Joe shares:  Each day you make well over 200 decisions about food, according to Brian Wansink, PH.D. in his book, Mindless Eating. Your weight is the sum total of your past food decisions.

According to Wansink, overeating can be greatly reduced simply by removing the cues in your environment that cause you to overeat. He goes on to explain the top 5 Diet Danger Zones and the solutions for each:

1. The Meal Stuffer: At mealtime you really stuff yourself. You clean everything off your plate, eat quickly and often go back for seconds. You consider yourself to have a "healthy appetite" and often feel uncomfortably full after eating.

• Use the Half-Plate Rule: fill half of your plate with vegetables and the other half with protein and starch.
• Use smaller plates and wait 20 minutes before deciding if you want seconds.
• Eat slower so your appetite can catch up with what you've already eaten.
• Don't place serving dishes on the table. Pre-plate your food and then put the rest out of reach.

2. The Snack Grazer: You eat whatever food is within reach, and snack at least three times throughout the day. You can't walk past a candy dish without dipping in. Your snacking is rarely done out of hunger.

• Chew gum throughout your day to avoid mindless munching.
• Keep tempting snack foods out of sight and out of mind.
• Never eat directly from a package. Portion out your snack into a dish.
• Don't purchase tempting snack foods for future snacking. Keep a wide variety of fruits and vegetables on hand instead.

3. The Party Binger: Whenever you attend a social event where the main attraction is food, you eat without stopping. With all the distraction you quickly lose track of how much you've consumed and often stop only when it's time to leave.

• Stay more than an arm's length away from the buffet or snack bowls.
• Put only two food items on your plate during each trip to the table.
• Make yourself feel full by eating the big healthy stuff first, like broccoli and carrots.
• Remind yourself why you are at the party: first to socialize or to conduct business and secondarily to eat.

4. The Restaurant Indulger: You eat out at least three times a week and enjoy every minute of it. You love appetizers, large entrees and rich desserts. When you leave the table you are always stuffed.

• Ask your waiter to remove the bread basket from the table.
• Before you eat, ask your waiter to box half of your entrée to take home.
• Decide to either share an appetizer or a dessert, never have both.
• Skip the appetizer menu and instead start your meal with a side salad.

5. The Desktop (or Dashboard) Diner: You like to multi-task by eating at your desk or on the go. Your lightning-quick meals are grabbed on-the-go from fast food joints, vending machines and convenience stores. You don't plan your meals ahead of time and end up eating whatever you can quickly find.

• Pack a healthy lunch and bring it with you.
• Stock your work area with healthy protein-filled snacks.
• Drink plenty of water throughout the day.
• Turn off the computer or pull your car over while you eat.

By making these healthy changes when it comes to your food decisions, you will put yourself back on course and move in the direction of healthy weight loss.

Submitted by Joe Thiel with Fitness Together.  For more information, visit our Mom's Choice Directory.

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St. John's Hospital

800 E. Carpenter St.

Springfield, IL 62769

217-544-6464

Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital, 619 E. Mason Street, Springfield. 1st floor Dove Conference Center.

6/30/2010, 6-9 p.m.

A renewal for healthcare professionals. Appropriate for nursing, dental hygiene, doctors & others already trained in Healthcare Provider CPR. Class includes AED skills.

Fee: $35. To register, please call 544-6464 ext. 49019.

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St. John's Hospital

800 E. Carpenter St.

Springfield, IL 62769

217-544-6464

Prairie Healing Garden, Center for Living at Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital

Every Tuesday, 12:00 – 12:30

Open to anyone who wishes to participate. Gentle stretching, guided mindfulness meditation and incorporating the practice of mindfulness into life.

Free. For more information, call 544-LIVE (5483).

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St. John's Hospital

800 E. Carpenter St.

Springfield, IL 62769

217-544-6464

Carol Jo Vecchie Women & Children's Center at St. John's Hospital, Conference Room Q

6/21/2010, 5:30 – 7 p.m.

Make up and skin care program for patients undergoing cancer treatments.

Free. For more information, please contact Diana 544-6464 *45591.

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St. John's Hospital

800 E. Carpenter St.

Springfield, IL 62769

217-544-6464

Dove Conference Center in Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital.

For cancer survivors and loved ones.

6/13/2010, 11:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Free. To RSVP, please call 757-6383 option #3.

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Question

Answer: Sara Lopinski, MS, RD, LDN and a Registered Dietitian for the Center for Living explains.

"The main attraction of organic foods is to avoid potentially unsavory chemicals, such as synthetic pesticides, other pollutants, hormones and antibiotics. Some people are spending extra for organic foods because they are concerned about the way some conventional farm operations treat their animals or they want to do their part to help stem global warming. There are some facts you need to know about organic foods so you can make an informed choice.

• Are pesticide levels in foods harmful? There is little data on the risk from eating fruits and vegetables that contain pesticide residues. If you are a healthy adult, there are many other things that pose greater health risks, such as intake of sodium and saturated fat and exposure to tobacco smoke. Bottom-line: it can’t hurt to avoid pesticides, but you are better off eating fruits and vegetables with pesticides than not eating fruits and vegetables at all.
• Are organic foods likely to have fewer pesticides? Yes. In a recent comparison, about 75% of conventionally grown fruits and vegetables contained tiny amounts of pesticides while only 25% of organic fruits and vegetables contained pesticides.
• Are organic fruits and vegetables more nutritious? The evidence is weak at best that organic foods are better nutritionally. Bottomline: for the average healthy adult who eats a varied diet with adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables, any extra nutrients in organic food will not significantly alter their health.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest* has published two lists: The Dirty Dozen – produce worth buying in organic form and The Consistently Clean – produce that can be purchased in non-organic form.

• The Dirty Dozen: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, imported grapes, spinach, lettuce, potatoes.
• The Consistently Clean: papaya, broccoli, cabbage, bananas, kiwi, sweet peas (frozen), asparagus, mango, pineapple, sweet corn (frozen), avocado, onions.

*Nutrition Action Healthletter, July/August 2007, p. 5.

Submitted by Sara Lopinski, a Registered Dietician at the Center for Living at St. John's Hospital. You can email her at sara.lopinski@st-johns.org. For more St. John's Children's Hospital articles, visit our  Kids Health Check Articles.

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We are bombarded with orders about what to eat.

From the time we are children, food is presented as both a reward and punishment – who hasn’t been told they could have dessert only after they finished all their vegetables?  We eat to celebrate the good times, and when someone dies, the family home is over-run with angel food cakes and casseroles.

We crave “comfort foods,” and then we cover our eyes when we step on the scales. The fad a few years ago was to eat an all-meat diet to lose weight; now it’s our civic duty to save the environment by forgoing meat.

With all these mixed messages, what’s a body to do?

Ask Bridget Rolens this question, and she would say in a calm and non-judgmental manner, “Don’t diet. Eat mindfully.” Rolens, a Mind-Body Stress Reduction Facilitator, is the instructor for the eating mindfully class at the Prairie Heart Center for Living.

I know it’s really hard to hear “don’t diet,” and not hope Bridget has uncovered a secret for shedding pounds that lets you eat whatever you want, whenever you want, in any amount you want. But the class is not about weight loss. It’s not a fad, or a quick fix, and it certainly is not a substitute for a healthy diet. If you want to eat a super-size box of french fries every day, that’s your prerogative – but I can guarantee you that after some effort learning to eat mindfully, you will want to make your food choices more wisely.

In a world of confusion about what to eat, “Don’t Diet, Eat Mindfully” focuses on how to eat. Literally. One of the most challenging lessons throughout the entire class is the “Mindfulness Bite,” in which participants re-learn how to eat food, bite by bite.

The class is first and foremost an exercise in mindfulness and meditation, more commonly expressed as “being in the moment.” Because people eat for a plethora of reasons that do not involve hunger, and very often direct their attention elsewhere while eating, Bridget first focuses on the act of eating and helps participants to identify the reasons why they eat when their bodies do not need to.

In learning to be “in the moment,” class participants are encouraged to think about what our bodies want. Eating is a physical act that for almost everyone is heavily influenced by emotions. Recognizing those emotions frees us from their influence, and we can be mindful about our choices at the dinner table.

Could you benefit from mindfulness? Take this quiz:

• Have you ever inhaled an “individual” size bag of potato chips and then were surprised to learn that one bag contained three servings?

• Have you ever finished a plate of food because you felt guilty for not being a member of the “Clean Plate Club” even though you were physically uncomfortable afterwards?

• Have you ever eaten something while doing something else – watching television, working on the computer – and you didn’t realize you were “done” until your hand was scraping the bottom of an empty package? And you were still hungry?

• The next time you eat, try not to take another bite until you are completely finished swallowing the food in your mouth. Do you have to remind yourself to wait?

If you saw yourself in any of the above situations, “Don’t Diet, Eat Mindfully” can help you learn how to eat and feel better about it.

“Don’t Diet, Eat Mindfully” gives us the freedom to stop judging ourselves when it comes to food. It teaches us how to see eating as a more natural, fulfilling experience during which we nourish our bodies instead of abusing them.

To learn more about “Don’t Diet, Eat Mindfully” and other classes offered at St. John’s Prairie Heart Institute's Center for Living, please call 217-544-LIVE (5483).

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Parent Help Line article here.

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We've got KIDS BOOTCAMP!!!

J&J Fitness is excited to offer two new boot camp classes, led by drill instructor Ashley Dalby:

Buy a punch card and kids can join anytime!

KIDS BOOT CAMP; Ages 6 to 9

YOUTH BOOT CAMP; Ages 10 to 13

Designed especially for the younger population, these class will help improve your child's level of health, flexibility and muscular endurance.

Classes include:

-Strength and cardio training

-Partner Training

-Fitness Games, relays and obstacle courses

-Fitness Assessments every 30 days

Parents are welcome to attend or participate in one of our adult boot camps at the same location.

Kids Camps begin Monday, June 14th  and kids can join in anytime with a punch card!

Check out the info on this and all our fitness offerings at:  www.jjfitnessquest.com Do it now! Space is limited!

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