Being Healthy One Step at a Time

With the abun­dance of infor­ma­tion avail­able, eat­ing healthy can often seem over­whelm­ing. So, we went to the experts to help us sim­pli­fy things. Quin­cy Med­ical Group Reg­is­tered Dieti­tians Olivia Rees and Brit­tany Win­ship each shared their top three tips for health­i­er eat­ing that are easy to imple­ment and can lead to long-last­ing benefits.

Olivia Rees, MS, RDN, LDN

1. Start Small. All changes add up over time and we don’t want to over­whelm our­selves. If you want to be more active, start walk­ing with a friend one day per week. If you want to start meal prep­ping at home, plan out 1 – 2 healthy snacks you can make ahead of time. A big rea­son we often do not meet our goals is because we are try­ing to change too much at once.

1. Focus on adding more. When mak­ing health­i­er diet changes, we often think of what we need to cut out (few­er carbs, less soda, etc.). Instead, try and focus on what we can increase — fruits, water, phys­i­cal activity.
2. Find ways to wind down and relax. I often find that we are con­stant­ly on the move and do not take the time out of our busy sched­ules to focus on our­selves and relax. Even if it is 10 min­utes, I would rec­om­mend you find some­thing you enjoy (such as a pod­cast, book, or med­i­ta­tion app). My favorite ways to relax are read­ing, puz­zles, and Sudoku!

Brit­tany Win­ship, RD, LDN

1. Pair a new habit with an old one. When you want to make a new habit, it helps if you can pair a new habit with an already exist­ing habit. For exam­ple, if you want to start drink­ing more water, every time you check your email at work you drink 2 oz. Or, you start drink­ing water before you drink your cof­fee, soda, etc. If you want to increase move­ment, after each bath­room break you do five squats/​leg lifts/​etc.
2. Start Plan­ning. Plan­ning ahead makes the most dif­fer­ence. If you plan out meals and snacks and pur­chase those ingre­di­ents, you are more like­ly to fol­low through on those meals rather than dri­ving through at a fast food place, because you are tired and have no plan for dinner.
3. Try frozen veg­eta­bles. Frozen veg­gies are a huge timer saver! Think about it, they are pre-washed, pre-cut, won’t rot on you, and are ready to cook! If you’re not into steam­ing veg­gies, try roast­ing them. Take a bag of Cal­i­for­nia Blend for exam­ple, straight from the freez­er, and I toss them in a bowl with olive oil and basil, place them on a sheet pan, and bake them for 25 – 30 min­utes at 400 degrees F.

Learn more about our Nutri­tion Ser­vices team at https://​quin​cymed​group​.com/​m​e​d​i​c​a​l​-​s​e​r​v​i​c​e​s​/​n​u​t​r​i​t​i​o​n​-​s​e​r​v​ices/.