Generation SNACK!

Like anything in the world of nutrition, you'll find "experts" who will argue that snacking is a good thing, and you'll find "experts" who will argue that snacking is a bad thing. My perspective? It depends. (Spoiler alert: this is my perspective on just about everything health-related.)

On the good side, snacks can help prevent over-eating at meals. And taking time out for a little snack can be a nice respite from a hectic day. Snacks can also help balance a mood if blood sugar is out of whack, preventing meltdowns in kids and even in adults (manifests as unjustified impatience and frustration.)

So as I see it, there's no harm in a snack every so often.

But it seems to me that today's wee generation (and I can say this because I created two members of it) thinks of snacks as an entirely different thing. To them, snacks are a daily guarantee. It's as if snacks are their own food group. I don't remember this being the case when I was little, so I asked my mom:

I don't remember snacks being very much a part of our lives at all. Maybe because I was taught not to eat between meals? I know we had pretzels around, and bananas and other fruit, mostly apples. But I don't remember you guys ever eating in the car on the way to do errands or soccer practice or anything like that. Do you?

Nope, I don't. But I don't know too many parents nowadays who dare take their kids in the car without snacks. I certainly don't. Having an emergency stash on hand is smart, but when the stash becomes the expectation rather than the exception, it's a slippery slope: kid doesn't eat his breakfast - he knows he'll get a snack if he's hungry... kid eats that mid-morning snack and then isn't hungry for lunch... so kid doesn't eat lunch but is hungry in a few hours so he gets a mid-afternoon snack... and so on and so on.

This wouldn't be such a problem if the latest definition of "snack" wasn't so warped. (And actually, this situation would likely be much less prevalent if the latest definition of "snack" wasn't so warped!) When my four year old asks for a snack, I offer fruit, veggies and hummus, nuts, or - dread! - her leftovers from the previous meal. And I'm very emphatically told: "Those aren't snacks!" To be considered a snack by Maggie standards, it must come from a box or bag with a questionably long shelf-life.

The odd thing is, my kids actually really like fruit, veggies and hummus, nuts... so what gives?

Can I blame school? The ubiquitous 'snack time' that seems to be synonymous with piles of bright orange fish?

Can I blame the expansive center aisle of the grocery store? The shelves packs with overly sweet, overly salty, overly-processed "foods" that didn't exist 30 years ago?

Can I blame other parents? After all, an apple is booooooo-ring when it's sitting on a bench next to a bag of cinnamon teddies.

It might make me feel better to place the blame elsewhere, but the reality is whether some or all of these things are true, none is an excuse. Healthy eating habits are ours to teach our kids... or not. And frankly, I think many of us have gotten a little lazy.

I'm never going to be able to control what my kids are given at someone else's house, or at snack time at school, or if they're sitting next to a bag of Doritos at the playground. But I can control what I give to them. I can control what I have in my cupboards, my car and my purse. And I can control how much of their real meals they eat (or at least what that means for any sort of snack entitlement later.) And if I'm doing right by them when I have that control, I can give them a better shot at making their own good choices when I'm not around.

Superfood For The Mind and Soul

Every year for the past ten years, eleven crazy friends and I (and over 400 other teams) have run a relay race up in New Hampshire called Reach the Beach. It's my favorite weekend of the year.

The route is roughly 200 miles, split up into 36 legs, starting at Cannon Mountain and ending at Hampton Beach. It's marketed as 200 miles in 24 hours, but for the more normal (us), it takes roughly 30. Each runner logs a total of between 15 and 23 miles depending on which legs they've been assigned, or up to 3ish hours, depending on how fast they are.

The other roughly 27 hours are spent sitting in one of two progressively smellier vans, getting progressively more sore from sitting still after pushing our bodies up and pounding them down massive hills, becoming more and more slap-happily delirious, and eating the only kind of food that can possibly survive in a magically disgusting environment like this one: processed crap... with the occasional banana or apple. (My kids were beside themselves with confusion and excitement when I brought the leftovers home this year - Life Cereal and Oreos!? What happened to Momma!?)

And after each of our vans completes a round of legs, we always find a fabulous restaurant along the route to reward ourselves. If it's after 11am-ish, we don't shy away from the drinks menu. Nope, we dig right in to everything, letting nothing dampen our debaucherous spirits... as if our next legs are days away, rather than hours. Because this race is all about the moment.

Our stomachs always pay the price on subsequent legs - but nevertheless, each of us somehow manages to run them faster than we possibly could on any normal day. Because adrenaline is on our side. So are the 50 random angry cows we meet on the side of the dirt country road, the moon and the stars that guide us at night, the driving rain that makes us feel four years old again, the end-of-the-random-driveway-cocktail-party-goers who toast our grit, and the cool sand between our blistered toes as eleven of us gather around Big Booty Hoh (team name = don't ask) runner number 12 to hobble across the finish line - throat lumps and all.

Big Booty Hohs 2013

It may seem odd for anyone, let alone a health coach, to argue that sleep deprivation, alcohol, Twizzlers and pushing your body way beyond its limits is a healthy combination. In fact, I'm fully aware that to most people this weekend sounds like the definition of hell. But except for duds along the way, most anyone I've recruited to run for the Big Booty Hohs over the past ten years has fallen in love with the experience. And we've all kind of fallen in love with each other too: BO, farts and all.

We even have a theme song, this small excerpt of which doesn't do its brilliance justice:
"... Big. Big Hohs. Big Booty Hohs. 
Sometimes a Hoh just gotta make through the night. 
Perseverance is my pimp. The road is my crack pipe..." 

Bad for the body? Inarguably. But this race is like superfood for my mind and soul, which more than makes up for it. Five days have passed since we "reached the beach" and I'm still riding high.

Forget Philadelphia Cheesesteak... Philadelphia Smoothie, Anyone?

I am married to a Philadelphia sports fan. I am a Boston fan. While that sounds like a recipe for a bad marriage, we find solace in commiseration.

The Eagles have been bad for some time, making Peter's fairly successful fantasy football team an increasingly important part of our family's football season lives. But last night, against predictions, the Eagles beat the Redskins. As Philadelphia and Boston fans, Peter and I know the perils of premature celebration, but this is exciting news nonetheless. For him, because his team looks really promising. For me, because I can credit their looking good to Chip Kelly's strict requirement for a healthy team diet, and therefore shamelessly promote my own business.

Chip Kelly replaced Andy Reid as the Eagles head coach this year. One of the first things he did was completely change the team diet. Gone are Taco Tuesdays. Gone are Fast Food Fridays. No more soda; instead, each player gets their own customized smoothie. Make me wonder what a Wylie smoothie might include...

Are eating habits the only thing Chip Kelly changed? No. In fact, read here and you wouldn't think diet had anything at all to do with their win last night. It's as if the headlines from May were buried somewhere. But consider this: 80% of health is attributed to diet and only 20% to exercise. When focusing on professional athletes, those percentages might come closer together, but diet still plays a major role in overall performance, no matter where you're performing - at school, at work, on the field, you name it.

I am a Patriots fan, but I am (also) rooting for the Eagles this year. Not just because I want a happy husband. Not just because I want to prove my beliefs and promote my business. But because Chip Kelly has a real shot at influencing a huge number of people with a message I hold near and dear: treat your body with the respect and love it deserves and it will pay you (and your rabid fans!) back in spades. Treat it any other way and you're gambling. Whether these headlines make it to the big papers is questionable, but they'll certainly always make it to this little blog that could!

When observations become judgements

I took Frank on a bike ride yesterday. He knows how to ride his own bike but the roads around our house aren't terribly forgiving, and he's small for six so he still fits in the baby seat (we of course don't call it that.) And besides, I love stealing time alone with each of the kiddos. So this was Frankie and Momma time. We talked about first grade, camping, football and then, when my breathing got heavier and heavier until eventually I could hardly talk (we live in the mountains!), he asked me if I wished the whole ride were downhill.

"No," I said. "I actually love the hills. They keep me in shape so I'll always be able to keep up with you." He asked me if I knew anyone who wasn't in shape. "Lots of people," I told him. And then the inevitable question: "Who?"

Oh...

The situation reminded me of a story my friend told me a little while ago about her five-year-old son calling one of her co-workers fat. He didn't just say it about her, he said it TO her. And he was right, this woman was indeed fat. It wasn't a criticism, however - it was merely a five-year-old's observation. A fact is a fact at that age, after all. So my friend didn't feel it appropriate to get angry with him. She simply said that everyone is different and managed to change the subject. (They had a longer conversation later.) She handled it a lot more deftly than I likely would have in the heat of the moment. So I took the opportunity this bike ride conversation afforded me to avoid any remotely similar situation.

"You know, honey, it's not nice to talk about people being out of shape. There could be lots of reasons they are or they look like they are, and they probably don't feel very good about it. It's like saying someone is ugly. Or stupid. We just shouldn't do it."

Uncharacteristically, Frank accepted this answer and then moved on to a different topic. But it got me thinking about at what age kids really start truly processing differences among people - be it body shape/size or anything else - and how and when the processing turns into judgements, either of themselves or others. Unfortunately, I think it's happening earlier and earlier. In fact, an upcoming PTA workshop we're holding at PS321 elementary school in Brooklyn is all about self-love and body image.

In retrospect, I wish I'd engaged in Frank's questioning rather than (successfully, at least for the short term) shutting it down. Because I want him to feel comfortable talking to me about his thoughts and observations so we can help steer them in a way that helps rather than potentially hurts.

Talking it through - whatever "it" is - is always, always the healthier approach. I promise I'll take my own advice next time, Frankie.

Ideas that make me jealous

I recently hosted a meeting with a bunch of my clients and agency industry partners. We spent a good part of the meeting talking about general business, but we always like to devote some time to "inspirational learning" as well. It's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, and miss the things that may be happening around us that could have a tremendously positive impact on the way that we think and ultimately the business decisions we make. (True of life as much as it is of business, actually!)

One of our inspirational learning agenda topics was 'Ideas that make you jealous.' Each team was tasked with sharing an example of advertising that made them think: "damn, I wish I'd thought of that!" My team shared some Cannes-award-winning work from IBM.

IBM's purpose is "to use our technological smarts to help the planet work better." They carried this purpose over into their advertising where they turned a would-have-been billboard campaign into:

A ramp for bikes, suitcases, strollers.

A shelter from the rain.

A bench to chill out on.

Brilliant.

HOWEVER, if I'd read about this before our meeting, I would have shared it instead. Two social scientists are out to try to change the behavior of the American food shopper by incredibly interesting means - it's being termed 'Nudge Marketing.'

Imagine getting your grocery cart, throwing in a bag of cheez doodles and then seeing your own reflection as well as the bag staring right back at you? 

You'd think twice. (This guy is clearly smiling because he sees lettuce, a pineapple and a tomato.) It would also give you pause to throw in a loaf of Wonder Bread and a jar of mayo into the section of your cart marked "produce." And it would be tough to ignore enormous green arrows on the grocery floor leading to the fruit and vegetable aisle.

These are just some of the marketing experiments taking place around the country to increase healthy food consumption. Perhaps they are a little 'Big Brother'-esque, and therefore they might attract some criticism, but no one is being forced to do anything. The control, and ultimately the decision, still lies with the consumer. Early signs suggest the approach is working. 

Sorry IBM. While getting caught in the rain can be a bummer, it's not the end of the world. What could be the end of the world (or the end of America as we know it) is if we keep up our addiction to food that eventually kills. Any idea that can help us curb that addiction gets my vote.

Fruitarians

Yes. People who eat only (or, I should say, mostly: 80%) fruit. They exist. And at least from the pictures, they look pretty healthy.

They recently got together for their annual festival in upstate New York and numbers would suggest the concept is gaining in popularity - the festival enjoyed 50% higher attendance this year than last. I'm not terribly surprised - folks are always looking for the next silver bullet in wellness. And the likelihood is that Fruitarianism will hit its peak at some point and then interest will wane, replaced by the next thing.

While it's hard to imagine that eating 80% fruit is sustainable, consider the unfortunate percentage of the American population who gets by on 80% artificial, highly-processed foods. In comparison, fruit sounds pretty damn good!

Okay, so I'm rolling my eyes a little bit too. Are these people truly motivated by "wellness" or are they just out to make some silly statement and to attract a bunch of press? In truth, it's probably a little bit of both when you average them all out. But let's put aside our judgements for the moment, and pull two important nuggets from Fruitarianism:

1. FRUIT IS GOOD. Fruit has gotten a mixed rap over the past couple of decades. Dreaded carbs! Loads of sugar! But the reality is, fruit is a super-food. The carbs are good carbs (and carb profiles vary from fruit to fruit so choose from a wide variety and there's little to worry about.) The sugar is natural sugar. And that sugar is appropriately balanced with loads of fiber to ensure healthy digestion. Just how nature intended.

2. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT. I doubt all 600 people who attended this year's festival are truly healthy living on 80% fruit. But I'm certain some are. We are all different. A concept I keep coming back to is bio-individuality. What works for me may be detrimental for you, and vice versa. If you're trying to get healthier, don't just copy everything that woman in your spin class is doing and assume it's going to work just as well for you. It may, but it may not. We all have to experiment and be open - stick with it and you'll ultimately find what works, and what's sustainable. (And remember I'm available to help!) If that's 80% fruit, well, so be it!