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Meeting Nutrition Goals for the Holidays! By Dietetic Intern: Mackenzie Wanta
How to Meet Your Protein Goals during the Holidays! The holiday season is upon us and your daily routines may already be changing due to your seasonal plans. It is important to cherish and enjoy these times with family and friends, but it can be helpful to find...
Creatine Monohydrate By Dietetic Intern: Mackenzie Wanta
A Look into the Popular Sports Supplement: Creatine Monohydrate. Creatine is naturally found in our skeletal muscles and brain. Our body produces this compound to aid in muscle contraction that occurs throughout the day, but it especially helps during exercise. We...
Unlocking the Power of Protein: A Comprehensive Guide to Protein Powders By Dietetic Intern: Maxwell T Premetz
Many people, not just athletes, use protein powder every day to help their bodies gain muscle and boost their performance, whether it be for working out or helping themselves get through the day. Protein powders are nutritional supplements that help the body build...
Why Fiber Is So Important For Our Bodies! By Dietetic Intern: Maxwell T Premetz
Fiber is one of the most important aspects within our diet, but only 5-10% of American’s can meet the RDA for fiber set forth by the Food and Nutrition Board. Men should be acquiring 38 grams per day of fiber, while women should be consuming 25 grams per day. So, you...
Six Ingredients to Be Aware of When Looking at Food Labels
Label reading and having some awareness of the ingredients you eat are important. I am not one to have people obsess over these things, but awareness and amount of exposure are just a good idea to keep in mind. As you observe the short list below, be aware that this...
Decreasing Inflammation! Its An All-Inclusive Job!
Decreasing systemic inflammation is multi-behavioral feat. And even then, we can do all the things and still have inflammatory issues in our body. This is not to say that our efforts are all for not. It is saying that inflammation is very complex and not a...
Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Cognitive Importance – by Troy Luengen – Dietetic Technician Intern
Omega-3 fatty acids, particularly EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), have garnered considerable attention in recent years for their potential role in memory enhancement, especially during childhood development. These essential fatty...
Antioxidants: A Journey to Enhanced Health – by Troy Luengen – Dietetic Technician Intern
In the complex world of human biology, antioxidants stand as powerful protectors, guarding our cells against the ravages of oxidative stress. This phenomenon, caused by free radicals, has garnered increasing attention due to its implications for aging,...
Hormonal Health: The Nutrition Connection – by Troy Luengen – Dietetic Technician Intern
Nutrition plays a pivotal role in maintaining overall health, and its influence extends to the intricate balance of hormones within the human body. Hormones are chemical messengers that regulate various physiological processes, including metabolism, growth,...
Gut Microbiome – by Troy Luengen – Dietetic Technician Intern
INTRODUCTION Scientific research has recently started to research more on the impact of the human microbiome on health, but also a particular focus on its positive correlation with athletic performance. Comprising trillions of microbes, the microbiome is integral to...
I Know What I Should Be Doing But…..
Client: “I know what I should be doing, but I can’t seem to do it or stick to it?” Ugg…. the dreaded should word…So many people tell me this when they are calling to inquire about my services. And many of my new clients will lead with this statement at our...
Small Habits, Big changes: Embrace the New Year as You Are By Corey Haack, RD
Embracing the New Year with Small Habits As we enter a new year, it's natural to feel the pressure to make big changes in our lives. We set lofty goals, make extensive resolutions, and promise ourselves that this year will be different. But what if, instead of...
Presence and Grace for the Holidays
As you may already be reviewing the past year, think about how you’ve cared for your body? Do you think you’ve “honored” your body this year? Do you think you’ve “listened” fully to what it has been saying or asking for? If you can say “yes” without a doubt,...
Mindful Eating During the Holidays – Corey Haack,RD
Navigating the Holiday Season with Mindful Eating As the holiday season approaches, many people find themselves giving into temptation and overindulging in food. The result? Feelings of guilt, discomfort, and bloat. However, it doesn't have to be...
Nutrition for Injury and Recovery
“How do I eat when I’m recovering from an injury/surgery?” This can be a challenging time for most people whether you are an athlete or not. Being laid up over a sprain, inflamed joint, or surgery, is just no fun! Below I list out some...
Fueling Your Body: Easy and Delicious Ways to Sneak in Protein Throughout the Day! By Corey Haack, RD
Start Your Day Right with Protein Power Protein is an essential nutrient that plays a crucial role in building and repairing tissues, as well as supporting a healthy immune system. It also plays a crucial role in many other bodily functions. It's the key...
BCAA’s: What’s the hype?
Lately, I’ve been receiving a lot of questions about BCAA’s. And more specifically about all the BCAA supplements. First, let’s talk about what BCAA’s are? There are 20 different amino acids that make up all the different proteins in the human body. Nine of...
What is Nutritional Yeast?
Recently I received an inquiry from a client around nutrition yeast. What the heck is this stuff? I usually only talk about this with my vegan clients because it is a naturally high source of vitamin B12 and vegans have a very limited food selection that provide...
Meal Planning Basics!
Meal planning is almost the number one nutrition related stressor of most of my clients. We don’t want to plan, we are tired, everyone wants to eat something different etc. It can feel overwhelming. First, I think many of us are too hard on ourselves. Meal...
Sugar Substitutes
This is a topic that comes up often! And with so many products incorporating, there’s good reason to get to know them better! With that being said, this is not a blog to promote or encourage use of them. I write about these for education purposes only. When I...
Let’s Talk Vegetables!
Let’s talk vegetables! Vegetables are one of my absolute staples in every meal. I love most every vegetable and can’t think of one I don’t really like or won’t eat. Many of my clients would definitely disagree! Where do you stand on that question? Are there...
Meal Replacement Bars, Snack Bars and Protein Bars!
Oh my gosh there are so many options available out there! Clients are always asking me for my take on the best bars. In order to actually answer that question, there are a few other questions to ask. How are you using the bar? Are you using it for...
Reclaiming Personal Power & Choice
My work includes so many different types of clients and subjects within the realm of nutrition. Often people will come in with one agenda, usually to eat “healthier”, prepare for an athletic event, heal a health condition or lose weight. Through our work with the...
Embracing Something New!
As many of you know who have read my previous blogs or who are clients of mine, I am not a fan of “New Year’s Resolutions”. Mostly because they tend to negate all that we are or have become or evolved into over the course of a year and continue to put pressure...
Nicole’s Favorite Things!
Greetings for this treasured month of December! As I write this, the snow is coming down and we are heading into the holiday season, which is the perfect time to talk about some of my "favorite things". Below you'll find a link that provides you with 6 pages of...
Squash
Yes, squash! I know, why am I doing an entire blog post on this. Simply because Squash is awesome for you. And because there isn’t enough highlighting the benefits of these vegetables, its worth writing about! Recently, I had made a roasted butternut squash to...
Finding Health Regardless of Weight
Can we let go of the scale? Can we let go of the number on our clothing? Can we at least consider what that would feel like if we did? Seriously, what would that feel like to you? Would it be scary? Would it be freeing? If this hasn’t been a question you’ve...
Body Set Point
Our bodies are so incredible! Many of our body functions are completely auto-regulated so that we don’t have to even think about “making” these functions happen. Some of these include maintaining heart rate, breathing, blood cell count, body fluid contents – meaning...
Client Comment: “So you can’t “make” my body lose weight? I did not know that.”
Yes, its true. We can’t make a body lose body fat. We can support a body nutritionally with lifestyle and stress management. Which then enables us to create an environment conducive for body fat loss. But we cannot force a body to lose weight. Which is contrary to...
Food Allergies vs Sensitivities vs Intolerances
Allergies vs Sensitivities vs Intolerance Written by Bethany Goccia, Way of Life Nutrition & Fitness Dietetic Intern Reviewed by Nicole Kerneen,RD,CD,CSSD You’ve just finished a meal and within 30 minutes you are hightailing it to the bathroom. What...
Inflammation & The Athlete
Recently, I received a question from a client around eating anti-inflammatory. When to do it and how with all the training he is currently doing. First, I love getting questions! So do keep them coming. There is so much hype around anti-inflammatory eating. And also...
Goal Review
How are those goals coming along for the year? Typically, researchers tell us that any new goal set in motion at the new year, is long forgotten by March. I find, that March, really sets a tone for beginning something new. It seems that the winter months of January...
Sleep
Sleep is such a huge important topic! Lack of sleep can affect the power of your immunity, increase overall body inflammation, your ability to focus, retain information and perform stressful tasks. We also know that just by cutting an hour or two of sleep a...
What We Focus on Becomes Our Reality
Some of you may be asking, “what does my self-talk or how I think of myself have to do with heart health or health in general or even nutrition for that matter?”…..The truth is, that our minds will accept, as our own truth, just about anything we feed it. If...
Beating Holiday Stress With Nutrition and Self-Care
Holidays can be a very fun, festive and spirited time of year. And they can bring a mix of emotions for people too. It's also the time of year, where there seems to be endless deadlines to wrap a year up as well. Needless to say, we can feel a little extra fatigued,...
Will Vs. WillPower
As we are heading into the holiday season, we are constantly bombarded by extra food choices during our day. Many of my clients feel so much peer pressure to indulge or picked on for not indulging at times. And sometimes, they just feel overwhelmed by all the...
But That’s What Someone Said I “Should” Do
A question presented to me the other day – “I think I need a plan for me with more fat in my diet because I think I’m hungry all the time and that’s what someone said I should do?” My insides always cringe when I receive questions like that. Especially when...
Separating How We Feel From How We Fuel
Sometimes we associate a moment of not being able to get as much physical activity in a day, or not being on a “normal” schedule or not having our regular food choices available to us, or a feeling of lack of motivation in general, with, “well then this is a time that...
Trusting Your Body – Part 3
Welcome back to the final segment of Trusting Your Body. Below are the final 4 suggestions and ideas of how to develop a life-long trusting partnership with your body and self. 4) Your body reflects your thoughts, beliefs and the words you use: How we feel on the...
Trusting Your Body Part 2 Article:
Last month we started the conversation of how we may disconnect with our body and what it would look like to be in partnership. Below are the first three concepts to developing a trusting partnership with your body and self. There comes a point in our life, that we...
Trusting Your Body Part 1 Article:
Trust my body? What? “My body hates me”, says one client, “My body keeps growing”, says another client with fear, “My body is so annoying”, says another client, with frustration…. Have you ever thought or said some of these same things? Our bodies are incredible....
Resistance Vs. Trust
Our capacity for change, whether it be within ourselves or change in our world, is far greater than we realize. Dr. David Hawkins, in his book, Power vs. Force, illustrates the profound influence our thoughts and state of mind have on ourselves and others. He defines...
Nutrient Timing and Energy Usage! It All Begins in the AM!
This is a topic that I speak to my clients about all the time. The idea that its important to eat more of your calories during the day versus at night. Metabolic rate starts to decline about 12 hours after rising in the morning. So if you wake at 6am, metabolic...
Being Honest with Ourselves
What I have found working with my clientele, is how deeply challenging it is for them to be honest with themselves. And what I mean by that – is truly being honest with how they really feel, what they feel they want and how much they believe they can’t have or do that...
Immunity and Nutrition in a Nutshell!
Check out these handful of tips to help support your immune system!
Food (and Water) for Thought – Interview
Food (and Water) for Thought Compiled By Sarah Thomas Pagels For the Fall Focus on Wellness, we are providing some food for thought about food and water. The following is an excerpt of an interview with a Nicole Kerneen, RD, CD, CSSD, a registered dietician,...
To Resolve or Not Resolve? Its Up to You!
New Year's Resolutions seem to carry a feeling of pressure and “this is it” kind of tone. I find that clients fall into this idea that they “should” be making changes versus enthusiastically proclaiming how great they are going to feel this year because they...
Taking Back Your Personal Power
All too often I’ll have clients leave my office super stoked about leading a healthier lifestyle and achieving wellness goals, just to say in almost the same sentence – – “I do really well for 3 weeks and then it all stops. We’ll see what happens this time.”. Usually...