Small Changes for Good Nutrition

Recently a major magazine asked us about “lazy man’s” nutrition. Well, lazy or simply stressed out and busy, there are great tips for both women and men to make small changes with a healthy difference.

In this first of a two-part series, our certified nutritionist and NHL/NFL consultant Brian Zehetner offers some quick ideas.

Brian says, “Overhauling your lifestyle can be quite a task, so take the ‘baby steps’ approach and work on one thing at a time. Simple substitutions of one item or another can help you change your nutrition habits slowly, but surely…and permanently.”

1. When eating salads, switch out the lettuce for spinach… more nutritional bang for your buck.

2. For any of you guys and gals who typically eat lots of red meat, substitute some fish twice a week… go with salmon, tuna, herring or even some shellfish (shrimp or crab).

3. If you drink alcohol watching the games or during happy hour, go for light beer or maybe rum and diet coke… save some of your calories for actual food.

4. If you like to eat chips with your beverages, why not choose the baked ones — plenty of variety, and they taste pretty good too. Pretzels or even whole grain crackers with low fat cheese would be a ‘better’ option.

5. Make sure to buy plenty of fruit (keep 4 different varieties in the house at all times) and keep it visible. It’s hard to eat when it’s buried in the bottom crisper drawer in the fridge.

6. Try to buy whole grain breads — look on the ingredient list to see if it is truly whole grain, and shoot for ones that have at least 3-5 grams of fiber per slice.