The beginning of the New Year is a time when your clients may be more focused on making healthy resolutions. Losing weight, healthier eating and increasing physical activity are always popular New Year’s resolutions. Many people believe these goals are best achieved with a "quick fix" or drastic plan or program. However, research supports that long-term weight loss and sustained healthy lifestyle changes occur slowly over time. Taking small steps toward goals will yield the greatest results. With the proper guidance, accurate information, realistic goals and personal commitment your client's resolutions can become a reality.

In order to get off to a good start for the New Year, have your clients sign up today for our free Meals Matter Nutrition and Fitness Challenge. This four-week Challenge, beginning January 12th, is designed by registered dietitians to help reduce holiday weight gain and renew healthy lifestyle routine with expert guidance on nutrition, fitness and meal planning. It can be offered as a tool to complement the information you provide in individual couseling or group settings such as worksite wellness.

The Meals Matter Nutrition and Fitness Challenge will help establish a pattern of healthy food choices each week by providing a range of features to make meal planning easier, such as nutrition articles, access to healthy recipes and a meal planner to help plan meals over time. Over the course of the Challenge, participants will complete our interactive healthy lifestyle tools, which allow for customized nutrition and physical-activity recommendations based on your client's unique needs and preferences.

Although the Challenge begins January 12th, clients can register now and connect with others through social-networking Challenge pages found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. These venues help clients connect with other participants for social support before, during and after the four-week Challenge. In addition, members who complete each aspect of the Challenge by Feb. 19th are eligible for a reward so encourage your clients to join today.

Trina Robertson, MS, RD

Project Manager

Growing older doesn’t have to lead to chronic disease, lack of energy or lack of independence. In fact, by making some small lifestyle changes today, older adults can enjoy more energy, maintain physical mobility, lower risks for certain chronic diseases and prevent bone and muscle loss associated with aging. The best way to do this is by helping your older clients make positive food and physical-activity choices every day. This can be a challenge, given that many older adults experience a loss of thirst and appetite, find meal planning to be challenge and may experience difficulty being as active as before. However, given some simple guidance, many of these challenges can be overcome.  

Here are a few tips to share with your older adult clients:

• Choose a mix of nutrient-rich foods every day from all the food groups to get more nutrients for fewer calories.
• Consume at least three servings of low-fat milk or milk products each day to ensure adequate intake of calcium and vitamin D.
• Make sure to eat foods high in protein with each meal and snack, such as lean meat, poultry, beans, eggs, milk, nuts and seeds.
• Stay hydrated by drinking fluids throughout the day. Water, low-fat milk, 100% fruit juice and decaffeinated tea are good choices.
• Consume foods high in fiber to help with digestive regularity, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and nuts.
• Be active for at least 30 minutes per day doing activities that raise your heart rate, such as a water-aerobics class, dancing or walking.
• Do muscle-strengthening activities weekly. Use an elastic band or small hand weights.
• Stock up on the basics so that you always have food on hand for a healthy meal or snack.

In addition to these tips, we have also developed a new, two-sided downloadable handout, Healthier Eating & Physical Activity: Tips for Older Adults for you to use with your clients. This handout is perfect to distribute at a medical office, senior center, or even a health fair. I also suggest using this handout as an insert to our other free nutrition education booklets, such as Activity & Eating—Linking Together for Optimal Health and Fitness or The Calcium Connection—Healthy Bodies From One Generation to Another. By providing relevant and practical nutritional guidance to your older adult clients, you can help them achieve health and well-being as they age.

Ashley Rosales, R.D.

Project Manager

As the end of the year draws near, many people ponder over their options for New Year's resolutions. Many of the top five resolutions occur year after year. Why is this? Resolutions are set with the greatest of intentions, yet the majority are not accompanied by specific goals and action steps that lead to long-term behavior changes. With a little guidance, the right plan of action and realistic goals, you can help your clients achieve their health-related resolutions.  

Losing weight, eating healthier and being more physically active always seem to pop up as the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Yet, with all of the “quick fixes” promoted in the media, many people believe these goals can be achieved with a magic pill or program. As health professionals, we know that long-term weight loss and sustained healthy lifestyle changes occur slowly over time. Encouraging your clients to take small steps toward their goals will yield the greatest results. Our program booklet Activity & Eating—Linking Together for Optimal Health and Fitness can help your clients set realistic goals, overcome barriers and ultimately achieve positive lifestyle changes with regards to food choices and physical activity. This self-instructional booklet also focuses on nutrient-rich foods as the basis of a healthy diet. In a world where simpler is better, we can get caught up in giving “sound-byte” nutrition messages. Although well-intentioned, these messages are incomplete and may harm our clients more than help them. Take some time to read our monograph Unintended Consequences of Simplistic Dietary Recommendations: Good Advice Gone Awry? We also offer this timely information as an online Continuing Education Course.

Dairy Council of California wants to equip you with the right tools and information to help your clients achieve optimal health and well-being by providing you with effective and up-to-date resources, like the ones mentioned above. So this year, when your clients approach you with their resolutions to lose weight, eat healthier and be more physically active, you can set them on the right path to making those resolutions a reality!

Ashley Rosales, R.D.

Project Manager

I uploaded this blog post the other day, then accidentally deleted it. So this is a "repost".  

Time is a limited commodity in health care. Those involved in health education are trying to improve patient behaviors in the least amount of time. That is why I especially enjoyed a presentation about effective counseling techniques at the 2009 Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE) held in Denver last month. Using Evidence-based Strategies for Nutrition Counseling outlined the most effective counseling strategies based on published research in the American Dietetic Association's Evidence Analysis Library. I found this information especially useful since I am involved in the development and evaluation of the Dairy Council of California nutrition education programs.   

The health theory deemed most effective is Cognitive Behavioral Theory (CBT). It attempts to change learned behaviors while addressing internal factors such as thoughts and feelings. Goal setting is central to this theory and is most effective when the client focuses on personalizing small steps toward healthier living. Computerized CBT is another option that is found be be effective. The strongest evidence for CBT relates to specific dietary interventions, diabetes prevention and management and cardiovascular disease. CBT works best in group settings and most evidence of success is with short-term interventions lasting six months.

I was pleased to learn that there is strong evidence to support the behavior change techniques included in Dairy Council of California programs. Strategies that received high marks for effectiveness include:

• Self-monitoring, such as using food records, received the highest rating for weight loss interventions. Dairy Council of California programs employ self-monitoring in our upper elementary, middle school and high school nutrition education programs and in the Calcium Connection and Activity & Eating adult programs. 
• The use of open-ended questions, affirmations and exploration of barriers via Motivational Interviewing (MI) is no more effective than usual treatment when used alone. Adding MI at the beginning of a CBT program improved results. MI requires a great deal of training to be used successfully. 
• Meal replacements or structured meal plans that dictate to patients what to eat helps patients control food intake as they attempt to modify their eating habits. Creating a meal plan along with your client to help them plan healthier meals might be a more realistic long-term solution. 
• Interestingly, extrinsic rewards and reinforcement was not effective even in the short-term. Although not studied, the presenters thought internal rewards could be useful.
   

There is a great need for ongoing research to investigate the effectiveness of current and potential counseling methods. Although not as much research is available to show effectiveness, strategies such as problem-solving, collaboration, social support and goal setting all seem appropriate to incorporate to improve client outcomes along with the bulleted strategies with more documented success.  

Dairy Council of California is committed to embedding evidence-based strategies in our print and online programs to help health professionals achieve behavior change with their clients. We strive to create quality, afforable programs that fit the needs of time crunch professionals that value helping patients improve their food and activity choices. I welcome and appreciate comments of what would make our programs more effective in your practice.

Trina Robertson, M.S., R.D.

Project Manager