In February, a lot of people scramble to find a great Valentine Day gift or plan a special dinner. After all, it’s all about the heart and loving someone. Taking care of your heart is also a big topic in February with it being American Heart Month. The Centers for Disease Control and the American Heart Association provide in depth information on heart disease, knowing your risk factors, preventing and managing heart disease.

Prevention is paramount. This Valentines Day, reflect about your health status and what you need to do to eat healthier and improve your health. It’s a perfect way to continue any health related New Year resolution, and a way to show your loved ones that you want to be around for a long time. Make time to take care of yourself. Check out the websites of American Heart Month and the American Heart Association.

Keep up with healthfulfilling.com on facebook and twitter, too for health related messages and articles, and make time to find solutions for better health at www.healthfulfilling.com

By Para Mehta, RD/ www.healthfulfilling.com

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It’s already the second week of January, and back to work, school, and long days are part of the scene, often resulting in a post holiday slump. Not having a job to go back to can amplify post holiday slump. Getting back to tight schedules and deadlines is difficult after the holidays. Making New Year resolutions and implementing them can turn in to a questionable after thought.

Here are some ways to get over post holiday slump:

Relate to the fact that everyone is in the same boat, so we’re all in it together.

If your health needs improvement, don’t ignore it. Find a way to get help with your health since it is the foundation to a quality life

Wish everyone a happy and healthy 2012! Thank you for visiting the site and blog, and be sure to find solutions better health at www.healthfulfilling.com.

With November coming to a close, hopefully you got some quality time with your family and friends during the Thanksgiving holiday. Sure, festive food is a big part of the holiday but so is slowing down to simply catch up with family and friends.

If spending precious moments with your loved ones is important, then that is more of a reason to preserve health. Were you able to take a few moments to reflect about your health, or be thankful for your health? Or is your health something you need to invest more time in, but you just haven’t found how to with your busy life? The first step to better health is finding the way that works for you. Consider working with a dietitian to evaluate and improve your eating habits and give you additional health tips. Follow this blog for health and nutrition updates of this site on twitter. Connecting with health and wellness tips helps pave the way to paying attention to your health.

With November also being American Diabetes Month, find out what you can do to prevent diabetes or manage it more effectively if you have diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association, 1 in 3 adult Americans may have diabetes by 2050 according to recent estimated projections if enough is not done to stop the disease. Find out the risk factors for diabetes and do what you can to protect yourself from it. Diabetes is a not a reversible disease. Once you have it, it can bring on additional diseases like heart disease and stroke. Find out more at:

www.diabetes.org

Visit www.healthfulfilling.com to find ways to better health. We have online and phone health and wellness consultations and self health ebooks to help you get healthier.

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A lot of people love food and claim to be “foodies.” But what about being a food addict which makes it hard to stop eating or thinking about your favorite foods most of the time?

Some research from Yale University and the University of Southern California show that slim people who were showed pictures of calorie rich foods had a higher ability to manage the  impulse control area of the brain, compared to obese people.

With roughly seven out of ten adults in the United States being overweight or obese, eating habits, calorie intake, insufficient physical activity and other factors can be a cause.  Having food related events and activities surrounding us does not help the situation! Halloween around the corner, sports venues like the World Series, football on Sundays and Mondays, and next month holiday season unfolds again.

Delicious foods find their way to our kitchens and plates. That’s why a game plan is necessary to curtail those food traps. Plan on having only one calorie rich food during game time, and bring in healthier, tasty dishes around it. For example, if you love sliders or hot dogs during a game, add in baked potatoes with gaucomole to top it,  some veggie wrap sandwiches, and a bowl of mixed fruit.

Being savvy and selective about food choices is the main strategy to focus on during the upcoming holidays. The blogs in the coming weeks will discuss how to handle the holiday eating frenzy, so stay tuned! For more help, you can check out, Grade Your Plate at:

http://www.healthfulfilling.com/selfhealthebooks.html

Online or phone consulting with a registered dietitian is also a big plus! Working with an RD can help you get through the holidays, keep those pounds away and be steps ahead for the New Year! Find out more about online and phone consulting at:

 http://www.healthfulfilling.com/onlineconsulting.html

Send in your comments about how you handle food traps!

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By Para Mehta, RD/ www.healthfulfilling.com

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You went to see your doctor for a check up or about a health concern. He says you need to lose weight, and then come back in 6 months. He shakes your hand and leaves the office. That’s it. Go lose weight. No information on how or what to do, he just expects you to go it alone and get it done.

Or worse, he tells you about a new supplement that can help you lose weight and wants to sell it to you. You’re all excited about it, and then you find out it costs $100 for a box of 12, but you need to take it forever to get results. If you hear things like “natural, quick results, the pounds fall off, you’ll be a slimmer new you,” be very wary and walk away from it.

The frustrating truth is that there are too many weight loss schemes and not enough help out there by physicians to guide you toward healthy, long term weight loss and improved health. An article in the New York Times blog last year discussed how some doctors don’t even discuss weight as an issue with their patients because it’s already a fact, and if they do discuss that weight loss needs to occur, they don’t continue to discuss it at each visit.

Doctors who mean well exist, but they simply don’t have the time or expertise to counsel on nutrition. They are physicians, not registered dietitians.

If you drag yourself out of bed, are tired all day, don’t feel your best, are overweight, don’t eat healthy regularly and know that you are not in good health, there is help. Healthfulfilling.com now offers online and phone consultations. As a registered dietitian, I can help you get your health back on track, with the goal of preventing health problems. Check out the online consulting page at:

http://www.healthfulfilling.com/onlineconsulting.html

Don’t put your health off any longer, do something about it now to prevent illness. You owe it to yourself to feel better and healthier.

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By Para Mehta, RD/ www.healthfulfilling.com

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Monday mornings can be stressful and hard to get into. Where did the weekend go? Back to work, back to school, back to a long week of routines and non stop schedules.  Not having a job makes Monday even tougher. Everyday is spent arduosly looking for work, and school and schedules keep running. Monday madness.

Meals on Mondays can be a big question mark. It’s the start of the week, you’re adjusting back into a frenzy of activity, wondering what to take or get for lunch, and clueless about dinner. Hopefully, the grocery shopping got done, otherwise that needs to be squeezed in.

The best way to deter Monday meal madness is to plan ahead for the week. Make your grocery list and menu over the weekend for the week. Or, cook extra on Sunday and use leftovers for Monday. Having some kind of plan that works for you will deliver sound results, keep you away from the drive thru or eating out when you don’t need to.

Whatever the situation, whether it be too busy to eat healthy, or lack of motivation due to challenging times, health needs to be safeguarded. You need it to accomplish anything else.

For more tips on smart meal planning and making healthier food choices check out the ebook page, at:

http://www.healthfulfilling.com/selfhealthebooks.html

What are some ways you deal with Monday madness and meals?

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By Para Mehta, RD/ www.healthfulfilling.com

Imagine walking into a room where 5 out of 10 people are obese, but it’s not that noticeable.  That could be the case in 2030, if obesity trends continue according to a report in The Lancet.

We’re not talking just overweight, but obese. Currently, about 7 out of 10 American adults are overweight or obese, and more than a third are obese, which means they have a body mass index over 30. To add to the trouble, currently 1 out of 3 American children is overweight or obese.

If people around you are overweight, it does not seem so pronounced, and almost seems normal. It doesn’t seem to be as big of a deal if a lot of people around you look the same.  But getting comfortable with it, and accepting it is the wrong direction. When a majority of people are overweight it shouldn’t create a resigned attitude toward losing weight and getting healthier.

Being overweight or obese is a risk factor for diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Making a commitment to a healthier lifestyle is necessary for an overweight or normal weight individual. Maintaining health is an everyday priority to encourage a better quality of life. Keep working on those new year resolutions, or just pick one to focus on. Take things one step at a time if you need to improve your health. Visit the past blog entries to read about various health and nutrition topics discussed in the past months. Stay active and focused on your health!

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By Para Mehta, RD/ www.healthfulfilling.com

Did you do something good for your health today? How about yesterday? In the last week? When was the last time you did something to help your health? Try to think about it for a minute. Write down what it was, what made you do it, and if you didn’t continue it, why? If you didn’t do anything good for your health, ask yourself why, and write that down, too. It’s already September, and we’re approaching the last quarter of 2011. Think back to January when you might have made some new year resolutions to take better care of your health. Throughout this year, I have blogged about different ways to keep those resolutions going. Just because it’s September, it doesn’t have to be over even if your healthy habits aren’t consistent.

This week, choose one healthy habit to work on that you can fit into your schedule. Write it down, put it where you can see it, and then put a check mark and write something positive to yourself each time you accomplish it. Share your achievement with the family. Write in about it, I want to hear about it, too. Then, do the same thing next week with that same healthy habit. Don’t switch to something else yet, keep this one going and turn it into a routine. Since healthy eating is a major component to healthy living, check out my new ebook, 

“No More Excuses, Revitalize With Healthy Eating,” at:

http://www.healthfulfilling.com/selfhealthebooks.html

This ebook is a strategic way to get yourself into a continuous pattern of healthy eating, turning it into a lifestyle change. It’s easy to think that you eat healthy already, but does your health reflect it? If not, get tips from this ebook written by your online registered dietitian, and start making a change today! Talk to you next week!

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By Para Mehta, RD/ www.healthfulfilling.com

If you like to eat dinner late at night and then go to bed, you might want to start eating dinner earlier in the evening. Cristina-Maria Kastorini, MSc, a nutritionist and researcher at the University of Ioannina Medical School in Greece, explains that if you wait at least an hour after eating dinner before going to bed, it may reduce the risk of stroke by two- thirds.

 
The longer you wait to go to bed after eating dinner, the better. The study discusses that for every 20 minutes more after one hour, the risk of a stroke may decrease another 10 percent. The study shows that there could be an association between waiting an hour or more between eating and sleeping and decreased risk of stroke. The study involved 1000 people as participants.

Nevertheless, having enough time between meals and going to sleep  helps give time to digest food and prevent feeling full or uncomfortable when sleeping. If you’re a late night snacker in which snacks become small meals, it will take some getting used to. Eat your dinner earlier for a few nights or every other night and gradually get into a new routine. Each healthier habit leads to a healthier lifestyle with the goal of preventing disease.

Unhealthy eating can bring on disease. Don’t let unhealthy eating ruin your quality of life. Check out:

“No More Excuses, Revitalize With Healthy Eating,” at:

http://www.healthfulfilling.com/selfhealthebooks.html

Your email:

By Para Mehta, RD/ www.healthfulfilling.com

Last week, we talked about the start of back to school, and the frenzied morning rushing that goes with it. With a multitude of morning tasks, looking for misplaced car keys happens most when you’re in a hurry.

If you can remember where those car keys are that’s great! But if it takes awhile and happens often, that can be frustrating. In any case, it’s a good idea to become aware of risk factors for memory related disorders. You might have heard about University of Tennessee’s basketball coach Pat Summitt, who was diagnosed with early onset dementia at age 59. She explains to interviewers how she took notice of her symptoms and didn’t ignore them, and seeked medical attention. Now she is determined to do what she needs to manage her condition and keep coaching.

According to the Mayo Clinic, increasing age is a risk factor for dementia, but it’s not a normal part of aging.  Check out this web article from this week that discusses dementia:

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-signs-of-alzheimers-that-can-show-up-before-memory-loss.html