median of 25 pounds (that’s the size of a small toddler!). As a nutrition professional, that number seems huge but also one that I CAN do something about.
Keri went on to share her tips for successful weight loss, all of which I agreed with, but the first one she mentioned was this:
Write it down.
During my training at the Mayo Clinic, those were three words that we, too, learned to use often. Although patients dreaded to hear it, we said it confidently, “write it down,” because of the research that supports it. When it comes to weight loss, the research suggests that those who actually write down what they eat lose far more weight than those who don’t.
While I never want nutrition to rule your life, and as I preach it is a lifestyle and not a diet, I know what you’re thinking, “So you’re saying I need to write down and track everything I eat for the rest of my life in order to maintain a healthy weight.“
No. There is a time and a place for everything. If weight loss is your goal, then yes, tracking what you eat will most likely be beneficial. As a former ‘track everything you eat’ person, I know it can be time consuming, but I also know it works, and Keri agreed as well. Tracking what you eat, at least for a period of time, helps you see where there are problems. Are you skipping breakfast which causes you to overeat at lunch? Or is your afternoon snack kicking off an into the the evening
This is not an easy task and it is even harder being on the other side: the nutrition professional end. It’s a lot easier to control my own actions than any of yours. You would agree, right So how in the world do I actually get my clients to actually complete this seemingly annoying task? During the question and answer time at the end of the webinar, I decided to ask Keri just how she motivates her clients to do this, to track everything they eat, day in and day out, because for me this proves to be a challenging task. Her answer said it all.
Once they start doing it, they lose weight.
Ah ha. So the proof is in the pudding. Her clients kept doing it because they saw results.
Are you looking to lose a few pounds? Would you be willing to take a few minutes out of each day to jot down what you eat in order to do so? If so, give it a try. Let the weight (or lack there of) do the talking! I like the MyFitnessPal app, but also I created a Food Log PDF that you can download if you are a pen and paper person like me!
Have you ever tried journaling what you eat? If so, what did you like most about it? What challenges did you face?
Have a great evening!
Good health!
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