Are you taking part in the food revolution?

I’m talking about Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution show on ABC.

In case you haven’t heard of it, here is the short version: Jamie Oliver, British celebrity chef, is taking the obesity problem in the US on head-on. After a successful run of his Food Revolution model in the UK, he came to Huntington, West Virginia, deemed the unhealthiest place in the US, to see if he can change people’s eating habits. The show is a reality show about that experience.

I’ve heard mixed reviews of the show outside the health and fitness industry, but no matter what you think of Jamie (I happen to have already been a huge fan), I give him HUGE props for taking on this initiative. His entire agenda is about getting people to eat whole foods again — it’s really that simple.

Did You Know?

• The milk kids drink in school has as much added sugar in it as a can of soda?
• There is now basically a double-wide casket because we’ve gotten so heavy. This casket can’t go in a hearse, needs to be lifted with a forklift, and requires a double plot at the cemetery. And, you can’t simply cremate the bodies because that causes it’s own set of problems.
• We are raising the first generation of kids that has a shorter lifespan than their parents!
• The US incurs $150 billion per year in health care costs directly related to our food choices?

Jamie won the 2010 TED Award for this project, and you can see his 18-minute talk on the topic here. He has some truly shocking, frightening, and disgusting visuals and statistics around the school food supply, so if you are up for being outraged and more than a little annoyed at the system, I suggest you watch it.

(In case you were thinking I was exaggerating about the statistics, he opens his talk with, “Sadly, in the 18 minutes it takes me to do this talk, four Americans will be dead from the food they eat.”)

Yes, 8 of the top 10 killers in the US, and other first-world countries, are lifestyle related. Which means that some simple — yes, simple — changes to what we eat can reverse this and lead to a longer, happier, and more productive life.

I think I’m lucky in that you, my readers, are already well-educated and doing the best they can for their families, so this month I’d like you to turn your focus outward and…

Join the Revolution

• Watch the show — at least one episode; it’s on at 8pm Fridays on ABC. Yes, I can virtually guarantee this will be the only time I ask my clients to watch TV. No TV? You can stream it from ABC.com or watch it on Hulu.com.
• Sign the petition. [link]
• If you are a parent with school-aged children — or even if you are not — go to your local school and see what they are eating. Jamie has provided sample school menus and advice for how to work with your school cafeterias.
• If you know your own eating could use some improving (and honestly, couldn’t we all), then Jamie has some stupid simple recipes up on the ABC web site. I watched him make this amazing-looking ginger beef stir fry thing all the way through last Friday’s episode — I ended up having to make it for myself the next night!

I’m grateful to Jamie raising the level of dialogue about food and obesity in this country. I believe that everyone wants to do right by their families, but not everyone has been blessed with the knowledge they need to do so.

Thank you for joining the revolution!

Weekends tend to wreak havoc on even the most dedicated dieter’s plans. If it’s not your son’s soccer tournament, then it’s the dinner party, or the fast food you grabbed while our running errands on Saturday. But, it’s just one day, right?

Well, unfortunately, no.

Yes, it’s just one day on the calendar, but you can undo a week’s worth of work with one day of indulgences.

Let’s look at a few healthy food items that you might grab on the go, and see where they could fit in:

• McDonald’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich. 420 calories. With the small fries, you are now up to 650 calories.
• McDonald’s Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken. 320 cals.  (swap out for crispy chicken and bump up to 430 cals)
• Starbucks blueberry scone. 460 cals. With your grande nonfat vanilla latte, and you are up to 660 calories for that “snack.”
• Almonds. A couple dozen is 169 calories. Almonds (and all nuts) are a great snack, but the portion sizes are the killer — it’s about what you can fit in the palm of your hand.

From that list you can make some really great and some really bad choices. The day I looked up the Starbuck’s scone calories was the last day I ate a Starbucks scone.

Now, what about the dinner party:

• Vodka cranberry. It depends upon the size of the pour, but for a cocktail drink, you are probably looking at 200-225 calories each.
• Margarita. It’s almost 400 calories for an 8oz margarita. But, I venture to guess that most margaritas are well over 8 ounces, so let’s say 600 calories per margarita.
• Red wine. 5 ounces is around 140 calories. 5 ounces is pretty close to what you’d get out at a restaurant, so if your friend’s are heavy pourers, you are drinking more than that.
• Beer. It depends upon what you drink, but a non-light beer is going to be about 200 calories per pint.

What to do?

There are really two options:

1. Plan life out perfectly, so you know exactly what you are going to eat when and where. I believe that that level of planning is unrealistic and unsustainable. Not to mention not a whole lot of fun!
2. Go with the flow and adopt a caloric averaging technique. Rather than trying to shoot for a fixed number every day, shoot for a weekly and monthly caloric average so you can just let life happen. By averaging your days together, you are going to learn to better listen to your body, and make it OK to eat more or less based upon your mood, hormones, activity levels and life events. I talk more about this in my Jen’s Gem’s for the Healthy Writer column.

So, this week, stop and re-assess how you did last weekend, and make plans to get next weekend better.

Need some help with that? My clients will tell you that I’m a great accountability buddy and we can work together to figure out how to keep the weekends from derailing you progress. Drop me a note so we can figure out how to get started!

This month I’m hoping you to encourage you to step back and re-evaluate the relationship you and your loved ones have with food and mealtime.

What is Sustenance?

For many people, the word Sustenance simply means food. But, the definition of Sustenance is MUCH more broad:

1 a : means of support, maintenance, or subsistence : living b : food, provisions; also : nourishment
2 a : the act of sustaining : the state of being sustained b : a supplying or being supplied with the necessaries of life
3 : something that gives support, endurance, or strength

March is National Nutrition Month, and I frequently write about food, nutrition, and it’s overall impact on our lives and well-being, so I pulled some of my favorite posts to review. I know I was reminded of a lot of what I already knew about SUSTENANCE by going back through my posts, and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed putting this together for you.

Children and Nutrition

• Childhood Diet Predicts Adult Health

Food Allergies & Sensitivities

• Gluten Sensitivity
• The Gluten / Thyroid Connection
• Eating a Low-Carb Diet can Eliminate Diabetes Medications

Grocery Shopping

• Do You Know What A Serving Size Is?
• The Perimeter of the Grocery Store

Diet vs Exercise

• Diet More Important Than Activity Levels

Productivity & Creativity

• 5 Healthy Eating Tips of Creativity and Productivity

Eating Habits for Weight Loss

• Caloric Averaging
• You Eat Like the Company You Keep
• Calorie-Restricted Diets Lead to Longevity

I have a lot more on this topic that I didn’t list out, and I’ll be writing a lot more about nutrition yet this month. Be sure to check my blog regularly for more!

It can.

For many people, the word Sustenance means food. But, the definition is actually MUCH more broad, and is defined by terms such as: support from below; maintain; encourage.

Read my 5 healthy eating tips specifically designed to make you tremendously creative, ridiculously productive, insanely rich, and absolutely irresistible over at Jen’s Gems … for the Healthy Writer.

(OK, I made up the rich and sexy part, but with the new tools I’ve given you there is no reason why you can’t use those power for good, and work on rich and sexy!)