Fresh Focus

Description: The Fresh Focus team welcomes YaQutullah Ibraheem Muhammad MS, RDN, LD from the VA Arcadia Primary Care Clinic to talk about adding diversity to your plate. This involves looking at alternative protein options, exploring local farmers markets, visiting ethnic grocery stores, and “vibe with veggies” to make your plate unique.

MOVE’s core ideas are encouraging healthy eating, increasing physical activity, developing behavior change skills and promoting even small weight losses with an easy to follow evidenced based program. Take a listen as our husband and wife duo wrap up the lessons learned in episodes 19-23 and put some goals out on the table.

Knowledge is power when learning about our patterns and behaviors, especially in relation to food. This can be a powerful tool in your MOVE to a healthier you toolbelt. Take a listen as Dr. Kadela talks about dietary habits and the psychology behind eating.

Unfortunately, most people don’t get enough fiber in their diet, even though it is a crucial part of our MOVE to a healthier you toolbelt. Wondering how to increase your intake? Listen in as Dietitian Tori shares tips and tricks to help you meet your daily fiber goals.

In our MOVE to a healthier you series, we take a dive into the important tool we should be using multiple times a day, water. Listen as our Dietetic Intern gives tips for increasing fluid intake, and specifically ways to liven up water.

Physical activity is a very popular topic, but oftentimes it is made to be overcomplicated and overwhelming for those trying to learn more about it. Being active is about so much more than just losing fat, gaining muscle, and looking good. It’s also important to focus on how it can improve overall health, function, and quality of life. This episode gets you active in reaching your goals with Dieti...

MOVE! Weight management program is a lifestyle intervention for weight management. In this episode, we are going to refer to it as our blueprint for success. MOVE isn’t just a “diet” or an exercise program its really 3 combined components of nutrition, behavior change, and physical activity. Listen in as Dietitians Lindsey and Beth discuss how we make the plan to come to life

The holidays can be a whirlwind, even if this year with just a small household group. After the dust settles and the dishes are washed, it can feel like such a crash of adrenaline. After hours of cooking over the holidays, you probably don’t want to cook for the rest of the week. We’ve all found ourselves in that boat a time or two.  Thankfully, when you open up the fridge all you see are leftover...

Whew, you are back from the grocery store and your countertop is full! Now, what to do with all the food you just purchased? Episode 17 of the Fresh Focus Podcast dives into meal prepping and give tips on how to be successful with the process during the upcoming holidays.   Remember when you get home from the grocery store, try to get the prep-work already done so you can simply open the fridge an...

What if we told you that smart grocery shopping actually starts before you leave the house? And this year you may not even need to leave the house.  On-line shopping is a great option for anyone who has small children, is pressed for time, or has health concerns.    Important steps in making a shopping list:  ·         Start by checking over your menu and preparing a list ingredients and food item...

It’s been a whirlwind of a year and whether you live alone or are continuing to practice social distancing, the holidays are going to look a little different this year. Whatever this year’s holiday season brings, you can certainly scale it down while still enjoying some of those traditional favorites in a smaller group.    Pair down the meal with these tips:    Protein: Unless the protein source i...

Are you hosting a holiday meal or party this year? Don’t get overwhelmed! Our Marion VA Health Care System Diabetes Educators are able to assist in the meal planning if your guests include people with diabetes in episode 14 of the Fresh Focus Podcast.    Just remember no one food or beverage is necessarily excluded for someone with diabetes.  It is important to balance between starchy foods like s...

The holidays can be a magical time, but how often do you get excited and then when they roll around fears about your health start to creep into your head?  If you are a person with Diabetes you might also worry about controlling blood sugars. These are completely common thoughts, but the holidays don’t have to be a time for throwing in the towel on all the hard work you’ve done the rest of the yea...

Congratulations! You have just delivered your adorable baby! Now you are faced with the decision on breastfeeding vs. formula-feeding. There can be a lot of pressure to do one or the other. I think new moms don’t necessarily expect the opinions that come with making that choice. Just remember a fed baby is best, no matter your planned choice of feeding.    Although breastfeeding and nursing are of...

Breastfeeding can be an awesome bonding experience with your baby.  Although it provides baby with great nutrition, it can be overwhelming, frustrating, and brings up many questions for mamas and their support systems.  Eating healthy does not affect the quality of nutrients in your breast milk, but it is important for new moms to eat healthy to maintain energy levels (hello lack of sleep from mid...

While pregnancy may seem like the perfect time to eat extra portions of dessert and veg out on the couch, it is actually one of the most important times to prioritize your health! There are many contributors to your health, but one very important one is physical activity and exercise. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that pregnant women participate...

Basic pregnancy nutrition is important to keep you and baby healthy. When you get that positive pregnancy test, your body is already undergoing many changes. Right from the beginning, hormones can cause some unpleasant side effects. The most common being morning sickness.    Morning sickness can be different for everyone and can happen during any time of day. The most important thing is to make su...

What happens if you’ve tried and tried and can’t get pregnant? What happens if you’ve done everything “right”, but it’s still not happening? You may be in the 12% of couples who struggle with infertility. Infertility is the failure to achieve pregnancy after 12 months of unprotected sexual intercourse. Infertility can be attributed to the female partner ~30% of the time, the male partner ~30% of t...

In this season of the series we are covering the entire maternal diet…from what to eat when you are thinking of starting a family to feeding your newborn!     How exciting to think about becoming a momma! As you are thinking about starting a family and making that decision to try to get pregnant, we want to help you prepare now to allow for a smoother transition to a healthy pregnancy.   There is...

The healthy plate method is not a diet but a strategy to focusing on making healthy choices one meal at a time. This concepts can be modified and tailored to your individual needs and that’s where Dietitians can help.     Here are some actions you can take now to put this method into place.    1. Veggies for breakfast Increase your intake of colorful vegetables that are full of vitamins and minera...

Protein is considered the building block of life and is found in every cell of our bodies. It has many important functions and benefits. It helps with muscle tissue repair, growth, and maintenance. Protein also prevents muscle loss. It helps keeps your blood sugar balanced, and protein and amino acids are essential for the formation of hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters, antibodies, transport pr...

Fat has had a very strange, political, and controversial history. In order to get down to what’s important, we need to navigate through the confusion.  Fat is one of our macronutrients (along with protein and carbohydrates), and it is an essential part of our intake. It has many functions within the body, including organ protection, providing fuel, coating nerve cells, making up organs (our brains...

Whole grains and starchy vegetables are great sources of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.  But what they are best known for is their carbohydrate and fiber.  The healthy plate method of meal planning recommends that you limit 1/4 of your plate to grains or starchy vegetables.  This is to make sure you leave room for those non-starchy vegetables that should make up half of your plate.  Examples...

So often when we think about eating healthier or getting to a healthier weight or lowering blood sugars so much we hear is “cut back on this” or “eat less of that”.   There is a category of foods we all need to focus on eating MORE of! That category of foods is non-starchy vegetables.  In the healthy plate planning method we are shooting for filling HALF of your plate with non-starchy vegetables....

As Dietitians with VA, our job is to help take the mystery out of good nutrition habits. We want to make it as simple as possible for you to make the healthy choices you need to reach your nutrition and lifestyle goals. And it’s with that goal in mind that we are going to be taking a deep dive into a personal meal planning tool called the Healthy Plate . Put very simply, the healthy plate is a vis...