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The Top Nutrition Apps for 2012

May 17th, 2012 by

“I’m pleased to share this guest post from Jane Johnson.”

Lose weight, eat healthy, and stay fit!

Handheld smart devices not only help people to stay connected to their hobbies, friends, and interests – they also provide great educational and motivational tools for staying fit, losing weight, and eating healthier.

The following five top nutrition apps for 2012 will help you manage your diet and exercise goals, make more educated food choices, help you monitor your daily calories and water intake, dine out with healthy eating in mind, and always stay motivated and one step ahead in your nutritional and fitness success:

  1. DailyBurn Tracker (Free – for Android)
    If health and fitness peaks your interests, you’ve probably heard of the DailyBurn or seen covered it on The Today Show! The DailyBurn Tracker is the app for this program. It’s a calorie counter and workout Companion that will help you manage your diet and exercise routine, and keep you on track when you’re feeling unmotivated. Use this app to track calories, protein, sodium, and fat intake, to help you make healthier food choices, and to gain motivation and support from the website’s huge social networking community who are there to share stories, healthy recipes, and workout advice. Plus, all the data you log in this app will be automatically synced and stored on DailyBurn.com for access whenever you need it.
  2. Calorie Counter by MyNetDiary (Free – for iPhone)
    The Calorie Counter by MyNetDiary app gives users access to a powered by a huge database of over 400,000 foods. You can log each meal quickly by searching food items as you type or by using the barcode scanner feature. You can even access the food database, track your caloric intake, or your daily activities offline without an internet connection. Plus, the database contains almost every food brand and restaurant you can think of, and the app remembers your favorite foods and meals so you can track calories with ease.
  3. Lose It! (Free – for iPhone)
    You are what you eat, and The Lose It! app tracks the nutritional values of exactly what you consume. This app makes it a breeze to set weight loss goals and establish a daily caloric budget to keep you on track. The calorie tracker also logs nutrients—such as protein, sodium, fat, and carbohydrates so you ensure you are getting balanced, healthy meals whenever you eat.
  4. Restaurant Nutrition (Free – for Android)
    Stick to a healthy eating plan—even when you’re travelling for work or on vacation. The Restaurant Nutrition app makes it possible by helping users make healthier menu choices at restaurants. With over 100 restaurants and more than 15,000 heart-healthy meal items to choose from, you can find a dining option with ease that will compliment your waistline or food allergy concerns at popular chain restaurants across North America.
  5. Tracknburn ($3.99 – for iPhone)
    If you’ve finally decided that it’s time to lose weight and get healthy, the Tracknburn app will help. Professional dieticians and personal trainers agree that keeping a food and exercise journal will provide the motivation you need to make the lifestyle choices necessary to lose weight and eat healthy. This app is a calorie, diet, and exercise tracker that features the following tools—a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), and Resting Energy Expenditure (REE), calorie counter (for food intake) and calorie tracker (for calories burned via exercise), as well as a hydration tracker.

Lose weight, eat healthy, and stay fit!

Bio: Jane Johnson is a writer for GoingCellular, a popular site that provides cell phone related news, commentary, reviews on popular providers and services like T-Mobile wireless internet.

 

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Weekly Tip: Here’s a little secret

May 14th, 2012 by

For those of you who follow Nutrition Solutions on Facebook, you know that I attended the CHRISTUS Live Well Women’s Conference a few weeks ago. (By the way, welcome to ALL my new subscribers from the event!) This all day event is designed with women’s health in mind and is a day of learning, connecting, and rejuvenation. It was my first year attending and it was a memorable event. I spent almost 8 hours in the screening section calculating women’s BMIs (body mass index) and daily estimated calorie needs. It was a whirlwind of activity and I loved meeting so many women. I only wished that there was more time for me to talk to each one and hear her “story.”

During lunch we heard Helen Hunt speak. The most memorable thing she said was a quote from her favorite poem. I wish I had written it down, but basically it was that women love secrets. They love to know secret things about each other and that is what connects us together. I agree. One of my favorite parts of meeting my clients for the first time is hearing them tell their story of health. It is so interesting to me to learn about their health goals and their journey of how they got to where they are now. Sometimes they tell me things about their weight, how they feel about themselves, and their hopes for their future that maybe no one else knows. In that way I feel very connected to my clients. I feel blessed to hear their story.

My secret that I will share with you is I hate the “numbers” that go along with our weight. I hate that we sometimes judge our self-worth by the numbers on the scale or our BMI. As I asked woman after woman to share her weight with me, I got a variety of responses. Only one refused (!), but other responses were “too much” or she would whisper it to me so no one else could hear. Truly, the numbers really don’t matter. Sure, knowing our weight, calories, or BMI are important for research purposes and I completely support that. We need to have a way to benchmark and categorize. But, for our personal uses, there isn’t much value. Really, we know how healthy we are just by the way we feel and how we look in the mirror. We don’t need a number to tell us that. We just know. We don’t need the scale to tell us if today is going to be a good or bad day. We don’t need to know our BMI. Will knowing that suddenly motivate us to make difficult changes? I don’t think so. We will make changes when we are ready.

So I’m a dietitian and I don’t like the scale or diets. I think we should throw away the scale and vow to not diet and instead focus on our overall health and well-being.

Assignment for this week:

  1. Think about how the scale affects you. Is it your worst enemy? Or do you feel neutral about it? How do you feel about your weight? Are you embarrassed to say your weight out loud? Or do you think of it just like any other number, like your age? I’d love to hear your thoughts via email.
  2. If you need help improving your health and body image, join me for my summer Intentional Eating Class, starting June 8th.

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Yoga for Weight Loss

May 10th, 2012 by

Nutrition SolutionsTypically when we think of exercise for weight loss, cardio comes to mind. We know when we want to lose weight, we want to get a big calorie burn, and cardiovascular activity is what does that (running, spinning, aerobics, etc.). However, for overall fitness we need to be flexible and strong. That is where yoga comes in.

Yoga does more than just increase flexibility and strength—it improves balance, relieves stress, and reduces aches and pains. Recent studies have shown that including yoga in weight loss programs and eating disorder programs produces better results (meaning more weight loss and improvement in eating behaviors).

If you’re looking to start yoga, make sure to find a class that meets your goals. If you are athletic, you may enjoy Ashtanga, Bikram, or Vinyasa yoga. If you are overweight look for classes designed specifically for you, which many yoga studios now offer. If you prefer to do yoga at home, choose from one of these DVDS or books:


DVDs:
• Yoga: Just My Size
• HeavyWeight Yoga: Yoga for the Body You Have Today
• Yoga for the Rest of Us


Books:
• Plus-Sized Yoga: Beginners Yoga for People of All Sizes
• MegaYoga
• Yoga for Fat Guys: From Lumpy to Limber in Just Six Weeks
• Big Yoga: A Simple Guide for Bigger Bodies


(Note: This post is a summary of an article I read in Today’s Dietitian magazine. You can find the original article here.)


Do you do yoga? Any particular class, book, or DVD that you like?

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Weekly Tip: When you eat at the refrigerator…

May 7th, 2012 by

“….pull up a chair.” This quote is the title of a book by Geneen Roth. In the chapter with this same title, she asks (not a direct quote), “If you were to have a friend over for dinner, you wouldn’t just invite them to eat leftovers from your refrigerator and eat them standing up would you?” Her statement, “When you eat at the refrigerator, pull up a chair,” can be interpreted on many levels. Here are a two:

  • Feed yourself the way you would feed a friend.
  • Feed your children the way you would feed a friend.


So that would mean when it’s mealtime, sit at the table and eat together. Don’t sit in front of the tv. Don’t eat standing up. Don’t eat in the car. Sit at the dinner table and enjoy pleasant conversation. Don’t bring up negative topics. Don’t argue. Just enjoy each other’s company and the delicious food.

Treating every meal like you were dining with a friend takes you one step closer on the journey of being an Intentional Eater for both you and your family.


Assignments for this week:

  • Set a specific goal of how many meals you are going to eat at the table without distractions.
  • If you are a parent or caregiver, sign-up for “Baby Boot Camp” on May 8th.



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An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

May 3rd, 2012 by

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of CureI think about this quote a lot when I see the sad state of our nation’s health. I could recite to you the alarming statistics of how overweight our country is getting or how many people have heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, etc. But, we know that already. Sometimes I wonder, “How did we get here?” Well the answer is very complicated, yet simple at the same time. One brilliant speaker I heard stated it this way, “Obesity is the disease of the rich.” Meaning, that in all the advancements our country has made we never imagined that it would create an obese-promoting environment. Having poor health due to our lifestyle choices is almost becoming the norm. Sadly some of us accept it and try to put a band-aid on it by taking medicine and having surgery. We fail to address the real root of the problem: lack of activity and poor food choices.

So, now is the time to take an honest look at our choices. I know it’s not easy. Trust me…managing my health and my family’s health is top on my list of things that are hard to do. But, it’s worth it. It is so worth it!

That is why I’m reminding you today that “There is no time like the present.” There is no day better than today to make one small step in the right direction. Not just for you, but for your children as well. Studies show that the nutrition choices made when we were in the womb affect our health today. Did you read that right? Yes! How your mother ate affects your health today! That just goes to show that every choice we make has consequences, even if it’s not apparent until years later.

I’m not here to scare you or cause guilt. But, I do know that every once in awhile we need to be reminded of the truth (even if it hurts).

So, what I’d like you to do is…

  1. Take 2 minutes to think of one change you’d like to make and write it down. Email me or comment on this post and tell me what it is.
  2. If you’re a parent or caregiver, sign up for “Baby Boot Camp” on May 8th, or request the recording. Give your baby the best start possible!

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Weekly Tip: Burst the Boredom

Apr 30th, 2012 by

It’s so easy to get in a rut with our exercise and eating routines. I know now that I’ve finished training for the Gusher 5k, I’ve been bored with my exercise routine. It’s time for me to get a new workout from a friendly Wellness Center personal trainer. However, with eating, I don’t tend to get bored too easily, but some of my clients do. I can divide them into two categories: those who love to stick to the same routine and are as happy as a clam vs. those who can’t eat the same thing two days in a row. For those of you in the second category, it’s time to try something new.

I’ve said before that I don’t advocate any specific diet, but I do like to read about diets and learn from them. The raw food diet has interested me lately. I’ve been drawn to these two blogs recently and tried these vegan/raw food recipes:

So, if you are feeling bored with your eating routine, expand into different diets or cuisines. Doing so will keep the boredom out of your eating and provide some fun things to try.

Assignments for this week:

  • Try a recipe from a specific diet or cuisine.
  • If you are a parent or caregiver, sign-up for “Baby Boot Camp” on May 8th.

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The Dangers of TV

Apr 26th, 2012 by

work-life balanceTypically I don’t like to scare my readers, but what I’ve been reading recently is too powerful to not share. If you love to watch TV, you must read on! I recently read about a 2003 study of adults and leisure screen time (meaning time spent at the computer or watching TV, not associated with work). The results were shocking and similar to previous studies done on the same topic.

  • Adults who spent 4 hours or more of leisure screen time a day, had a 48% increased risk of death.
  • Adults who spent 2 hours or more of leisure screen time a day, had a 125% increased risk of heart problems.
  • Even if they exercised, if they watched TV 2 or more hours per day, the risks were the same.

The bottom line: to decrease your risk of death, reduce your leisure screen time to less than 2 hours per day. Our bodies were meant to move and being too sedentary is clearly hazardous to our health.

So, get up from the computer right now and stretch, walk, or do a few jumping jacks. Your body will thank you (and so will your family).

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Weekly Tip: Tips for Feeding Children

Apr 23rd, 2012 by

Last week I wrote about babies’ inborn abilities to regulate their intake. In my blog post a few days later, I provided some “don’ts” for feeding children. I’d like to continue this discussion one more week and provide some “do’s”. Now, if you don’t have children, think about how these tips can apply to you.

  1. Trust that your child knows just how much to eat (and so do you, if you really listen). Some days he/she will be very hungry, other days he won’t.
  2. Provide regularly scheduled meals and snacks.
  3. Provide a variety of foods at each meal from different food groups.
  4. Allow your child (and you) to grow into the body that she is genetically programmed for, rather than what society thinks she should look like.
  5. Share neutral attitudes about foods, not making some foods forbidden, off limits, or for rewards.

Now, all of this is usually easier said than done. But, by remembering and applying these tips, we can reclaim our intuition and encourage our children to not lose theirs.

Assignments for this week:

  • Observe if you are following the above suggestions in regards to yourself and children that you interact with.
  • If you are a parent or caregiver, sign-up for “Baby Boot Camp” on May 8th.

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How Do You Eat Cookie Dough Intentionally?

Apr 19th, 2012 by

Intentional eatingIf you are a cookie-dough lover, you may never have put “cookie dough” and “intentionally” in the same sentence. Isn’t it something that is eaten on the sly, guiltily, before the cookies even make it in the oven? Well, last week in my blog post “Eat Like a Baby”, I talked about the instinct babies are born with of knowing how much to eat. I promised I’d include tips for preserving their intuition and what we can learn from watching them. So, I’d like to share a recent experience I had with my oldest daughter, “S”.

We made chocolate chip cookies a few weeks ago and we have a rule that everyone can have one bite of cookie dough. (Before you gasp, this recipe does not include eggs—so I wasn’t feeding my children raw eggs.) I gave each daughter a spoonful of dough. “S” ate hers slowly and savored each bite. It took her about 5 minutes to finish the spoonful. On the other hand, mine was gone in one bite. I was awed by her patience and her natural desire to savor the dough, knowing she wouldn’t be getting anymore until the next time we made cookies. I wish I could take the credit for teaching her that, but instead she was reminding me to slow down and enjoy my food. She was born with those instincts and I will do my best to not disturb them. I have many, many examples of her intentional eating, which I’ll save for another time.

Here are a few “don’ts” for preserving children’s natural abilities to regulate their intake:

  1. Don’t force them to clean the plate.
  2. Don’t use food as rewards, bribes, or to soothe emotions.
  3. Don’t make a big deal about how much or how little kids eat.
  4. Don’t let them have free access to food.
  5. Don’t let them eat anywhere in the house.

We can apply these same rules to ourselves.

Those are just a few suggestions. There will be more to come. Until then, I’d like to hear, what do you do to encourage a healthy relationship with food in your children?

Don’t forget to sign up for “Baby Boot Camp” on May 8th.

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Weekly Tip: Eat Like a Baby

Apr 16th, 2012 by

Have you ever fed a newborn baby? If so, you know that intuitively a baby knows when she is hungry and when she is satisfied. She knows (and so does everyone else!) that if she is hungry, nothing else is important. It doesn’t matter where you are, what chores need to be done, or how tired you are: if she wants to eat, then you better be ready to feed her. She knows when she has had enough and nothing that you do will make her eat more. Sometimes she wants a little snack and drifts off to sleep; other times she wants more and then will play contentedly.

Do you eat like that? Have you forgotten what it is like to be so in tune with your body’s needs that you will do whatever it takes to get the right nourishment and not let anything get in your way? Do you remember what it felt like to eat just the right amount of food — not too much and not too little? Do you remember what it was like to eat with pleasure and not guilt? I ask you this, because we can learn a lot from watching babies eat. Don’t forget that we were born with that same intuition and somewhere along the way, sadly it got messed up. We let others tell us what amounts were appropriate for us. Or we started feeling guilty for liking certain foods. Or we used foods in inappropriate ways—like to soothe emotions. Or maybe we just started eating on autopilot, grabbing whatever was convenient without any thoughts of the long-term consequences of sporadic eating-on-the-go.

I bring this up for two reasons:

  1. My wish for all of my clients is that they too will be so in tune with their bodies that they don’t need to count calories, restrict foods, or overindulge on a regular basis. I want them to reclaim their natural ability to eat the right foods, at the right times, for the right reasons.
  2. I hope that we will all work to preserve the natural abilities babies have of regulating their intake to give them the healthiest start possible.

How do we do those things? Stay tuned for future tips that will explain how we can accomplish those two goals.

In the meantime…

Assignments for this week:

  • Observe a baby eating and share with me what you learn.
  • Need some help with dinnertime? Sign-up for Strategies for a Stress-Free Week: How to Create Menus & Organize your Recipes, on April 17th.
  • If you are a parent or caregiver, sign-up for Baby Boot Camp, scheduled for May 8th.

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