Wendy

Diabetes Management Part 1

August 4, 2016 by Wendy 3 Comments

Since diabetes management is such a loaded topic, we broke things up into 2 parts. This month, we’ll be go over risk factors for diabetes, signs/symptoms, getting a proper diagnosis, and the process of self-monitoring glucose (blood sugars) at home. Our special guest, Margarette Edouard, is a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) & Registered Dietitian (RD) and will be sharing all of her expertise with us. Next month, we’ll go into potential complications of diabetes, how to cope, medication use, & lifestyle changes to better manage the condition. Below is a brief overview of the topics discussed!

Diabetes Care & Management

In our previous episode, we spoke about things you can do to lower your risk for developing type 2 diabetes, and we got so much positive feedback from all of you.
We got tons of emails asking for a part 2, and so we’re back and this time around we have a special guest with us!
Margarette Edouard is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator. She has many years of experience helping people manage their diabetes, and she also happens to be my amazing co-worker
She’ll be joining us today and sharing all her valuable insight on diabetes care & management

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a group of diseases that result in elevated blood glucose aka high blood sugars

Risk factors for DM:

Family history
Environmental factors
Overweight/obesity
Insulin resistance- which means that your cells are not responding to properly to insulin
Race & ethnicity (higher prevalence of type 2 in people of color)
Having a history of gestational diabetes
Having hypertension
Leading a sedentary lifestyle

Early detection & treatment of DM is extremely important. There are people that don’t want to know because they’re fearful. But knowing, and then making necessary lifestyle changes, will reduce your risk for developing diabetes-related complications.

Self-monitoring:

So let’s say you do have a confirmed diagnosis of diabetes. Your doctor may recommend that you start self-monitoring your sugars at home, especially if tests show that your sugars are uncontrolled. This involves getting a glucometer, which is a small machine that measures your blood sugars. You’ll prick yourself with a fine needle, and start recording your readings so you can review them with the doc.

Self-monitoring at home is so important because this way you have a better idea of how different foods and activities affect your blood sugars.
It’s important that you bring your logs and meters to doctors’ visits, because then you and the medical team and come up with a plan based on how your values are.
It could be that you’re eating healthfully, you’re active, and that as a result, and your values have dropped significantly.
In some cases, the doc may decrease the dose of your medication if you’re managing well with lifestyle changes.
Now, there are patients that do all of this and their sugars still remain high.
If that’s the case, the medication regimen may also have to get adjusted.

Dietitian Spotlight: Marisa Moore

July 24, 2016 by Wendy 1 Comment

Tell us a bit about yourself and your brand?

I’m a southern girl- born and raised in the rural south and now living in Atlanta. I’m a writer, media spokesperson, and consultant. I blog at MarisaMoore.com, where you’ll find nutrition tips and simple seasonal recipes. I launched my consultancy 4 years ago upon leaving an awesome full-time job at the CDC. Building on my clinical nutrition and wellness background, I now focus on functional and culinary nutrition, and enjoy showing how easy and delicious it can be to eat well. With science as my foundation, I use a small step, food first strategy. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is not a one-shot, all or nothing thing. It’s a process and my goal is to make it a little easier, one tasty morsel at a time.

What’s your favorite part about being a dietitian?

I don’t get bored with work. Ever. Being a registered dietitian nutritionist gives me countless opportunities to see and do new things. And helping others is in my DNA. I’m grateful to have chosen a career that lets me marry my love for science and passion for food with educating and helping others.

Describe what your typical week looks like?

One of the things I like most about my job is that I don’t have a typical week. One day I could be in my home office doing research for an article or writing to meet a deadline. The next day, I’m in the kitchen working on new recipes or heading to a TV studio for a story on the latest nutrition hot topic. Later that week, I could be developing a workshop or working with a restaurant client to create healthier menu options.

How do you find balance between work & personal?

It’s easy to work all day- even if it’s fun things like watching a cooking show or taking food photos. To remedy this I try to start and end my workday around the same times. I transition into personal time each day by walking my dog (Biscuit) then preparing dinner. Regular physical activity helps me relax. I jog most mornings, take a yoga class on occasion, and dance salsa as often as I can. I always leave the studio or dance floor feeling invigorated. To connect with friends and be active at the same time, I invite friends to catch up over a walk, hike, or a dance class. And a few times a year, I close the laptop to visit family and experience new places. I aim to visit 2-3 new countries every year.

What are 3 foods you can’t live without?

Black beans, sweet potatoes, and avocados- though cinnamon is a close runner up!

For more on Marisa Moore, check out her website here, and make sure you follow her on instagram here!

Dietitian Spotlight: Carlene Thomas

June 23, 2016 by Wendy 6 Comments

Tell us a bit about yourself and Healthfully Ever After?

Healthfully Ever after started as a blog while I was a student studying to be a dietitian, transitioned to a wedding focused business and is now the company my husband and I do full time. We do recipe development, food styling, food photography and videography work mostly with brands/commodity boards and online publications. And to answer the inevitable question-yeah! We’ve known each other since 4th grade as terribly awkward looking children. Yet despite awkward 90’s apparel and living and working together, we are not divorced!

What’s your favorite part about being a dietitian?

That these credentials have opened so many cool doors I never expected. You’re typically ‘told’ you ‘have’ to be one of three jobs, and what I do now is solidly none of those things. You can take your training and turn it into something amazing. And even though I do something so non-traditional with my credentials, I still am very involved in our professional organization and am the president of the Virginia affiliate of The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Describe what your typical week looks like?

So at this second, it’s 9 PM on a Tuesday and we’re prepping fried chicken for a photoshoot after visiting a restaurant friend to photograph (and drink, obviously) Negronis for Negroni Week. We’re also ordering obscure food and fashion magazines off the internet for vacation, based on how bad ass the covers look. And yet, this is a weirdly typical situation.

A more in-depth week looks something like this:

*6/7 days of the week: gym first thing in the morning while listening to Cherry Bombe Radio podcast*

Monday: Conference calls, admin (emails, responding to clients, reading contracts), ordering product for photo shoots, writing grocery lists for photo shoots and recipe development. Usually a few quick photo set ups mid day.
Tuesday: Procurement runs (grocery, Target, specialty stores), prop pulling, recipe run-throughs/production for photo shoots
W-Sunday: (Yeah. Through Sunday. Right now we are insanely busy but we’re trying to figure out a system to win back the weekend or take a random mid-day weekend) Video/photoshoots, edits, writing

How do you find balance between work & personal?

I’m going to keep it super real: it doesn’t exist. There’s no perfect balance, especially when you work with your personal (husband and wife team. Feline associates or ’employ-fees’ as we call them). But I’m completely okay with that! I cannot believe I get to do what I do. And I think when you do something you love (even when it comes with parts you hate, like self employment tax and being the dishwasher and the hand model), you understand and can appreciate your life is not normal. I don’t want normal! I love that we get to do this. But that being said, we have to schedule our vacations really far in advance and warn clients and go places preferably with no internet access.

What are 3 foods you can’t live without?

Cheese (every kind except really funky blue cheese and lindberger), ripe summer tomatoes, fresh bread using fermented starter. Basically a tomato sandwich.

For more from Carlene Thomas and Healthfully Ever After, check out her website here and make sure you follow her on instagram here!

Hemp Green Smoothie Bowl

June 19, 2016 by Wendy 6 Comments

In case you missed it, last month we hosted an absolutely gorgeous retreat in Jamaica at The Runaway BnB. We were so inspired by all of the native flavors of the island, we figured we had to create a series of recipes using fresh, local produce.

Hemp seeds provide fiber, healthy fats, and protein. They are unique in that they contain all the essential amino acids, which makes them a great addition to vegetarian and vegan diets.

This smoothie bowl is packed with all the powerful nutrients you need to jumpstart your day. The mango provides a sweet, tropical touch, and the hemp seeds provide a crunchy finish. Many smoothie bowl recipes we’ve come across are packed with sugars; either in the form of fruits, fruit concentrates, or juices. This smoothie bowl provides a nice balance of greens, fruit, healthy fats, and protein. The best part is you can customize with your favorite toppings!

Hemp Green Smoothie Bowl

Servings: 1

Ingredients

For the smoothie

1 1/2 cups spinach
1 small banana
1/5 avocado
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 small mango, peeled and chopped
1 cup water

Toppings

1 tablespoon hemp seeds
1 teaspoon unsalted pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon slivered almonds
Optional: 1 teaspoon unsweetened coconut flakes

Instructions

Blend all of the smoothie ingredients together
Pour into a bowl, and top with the suggested toppings, or customize with your own!

Interview with Jeff and Kalisa from The Runaway Jamaica

June 3, 2016 by Wendy 1 Comment

This past week, we’ve been in Jamaica hosting our first ever Wellness Retreat with Jeff & Kalisa from The Runaway Jamaica. In this episode, they share their insight on food, cooking, and running a successful business with purpose.

Jeff and Kalisa are a Brooklyn couple of Caribbean heritage turned business partners. When an especially cold winter sent them on vacation to Jamaica, they realized it was time to pursue our dream of opening a luxury B&B in the Caribbean, so they moved to Jamaica in October 2014 and put the plan in motion. They announced The Runaway Jamaica to the world on Kickstarter in March 2015 and became the first and only B&B ever funded on the platform.

See below for some beautiful snaps of their space! Learn more about them here and follow them on insta here!

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Photos by Dwayne Watkins

Dietitian Spotlight: Manuel Villacorta

May 23, 2016 by Wendy Leave a Comment

Tell us about yourself and the Whole Body Reboot!

I am native Peruvian raised in Lima, Peru. I have always been centered on food and family. I love cooking and being in the kitchen. The work I do in the kitchen allows me to come up with new recipes and ideas that I can share with my clients and readers. I love to travel and when I go to a new location, I am often going into supermarkets and open markets to see the variation not just in the types of foods, but also in how they are presented.

The Whole Body Reboot program is a lifestyle approach to losing weight by incorporating superfoods. It allows a person to find balance in what they consume, without cutting off certain food groups or items. Rather than just looking at calories, we look at all the food groups from grains, fruits and vegetables to fats, as well. After we look at that, we create a customized meal plan that is specific to each individual.

What is your favorite part about being a Registered Dietitian?

As a registered dietitian, there are many sectors that you can go into. The more obvious choice is the clinical setting, but I like being independent. With my private practice, I am able to work on different tasks and not be limited. I often work as a educator, coach, spokesperson, and speaker. I love the variation in what I do.

Tell us about what your typical week looks like?

For me, there is no typical week. I guess the base of the week is comprised of meeting with clients in my private practice. The week can also involve filming segments for live television, developing recipes and videos in my kitchen, as well as going into corporations and speaking to them about nutrition. Sometimes, it’s everything within the same week.

How do you find balance between your work and personal life?

Finding balance is a tricky thing. I have learned when to set time aside for myself, but I have also learned how to be flexible with my scheduling. Exercise time, which is very important to me, is always done in the early morning hours, before my work day starts. I have my office hours and reserve those times only for my clients. I also make time for cooking. When I cook, I feel relaxed and connected with my food. I sometimes work weekends editing and finishing up projects for clients, but then I am able to make up for that by going on trips.

Tell us 3 foods you cannot live without

These foods are definitely my staple foods that I use all too frequently.

Maca: I am completely hooked on it. It’s great for pre-exercise shakes to get my morning routine started.
Chicken breast: I eat other types of meat, but this is my go-to for protein.
Broccoli: I eat this all the time. I can’t get enough of broccoli.

For more on Manuel Villacorta, check out his site, Whole Body Reboot here!