New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s resolutions are kind of cliche, aren’t they? Everyone promises to exercise more, start a diet, be nicer. I always tell myself that I’m not going to buy into the hype. If I don’t make any resolutions, I won’t be disappointed in myself when I don’t follow through. But, of course, I always do them anyway. And, this year is no different. However, I’m changing things up a bit, in the hopes of having them stick for once! Following in the footsteps of one of my colleagues, here are eight resolutions for 2008, and because I’m a foodie, they are all food-related.

1. Create and follow a weekly menu.

2. Introduce more routine into our weekly dinners (slow cooker night, make-ahead night, stir fry night)

3. Visit my favorite food site every day for inspiration.

4. Try a new recipe every week.

5. Read my food magazines when they arrive, and ear-mark ideas and recipes.

6. Take my kids’ lunches beyond boring. This is going to take a lot of planning, but we are all tired of PB&J every day.

7. Make my kids’ lunches the night before. I am not at my best at 6:30am, and their lunches reflect this. In order to make #6 stick, I need to get better about working ahead.

8. Buy more local, less processed food, and try to avoid meat if I don’t know its origins.

What are your resolutions for ‘08?

By now I think almost everyone has heard of The Complaint Free World (if you haven’t, check out the website and you can request a free bracelet.) I absolutely love the concept and loved how a small group of people were able to make such a huge impact across the United States.

Last August we started our school year by passing out and donning the purple Complaint Free bracelets, and soon realized that not complaining was a little harder than we thought. It is so easy to head down the complaint path without even realizing it. At some level, complaining feels like a release of pent up frustration, but what if we allowed positive emotions to do the same?

I just read a great article this morning suggesting just that in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine. Kathy Seligman’s article, “Cultivating Happiness” asserts that positive psychology, some genetics and gratitude intervention can teach our kids to be happy. I love the concept of “cultivating happiness” with our children as it moves us away from complaints to focusing on the positive.

As today is New Year’s Day, my resolution will surely focus on being a mom who cultivates happiness in her home, with her husband and with her children. I spent the morning digging out our purple bracelets, and last night at midnight we put them back on as a reminder to look at life with our glasses half full.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Years! It’s that time of year when all of us are thinking about our New Year’s Resolutions. While losing a couple of pounds and vowing to eat healthier may be at the top of your list, there is another reason to eat well, simply put . . . healthy skin.

The old adage “you are what you eat” not only applies to our overall health and nutrition, but how our skin looks and feels as well. As the largest organ in the body, our skin can benefit from the same nutrition we get from foods that have a positive effect on our heart and other major organs. In fact, research suggests that eating foods rich in protein and certain vitamins and minerals might provide valuable anti-aging effects.

While there’s no mistaking how our diet affects our overall health, it can also impact our skin’s health.

Healthy Food . . . Healthy Skin

Perhaps the simplest way to maintain a healthy, balanced diet and ensure the skin is getting optimal nutrition from the foods we eat is to follow the recommendations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Daily Food Guide, commonly referred to as the food pyramid.

These include:

• Choosing and eating at least three ounces of whole grain breads, cereals, rice, crackers or pasta.
• Eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including more dark green and orange vegetables.
• Consuming calcium-rich foods, such as fat-free or low-fat milk and other dairy products.
• Opting for a variety of low-fat or lean meats, poultry and fish.

Research has shown that the antioxidants in vitamins C and E can protect the skin from sun damage and help reduce damage in skin cells caused by harmful free radicals, which contribute to aging skin.

Similarly, we have long known that the B vitamin biotin is responsible for forming the basis of skin, hair and nail cells, and vitamin A - found in many fruits and vegetables - maintains and repairs skin tissue. Without an adequate supply of these vitamins, you may notice it in the appearance of your skin, hair and nails.

While the direct link between food consumption and skin damage has not been widely studied, one study comparing the correlation between food and nutrient intake with skin wrinkling found a positive relationship. The study, “Skin Wrinkling: Can Food Make a Difference?,” published in the February 2001 issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, determined that Swedish subjects aged 70 and older had the least skin wrinkling in a sun-exposed site among the four ethnic groups studied. This cross-sectional study, which analyzed the pooled data using the major food groups, suggests “that subjects with a higher intake of vegetables, olive oil, and monounsaturated fat and legumes, but a lower intake of milk/dairy products, butter, margarine and sugar products had less skin wrinkling in a sun-exposed site.”

Eating a variety of healthy foods and drinking plenty of water so the skin stays hydrated will help most people improve the appearance of their skin.

Happiness is eating well for beautiful skin . . .

Many people choose health-related resolutions for the New Year…and I suspect that diet and exercise rank at the very top of the behaviors many of us would like to improve.

Year after year, I drop more resolutions in the first week of January than I would like to admit. Some years I even refuse to make resolutions, telling myself that if I had more discipline I wouldn’t need them. Probably true.

This year is going to be different. I always liked the idea of a New Year’s Resolution because of the feel of a fresh start. Here are a few tips for creating successful resolutions:

• Write it down. Keep your written resolution in a prominent place, like on the refrigerator or the steering wheel of your car.
• Keep it focused. Instead of “I am going to eat healthier,” try something specific like “I will eat three fruits a day.”
• Allow yourself some wiggle room. If you resolve to “exercise for an hour every day,” you will feel like a failure the first time you miss a day. Give yourself a range, like exercising three times a week.
• Keep it practical. Lofty goals are harder to attain and will be abandoned sooner. Even if you need to lose 20 lbs., resolve to lose 5 or 10 pounds as an initial goal, so that you can actually succeed. You will be more motivated to keep going.
• Reward the effort, not just the result. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started, so if you splurge on your reward (just had to have those earrings) on your way to your goal, remember to add another teaser for the next level. Just be careful not to sabotage your efforts. (Ice cream is not an appropriate reward for following your diet!)
• Share your ideas for healthy resolutions. Consider a weekly “salad day” at work and have each co-worker bring an ingredient for a big chef’s salad to share for lunch. Your friends will love it!

Remember that routines take time to change, so keep a positive outlook. When you lapse, plan to restart tomorrow or next week, just don’t wait until next year!

Send me your ideas for healthy resolutions and in a few weeks, lets see how we’ve done! Leave a comment, or e-mail me at chatterbox@noodleandboo.com. Questions on any other health issues? . . . Just ask!

Here’s to a Happy and Healthy New Year!