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Just Start Where You Are

January 3, 2021

Keeping Resolutions To Get Healthier

People often set their goals too high or don’t take the time to plan out how they’re going to accomplish their resolution. The hardest part of starting anything, especially a healthy living plan, is making that goal a top priority. Create an achievable and specific goal that’s grounded in micro-actions that you can start right now. These simple baby steps can keep you motivated. Here are some ways to begin your path to getting healthier. Just start where you are!

Get More Physically Active
Make it happen by entering it into your schedule. Increase your exercise routing from three to four days per week by adding a 20-minute strength training session on Fridays this month.

Go To Bed Earlier
If your goal is to get to sleep earlier, start by determining how much earlier and how often you will practice this routing. Start with 5 to 10 minutes. The alarm on your phone can help you by setting cues. Build up from there.

Get Up Earlier
Begin with a manageable goal, like waking up ten minutes earlier, which is easier than waking up an hour earlier. Then every other month reset your alarm another 10 minutes earlier.

Eat More Vegetables
More vegetables more often can be your mantra for 2021. Try adding one new vegetable to dinner meals that you make at home this month.

Spend More Time Outdoors
Take a break to for a 15-minute walk outdoors. The fresh air is good for you. Make a daily habit of it.

Pack Your Lunch
Packing your lunch is a good place to start when you’re trying to eat healthier. You can ease the burden by doubling up on the vegetables that you prep at dinnertime two or three times per week, then bring the leftovers to work.

Eat Regular Meals And Snacks
Stashing a piece of produce in your purse can go a long way when you’re stuck waiting in traffic on your way home from work. A healthy snack can keep you from feeling ravenous, and potentially overeating, at your next meal. Make it your goal to pack at least one apple, pear, or bag of carrots in your bag every day so you can snack when you’re in transit.

Drink More Water
Drinking water has a myriad of benefits, but one of the unsung ones is that it forces you to get up and move periodically throughout the day. Hydrate every hour to get every hour.

Limit Alcoholic Beverages
If grabbing drinks after work with coworkers for the purpose of networking interferes with your desire to drink less, consider multi-tasking. Scheduling a walk or exercise class with a colleague can help you clock extra activity and leave you feeling revived rather than depleted. Plan ahead to make sure these new networking events make it to your calendar as often as work drinks used to surface.

Write Down Your Goals and include the steps you will take to keep it. Having a clearly articulated goal and a plan of action is vital for success.

Keep things simple. Break a big goal into a series of smaller goals. Want to lose 50 pounds? Shoot for losing 5 percent of your body weight first, or set five 10-pound incremental weight loss goals.

Mark your achievements. Each time you make a small lifestyle change aimed at reaching your goal (adding five minutes to your daily walk for instance) put a star on your calendar so you can see your progress.

Start with small changes. If weight loss or a healthier lifestyle is your goal, begin with a simple step like swapping one snack per day for a piece of fruit. The benefits will add up without majorly impacting your lifestyle.

Tap the power of a streak. Let’s say you keep your resolution for a week, or two weeks, or a month. That’s a fabulous streak and you can let it drive you. And if something happens to force you to break it then start a new streak!

And Remember….Just Start Where You Are!

©Tiny New York Kitchen © 2021 All Rights Reserved

Eating Well

January 12, 2017

The message is simple: Eat well to stay well. The good news is that you don’t need a graduate degree in nutrition to eat healthfully on a daily basis. What follows are some guidelines and information to help you make informed decisions about what you and your family should eat to maintain a balanced diet.

*Consume a variety of nutrient-dense foods and beverages within the basic food groups. Choose foods that limit your intake of saturated and trans fats, cholesterol, added sugars, salt, and alcohol.

*Engage in regular physical activity and reduce sedentary activities to promote health, psychological well-being, and a healthy body weight.

*Consume three or more 1 ounce equivalent servings of whole grains each day.

*Consume 3 cups of fat-free or low-fat milk or equivalent dairy products per day.

*Derive less than 10 percent of your calories from saturated fat and less than 300mg of cholesterol per day. Avoid trans fats.

*Keep your total fat intake between 20 and 35 percent of your calories, with most fats coming from polyunsaturated and monounsaturated sources, such as fish, nuts, and vegetable oils.

*Choose fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, and whole grains each day.

*Consume less than 2,300mg (about 1 teaspoon) of sodium each day.

*Women who choose to drink alcohol should limit themselves to one drink per day; men should limit themselves to no more than two drinks per day.

“Work With What You Got!”

© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen © 2017 All Rights Reserved

Constitution Week – Foods of Our Forefathers Part III

September 19, 2013

MayflowerConstitution Week – Foods of Our Forefathers Part III

The abundance of meat in America was a major change in the diet of the early settlers.  Rabbits and squirrels were available year-round nearly everywhere, plus deer and other large game in many regions.  As settlers moved west, buffalo gained importance in the diet.  Fish, shellfish and wild fowl became common food, and they were all essentially “free.”  The existence of these various forms of game was a literal life saver in times of uncertain crops and unbroken land.  The game gradually diminished, of course, as the population expanded and settlers pushed west, but it provided a large share of the diet in early and frontier days. 

Ham, of course, appeared on almost every settler’s table, rich or poor.  It might be the only meat served at a meal or it might appear in company with more exotic roasts and fowl, but it was always there – breakfast, dinner and supper. 

Corn was also a staple of the colonists, either fresh in summer, or as hominy or corn meal all year.  Corn was also put to another use by an early Virginian, Captain George Thorpe, who may have been the first food technologist in America as he invented Bourbon whiskey shortly before he was massacred by the Indians in 1622.

Meal patterns for working people in rural early America were very different from those common today.  Breakfast was usually early and light which consisted of bread, hominy grits, and sometimes fruit in season.  Coffee, which was a new beverage at the time, was popular that is if it was available.  A drink made from caramelized grain was sometimes substituted.  Chicory was popular in the South, either alone or used to stretch the coffee.  Tea was often made from local leaves such as sage, raspberry or dittany.  Alcohol in some form was often served. 

Breakfast in more elegant homes or large plantations might be later in the morning, and include thinly sliced roast and ham. 

Dinner was served somewhere between midday and midafternoon, depending on the family’s circumstances, and was the big meal of the day.  There was almost always ham, as well as greens (called sallat), cabbage and other vegetables.  In the proper season, special dainties would appear – fresh fruits and berries, or fresh meat at appropriate butchering times. 

Desserts could be simple such as a scooped out pumpkin, baked until done and then filled with milk, to be eaten right out of the shell.  Or dessert could be more complex such as ice cream or other fruit flavored frozen pudding or a blanc mange.  Blanc mange was prepared from milk and loaf sugar, flavored with a tablespoon or two of rosewater, thickened with a solution of isinglass (derived from fish bladder, soaked overnight in boiling water).  This mixture was boiled for 15 to 20 minutes, then poured into molds to set. 

If isinglass was not available (most was imported from England), homemade calves foot jelly could be substituted, but eh dessert was not as fine. 

Various alcoholic beverages, including wines, applejack, “perry” (hard cider made from pears), or beer were commonly consumed. 

In winter, peaches and other fruit disappeared from the dinner table, to be replaced by dishes made from stored apples and dried fruit of various sorts.  Soups or broths also took their place.  Milk grew scarce as cows “dried up” in the short days.  Vegetables gradually decreased in variety as stored crops wilted. 

Apples quickly became a staple in early America.  Orchards were easy to start, required a minimum of care, and apples stored well.  Housewives devised a multitude of “receipts,” including sauces and butters for off-season, as well as many using dried apples. 

Supper was late and a light bread and butter, some of the left-over roast from dinner, fruit (fresh if in season, pickled and spiced otherwise), and coffee or tea.  

To Be Continued…

 

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