Nutrition Workshopping Success!

I gave my first nutrition workshop a few hours ago and it seemed to be a success. The only problem is that I only had two hours to talk. I ended up making 54 slides and I talked for the entire two hours. Here’s a breakdown of what I did:

First, I introduced myself and gave a volunteer a package of six Snickers bars. Yep, six Snickers bars. I gave another volunteer six bananas. I told them to eat at their leisure and stop before they felt sick.

Next, I gave the group a bit of my personal history with my weight struggles and the story about how I suddenly realized that eating real food was WAY better than eating the junky packaged diet food.

I launched a discussion about how we eat not only to receive nutrients and fill an empty belly, but for the five senses, especially taste, and how we make choices based on cost, convenience, and habit.

We talked about whole grains (and what a whole grain actually is), sources of protein, dairy, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and seafood. I debunked a few myths about these foods. For example, I talked about how just because something says “multi-grain” or “made with whole grains” doesn’t mean it’s completely whole grain, how pasta has an unfair bad rap, how red meat has an unfair bad rap, and how eggs are nature’s perfect food and not the cholesterol nightmare that people think they are.

I talked about fat, sugar, and salt combos and how these tap into the dopamine receptors in our brains and manage to rewire our tastebuds and how to cut down on sugar, to avoid artificial sweeteners, to drop soda as a daily habit, and to use good fats instead of going fat free.

I checked in with the Snickers bar guy and the banana guy. The Snickers bar guy only got through two. He said he came in the room with energy, but then crashed and felt like he was going to go home and take a nap. The banana guy ate all the bananas (which I didn’t expect) and said he felt pretty good and could do a few pushups! Experiment success!

Finally, I talked about exercise and ways to get into it. Find an exercise buddy, do exercise that you actually like, and weight train. I also suggested using a food journal. I recommended MyDailyPlate and CalorieCount.com.

People asked questions during the presentation and I was glad to know the answers to their questions. I felt really confident. I was so glad to see students engaged in a conversation about healthy eating. I just wish that I’d had more time! I had a lot more to say and I really wanted to let people ask questions at the end and I wanted to talk about some easy recipes for them to try, but time didn’t allow. Next time I do the workshop I’m going to have to cut some stuff so there’s time for the rest. I’m already thinking about how to tweak it for next time.

Here’s a little highlight reel:

I love those Storm Troopers. They’re the best.

After the workshop I felt that I had to practice what I preached, so I ate some of my leftover Cooking Light Jambalaya that I made yesterday, then I went to Body Pump and pumped my ass off, then I made a salad with tuna and lots of veggies for dinner.

Fin.

Nutrition Workshopping

At the end of August I will be giving a nutrition workshop for faculty and students at the school where I teach. I’m pretty stoked about it. The students at my school are quite possibly the worst eaters on the face of the Earth. The school doesn’t have a cafeteria, so they rely on the surrounding Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Wing House, and Chili’s for their meals. It’s awful. A lot of them don’t have cars, either, so getting to a grocery store is a challenge unless they have friends with cars willing to drive them. I’ve also recently been getting questions from faculty about general nutrition and it seems like people are really confused about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to maintaining a healthier lifestyle, which is what made me volunteer to do this workshop.

I’m currently in the planning stages of the workshop, but my main thesis is going focus on the importance of eating mainly REAL food, as opposed to convenience food, and tackling ways to do so that are realistic for the students. I’m also going to talk about why diets don’t work, how fat+sugar+salt affects our brains, and how to incorporate exercise into your daily life, along with when and why to indulge in treats.

I keep revising my outline, but here’s a sneak preview of a few of the slides I’ve created:

 

I’ll post the entire show when it’s finished. If you have any ideas for things that I should include in this workshop, please share in the comments! I’ll be presenting in two weeks.

*Images are courtesy of Flickr’s Creative Commons and credit is given in my presentation.

Jaclyn Knows Nutrition

I was going to call this post “Jaclyn Is A Know-It-All,” because honestly, it’s kind of true.  I can be a bit of a know-it-all. My friends know it, I know it, we all know it.

I like to think it makes everyone like me more.

I uncharacteristically decided to take the less self-deprecating route and title this post Jaclyn Knows Nutrition because it fits well enough.  I’m over my weekend illness that forced me to take a break from working out, and I’m back to my exercise routine.  Monday was Cardio Strength, Tuesday was Power Yoga, and today I did some super spinning.  After I worked it out for 45 grueling, sweaty minutes, I headed to a nutrition seminar being offered for free through the Y because my spinning instructor suggested it at the end of class and I was interested.  I really love learning new things about nutrition and finding out ways to maximize the health benefits of my food in conjunction with my exercise routine.

Too bad I already know, like, everything.

It's a shame that green isn't my color.

The seminar was hosted by the Y and was led by their resident Registered Dietitian, who was very nice and very knowledgeable.  There were seven other women there; they were all in in their mid to late forties.  The RD kept it casual and made three easy-to-whip-up recipes for us to try while answering different questions from the women.  She talked about good fats vs. bad fats, everything in moderation, how to get out of cooking ruts, and the downfalls of fat-free-everything.

The information, while interesting, was definitely pretty standard.  I’m not knocking it by any means; it’s all stuff that I had to learn too and that I’ve had questions about from one time or another. I was really glad to see the women asking questions and having an open dialogue about body weight and nutrition and I was especially glad to see how receptive they were to what the RD had to say.

I’m just sayin’, I already knew it all.

I’m glad I went to the nutritional seminar.  I needed a reminder that I know what I’m doing and that I’m generally doing it right. I was even able to help the RD answer a few questions and I was able to give some of the ladies some suggestions. I talked about Greek yogurt and wheat germ, which you know are two of my top 5 must have foods, I talked about a book on overeating that I plan on reviewing soon, and talked about fighting nighttime hunger.  I’ll tell you what–I think I could have led that whole seminar.

I’ve worked pretty hard to educate myself and I really want to make sure the information I’m putting out here on this blog, out to my friends and family, and out on my other projects, is correct and useful. It was good to get that positive reinforcement that I’m doin’ it right.

My muscle definition, however...

What I’d like people to take away from this is the knowledge that you really can learn and educate yourself about nutrition (or anything you have a sincere interest in) and you can use that knowledge to better yourself and to help others.  Registered Dietitians and many doctors are great resources for learning about nutrition and weight loss/management, but you will definitely reap extra benefits if you commit to really educating yourself and staying open to learning new things. Though I was a bit of a (non-intrusive) know-it-all today, I’m going to set up a few sessions with a RD, just to review what I’ve been doing and to find out what else I need to know.

Knowledge is power!