If this is you, here’s my advice:

🍪 Stop telling yourself you can’t have something you really want. (You’ll only want it more!) What we resist persists. Give yourself full permission to eat it and it will lose its power over you. Food freedom and a healthy relationship with eating may take a little time but you will get there.

🍪 Make sure you nourish your body with nutritious, wholesome, satiating foods FIRST. It’s crucial that you take care of yourself with the right foods so you’ll be satisfied with a moderate portion of a treat AFTER. When you’re truly hungry, going for the cookies straight away is likely going to lead to overeating them and not feeling so great.

🍪 Examine your definition of the word healthy. Individual foods are not healthy or unhealthy. Not eating a cookie doesn’t make you healthy just as eating a cookie does not make you unhealthy. Health is about much more than what you eat. Look at the bigger picture and how that cookie fits into your diet and life as a whole.

🍪 Ask yourself if you really want them! Sometimes we tend to eat something just because it’s there. It will be there tomorrow too. Remind yourself of this. If you really want it, pause and ask yourself how much of it you need to feel satisfied. Make a mindful decision, enjoy your choice, feel good about it and carry on with your day.

If sugar feels addictive, there is usually something else going on: Read about it here.

You don’t need to eliminate every gram of sugar in your diet to reach your health goals, however there are guidelines for how much added sugar you should be eating: Check out it here.

The post How to Stop Overeating Sugar appeared first on Be the Change Nutrition.

You don’t need a degree in nutrition science to know that sugar isn’t a health food.

But sugar can be confusing. 🤔

What’s the difference between naturally occurring sugars and added sugars? 🍎🍬

Naturally-occurring sugars:  Sugar is found naturally in fruits, dairy and even in some vegetables. 🍇🥛🥕  These sugars are bound up with health-promoting compounds like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber.  Sugar has not been added to these foods; it is there naturally.  These sugars are digested more slowly due to the presence of fiber or protein and are found in foods that support a healthy body.  Include a wide variety of these foods in your diet.

Added Sugars:  Added sugars are exactly what they sound like:  Sugar that is added to food or beverages.  These sugars contain minimal nutrients aside from providing carbohydrates.🥤🍪🍦 The biggest sources of added sugar are: sugar-sweetened beverages like sodas, fruit drinks, sports drinks & coffees and sweet desserts like cookies, ice-cream & cake. These sugars are quickly digested, can raise blood sugar levels rapidly and are associated with many chronic diseases.  Set limits with added sugars.

🤷🏻 How much is too much added sugar?🤷🏻

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA)  and the World Health Organization (WHO) both recommend consuming less than 10% of calories from added sugars/day.

Let’s take a 2000 calorie diet for example.

10% of 2000 is 200, so it is recommended to consume less than 200 calories of added sugars.

Sugar has 4 calories per gram so….

200/4  = 50g max of added sugars

For reference, 4 grams of sugar= 1 teaspoon

This equals about 12 teaspoons of added sugar/day.

Which translates into:

12oz Coke (39g added sugar=10 tsp) + 2.5 tablespoons of ketchup (10g added sugar= 2.5 teaspoons sugar)

The American Heart Association (AHA) sets its recommendations lower:  Less than 6% of calories from added sugars.  They also say under 36g (=9 teaspoons) for men & under 24g (=6 teaspoons) for women.

Taking the same 2000 calorie diet, 6% would be 120 calories or 30g max of added sugars.

This equals about 7 teaspoons of added sugar/day.

Which translates into:

1 tsp sugar in coffee (4g added sugar= 1tsp) + Icelandic yogurt (6g added sugar= 1.5 tsp) + 1/2 cup Prego sauce (4g added sugar= 1 tsp) + 3 Oreo cookies (14g added sugar= 3.5 tsp)

OR: One serving of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream (2/3 cup) with 31g added sugar (>7 teaspoons).

You can see how quickly those added sugars add up! 🫢

What you can do:  Start by looking at where the added sugar in your diet is coming from.  Read labels.  Often it’s in sneaky places like salad dressings, granola, coffee creamer or bread.  ✨We don’t need to totally eliminate all added sugars from our diet. ✨ Many of these foods are enjoyable and they often help us eat more of the good stuff.  If that honey mustard salad dressing motivates you to eat a big bowl of nutrient-dense veggies, then it’s probably worth it!  Sugar is not toxic and sugar does not cause obesity.   However, most people are eating an excessive amount and that can negatively impact health.  The important thing is to be mindful of the quantity consumed (everything in moderation🙄😅) and use the above recommendations to see if and where you might want to make some changes. 💗

The post Added Sugar: How Much Should You be Eating? appeared first on Be the Change Nutrition.

Oats, peanut butter & dates fuel your body with nutrition it can use.  💪🏻

🌟 Oats provide fiber to help maintain balanced blood sugars and cholesterol levels as well as promote optimal digestion.

🌟 Peanut butter contains protein & healthy fats that keep you full.

🌟 Dates offer natural sweetness along with minerals, antioxidants and fiber.

No-Bake PB&J Thumbprint Cookies:

Ingredients:
💗 1 cup rolled oats
💗 1/2 cup medjool dates (pitted)
💗 1/2 cup peanut butter
💗 2 Tablespoons maple syrup

…and your favorite jam for topping the cookies.

Directions:
💗 Add all ingredients (except jam) to food processor and blend until a dough forms. 
💗 If the dough is too dry (not sticking to form balls) add a bit more maple syrup.  
💗 Roll into balls and slightly flatten.
💗 Make a thumbprint and spoon in some jam.  No baking.
💗 Store them in the fridge or freezer. Enjoy!

A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.  ~Author Unknown

The post No-Bake PB&J Thumbprint Cookies appeared first on Be the Change Nutrition.

Happy Summer! 😎

It’s officially ice cream season. 🍦🌞

Uh-oh. 🤪

“But I love to go out for ice cream in summer…”

I’ve been hearing this one since the beginning of May. 😅 

You want it because it is delicious but you also believe that it’s a “bad” thing to do. 

So you wind up in a conundrum. 😯 Relax.

🥰 Don’t feel torn about eating ice cream if that’s what you really want to do. 🥰

Stop beating yourself up and feeling as if you should not have had it once you’ve eaten it.  Enough with the regrets and the guilt! 

But how do you do this?

While I can’t give you an answer to exactly how much and how often you “should” have it, I can offer some advice for how to find that happy balance when it comes to eating it and feeling good about your decision. 👇

When faced with ice cream, it helps to ask yourself some questions…

🍦 Question 1:  Do I really want this?  Is it really worth it right now?  🤔

Because sometimes, when you pause and check in with yourself… you don’t.

You might like the idea of ice cream– but right now, today, in this very moment, you’re actually feeling quite content without it.  Maybe you’ll wait until next time.   It’s not now or never.  There will be plenty of other opportunities.

Or, you might decide that ice cream sounds delicious and it would make you really happy today.  So you make the conscious decision to enjoy some.  Own your choice without feeling bad about it.  Feeling bad kind of ruins the whole point of the ice cream experience.

Don’t make this about whether you should or should not.  Instead look at it as, you can, but do you really want to?  There is no right or wrong.  It is always your choice.   🤗

🍦 Question 2:  What is the minimal amount that will do it? 🤔

If you’re used to restricting ice cream or if you’re very hungry, you may overestimate how much you need to feel good.  If you’ve been practicing mindfully allowing all foods and aren’t starving, you’ll have better judgment.

We tend to think we need more to feel satisfied than we really do. 

How often do you regret eating too much ice cream?🥴

And how about eating too little? 😄 I thought so.

➡️ Tip: Order a small (or even a kiddie size).  I’ve been to enough local ice-cream shops to know that these are actually a very decent sized serving! If you’re used to ordering larger sizes, conduct a little experiment where you get the smaller size and then see how you feel after.  I bet you feel satisfied and happy with your decision. 😘

🍦🍧🍨🍦🍧🍨🍦🍧🍨🍦🍧🍨🍦🍧🍨

This can’t be about denying yourself.  It will not work.  If you look at it that way, you’re going to want it more.  It has to be about a 💫choice💫.  Give yourself the permission and freedom to have it. 

Flip your mindset from “I shouldn’t” or “I can’t” to “I can have ice cream if I really want it.”

When you reframe how you look at it, you just may have the groundbreaking realization that you might actually feel better not having ice cream than having ice cream. 🤯

I think most of us have a pretty good understanding of how detrimental excessive sugar can be for our body.  Does that mean having the occasional ice cream cone is going to ruin your health, cause a disease or kill you? 😵 Of course not. 

But everything we eat has an effect on our bodies, for better or worse, and over time our choices add up.

We are all free to make our own choices! 💓Do what makes you happy and what supports your values and goals.

Empower yourself by making mindful decisions and owning them.  Ice cream can fit into a balanced, healthy lifestyle if it makes you happy.  It’s the guilt and self loathing that are really damaging. 💗

Real ice cream is awesome… And so is this version of ice cream made from frozen bananas!🍌🍌🍌

The post “But I Love to Go Out for Ice Cream in Summer…” appeared first on Be the Change Nutrition.

A simple, no-bake, date-sweetened treat full of healthy fats from walnuts and cashews!

Brownie Ingredients:

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup medjool dates (pitted)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• dash of salt and vanilla extract

Directions for Brownies:

• In a food processor, process all ingredients until they begin to stick together.
• Press into a 6X6 dish or loaf pan.

Cashew Cream Ingredients:

• 1 cup cashews
• 1 cup unsweetened almond or cashew milk
• 1/2 cup medjool dates (pitted)
• dash of salt (if using unsalted cashews) and vanilla extract

Directions for Cashew Cream:

• In a high-speed blender, puree all ingredients until smooth.
• Spread over the brownie layer.
• Store in fridge or freezer.

The post No-Bake Brownies with Cashew Cream Frosting appeared first on Be the Change Nutrition.

Chocolate🍫+ Peanut Butter🥜 + Banana 🍌+ Frozen 🧊
= A sweet way to be cool and happy.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Topped Frozen Banana Bites

You’ll need:

• 1 medium banana
• 1-2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil, softened or melted

The process:

• Cut your banana into several chunks (about 7-8)
• Evenly spread peanut butter on each piece.

Here’s what mine looked like:

In a small bowl, stir together the honey, cocoa powder & coconut oil.

Spoon the chocolate topping evenly over each piece & place in the freezer to firm up.

You can also melt chocolate chips and dip the bananas in the melted chocolate before freezing. These have more of a softer chocolate ganache top that I prefer.  Play around in your kitchen with however you want to make them.

It’s all about having fun and creating something delicious.

👉🏻 Don’t forget how easy it is to make banana ice cream too! Simply blend up frozen bananas, milk (dairy or non-dairy) & nut butter for an incredibly satisfying and nutrient-rich ice cream alternative.

👆🏻One more refreshing frozen treat idea:  Frozen grapes! 🍇🧊

Rinse your grapes & take them off their stems.  Make sure they are dry and then freeze.

You can make single servings in small zip-lock baggies or plastic/glass containers. Or freeze a big batch in a large plastic bag or container.

🍇🍇Easy, sweet and guaranteed to cool you down!🍇🍇

🤔What are your favorite frozen treats?

The post Chocolate and Peanut Butter Topped Frozen Banana Bites appeared first on Be the Change Nutrition.

The best part of Halloween was getting home and dumping out the contents of the pillow case to organize and admire my candy.  There wasn’t much trading going on as we all had the same favorites (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, Peanut Butter Cups, Rolo, basically anything with chocolate except the ones that had coconut).  Least favorites were lollipops and Smarties– pretty much anything non-chocolate.

Chocolate in my mouth!

Some things never change.

Confession:  I wasn’t sure until I found the photos to prove it… but I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I trick-or-treated until I was 15:

If I were shorter and could have gotten away with it, there’s no doubt that I would have kept going for a few more years.

Categorizing the candy was almost as enjoyable as eating it.

How interesting that I don’t remember any feelings of guilt or “this is so fattening” as we savored our candy.  The notion of calories, grams of sugar or what the ingredient list contained simply didn’t exist in our young minds.   Nutrition and health weren’t topics we thought about; all we knew was that candy tasted good!  While that ignorance may have felt like bliss, now that I’m older I can’t ignore the fact that what we eat IS something to think about.

That’s what makes eating such a challenge– we are conflicted by a desire to be healthy and a desire to eat what tastes really good to us.  As adults we know that it’s not in our best interest to eat too much candy, but we all still have that inner child inside asking for it.

Seeing ourselves with various inner personas can be helpful in understanding our behaviors.  Your inner child craves the Halloween candy. Instead of trying to fight it, hate it, tell it that it’s weak and has no willpower, or completely forbid it– try being the rational, compassionate parent.  Allow it, but limit it.  No self-hatred or guilt attached.  As the adult, you know what you need to do to care for yourself.

Know what your goals are and what is important to you.  Have a clear picture of the person you want to be.   Make your decisions from there.  You have choices.  You are in control of your actions.  I would never suggest candy be a major part of anyone’s diet… but there is something about giving yourself access to and permission to eat the things you really love that makes them hold less power over you.  Plus, there are certain foods that may not be nutritional powerhouses but that do make you feel really happy– and there is a lot to be said for happiness!

Forget about analyzing which types of candy have the least sugar, fat or calories.  Instead let’s be real: none of it classifies as a health food.  All Halloween candy falls into the food group called “you really don’t want to eat a lot of it.”

You can buy these at Whole Foods.  They are so delicious and I love their mini size for when you just want 2 bites of something sweet and chocolaty.

The ingredients are slightly better than most other candy so these are a higher quality choice. But again, candy like this, even organic and using fair-trade chocolate– still not a health food.

My advice when someone asks “Which kind of candy is best?” is this:  YOU know what is best for you better than I do.  When it comes to having a treat, you are better off looking at the choices and taking a moment to decide what would be the most enjoyable and satisfying to you.  We’ve all been in the scenario where we choose what we think we should be eating only to keep wanting what we really wanted in the first place.  If you eat an apple when you really want chocolate, how did you feel?  Let me guess– you’re still obsessing over the chocolate.  The point of having a treat is pure pleasure– so know yourself and know what that means to you.

Guess what?  That could also mean choosing to skip the Halloween candy.  Have you considered the possibility that you might actually feel better passing on the sugar?  If you know you’ll feel awful after eating a certain food, choosing to not eat it rather than giving in can give you a sense of self-empowerment, confidence and gratification because you’re caring for yourself.  These feelings can be more rewarding and longer lasting than the taste of sugar.  When you’re opting out because you want to instead of telling yourself you can’t have it, it changes the entire psychology of the situation in your head.

Also, it’s the dose that makes the poison.  One peanut butter cup?  Not likely a problem.  Eating half the bag of peanut butter cups?  Then something’s going on.  If you feel that you don’t have control around candy, that’s a symptom indicating something deeper.  It’s worth exploring– any unwanted eating behavior has an important message behind it.

Here is one more confession:  I always have a variety of chocolates in my house.   And most days I eat some.  Some days I don’t eat any.  Occasionally there are days when I eat what others might consider “a lot”.  I don’t believing in denying yourself foods that you love and that make you feel good.   I also believe that when your overall diet is based on wholesome, nutritious foods that there is room for fun treats….only with no guilt involved.  Kind of like back when you were a kid.  Yes, you can be working towards your health goals and enjoying your life at the same time.  When you’re truly committed to practicing self-care, you naturally gravitate towards a balance.

Be kind to your inner child this Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

The post In Memory of Halloweens Past appeared first on Be the Change Nutrition.

It’s the weekend and it looks like we are being blessed with some more gorgeous weather.  I recommend getting to a farmers market and cooking outside like I did this week.

I got white eggplant, zucchini and corn at the Wickford Farmers Market and peaches from Narrow Lane Orchard.  🍆🥒🌽🍑

Mushrooms and wild salmon were from BJs. 🍄🐟

Here is what I do when I want to grill:

  Slice up the vegetables and add to a large pot.

Drizzle in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, tamari and maple syrup.  It’s a perfect marinade.

Put the lid on the pot and rotate until everything gets coated.

(Or you can do this by hand.)

So easy.  You can then carry the pot outside and unload the veggies onto the grill.

Before grilling I put the mushrooms on skewers.

The salmon I sprinkled with seafood seasoning.

The corn is cooking inside in the steamer…but you can grill that too if you want!

Use the same pot to put them in once they are ready.

I actually just put this pot of food on the deck table and we served ourselves onto plates.

This could be the end but I’m going to tangent into leftovers and pumpkin stuff so read on… 😏

I almost always have leftovers which I use within the next day or two.  The leftover peaches– which tasted like a heavenly dessert– I added to my 2-ingredient pancakes in place of my usual berries in the morning.

There weren’t too many leftover vegetables but what I did the next day for lunch was place them on a baking sheet, add pasta sauce and mozzarella and bake for mini veggie pizzas.

Served them up on a bed of baby kale greens, also from the Wickford Farmers Market and a kielbasa from Windmist Farm in Jamestown.  Nice! (sorry no picture– forgot) 🥬

The post One-Pot Grilled Vegetables and Salmon Deck Dinner appeared first on Be the Change Nutrition.

Does topping fudge with hemp seeds make it healthy? 🤔 I think so! 😃

I wanted to create a rich, chewy fudge with no refined sweeteners.

💞 This recipe uses soft, naturally sweet medjool dates.

Blended up with a few other ingredients, you get an incredibly rich fudge you can feel good about eating…  Thanks to plenty of yummy, healthy-for-you fats and antioxidant-rich, mood-boosting cocoa.  Hemp seed topping optional!

Date-Sweetened Fridge Fudge

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pitted medjool dates
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup cashew butter
• 1/4 cup coconut butter (or coconut oil)
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• Dash of sea salt and vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients together until creamy in a food processor.  Spread into container of your choice, depending on how thick you want your squares.  I used a 7″ X 5″ glass container.  Keep it plain or top with any kind of nut or seed (hemp shown in the picture).  Walnuts or macadamia nuts would be awesome.  Try peppermint extract for chocolate-mint fudge.  Coffee extract for mocha fudge sounds divine too.  Chill in fridge.  Store in fridge or freezer.

The post Date-Sweetened Fridge Fudge appeared first on Be the Change Nutrition.