Nutrition For a Lifetime Recap

Presenter: Jill Anderson RD

Written by: Michael Iwanchuk

Date: June, 2023

Jill is a Registered Dietitian in Winnipeg who helps adults simplify their nutrition so they can achieve optimal health and sustainable weight loss. Her goal is to empower people to make food and lifestyle choices that will result in a happy and healthy life. Jill’s approach to weight loss and nutrition is balanced, realistic and sustainable. On Monday June 19th, 2023 Jill presented to a group of Strive Clients on the topic of Nutrition for a Lifetime. In the talk Jill provided an overview of:

• Macronutrients
  • The importance of protein, carbohydrates, and fats with common misconceptions
• Balancing Your Meals
  • The important of caloric intake at each meal of the day
• Optimal Meal Spacing
  • Time between feels and frequency of eating
• Understanding Hunger Cues
  • Why are you hungry? Where is your hunger resonating from? Are you eating for nourishment, or eating for other reasons?
• Importance of External Factors like Stress, Sleep, Activity, and Hydration and how they impact our eating
• Planning your Meals
  • Strategies to consistently put meals together
• and Common Barriers to success

Several times, the talk turned to a conversation as clients compared and contrasted their experiences with healthy eating, meal planning strategies, and discussing the latest diet fads and current trends.

While nutrition can be a murky topic, Jill kept the conversation around the principle that (as long as there is not a medical condition) pretty much everything can fit into a healthy nutrition plan.

“Should I eliminate sugar entirely?”

Sugar is in a lot of foods, including healthy options like fruits. If we limit things in their entirety we very often see over consumption when they are re-introduced or during a binge.

“I heard we shouldn’t eat before bed, is this true?”

If you are a shift worker, or require calories late at night (after a sport or activity). It would probably be better to consume some food to help your body repair, even if it happens to be before bed.

While we often hope for direct, and clear statements, “it depends” is often the correct answer for nutritional (and training) advice. Both nutrition and training are lifelong practices where individuals are constantly changing. Working with a professional can assist in your awareness to make better choices, and a good plan involves both the professional and you (the client).

A couple ah-ha moments from our clients were:

• Approximately 9 out of 10 of the clients I see are not getting enough protein. This can lead to gastric emptiness, increased hunger, and lack of amino acids to assist in tissue and muscular recovery.
• While often unintentional, we see a lot of clients skipping morning meals or curbing appetite with coffee or a snack (apple) to start their day. It is then natural that we can become distracted at work, which leads to skipping lunch. Before we know it we are on the car ride home looking for the quickest calories to consume which often leads to drive-throughs or easy to grab options at home like chips, cereal, toast, or chipits chocolate. Proper caloric frequency is important to get proper nutrition in and curb hunger cues. If we miss calories early in the day we often see the over consumption occur after work, or after supper.
• Some common barriers to success come in the form of; restricting yourself too much, all or nothing mindset, changing too much too quickly, and having the lack of accountability or external support.

Whether you are aiming to be more active, improve your eating habits, develop positive sleep routines, or trying to fix your car, we often hear people say “I know how to do that”. Unfortunately people rarely find long term success because we either do not make the time, lack professional understanding for our needs, or cannot maintain the motivation to get it done quickly, efficiently, or sustain for the long term. At STRIVE we aim to create this environment for you with educated, experienced professionals with a group of clients that create a positive, inspiring environment.

If you are interested in working with Jill Anderson RD, please reach out to info@strivetraining.ca where we will send more information to get started.

We look forward to seeing you in the gym!