Hydrate for Heaven's sake

What is the highlighter colored beverage in your hand?  Are you actually drinking a soda with your name on it because it had your name on it? Listen, folks, I get that the marketing geniuses over at Gatorade have you pretty well convinced that your 30-minute foray to the gym to jog on the treadmill while watching Ellen qualifies you as an athlete. And Coke well they're coca cola they've been making soda an addictive beverage since it came on the market but what are the real facts about hydration?

• Fluid is important, it keeps you sharp, can perk you up like a wilting flower for that 330 meeting with your boss.  But some tips to keep in mind:
• Ditch the sugary stuff- extra calories- extra weight
• Limit the caffeine 
• If you're going to be working out for an hour or more try a beverage with added sodium
• Monitor your urine color- clear to pale yellow means you're well hydrated.  If you're looking at fluorescent or school bus yellow march yourself to the nearest water fountain and have a drink.
• Do yourself and the environment a favor and bring a reusable bottle along.  You'll always have a drink and you won't kill a whale with you wasteful plastic.

So key points here:

• water is not boring.  If it is stop eating so much sugar and salt so you can actually taste your food.  Try La Croix waters or any other of the wide variety of flavored and carbonated waters on the market.  Flavor your own with some essential oils, herbs, lemon or other fruits.
• bring your own.  You'll feel better and mother nature will love you more and maybe she won't drop a tree on your house or something.
• check your pee
• light post it yellow= good
• school bus yellow =bad

Drink up

the reluctant dietitian

Nutrition philosophy

If you had asked me my nutrition philosophy several years ago it would have been something along the lines of everything in moderation, eat a variety of foods for health to fulfill your senses and tastes but after 6 years of working in a hospital my current nutrition philosophy is:
Eat a fucking vegetable.
Just one, every day, forever. Preferably not a potato in the form of a fry or a chip.
That's it.
There is no magical vegetable that I will tell you to eat although if you'd like me to assign you one off the top of my head I can. You there eat beets. They'll make you super healthy... make your eyes bright, your teeth white and child birth a pleasure. Plus for funzies if they're fresh they'll make your pee red. Eat a vegetable, preferably not the same one every day, ideally 4-5 servings a day, but at this point I'll settle on one.
We are fantastically terrible at eating our vegetables. Only 6% of Americans meet their recommended veggies per day. Most people only get less than 2 cups of fruits and veggies per day when it should be 4-5 cups per day, and when we look at who is meeting that, the numbers drop to 1% of adults getting their recommended amounts.
Now you can say I don't like vegetables but I challenge you: have you tried every vegetable ever in every possible way it could be prepared? No? Go find a new vegetable and try it in a new way. Purée that bad boy and hide it in your spaghetti sauce.
My challenge for you is to try, no actually do, eat a vegetable every day, for the next week, month, year... see how you feel. Heck get crazy try to hit that 4-5 cups a day. Tell your friends, start a movement... eat a fucking vegetable.

Batch Cooking

Batch cooking is a great way to eat healthy for those of us that are constantly on the go (ie busy nurses that work 12 hour shifts).  Prepare foods ahead of time on days when you have extra time and set it aside for busier days. Recipes can be as simple or as complicated as you like.  Think about things like prepping extra chicken breasts to use in salads and sandwiches, larger portions of quinoa or brown rice and large batches of vegetables. If you’re not much of a cook experiment with microwaveable sides such as brown rice or wild rice packets as a fast way to add healthy complex carbs and fiber to your diet. Bagged salads are a fast and easy way to make half you plate vegetables. And rinsed canned beans are an easy way to add vegetable protein.