Refreshed!

We had a Wellness In-service day, today, (no school for the students because of elections) and it was wonderful!  There were three Keynote speakers and then we had the option of going to a morning session of our choice and an afternoon session.  The first speaker was a nutritionist. She had so much information.  Like, you have 75 trillion cells in your body and what you eat determines how effectively they work for you.  You should only have 50 grams of sugar a day.  She broke the information down into everyday language. She said a lot of the same information that I've heard before, but the way she personalized it made it finally hit home.  She started by talking about how snacking has become like a fourth meal and then listed all of the ways we incorporate snacks into our day as well as our kids' days.  She talked about how many chemicals are in our foods.  And that one by itself may not be harmful, but no one has done a study on how all of the additives and chemicals react with each other.

She said that the four bad ingredients are: sugar, chemicals, fat (the bad kind) and salt.

She said that there are two kinds of eating that get you into trouble: head eating and heart eating.  Head eating involves stress, being busy, being late, situations like that  when you just start nibbling at something even though you're not hungry.  Heart eating is like emotional eating, you're sad, upset, frustrated, and eat to comfort yourself.  She suggested not keeping a food journal, but an emotional journal instead:  Why are you eating when you're eating?

She explained that the reason you can eat a whole dish of brownies is because sugar does two things to your brain.  First it increases endorphins (makes you feel good) and second, since there is no real nutrition in candy and pastries, your brain tells you to eat more to get that nutrition and so you eat more of the sweet stuff. 

She advised to look for nutrition dense snacks like eating Fritos instead of Doritos. Also that protein and good fats (avocados, nuts) make you feel full.  Her ten favorite snacks are: hummus, popcorn (popping it the old fashioned way on the stove with a little healthy oil in a pan and then drizzling it with real butter), almond butter, salsa, nuts, yogurt-plain with cocoa powder and Stevia added if you need to sweeten it, fruits, veggies, protein bars-those with the nuts sticking in them, and a few cubes of cheese.

The other speaker I liked talked about Reflexology.  It deals with the feet and how, according to her, the feet mimic the body and by manipulating and massaging the feet you can heal the body.  She used to work in the oncology department of local hospital and now has her own practice. She was amazing. I'm making an appointment! :)

Then a few of us walked the track.  It was a great day.  I feel so renewed.  I really needed this!