What are your nutrition goals?

I have the dream job. One day I get to teach physicians about how nutrition and food can help build resilience, the next day I get to teach a class about how plant based eating! As a registered dietitian I help people set and accomplish lifestyle goals related to physical and mental health.

Maybe 2018 has you thinking of setting new goals, maybe you have entered to run a 10K for the first time, or want to start cooking at home to save money, or want to eat better; nutrition can help provide you with the strong foundation to get you to meet your goals.

So, I ask you, what are your nutrition goals? <fill in the blank here>

To make your goals a reality, here are a few tips:

1) Make it worth it:

Take a look at your goal, is it matching with your core values and beliefs about who you are and what you want to be in life? No, not what you want to look like but who you want to be as a person. When your friends, family, acquaintances describe you, who do you want to be? Does it match up? Good.

Goals to avoid: weight number based goals. I ALWAYS say, your weight is a side effect of your lifestyle. If you want to change your weight, focus on what you can change in your lifestyle to be healthy.

Example Goal to avoid: Lose 10 pounds

Goals to use: behavior based goals

Example: eat a fruit or vegetable with every meal and snack

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAALLLLL!!!!

2) Make it measurable:

Being more active is a popular goal. The Center for Disease Control recommends 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise for health. If you want to get active, be specific. "I will walk my dog 30 minutes 5 days a week." That you can measure. "I will get more walking in" is not measurable. So go for it!

3) Make it Do-able:

If you currently are not eating breakfast or lunch, and you want to start eating more balanced times of the day. Start with an achievable goal.

Example: Start having breakfast of a banana 3 times a week.

Avoid overdoing it. Example: I will pack a breakfast and lunch every day. It is common to go too extreme with food and exercise in order to get results, think long term for a lifetime of health. The best thing to do is to take small steps and gather your accomplishments. Once you have a banana 3 times a week, move on to adding oatmeal 2 times a week, etc.

Feel good about your success!!!

4) Reward yourself:

The most common rewards people come up with are food related. This has sabotaged many goal accomplishments by sending the wrong message that if you are good you get reward food and if you are bad you do not. We won't get into the emotional eating roller coaster this blog, so lets just say keep it non food related.

Here are some ideas:

* coffee with a friend

* movie with your partner

* "me time" on

* download a podcast

* "arts and crafts time" - work on that shelf you have been wanting to do, sew, knit, paint...

I love that! So... go on into 2018 feeling brave and strong and you will meet your goals. And once you do, reward yourself and set new ones!

For ideas and inspiration follow my instagram and facebook @strongcalmnutrition