March is National Nutrition Month ! 🥝🥑🥦🍅🍒🍑🍉🍐🍏
In honor of National Nutrition month, for the month of March we are challenging you to create a healthy plate!
The healthy plate challenge will run March 1-31 and the goal is to create at least one healthy plate a day- breakfast, lunch or dinner- your choice .
SIGN UP FOR THE CHALLENGE
What you eat has a tremendous impact on your overall health and quality of life. Your diet can either fuel your body or slow you down. In fact, 95% of the body's serotonin is produced in the gut (digestive tract). Serotonin is that feel good happy hormone. This means that what you eat can actually boost your mood and make you HAPPIER + More ENERGIZED! In addition to that, 70% of your immune system is housed in the gut. This means that eating nutritious foods that feed a healthy gut will also keep you from getting sick.
I know eating healthy can at times feel overwhelming and time consuming and it can be all too easy to grab fast food or frozen dinners for that convenience and satisfaction. This is exactly why we celebrate National Nutrition Month each March. It offers us a month-long window to rethink nutrition as easy and fun rather than stressful and a hassle.
For this month, challenge yourself to eat right bite by bite. Disengage from any pressure you might feel to be perfect while focusing on your nutrition or diet and try to re-engage a philosophy that emphasizes how every little bit—bite—or plate—of food can be a step in the right direction and small changes can add up in big ways for positive impacts on our overall health.
This challenge is about feeling good, fueling your body and giving it the nutrients it needs to sustain a healthy weight, healthy mind, and healthy brain function.
What exactly is a healthy plate? I think healthy means something different for everyone, but generally a balanced meal would be defined as one that combines protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and fiber in the right portions.
1/2 plate or 1-2 cups non-starchy vegetables (brussels sprouts, asparagus, greens, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, mushroom etc.)
3-6 oz. or a fist size of protein (chicken, fish, eggs, turkey, grass fed beef etc.)
Palm size or 1/2 cup complex carbohydrates (brown rice, beans, quinoa, oatmeal, whole-wheat bread, potato, fruit etc.)
1-2 tbsp. or a few thumbnails of healthy fat (olive oil, avocado, peanut butter, nuts, chia seeds, flax seed oil, olives etc.)
You can refer to the USDA’s healthy plate model for how to build your healthy plate. This might look exactly like a plate as pictured but it may also look like a salad with your protein and olive oil dressing, a veggie omelette with avocado toast or protein oatmeal with almonds and fresh fruit.
Easier said than done? Hardly! When you join The Healthy Plate challenge this March, you’ll find that making healthy food choices is easier together and doing so influences our overall wellness in ways we might not have considered initially.
When you register for the challenge, you will gain access to our private teams group where you can share an image or description of your healthy plate, explore new foods or recipes, chat with other associates about favorite healthy recipes, cheer each other on and challenge yourself to look at nutrition differently.
I will also take you through how to build a healthy plate in our live webinar next week. Stay tuned for more details on that but for now click the link above to get signed up.
I am confident you will end the month of March with a greater understanding of food and the ways it influences our wellness.