Snack Time

Snack Time

So am I that mom that curls her toes at the sight of her daughters helping themselves to munchkins and goldfish?  I am getting better!  Our girls have a handful of treats twice a week at school.  I can bring them cut up fruit if I want.  But in finding the balance in all of this I do not want our girls to be the only kids in the class eating a different snack.  And, of course, they love the snacks they get in school!  Play-date and party food makes our ladies giddy as well.  My friends all make fun of me when my daughters just sit and eat and don’t play.  I try to explain that they are eaters and even if it were something healthy on the table they would do the same thing.  But the sight of the Gilroy twins slamming munchkins and goldfish does make for some good comedy.  You should see their faces when they try to suck droplets out of a Capri Sun package!

They are almost 2 and I do what I can.  When we are not on play dates or at parties, I try my hardest to stick to the real stuff.  Here are some of the healthy snacks that we enjoy.

Healthy Snacks

• Fruit and vegetables.
• One of our favorites is sweet potatoes.  The girls love them so much they eat them cold!
• Vegetables and hummus, guacamole or a healthy dressing (healthy meaning the least amount of ingredients and additives in your dressing; low fat dressing is not a healthy option). 
• For younger kids, I would steam or boil the veggies for a few minutes so they are not too hard to eat.

• For bigger kids cut up a variety of fruits and vegetables and let them make their own salad.  It will make them feel like they had a choice too!
• Apples and peanut butter, almond butter or sun butter.
• Dried fruit and nuts.
• We enjoy dried apples and raisins.
• Nuts
• Go to the bulk bins with your kids and let them create a trail-mix.
• Fruit and vegetable smoothies.
• Popcorn on the stove!  (Olive oil in a pot, put the kernels in the pot, put the cover on - and instant snack; season to your liking).
• Pickles.
• Whole grain crackers and hummus.
• Sliced Banana with peanut or almond butter. 
• A small dish of last night’s leftovers.
• Rice cakes or rice crackers with a topping (hummus, almond butter, pureed or sliced fruit).
• Natural chips & salsa - add black beans for protein
• Drain, rinse and puree a can of black beans.  Add a half a jar of mild salsa, two tablespoons of pureed kale and you have one healthy dip! 
• Natural chips & guacamole.
• Homemade fruit juice popsicles.
• Organic yogurt / Greek strained.
• Granola (make sure you read the labels for the least amount of additives).
• A cup of oatmeal with fruit, nuts and honey.
• A few small pieces of cheese, some almonds and a piece of fruit.

Reminder! Don’t use any of the butters (peanut butter, almond butter, sun butter) unless you have gotten the OK from your doctor.

Love deeply and snack mindfully,

Kim Gilroy

Brown Bagging It!

Brown Bagging It!

I became interested in the health and wellness industry for a variety of reasons.  The biggest draw for me was the connection between what we eat and how it affects the way we think and feel.  I was always the kid with potential in class, but I often had difficulty focusing. I was bright, but often came up average.  But every school year was a clean slate for me!  “This is going to be my year!”  I would say to myself.

I vividly remember my new binders organized and ready because that was the year I was going to be organized the whole school year; not just the beginning.  Schedules, new fall clothes, and the lunches my mom made. My lunches were everything from an olive loaf sandwich to a leftover meatloaf sandwich that I would eat cold with a touch of ketchup.  Homemade chicken soup, left over stew or spaghetti and meatballs were thermos specials. I was a brown bagger through and through! 

Now as a mother, teacher and holistic health counselor, I look back on my school years and wish I could go back and track my behaviors.  I would love to see if I was more focused on the days I ate homemade stew (meat, egg noodles, carrots, and peas in a tomato sauce) compared to the days that I ate preservatives with a side of preservatives (olive loaf with mayonnaise on Wonder Bread!).

The health and wellness community is starting to understand the connection between eating well-balanced, whole food-based meals and our cognitive function.  Dr. Mark Hyman, author of “The Ultra Mind Solution” writes: “Feeding our brains is not something most of us know how to do.  What you put in your mouth provides all the raw materials to build the structure of your brain cells and keep all the communication systems running well so you can think, emote, learn and remember.  You have to start with the right food and enough of the right nutrients for the brain to function well.”

I think Dr. Hyman and others are on to something.  I have big dreams of sending my ladies on the school bus with cute lunch bags filled with nutritional goodness to “feed their brains.”  Here are some of my ideas:

1.)   Cook once and eat twice.  Turn leftovers into sandwiches.  Meatball sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, pot-roast sandwiches.  Or use a thermos and heat up last night’s primavera and beans or soup.

2.)   Egg salad sandwiches.  Puree carrots and broccoli and add it to the mayonnaise in the sandwich. And chop up celery and you have a serving of vegetables in your egg salad!

3.)   Almond butter, sun butter, or good old fashion peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Please read your labels.  Your butters should not have any sugar added to them and your “jelly” should really be a fruit spread with no sugar additives.

4.)   Hummus, avocado, cucumber, and carrot sandwich.

5.)   Raw vegetables, a piece of fruit, a bag of trail mix, a side of hummus to dip the vegetables and some whole grain crackers.

6.)   Good quality yogurt with granola and trail mix, raw vegetables (if you don’t have raw vegetables on hand, thawed out frozen veggies work just well . . . my girls eat them just the same), and piece of fruit.

   

Get creative and accept help from anyone who is willing to help you prepare good, healthy food!  Review my kale blog for the vegetable soup recipe and ideas for getting leafy greens into your food.  Remember, you don’t have to start your day on a school bus to be a brown baggerJ

Love deeply and eat mindfully,

Kim Gilroy

Vacation!

Vacation

I wrote a blog before I left for vacation and never posted it.  The un-posted blog was about ways to stay healthy on vacation.  It’s a good thing I didn’t post it, because as it turns out, I am the last person who should be providing advice about healthy eating while on vacation!

It is 2:00 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon and I am alone in a cheese shop, sipping wine and eating a plate full of goat cheese. I have had ice cream the last two nights and all of my alcoholic beverages have had way too much sugar!  I have not been a model of healthy eating.  So today I reflect and am writing about balance.

Balance.  Eating whole foods that work for you, praying, working out, surrounding yourself with people that support you, feeling good about yourself, taking control of your life, but not being a control freak, thinking about your words and actions, but not thinking too much about your words and actions . . . it’s a lot of work striving for balance!  So, I have been spending my vacation unbalancing, and that too is part of a balanced life.  The hardest part of tipping the balance into vacation mode has been re-programming my brain.  As I sit here and de-compress, not thinking about what is going into my mouth and just enjoying the moment, I am realizing how great it feels to lighten up every once in a while (it also helps that my little girls are napping and will be at the beach playing with their cousins when I am done playing hooky).

Vacation!  Make it what you need it to be; only you know what you need.  One of my clients went away on vacation and ate what the natives ate – fruit, vegetables, and fish – and hiked every day.  She never felt better.  Her healthy vacation wasn’t planned, it just happened for her.  I am on the North Fork of Long Island, eating cheese and sipping wine (and of course experimenting with the local leafy greens . . . but not as many as I planned!).  Not exactly a healthy vacation, but I feel great. 

“You can only be you when you do your best.” The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.  I was going to use this quote for the un-posted blog.  But I use it today to remind you to be the best at letting go, relaxing, and enjoying.

Love deeply and eat mindfully (and maybe change the course while vacationing),

Kim Gilroy

Insideout Wellness

Changing Behaviors

Changing Behaviors

Today’s blog is inspired by the master behavior changer Colleen Simko, a teacher and friend who I deeply admire for a variety of reasons.  Her organization and unwavering consistency mixed with the ability to reach children on all academic levels is truly amazing!  

My last year of teaching I had a student whose behaviors changed so drastically at mid-year that I was forced to completely change my approach with him.  Before my eyes, this student began to unravel; his emotional breakdowns were beyond words.  I had a behavior plan in place but at times, all I could do was try to make him feel comfortable and loved.  Now some of you non teachers might be saying: “Oh Kim, how sweet, trying to make him feel comfortable and loved.”  And my seasoned teacher friends are saying: “You fool that’s where you went wrong!”

There are many theories and strategies to assist students in changing their behaviors.  Among all of these strategies and theories, the principle that behaviors can be changed is the common theme.  So, what does all of this have to do with health and wellness . . . EVERYTHING!

Here are a few key points on how it works:

1.)  Start slowly and be specific on the behavior you want to change.  Like I have mentioned in the past, don’t say, “I am going on a diet!”  That is too vague and you are setting yourself up for failure.  Keep your wellness goals attainable and simple.  For example, add more fruits and vegetables to your diet.  The summer is bursting with fresh fruits and vegetables and now is the best time to focus on that one simple goal.  If you are eating more fruits and vegetables and you are not working out, that would be your one goal.  But again be specific and reasonable.  “I am going to start working out!”  Too vague.  What are you going to do?  “I am going to do free weights for my arms and 20 minutes on the treadmill 3 days a week” is more like it. Set an attainable goal that you can build on!

2.)  Reflect and analyze why this behavior is happening or not happening.  Why don’t I eat fruits and vegetables?  Why am I not working out?  Think about you, your actions and your feelings towards health and wellness.

3.)  Create your plan and take ownership of it!  If your goal is to eat more fruits and vegetables, make a shopping list of the fruits and vegetables that you like.  Where are you going to get them?  How are you going to prepare them?  If you are working on getting your kids to eat more fruits and vegetables, start a garden.  That is an amazing way for your family to take ownership of eating more fruits and vegetables (for more information on starting a garden visit Earl’s Kitchen Gardens on Facebook).  If your goal is to start working out, what days are you going to do it?  What time?  Lay out your work out clothes the night before and have a clear plan on what you want to accomplish during the workout.

4.)  Keep track.  Journal about your goal and continue to reflect on what is working and what is not working.  If you are not one for journaling, create a tally chart to help you keep track of your success. 

5.)  Positive language is key.  “Oh, I am the worst at cooking vegetables!”  “My family does not do vegetables.”  “Uh, I am not a workout person!” You have to change your thinking.  When talking about how you and your family eat, say things like, “I am excited about all the fresh foods this time of year” or  “I think I am going to experiment with new fruits and vegetables this season” or “This nice weather is inspiring me to work out.”  This positive language component is also positive thinking.  There is something called the “Shadow Theory” that Debbie Ford and Deepak Chopra talk about.  Under the Shadow Theory, you take the negative quality that you want to change and view it as a positive.  “I hate working out” becomes “I love working out.”  “I am the worst cook” becomes “I am the best cook.”  When you focus light (positive) on the shadows that have brought you down, you reverse the negative and turn it into something positive.

6.)  Reward yourself.  If you have reached your goal, do something special for yourself.  Get a manicure or a pedicure! 

Changing behaviors (old habits) is a journey.  Walking through the halls where I used to teach made me extremely emotional and reminded me of how amazing the journey can be.  On the drive home, I reflected on the growth of my old students, and how they have changed in so many ways, specifically the student I mentioned above.  I felt such joy for him in his present state.  He is mature, with clearly a new confidence.  His journey has taken years, but let his success (changed behaviors) be an inspiration to all of us.

This blog is dedicated to all the amazing teachers, administrators, psychologist, social workers, therapists and aides I know (and don’t know).  The time, effort and dedication you give to your students is beyond amazing!  Enjoy your summerJ

Check out Simply Vegetarian

Check out Simply Vegetarian by Stacie Dooreck. 

Whole Grains

                                                WHAT ARE WHOLE GRAINS?

            A few years ago I was eating lunch with a co-worker and she asked me what she could eat to help raise her energy level.  Her health history and her diet both play a factor in her energy level.  I was not aware of either.  But our lunch period was short and I wanted to keep the answer simple. I said, “Well, for breakfast you can make sure you eat some whole grains; they are a great source of energy.”  My co-worker looked at me and said, “What do you mean by whole grains?”  I rattled off a list of whole grains and stressed the importance of reading labels to make sure they are in the cereals and breads that she eats.  I stopped the conversation there because I didn’t want to overwhelm her.  I get the sense that food choice has become a topic like religion, politics and money.  It is intimate and personal and some people would simply rather not talk about it.  I also got the vibe that the rest of the lunchroom didn’t want to hear me ramble on about the value of whole grains.  However, the question, “What is a whole grain?” is an important one that I feel we as consumers and you as my loved ones need to know the answer to.

What are whole grains?           

            Whole grains are brown rice, quinoa, barley, bulgur (cracked wheat), couscous, millet, whole oats, oatmeal (rolled oats), amaranth, spelt, buckwheat (kasha), cornmeal (polenta), kamut, rye berries, wheat berries, and wild rice.           

            Whole grains are a high-energy food.  They contain essential enzymes, iron, dietary fiber, vitamin E, and the B complex vitamins. According to Dr. Willet, M.D., chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, “the bran layer of many grains contains essential minerals, such as magnesium, selenium, copper, and manganese that may be important in reducing the risk of heart disease and diabetes.”  Grains are complex, “good” carbohydrates.  The human body absorbs whole grains slowly, providing us with a sustainable high-quality energy.   Refined grains (white breads, pasta, bagels, cereals) should be a limited component of our diets because they are grains that have been removed from their natural state, are quicker to digest, and have little nutritional value.  Dr. Willet, M.D. further states in his book, Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less, that “[t]hese quick-to-digest foods can set off a risky roller coaster effect.  They can cause a sudden rise in blood sugar, trigger a flood of insulin, which, in turn, drives glucose levels too lower and thus generates new hunger signals.”

Where and how can we incorporate grains?

            The grains identified above can be found in bulk bins in most super markets or local health food stores.  Packaged whole grains can be found  in the same isle you would find rice or pasta.  Some larger chain grocery stores have a dedicated health isle (I have to laugh at that) and you can find packaged whole grains there as well.  There are several ways to prepare the grains for cooking.  If you choose grains from the bulk bins, they should at least be rinsed well.  But preferably, they should be soaked overnight to fully rinse the phytic acid that coats the grains.  Phytic acid binds, or restricts, the minerals in the grain preventing release into the body.  Although, some health professionals argue that a good rinse before you cook does the trick.  Personally, I let my grains soak.  If I forget, I rinse them really well and cook a little longer.  I feel that soaking allows for easier digestion.  Now being a mom on the move I often opt for pre-rinsed packaged grains. 

          Whole grains can be apart of every meal.  Yes a serving of carbohydrates with breakfast, lunch and dinner! 

            As I mentioned in my marketing blog…DON’T BE FOOLED BY STEALTH MARKETING!  Just because it says “whole grains” on the front of the box does not mean it is a healthy whole grain.  Some products that have a significant source of whole grains are Ezekiel breads and cereals and Bobs Red Mill products.  Whole grain products are a growing industry.  These are just a couple that I recommend.  When looking for whole grain products, read the labels to make sure that the first few ingredients are actually whole grains.  

            The first few times looking for and preparing these grains may take a few extra minutes but your energy and wellness are well worth it!

Love deeply and eat mindfully,

Kim Gilroy

Insideout Wellness

Party Weekend

Memorial Day weekend is upon us.  Let the barbecues begin!  I wanted to utilize today’s blog as an opportunity to share a few party health tips.  I know, I know, I know, party health tips…sounds like an oxymoron.  I don’t mean throw a health party and I certainly don’t expect anyone to avoid a hotdog this weekend.  But there are a few suggestions I have for this kick off to summer party weekend (and other holiday weekends that have more than one day of celebrations). 

1.)   Stay hydrated:  I am sure many of you are going to kick the weekend off on Friday and plan on festivities through to Monday night.  Make sure you are drinking tons of water throughout the day and evening.  Try to do cocktail, water, cocktail water.  In the morning the first thing to hit your lips should be water (two glasses).  As a host and hostess make sure there are water options for your guests.  If it is out they will be more likely to have a glass.  Make it inviting.  Add mint leaves and lime or lemon.

2.)   Appetizers:  Take a breath.  Survey the situation.  What do I really want to try?        Don’t just dive in for the sake of diving in.  What is appealing to you?  And when you find it, chew it, taste it and enjoy it.  I have found that I am really good at enjoying food while sitting at a table, but when talking, drinking, and eating appetizers, I am really good at shoveling…into my mouth!  One way I have learned to stop my disaster approach to appetizers is by not going to parties totally starving.  Eat some fruit and a handful of nuts or a Raw Food Bar (my food bar of choice because it is made with real food and no fillers) before you go.  Also, look for the healthy option.  Is there a crudités?  Guacamole?  As a host and hostess, try to make sure there are some raw veggies for people to snack on.  It’s refreshing and easy.  Most of the prep-work can be done the day before!

3.)   Mingle:  The weekend parties don’t have to be all about food.  Make it about primary food…your loved ones!  Chat it up and really hear about what is new and good in your friends and families life.  As a hostess have some social games set up like baci or ladder golf.

4.)   Workout:  Don’t make working out an after thought.  Plan for it.  If you always go for a run on Saturday’s but have a soccer tournament to get to, plan for it.  When can I fit this in?  Even if you only walk or run for 15-20 min.  It is better than not getting your workout in.  Monday morning you have off, plan for a bike ride, a hike, a run!

5.)   Focus on what you do have control over:  While you are not out partying it up, focus on the food choices you do have control over.  Eat tons of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Raw or juiced when possible.

6.)   Enjoy the choices:  Don’t feel guilty about the hotdog you are eating, enjoy it!  Often times when we are eating foods that aren’t the best for us we feel so guilty eating it, we don’t even know we ate it!  Commit to your choice.  If the burgers look big, ask a friend to split one. Look for healthy side options.  Bottom line, be aware and conscious of your choices and enjoy. As a host and hostess, make sure there is a big salad as an option.  If you know a healthy side dish that is a crowd pleaser, offer to bring it!

Happy Memorial Day and a special thanks to all the men and woman who have served for our country!

Love deeply and eat mindfully,

Kim Gilroy