I have a treat for you today, boomer gals!  I asked a fellow Baby Boomer and health blogger, MaryPat Fitzgibbons, to do a guest blog post for me.  You’ll find that she and I think alike.  We believe in getting back to basics with regard to nutrition.  She’s got some great ideas on how to eat healthy.  So, without further ado, I give you Mary Pat Fitzgibbons….

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So you think it costs too much money to eat healthy? It might indeed cost a little more today to shop for healthy foods. Good quality foods do cost more money than processed foods high in carbohydrates, fats and salt. If you will spend the money up front, the pay back will be in many years of good health. Once you are sick, it will cost a bundle to get your health back. To keep your health, you must look in the kitchen. Back to health and back to kitchen basics.

It is very important to me to be healthy now and through my entire life. If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know that I am a hospice nurse. I recently had a very interesting patient who at the tender age of 91 was on no medications until a few weeks before he passed. That is very unusual. Most of us are on some form of medication either as a regular medication for a disease process or for periodic symptoms. By the time we are in our 30-40’s the chronic diseases start to creep in and the medication list starts to grow. Medications, for the most part, only treat symptoms. That means you will experience some progression of disease as well as side effects from the medication that may require additional medications. We can prevent disease by what we choose to eat.

Now let’s get back to the kitchen. Food and fitness are tied to our well being. Did you know that the companies who provide our foods have many practices that will reduce their costs (good for profits), extend the shelf life of product, and add ingredients like sugars, fat and salt that will entice you to buy the product? Not every food product in the supermarket is healthy eat.

Never fear! There are ways you can have a healthy diet on a budget.

The first thing you need to start is a menu plan. Write down what you will eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for the next week.

When you are planning your menu, make your grocery list. I find that  I spend about the same amount of money whether I plan a menu or not. But, when I plan my menu, I eat much better.

Generally, my breakfast during the week is all the same. That usually is hot cereal. Sunday is an omelet/pancakes and Saturday we go to a diner. So write that out. You can figure out how much bread, cereal, eggs, milk, juice etc that you will use in a week.

Lunches: I usually have PB&J on whole wheat, double fiber bread. I use fresh peanut butter and homemade no sugar jam. I add vegetable sticks and some fruit. For the work week, that would be 10 slices of bread, 5-7 tablespoons of peanut butter and 5 teaspoons of jam. My husband has a meat and cheese sandwich. That would be 10 more slices of bread, 10-12 slices of turkey, 5 slices of swiss or provolone cheese, and mustard.

Dinner tonight is shrimp scampi as I have a little shrimp and lots of peppers, onions, and mushrooms. I will cook brown rice with onions and garlic and add a vegetable. Tomorrow is soup and salad. One evening will be grilled chicken, baked potato, and vegetables. Another evening will be left overs. I also fill in a night out or pizza night if that is what we will do.

Do you get the idea? I also will put the cookbook page next to the menu item so that it is easy to find. When I am making out my menu, I make out my grocery list. I include snack items too.

You can do this for a week at a time or for 2 weeks. I get paid every 2 weeks, so I like to do a 2-week menu. I shop every 2 weeks.

2 tips for today

Tip 1: Make out a menu and your shopping list at the same time. When you shop, stick to your list. That will cut down impulse buying. If you shop every 2 weeks, your annual food bill will be lower than if you shop every week. You have half of the temptation to buy extras. You wallet and your body will thank you.

Tip 2: Buy local. Support local farms by shopping at the farmer’s market or join a CSA farm (consumer supported agriculture). I belong to a CSA farm in NY Southern Tier. The cost is about $18.75 per week for a huge basket of fruits and vegetables. It is good, wholesome organic food. Buy free range beef, chicken and eggs from your local farmer.

Choose healthy foods and your body will pay you back with many years of good health.

Blessings, Mary Pat

Mary Pat FitzGibbons RN MS writes on weight loss, healthy weight and other issues facing Baby Boomer Women today.

www.HealthyWeightLossForBoomerWomen.com/blog/

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Okay, it’s Becky again. Mary Pat, thanks so much for your great tips on healthy eating for Baby Boomer women!

Ladies, take Mary Pat’s advice and you’re sure to eat better, eat fresher and maintain a healthy body.

Committed to your success,

Becky

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As I’ve mentioned many times before at this blog, there is a lot of garbage out there when it comes to supplements.  Until about 2 years ago, I didn’t even recommend a particular brand of supplement to my San Jose personal training and boot camp clients, because I just couldn’t trust what was in the bottle–not to mention the outrageous claims some companies make.  You can’t really miss it on the Internet these days. Seems like everywhere you look there’s another company promoting the nutritious Acai Berry as a weight loss miracle.

That’s why I thought it was critical to write you today. I want to make sure you know my opinion on the subject.

First, you know better than to believe you’re going to pop some pills – ANY pills – and have the pounds and inches melt off like magic. Pleeeeease give that notion up.

If you’ve been listening to any fitness expert for any length of time you know true fat loss comes from a variety of factors, including exercise and proper nutrition.

Second, any fitness expert worth their fees will tell you that any diet that promotes you eat any one food all day long and then eat a sensible dinner, well, don’t bother. Yes, you will lose some weight short-term (due to taking in fewer calories), but as soon as you go back to your old eating habits – and you know you will – you know exactly what happens.

Third, the Acai Berry actually does contain VERY powerful antioxidants and it is getting a lot of good press for that very reason. Antioxidants are extraordinary nutrients that help fight the free radicals associated with aging, cancer risk and other degenerative diseases.  Just keep in mind, acai berry alone is not a miracle cure.

Research has shown that there are a number of powerful antioxidants found in nature, and we should be getting them in our diet. Did you know that the coffee berry (the berry that covers the coffee bean) is one of the most powerful antioxidants on the planet? It’s something researchers have just discovered in recent years.

What’s really cool is that Prograde Nutrition (the only nutrition company I have promoted in my 25 years in business!) has created a Whole Foods based Anti-Aging formula called Prograde Longevity that includes both Acai Berry and Coffee Berry.   It also utilizes Green Tea, Pomegranate, Wolf Berry and Biovin Grape (Red Wine extract).

Just to give you an idea of how powerful this formula is, well, you’d have to eat an entire POUND of raspberries to get the same ORAC value. And in case you’re not familiar with the term, ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.

Prograde creates their own forumulations based on scientific research.  No phony baloney hyped up claims here.

Here’s the great news:  You can now try Prograde Longevity for free! You simply pay a tiny shipping and handling fee. Just go to Prograde Nutrition to order your FREE bottle today.

But you really do need to hurry. I’m not sure how long they’re going to be able to make such an incredible FREE offer.

Yours in health,

Becky

PS – Remember, Prograde Longevity is NOT some silly weight loss pill. It is a powerful combination of anti-oxidants specifically designed to give you extraordinary protection against dangerous free radicals.

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Well, there is nothing I know of that will maintain our youth forever, but as far as anti-aging nutrition goes, fish oil is at the top of the list!

Study after study shows that fish oil (and, more specifically the long-chain omega-3 fats DHA and EPA) can benefit us in so many ways. Based on scientific evidence, the American Heart Association (AHA) reports that the ingestion of fish and/or fish oil supplements can benefit us in the following ways:

-Reduce blood pressure
-Reduce triglyceride levels
-Reduce risk of cardiovascular disease
-Reduce inflammation
-Reduce the incidence of macular degeneration (an eye disorder)

These are only the top four benefits the AHA mentions as having “strong scientific evidence”. It’s the tip of the iceberg–the list of potential benefits from fish oil is several pages long!

We boomers are right smack in “mid-life” where a lot of life’s pains the rear (heart disease, high blood pressure, etc) start showing up. The evidence-based argument favoring fish oil in reducing the risk for these conditions is just too strong to ignore.

If you aren’t taking fish oil, I suggest you talk to your doctor about adding it in to your supplement regime. One word of caution: Folks who are allergic to fish or shellfish should not take fish oil capsules.

If you like fish, the best way to get omega-3 fatty acids is to eat fattier fish like salmon, sardines and mackerel. Trout is also high in both DHA and EPA.

If you don’t eat fish several times a week, a fish oil supplement may be in order.

What should you look for in a fish oil supplement?
-Look for a product containing Neptune Krill Oil. Neptune Krill Oil doesn’t give you “fish burp” or a fishy aftertaste, and reportedly has a higher antioxidant rating than other types of fish oil used for supplements.
-Look for a product that contains both EPA and DHA.
-Talk to your health care provider about the proper dosage of fish oil for your situation.

I use and recommend EFA-Icon from Prograde Nutrition for my Omega-3 supplement.

You can pick up some EFA icon at a discount right now!

Click here to get to the Prograde site. Once you’ve placed your order, put in the coupon code 012009 at checkout. You’ll save 10.9% off your entire Prograde order from now through midnight EST on Thursday, January 15th!

Yours in health,

Becky

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