Hi!  I’m Catherine Joiner, a nutritionist from the American Heart Association, and I’m thrilled to be working with Let’s Dish! again.  Throughout the month, I’ll be contributing the Food for Thought blog with some useful and important tips to help you leave a heart healthier lifestyle.  Feel free to comment on my posts or email me directly at catherinejoiner@gmail.com with any questions that I might be able to help you answer.  I hope you enjoy my posts and find the information helpful and applicable for you.

10 Minutes to a Healthier You

We all know that exercise paired with a healthy diet are the two keys to maintaining a healthy weight, reducing risk for disease, and living an overall healthy lifestyle. But, sometimes it just takes too long! Here are some tips to help kick-start or reshape your healthy lifestyle – and they only take about 10 minutes of your day!

• Utilize Elizabeth’s 5-Cent Solution, then bring back “Dance Party USA” with your kids while dinner is in the oven. This is one of my favorites! Put their favorite music on and jump and dance around with them. It’s a great time with your kids and you get some movement added into your day.

• You can easily increase your exercise by completing chores around your house. Make mopping or sweeping an aerobic activity by putting a little more energy into it. It’s the perfect time of year to shovel the snow! Dance while you dust. You may look a little goofy, but it gets your heart rate up!

• Walk around the block when you go out to get the mail or take the dog for an extra walk.

• Set your alarm 10 minutes earlier so you can sit down for a quick breakfast. Your mom wasn’t lying when she said breakfast is the most important meal of the day. All studies on successful weight loss and maintenance report that breakfast was a key factor in the participants’ success. You can also use this time to put together a quick lunch to take with you if you work. It can be anything from making a sandwich and throwing in some yogurt and fruit to grabbing a container of leftovers from the night before.

• Take an extra 10 minutes when you are putting your groceries away to go ahead and portion out your snacks if they aren’t already packaged separately. For example, wash and portion out your grapes into baggies, portion out dried fruits and nuts for a quick trail mix, wash and cut your raw veggies. This provides easy “grab and go” snacks when you are in a hurry to get out the door and cuts back on the last minute stops at fast food or convenience stores.

• After dinner, portion out your leftovers in containers that you can take to work or use the next day for lunch. You are more likely to eat your leftovers if you don’t have to pull out three different containers to make one plate. A common practice in my house is freezing leftover meals in individual containers, as if they are my personal, homemade frozen dinners. This way, if I can’t finish my leftovers before they go bad (or I just get tired of them!), I can pull them out a week or two later to take for lunch or eat for dinner if I’m working late.

• If you aren’t eating Let’s Dish! meals, plan out your meals ahead of time and make a grocery list. Making a home-cooked meal only takes about 10 minutes longer than cooking a prepackaged dinner. Steaming vegetables, grilling or broiling lean meat, tossing a salad together, or even making a quick stir-fry take less time than cooking a frozen pizza.

No matter how busy you are, you can work healthy practices into your schedule that make a big difference in your overall health. Small changes add up and all it takes is 10 minutes of your day!

Catherine Joiner
Cardiac Clinical Dietician