New Year’s Resolution: A Healthy Lifestyle

Shedding pounds often tops many people’s New Year’s resolution list and that can mean checking out popular diet plans on the market. A new study gives some perspective on four popular diet plans.
Researchers from Tufts University assigned 160 overweight or obese individuals to the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers or Zone diet. After one year, the results showed that people who followed their diet plan closely lost the most weight no matter which diet they were on.
The study concluded that in the short-term all four diets worked equally well. However, keep in mind that many diet approaches can help you lose weight in the short term.
The question still is: Are these diets effective or safe in the long term – for the rest of your life? There is still no conclusive evidence.
Contact a registered dietitian to help you develop a healthy lifestyle and achieve and maintain weight loss.

Source: ADA

Weight Loss Ticker

If you need to lose weight, get a weight loss ticker and announce it to the world wide web. There are a few sites that offer tickers, just google "weight loss ticker" and get your ticker or use the one below:

Join me in the Phentermine support group!

For those of you already using a ticker, I would like to hear your comments on how it has helped you in reaching your goal? Or not!

Update: I don't want anyone to think I endorse this product, so I am looking for a weight loss ticker that doesn't promote a product. I'm not having much luck.

Rethinking a Day in the Life of an Orlando Dietitian

Last week I spent several days visiting a patient at her home in Orlando near the intersection of Hiawassee and Silver Star, which is located in crime hills, I mean Pine Hills. After I realized I may not be safe, I had my husband drive me to the next visit. The apartment complex was riddled with bullet holes and my husband heard a gun go off.

If you haven’t kept up with the Orlando news lately, crime is out of control. Just read these 2 excerpts from the Orlando Sentinel:

Orlando Crime: "I don't know what happened. There's something in the water. People are killing each other right and left," said Capt. Mike Miller, who until his retirement Nov. 6 was major-case commander at the Orange Sheriff's Office.

At the Medical Examiner's Office, the Orange homicide caseload jumped more than 75 percent, from 89 in 2005 to 156 in 2006, according to a recent report.

At a traditional family gathering, I listened while my brother-in-law, a dispatcher for the Orange County Police, repeatedly advised me not to continue seeing patients at their homes. And if that wasn’t enough to convince me to rethink my home health career, there’s this:

http://www.orlandofloridasucks.com/Orlando_crime.htm

All this brings me to my New Year’s Resolution for 2008:

Take my career as a dietitian to the World Wide Web.

Currently, you will find me at these sites:

The Menu Coach Chronicles http://menucoach.blogspot.com/

Ask the Dietitian at 200 Iowa Avenue A Weight Management Community http://www.iowaavenue.com/profile/askthedietitian

Diana Young, RD, LD/N, CDE http://www.themenucoach.com/

Weight1Minute http://www.weight1minute.com/

Come join me on my new adventure for 2008.

As I always say:

Sometimes you just have to take a leap and grow your wings on the way down.

Tips for Healthy Holiday Recipes

Eating healthy on Christmas doesn’t mean you need to avoid holiday food fare. Food often takes center stage, causing fear of weight gain for many people. With some planning, fitting holiday treats into a healthful eating plan is easy.
You can eat smaller portions, replace high-calorie foods with low-fat options or slightly adjust recipes. By swapping out a few ingredients, even in Mom’s classic dishes, you can reduce fat and calories without sacrificing taste.
Here are some quick tips to help turn your holiday recipes into guilt-free pleasures:
Use two egg whites in place of one egg.
Try dried fruit instead of nuts.
Use three tablespoons of cocoa powder and one tablespoon of oil in place of baking chocolate.
Replace cream or whipping cream with evaporated skim milk.
Try substituting an equal amount of applesauce for at least half the oil, margarine or butter in muffins and quick breads like banana bread.
For dips, sauces and pie toppings, use non-fat yogurt or fat-free sour cream.
Top casseroles with almonds instead of fried onion rings.
Choose reduced-fat cheeses for salads and casseroles.
Subtle modifications can improve your recipe’s nutrition content without compromising taste.
Happy Holidays

Source: ADA’s Public Relations Team

One Minute "Eat Right" Podcast

Each weekday you can listen to an “Eating Right” podcast provided by Connie Diekman, Registered Dietitian and President of the American Dietetic Association. She presents her one minute tip on living and eating healthy at WBBM Newsradio 780am, Chicago’s #1 source for local news, traffic and weather.

Thanks Connie!

Weight 1 Minute

Weight 1 Minute, I have exciting news. I am now the resident Dietitian at Iowa Avenue - A Weight Management Community. I feel right at home. Come join us. Here is a link straight to my page. Let’s share recipes, our successes, our challenges, and anything else we want to talk about. What are you weighting for?

Healthy Recipes

Where do I go to find healthy recipes?

MayoClinic.com Tools for a healthier life
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/RE99999

Nutritional Analysis and Dietitian Tips are included with each recipe. They also list Exchanges for people with Diabetes.

I love this site. I hope you will too.

Iowa Avenue - A Weight Management Community

If you haven’t checked out Iowa Avenue, I encourage you to do so. I’m so impressed, I became a member. So far there are 13 members but I know that will grow by leaps and bounds. Here is a post from the blog:

Iowa Avenue is a dynamic community connecting people in a meaningful way for a meaningful purpose.
Our primary mission is to support our community with the best weight management information, expert advice, via the Internet, to help all of our users to keep, prevent, or treat overweight and obesity by focusing on three main issues. They are:
Iowa Avenue Social Community – have friends and family support you in your journey for proper weight management and goals; have access to different educational advice, expert opinions, technology driven tools; sponsor your own blogs; and share you experiences with an interesting, and very diverse and dynamic community.
Food, exercise, and portion sizes - by learning about the relationship of foods and their caloric measurements, exercise and its multifaceted benefits, and the importance of portion size within your daily eating plan, you’ll be able to take the first steps in your journey toward a healthy lifestyle.
Current Research – by learning what the experts are discovering, you’re better able to make informed decisions about the food you eat, the exercise program you choose, and how these choices may affect you and your family

And:

To help you accomplish your weight loss goals Iowa Avenue has joined forces with Weight1Minute ™ to offer a free 1 year subscription (a $129.00 value) to Weight1Minute ™'s Software Application, on-line behavioral modification emails, and continuous upgrades to the first 500 people.

You really have nothing to lose by joining, except some weight.

So what are you weighting for? Join Iowa Avenue now.

Until next time,

The Menu Coach