The End

Hi friends and family,

I guess this is the end of my project. For the last few months I have been trying to change my diet and eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables. I have tried to post regularly, but it didn't always happen. For those of you who have been reading my blog, you are aware of what a struggle and challenge it was for me to stay on track. Now that my project is finished and I look back, I have to say that I did not do as well as I had hoped. While I did not meet my goals, I did gain a lot of knowledge and insight into what it is like to modify unhealthy behaviors. This was a great experience that will definitely shape the way I practice nursing and nutrition. It has allowed me to be more patient and to focus more on setting realistic goals for myself and any other patient I might be counseling. I failed in accomplishing my overall goal, but I did improve my diet. I am still not eating 5 a day, but I probably average about 4/day. Also, an additional goal I had was to maintain my BMI and I was actually even able to lower it. I have exercised more than I have in the last 5 or 6 years. The combination of better diet and exercise has made me feel healthier than I have in a long time. Also, I have lost about 10 pounds since the beginning of the summer. Thank you to all your support and encouragement throughout the last few months!

-esma

farmer's market

I just wanted to make a quick comment about something that has been very helpful to my project: the farmer's market. Beginning a few weeks ago, I started going to the farmer's market to get fresh produce. I have found that this is a huge incentive for me to eat healthier because I enjoy going to the market, choosing fresh produce, and planning a menu around the produce. Going to the farmer's market has made me very excited about eating healthier and has been a lot of fun. It has also been great getting to go to the farmer's market with Clay and other friends that also enjoy the market and eating healthy foods. Having a support group has been very important in sticking with my project and would be incredibly hard if it was not for them!!! This has taught me a very important lesson for when I counsel my patients. I must always ask about support people that can help the individual progress and succeed. Support groups are essential and necessary in order to make long lasting changes. If an individual lacks a support group, one must be found and the healthcare provider may need to actively participate in this role.

Green is better

I have just finished entering my F & V intake for the last few weeks into a nutrition analysis program that tells me if I am meeting my nutritional goals (for those interested, the website is www.fitday.com) and I was a little surprised and disappointed at my lack of progress. I have been making an effort to each more greens and healthier in general, but it is so so hard to even come close to meeting your nutritional needs as recommended. I noticed today that I almost always get 100% and more of vitamin C, sometimes vitamin A, but I am definetly struggling when it comes to the B vitamins and E. Although I was a little discouraged I do feel that I have become more aware of what I eat and tend to make healthier choices than I used to. I know that this is a work in progress, but I am begining to enjoy being healthier (even if my nutritional analysis contradicts this). I am very excited about the fact that I have been exercising on a regular basis (Clay and I ride our bikes to school 3-4 days/week for a total of ~20 miles/day) and I know part of it is due to my efforts to eat healthier and being more conscious about ways to promote our general well being.

still not there

So, I hate to admit that I am still not doing very well about eating my daily servings of fruits and veggies. I thought that after being done with what was supposed to be the worst semester in nursing school I would be able to focus more on eating a healthier diet. It didn't happen. There was ONE day about two weeks ago when I ate 3 veggie servings and three fruit servings, but so far that has only happened once. It was so exciting to know that it was possible to do. Also, I felt healthy, good about my self, and LIKED the food!! Hopefully days like that will be more frequent.

Healthy?

I had some down time yesterday so I used it to analyze my food intake from the last few weeks. I am VERY disappointed because my vitamin intake is horrible! I thought that while I have not been meeting my goal of 5 veggies/fruits per week (but have come close), I was getting close to meeting all my needs, WRONG! Trying to eat more fruits and veggies, especially veggies, has been a lot harder than I anticipated. Analyzing my nutrient intakes has opened my eyes as to how badly I eat. Also, it really helped me get motivated to eat more fruits and for sure more veggies, which is what usually keeps me from meeting my 5/daygoal. This experience has definitely helped me understand what it means for people to make dietary changes, and in most cases they are more drastic than what I am doing. I have also realized that having a degree in nutrition does not magically make me a healthy eater and I should put more effort into eating better. I hope that as a nurse I will be more sensitive to my patients' struggles with lifestyle changes and will help them set goals that are achievable.

On a side note, I had promised you healthy recipes and thought it was time for the first one. Hope you like spinach! Spinach & walnut pesto…I got this recipe a couple of years ago from the food network:

1 bag of fresh spinach (or 1 box of frozen spinach)
1 cup of chicken broth (or veggie broth)
¼ cup of olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
½ cup of toasted walnuts
Grated parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS: Put it all in the blender and you are done! Use with pasta, sandwiches, or any other way you like.

peachy but not very veggie

So, it has been a long time since I last posted and it has been a pretty crazy time for me. I think I am finally done with the hardest part of this semester, and clinicals are going pretty well. My "eating healthier" project is not going as well as I had hoped. I have been able to increase my daily intake of fruits, but not vegetables. The first week I did pretty well (and Clay, too, since he eats what I feed him, hahaha), but it all went downhill from there. The only days I have been able to eat my three servings of veggies are Tuesday and Wednesdays because I have started buying fresh salads from the hospital cafeteria. They are pretty inexpensive and healthy. My hope is that now school seems to be slowing down I will do much better and make a greater effort to eat more fresh veggies. Now that the weather is improving, maybe I (and any of you who would like to join me) can start going to the farmers market during the weekend and buy yummy fruits and veggies for the week.

esma

eating better, not butter

Having a degree in nutrition is no guarantee for having healthy eating habits. It simply means I feel more guilt about being a food junkie. For this reason, I have decided that my Primary Prevention Project (which will span a period of 7 months) will be based on meeting two of the Healthy People 2010 nutrition goals. These are: 1) eat at least 2 fruit servings daily and 2)eating a minimum of 3 vegetables servings daily. In the next post I will describe some of the benefits of eating at least 5 daily servings of fruits and vegetables. Also, I will give you examples of serving sizes in case you may also want to keep track of your daily intake. During the next seven months I will keep you posted on how I'm meeting my goals! Feel free to post any advice you may have for me!

-esma