*Choose to Lose* Weight Loss Class

We had a wonderful class last week taught by one of our nurses, Nichole Graham. In this class we learned about "Healthy Portions."

Some interesting points were learning about how much it takes to burn the calories we eat. For example, a cup of white rice contains 204 calories, and it would take us 60 minutes of walking to burn. 
We talked about other examples and then we talked about the importance of eating the right size of portions. We can get the nutrients we need in usually smaller portions than what are used to eating. 
Here is an example of what a healthy portion is:

You can visit www.chooosemyplate.gov to learn how many portions of these foods you should eat per day. 

We also learned about "Portion Distortion." One example of this is seen in fast food restaurants. In the example below we notice that eating the portions we are served in a fast food restaurant means eating twice as much of what an actual serving is supposed to be. Compare the calories of the following pictures: 

We would like to share with you a handout that teaches us tips for controlling portions.

We hope you find this information helpful.
Don't miss our next class

August 27 at 11:00
Cooking Class
"Cook Once, Eat Twice"
Women's Clinic
151 S. University Ave. Provo

Mental Health Class: "Cultivating Optimism to Increase Life Satisfaction"

Dean Barley, director of the BYU Comprehensive Clinic was our guest speaker. He received a bachelor of science degree in psychology from BYU, a master’s degree in social work from the University of Utah, and a doctorate in counseling psychology from BYU.

Cultivating optimism is another key element in improving our physical health. Optimists tend to respond better when bad things happen by: 1) not taking it personally; 2)   believing that misfortune is a temporary passing event; and 3) noticing that the misfortune doesn’t affect all aspects of their lives (I’ve still got my health!”) People who are optimistic generally do better in school, sports, getting promotions, having good relationships, and they live longer and are healthier.

-Comprehensive Clinic

Here we share some information we also found online that we think it goes along the lines with what Dr. Barley shared with us. Hope it is helpful to you

Optimists

Optimists explain positive events as having happened because of them (internal). They also see them as evidence that more positive things will happen in the future (stable), and in other areas of their lives (global). Conversely, they see negative events as not being their fault (external). They also see them as being flukes (isolated) that have nothing to do with other areas of their lives or future events (local).

For example, if an optimist gets a promotion, she will likely believe it’s because she’s good at her job and will receive more benefits and promotion in the future. If she’s passed over for the promotion, it’s likely because she was having an off-month because of extenuating circumstances, but will do better in the future.

Pessimists

Pessimists think in the opposite way. They believe that negative events are caused by them (internal). They believe that one mistake means more will come (stable), and mistakes in other areas of life are inevitable (global), because they are the cause. They see positive events as flukes (local) that are caused by things outside their control (external) and probably won’t happen again (unstable).

A pessimist would see a promotion as a lucky event that probably won’t happen again, and may even worry that she’ll now be under more scrutiny. Being passed over for promotion would probably be explained as not being skilled enough. She'd therefore expect to be passed over again.

The Differences Between Optimists and Pessimists

What's the Explanatory Style of an Optimist?

                                          By Elizabeth Scott, M.S. Updated May 23, 2014

Our Next two classes will be

August 13th

at 5:30 

Weight Lose Class "Choose to Lose"

at 6:00 

Zumba 

Nutrition/Cooking Class: "Make your own pizza" July 30th

We had a wonderful and delicious experience in this class. The recipes we always get from the Food $ense Extension are very helpful and help us learn how to cook on a budget. We specifically enjoyed learning how to make our own pizza dough and discussing ideas of flavors and toppings. We want to share our pizza dough recipe and a few tips that we hope you enjoy! 

Whole-wheat Pizza Dough

• 2 cups whole-wheat flour

• 1 ½ tablespoons yeast

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 ½ teaspoons sugar

• ¾ cup water

• 1 teaspoon canola oil (optional)

Mix dry ingredients in bowl. Add water and oil and mix well 

to incorporate flour mixture. Form dough into ball. Let rise 

10 minutes while covered with clean towel. Roll out in pizza 

shape. Cover with favorite toppings. 

Our next class will be:

Mental Health

"Cultivating Optimism to Increase Life Satisfaction" 

This class will be taught by Dean Barley, director of the BYU Comprehensive Clinic.

Choose to Lose Weight Loss Class

This past Wednesday we had a wonderful class taught by one of our nurses, Nicole Graham, about Maximizing Metabolism. 

We want to share with you some of the points we went over during our class. And we hope to see you next time!

Our next class will be a

Nutrition/Cooking Class
"Make your own pizza"
July 30th at 11:00 am

We would love to see you there!

Tips for Maximizing your metabolism

Build Muscle

Recommendations for increasing muscle mass are to include strength training 2-3 times/week.  Within 6 months, this can help you replace up to 3 lbs of fat with muscle, leading to additional calorie burn.

Strength training includes sit-ups, push-ups, lifting weights (try using cans of food, water bottles, or milk cartons), and using stretch bands.

Drink Water 

8 glasses/day is ideal for keeping your metabolism running at optimal rate.

Eat Light, Eat Often, & Include Protein 

Your body also requires more energy to digest proteins such as lean beef, turkey, fish, white meat chicken, tofu, nuts, beans, eggs, and low-fat dairy products.  While it’s still important to have a well-balanced diet, you may want to replace some of your carbs with protein products.

Avoid crash dieting
Eating less than 1,000 calories/day forces your body to start holding on to calories, thereby shutting your metabolism down.  Crash diets also result in loss of muscle mass.

Morning workouts
Jumpstart your metabolism by working out first thing in the morning

Include Interval Training
In order to get the maximum benefit from exercise, your workouts need to be progressive, meaning that they increase in intensity.  Interval training is a simple way to ensure you are getting the most out of your cardiac workouts.  An additional benefit is that it requires your body to burn calories up to 24 hours after working out!

Nutrition Class "Summer Favorites"

Thank you to all those of you who were able to come to our cooking class last Wednesday. We had fun and we got to try some delicious food. Our teacher Raven A. shared with us a few recipes.

We would like to share one of them with you. 

Braised Chickpeas & Kale in Coconut Milk

1/2# prepared kale, tough stems removed, roughly chopped

1 15-oz can lite coconut milk (you can use full-fat as well)

1 15-oz can chickpeas, rinsed well

2 garlic cloves, minced

2-3 t. prepared curry powder, or curry paste (both red or yellow would be perfect- adjust to taste)

In a large deep skillet with a lid, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil, and add garlic. Cook and stir for a few minutes until garlic becomes opaque. Add kale in handfuls, stirring continually, until it’s all in the pan. Continue to stir until it turns a very bright and dark green and has taken on the oil in the pan. Add about a half cup of water and cover the pan, allowing to simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in the chickpeas, coconut milk and curry powder. Cover and allow to cook, slowly, anywhere from 5-15 minutes more, depending on how you like your kale to taste. Stir again, seasoning with salt and pepper, if desired. If the kale seems a bit watery, remove the lid and allow some of the liquid to cook off. 

We hope you can recreate it at home, just like the winners of our raffle, who took home all the ingredients necessary for this recipe :)

Our Next Class will be
Wednesday July 9th
--Cholesterol--
Don't miss it!

&

Happy 4th of July Everybody!!

Choose to lose and Zumba!

Thank you to everyone who came to our classes. We had a wonderful experience learning how to watch our weight during the summer parties. If you were not able to come, here are some of the things we learned and we hope they are helpful to you too!

5 Tips For Not Regretting Your 4^th of July

Use small plates

People who choose smaller plates and utensils eat less without noticing it, yet everyone reports the same level of fullness and satisfaction.

Eat slowly and mindfully

People who eat more slowly eat fewer calories over the course of a meal. 

The more you’re chatting, the less you’re eating.

Eat healthiest foods first

Salads are a great place to start because watery vegetables slow digestion and have very few calories

Skip the chips, crackers and breads

Refined carbohydrates are the worst things you can eat because they offer little satisfaction, loads of calories and dangerous insulin spikes.

Pass on the pointless chips and other snacks that lure you when you’re not thinking.

Keep dessert small

The difference between a large slice of cake and a smaller slice of

cake can literally be hundreds of calories.

5 Tips Para no lamentar el 4 ^de Julio

Use platos pequeños

La gente que escoge platos y utensilios pequeños comen menos sin notarlo, sin embargo, todos reportan el mismo nevel de satisfacción.

Coma lenta y conscientemente

La gente que come más despacio, comen menos calorías, Mientras más platique menos comerá.

Coma las comidas más saludables primero

Es bueno empezar con las ensaladas  porque las verduras retardan la digestión y tienen menos calorías

Evite las frituras, las galletas y el pan

Carbohidratos refinados son lo peor que podemos comer porque ofrecen poca satisfacción , muchas calorías y aumentos de insulina.

No coma papas fritas y otras frituras que nos atrapan cuando no tenemos cuidado.

Coma un pedazo pequeño de postre

La diferencia entre una rebanada grande de pastel y una rebanada pequeña puede ser cientos de calorías.

After our Choose to lose class we moved into the back part of the room for a fun Zumba class. Here are some of the pictures from that day! 

Our Next Class will be this 

Wednesday, June 25th at 11:00 am

Cooking Class

Summer Favorites

Nuestra Proxima Clase será 

el miércoles 25 de junio a las 11:00 am

Clase de nutrición y cocina

Favoritos para el verano

06/04/2014 Blood Pressure Class

We had an amazing class in which we learned more about what happens when someone has high blood pressure, as well as risks for it, testing, treatment, and things that can be done to lower your blood pressure. 

If you missed it ... here are some of the things we learned. And we hope to see you next time...

Our next class will be 

June 18th 5:15pm Choose to lose (weight loss)

June 18th 6:00pm Zumba

Blood pressure is also called hypertension and it refers to "blood pumping against your artery walls with too much force".

High Blood pressure doesn't usually have symptoms. So it is important to check with your doctor every few months.

Some factors can increase your risk:

*age--your risk increases as you get older

*being overweight

*family history

*race-more common in African Americans

*not being physically active

*smoking

*eating high sodium or low potassium diet

*drinking too much alcohol

*certain medicines-birth control pills, some over the counter cold medicines, and pain relievers

Your blood pressure is divided in Systolic and Diastolic pressure.

Systolic pressure: is when your heart beats and pumps blood out of your heart and into your arteries.

Diastolic pressure is when your heart rests between beats. 

Here are the guidelines to help you understand your numbers:

"The most important step to lower high blood pressure is making healthy lifestyle changes, but you might also need medicine" 

What you can do:

>> Reduce anxiety and stress

>> Lose extra weight

>> Limit alcohol

>>Try a well-rounded eating plan

>>Eat less sodium

We went into depth talking about why sodium is one of the most important things to watch for. First, we need to remember that "Sodium (or salt) makes your body hold on to extra water, so your heart has to work harder and your blood pressure goes up."

Eat less than 1,500 mg of sodium a day (about 3/4 teaspoon) 

Here are some examples of how much salt you can find in canned/processed food.

Don't forget to read the levels before deciding which food to buy!

Instead of buying regular canned food ... look for Low sodium or Not Salt added food. In the example below we have regular Canned Diced Tomatoes (200 mg of salt) versus Canned Diced Tomatoes-No Salt Added (50 mg of salt).

Always make sure to read the labels before choosing what you are going to buy, keep in mind that all processed foods and food prepared in a restaurant contain high levels of sodium. Do everything you can to control your daily Sodium intake. This will help you lower your high blood pressure!

If you have any questions please leave a comment. And just to give you a heads up ... in our next Blood pressure class that will be in about 4 months, everyone who attends will be able to have their blood pressure checked as part of the class. Don't miss it :)

Reference:

High Blood Pressure

Reaching Health Numbers

PatientPoint 2014, LLC.

Cooking Class-"Amazing Veggies" 05/28/2014

 We had a great cooking class this week with our friend Raven. She shared two recipes for us to learn how to better use veggies and take advantage of those in season right now.

We would like to thank those who came...And for those who missed it, we want to share with you what we learn...

Here are the recipes:

Zesty Zucchini Sticks

from recipezaar.com

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

4-5 small zuchini, cut into sticks or cubes

2 eggs, beaten well

Directions:



1. Mix breadcrumbs and parmesan

2. Dip zucchini strips in beaten egg, then in crumb mixture

3. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray

4. Place strips on sheet

5. Bake at 425 degress for 20-25 minutes, or until golden

Vegetable & Hass Avocado Sauté

from Hass avocado Board

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Tbsp avocado oil or Olive oil

2 tsp finely chopped garlic

1/2 large shallot, finely chopped

1/2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves

3 zucchini, cult in half lengthwise and sliced 1/4'' thick

1/2 red bell pepper, cut into 1'' squares

1 Tbsp grated lemon peel

1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 ripe, fresh large Hass avocado, seeded, peeled and cut into chunks

 Directions:

In a large skillet, heat oil over MEDIUM-HIGH heat.

Add garlic, shallot and thyme, saute for 3 minutes.

Mix in zucchini, bell pepper and lemon peel, stir and cook for 2 mins

Lower heat and cover, cooking for 3 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine lemon juice with avocado.

Add to skillet and gently mix.

Cook for 2 minutes to allow flavors to blend. 

We hope you enjoy these recipes! Feel free to leave us a comment if you have any questions. 

Hope to see you in our next classes:

June 4th at 11:00 am Blood Pressure

June 18th at 5:15 Weight Loss

June 18th at 6:00 Zumba

June 25th at 11:00 Cooking Class "Summer Favorites"