What Women Should Do to Improve Their Health
Research has shown that a headache, backache, indigestion, fluid retention, cravings, depression, or fatigue can be alleviated through diet and exercise. In addition to that, while we have no control over getting older, we can slow down the aging process, with diet and exercise as well.
What should we eat?
- Women who eat a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids cut their risk for heart disease as well as reduce their risk for macular degeneration. During pregnancy, 3 servings/week may cut the risk for preterm birth.
- Safflower oil is high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (linoleic acid). It has a high smoke point and low saturated fat content. It has been found to improve blood sugar and lipids, decrease inflammation, lowers blood pressure as well as the risk for heart disease.
- Supplements…they can’t replace a healthy diet!
- Studies have suggested that eating a small handful of nuts a day, improves blood lipid levels, as well as glucose and insulin levels.
- A diet high in dietary antioxidants such as those found in blueberries, broccoli, and small amounts of dark chocolate and even coffee, lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. Eat your anthocyanins! Better known as the blue and red pigments in colorful fruits and vegetables.
What should we do for exercise?
- First and foremost, get your body moving! Find something that you love to do!
- Weight bearing/resistance exercises such as yoga and dumbbell exercises preserve bone density, improve your balance, and strength.
On your path to reach your wellness goals, remember that we are always our own worst enemies. Celebrate the fact that you are taking the necessary steps to improve your health and your life! Find the time to do things you enjoy and that bring you a sense of calm and serenity. Stress and lack of sleep will wreak havoc on your body as well as your soul.
 Lana Levy is a nutritionist specializing in taking a holistic approach towards healthy eating, not only to help her clients achieve their goals, but also help them maintain a healthy lifestyle. Lana has also incorporated her passion for yoga into her services for her clients, as a way to stay fit, and create a balance between the body and the mind. Lana received her degree from Columbia University, where she completed her Masters in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology. In 2010, Ms. Levy became a Registered Yoga Teacher through an intensive training with YogaWorks here in New York City. In 2011 she completed a Prenatal Yoga Certification.With a background in nutrition and yoga, Lana works with her clients to create customized nutrition plans and yoga sequences that are specifically tailored to their needs. Whether the goal is weight loss, healthy weight gain, energy improvement, pre and post natal health, relief from various gastrointestinal ailments, Just For Today LLC (www.justfortodaynyc.com) can provide you with tools to make a change for life! |
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Curtailing the Crave Cave: Tips from Nutritionist Lana Levy
It’s 2:00 in the afternoon, or for some it can be 2:00 in the morning when all of a sudden you are consumed by a craving for ice cream, potato chips and other cheat foods you’re trying to ween yourself from.
When a craving hits, it can hit hard and it can hit fast, and it’s in this moment that we’ve given ourselves two options: give in or resist. If you give in to the temptation, you wind up feeling guilty and won’t even enjoy the object of your craving. If you resist all together, you end up feeling deprived and frustrated as visions of cookies dance in your head. Then, when you do eventually give in to your craving, you overindulge and wind up having way more than just one cookie– realistically it’s more like four or five.
To take control of your cravings there is actually a third and much less disclosed option available. By saying to yourself, “I can have it later” you remove the “should I or shouldn’t I” dialogue that is waging a war in your head, or driving your coworkers and friends crazy. You end the need to justify satisfying your craving or not and let yourself be for the moment. If and when you are able to postpone the craving, you will delay eating it and in the end wind up desiring it less.
The trick in convincing yourself to let the the craving pass is to create a vague time frame in the future to satisfy it. Think not, “I’ll have a cookie at 4:00,” but rather, “I’ll have that cookie later if I want it.” Postponing gives your mind the chance to cool-off, takes you out of conflict mode and combats torn feelings of guilt and deprivation. Don’t forget that postponing your craving may also give you the time to substitute a healthy food instead of the sugary snack you initially wanted.
Put your mind to the test and take control of your cravings! Remember- a mind is a terrible thing to waste!
 Lana Levy is a nutritionist specializing in taking a holistic approach towards healthy eating, not only to help her clients achieve their goals, but also help them maintain a healthy lifestyle. Lana has also incorporated her passion for yoga into her services for her clients, as a way to stay fit, and create a balance between the body and the mind.Lana received her degree from Columbia University, where she completed her Masters in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology. In 2010, Ms. Levy became a Registered Yoga Teacher through an intensive training with YogaWorks here in New York City. In 2011 she completed a Prenatal Yoga Certification.With a background in nutrition and yoga, Lana works with her clients to create customized nutrition plans and yoga sequences that are specifically tailored to their needs. Whether the goal is weight loss, healthy weight gain, energy improvement, pre and post natal health, relief from various gastrointestinal ailments, Just For Today can provide you with tools to make a change for life! |
Weight Loss & Maintenance Tips from Nutritionist & Yoga Expert
In the 1990’s we were a fat phobic society. Happily eating fat free muffins, fat free ice cream, fat free cheeses and not giving a second thought to the fact that these items were chock full of sugar, calories and preservatives. Then came along the Atkins generation and all of a sudden we were scared to death to put any carbs into our mouths. Instead, without an ounce of guilt we feasted on fatty meats and cheeses, glad to see a dip on the scale but not realizing what these foods were doing to our cholesterol and arteries, let alone fueling our brains inappropriately.
I see it everyday. People come to me for nutritional counseling, confused as to how they should lose weight, maintain their weight or how to eat a healthy diet. And you know what? I don’t blame them for being confused! There is a lot of information floating out there, and a lot of it is misinformation.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be so complicated. However, I will tell you this; to successfully lose weight and maintain, it’s not about going on one of these fad diets you read about, or doing a cleanse that everybody at work is talking about. Yes, the end result may be that you lose weight, but you will not maintain it. The only way to do so is by making a lifestyle change, one that is permanent with lasting benefits. Drinking spinach juice with a touch of wheatgrass is not a realistic meal plan for the rest of your life, nor would you want it to be! Where is the pleasure in that?
A basic principle of weight loss and maintenance is that the majority of your calories should come from lean protein. This includes all animal protein like chicken, fish, beef, eggs, meat and soy protein as well. Your carbohydrates should be coming mostly from vegetables and a small amount of fruit. It’s important not to cut out fats all together- healthy ones found in foods like olive oil, egg yolk, nuts, avocado and omega-3 are actually good for you and weight loss.
Foods that are the main source of weight gain are bread, pasta, cereals, corn products and rice. White bread/pasta or whole-wheat bread/pasta are pretty much nutritionally identical; the same goes for white and brown rice. The only difference is that whole wheat bread and brown rice are less processed, and won’t cause your blood sugar to spike and crash as dramatically. These are foods that are often referred to as “simple sugars” or “simple carbohydrates”.
Losing weight doesn’t have to be about starving yourself (and most certainly shouldn’t be), but rather, learning how to make better choices. It takes effort to make those lifestyle changes but you’re worth it!
| Lana Levy is a nutritionist specializing in taking a holistic approach towards healthy eating, not only to help her clients achieve their goals, but also help them maintain a healthy lifestyle. Lana has also incorporated her passion for yoga into her services for her clients, as a way to stay fit, and create a balance between the body and the mind.Lana received her degree from Columbia University, where she completed her Masters in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology. In 2010, Ms. Levy became a Registered Yoga Teacher through an intensive training with YogaWorks here in New York City. In 2011 she completed a Prenatal Yoga Certification.With a background in nutrition and yoga, Lana works with her clients to create customized nutrition plans and yoga sequences that are specifically tailored to their needs. Whether the goal is weight loss, healthy weight gain, energy improvement, pre and post natal health, relief from various gastrointestinal ailments, Just For Today can provide you with tools to make a change for life! |
