3 Ways to Celebrate National Breastfeeding Month

August is National Breastfeeding Month and we have just what you need for pregnancy, breastfeeding, and postpartum nutrition and health education.

Here are our top three education materials for National Breastfeeding Month:

  1. Whether you work with moms who are currently breastfeeding or you’re teaching about breastfeeding in general, our MyPlate for Breastfeeding Moms color tearpad (in English and Spanish) is a helpful tool. In addition to information on healthy eating while breastfeeding, this handout touches on topics many people have questions about, including guidelines on exercise, alcohol, and caffeine.
  2. Our MyPlate for Pregnant and Breastfeeding Moms poster is double-sided, with information in Spanish on one side and English on the other. This positive, eye-catching poster communicates shows how to make a healthy plate for pregnancy, breastfeeding, and postpartum. It also provides valuable information on foods to avoid due to the danger of foodborne illness during pregnancy. There’s even a free handout to send home with your students or clients.
  3. Our most comprehensive resource is the Eating Right: For You & Your Baby PowerPoint show with handouts. This presentation touches on everything from morning sickness and food cravings to gestational diabetes and breastfeeding. Moms-to-be and their partners will be armed with everything they need to know for a healthy pregnancy and beyond. If you don’t have time to teach a class, you can play the PowerPoint show in the waiting room.

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

Back to School Bucket List

Back-to-school time is right around the corner. The new school year is a time of transition. It often feels like a new beginning, much like New Year’s in January.

This is the perfect time to build a bucket list. A Healthy Bucket List, that is!

Our Healthy Bucket List poster helps your students or clients choose goals to create their own Healthy Bucket List using simple changes that have a big impact over time. Here are some teaching tips to go along with it:

  • In the classroom:
    • Let the class vote on which Healthy Bucket List goals they want to work on each week, month, or year.
    • Have kids of all ages create their own version of the Healthy Bucket List using markers, crayons, pictures cut out of magazines, etc. (Adults would enjoy this activity, too!)
  • On social media:
    • Introduce the Healthy Bucket List concept and ask followers to build and share their own list.
    • Post about your own Healthy Bucket List goal – what you’re going to do and how it turns out.
  • In the office:
    • Display the poster in your waiting room so clients can ponder the simple goals that add up to a healthier life.
    • Let clients vote by putting small sticky notes on the items they plan to add to their bucket lists.

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

Nutrition Security for Older Americans

While higher food costs make healthy eating on a budget challenging for everyone, seniors living on a fixed income are especially vulnerable. Yet, older adults can’t afford to skimp on nutrition!

Our Healthy Plate for Older Americans poster guides seniors to food and beverage choices that give the most nutrition bang for their buck.

Here are some tips for using this MyPlate-based poster to educate older adults – and their caregivers – about healthy and affordable food:

  • Protein priority: With sky-high meat and poultry prices, seniors need to learn about less expensive sources of protein. Proper portion sizes can also help – filling just one quarter of your plate with healthy protein is a simple way to stretch food dollars.
  • Going for the (whole) grain: The cheapest loaf of white bread isn’t the healthiest choice for older adults. Teach them to look for 100% whole grain bread, pasta, and cereal at a decent price.
  • Fruit and veggie steals: Buying in season makes filling half your plate with healthy fruits and veggies more affordable. Education about choosing and preparing canned and frozen fruits and vegetables can help as well.
  • Dairy deals: Skipping that cup of low-fat milk may be an effective cost-cutting measure for some older adults, but they need the nutrients supplied by dairy foods. Teach them to choose budget-friendly, healthy dairy products in the right portion size.
  • Stay home for sodium: Restaurant meals are typically higher in sodium – and more expensive – than home-cooked meals.

Don’t forget about non-profit and government food assistance programs for older Americans, such as the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, SNAP, and Meals on Wheels.

And if you’re a caregiver, dietitian, foodservice manager, or other professional who works with seniors, check out our Diet Facts for Seniors PowerPoint with handouts.

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

 

 

Sleep is Essential to Heart Health

Healthy sleep is the newest addition to the American Heart Association’s (AHA) checklist to measure cardiovascular health, which was recently released as Life’s Essential 8TM. Sleep joins seven other factors AHA says can help lower the risk for heart disease, stroke, and other major health problems.

You can spread the word about healthy sleep with our Sleep Right poster, which provides an introduction to the importance of sleep and how to get a good night’s sleep.

Whether you’re working with students in the classroom, educating your followers on social media, or counseling individuals, here are some ways to slip in some sleep education:

  • It’s never too early: incorporate healthy sleep tips when you’re talking to new parents, teachers, and kids.
  • What you do during the day counts: emphasize that a good night’s sleep doesn’t just happen. What you eat and drink and your activity level can help or hinder your sleep.
  • Measure your sleep: an activity tracker on your phone or watch isn’t reliable enough to diagnose sleep issues, but it can give you a general idea of how you’re sleeping. (A pen and paper sleep diary will do the job, too!)
  • You can get too much: we talk a lot about getting enough sleep, but excessive sleep is also related to heart disease and other health problems.

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

3-in-1 Healthy Habit Tool

If you’re looking for a reward chart, habit tracker, and list of achievable health goals all in one, then you’ll appreciate our Reward Chart!

This 3-in-1 tool comes as a poster and a handout tearpad. You can write and erase on the poster or let everyone have their own chart from the tearpad.

The Reward Chart lists simple goals based on MyPlate that include physical activity, healthy beverages, food choices, and other healthy habits.

Here are some ways to use the Reward Chart poster and tearpad:

  • Display the poster in your office or classroom with a dry-erase marker nearby. Let clients or students check off something they did that day or that week.
  • Brainstorm non-food rewards your students or clients can use as incentives to achieve a certain number of goals per week.
  • Discuss strategies to achieve the goals on the chart. How can your students or clients make it easier for themselves to make that healthy choice?
  • Review the goals listed for each category and ask how many people in the class or audience already do that habit regularly. Invite them to share how they have been successful.
  • Emphasize that your students or clients don’t have to achieve every single goal that is listed! Choosing one or two goals makes it easier to focus and feel a sense of accomplishment.

Even if you don’t use the Reward Chart as a habit tracker, it’s a great resource for healthy living and MyPlate tips!

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

 

Anti-Vaping Education for Heart Health

The American Heart Association recently updated its Construct of Cardiovascular Health, the organization’s checklist to measure cardiovascular health.

This new version, called Life’s Essential 8TM includes one addition (sleep – we’ll talk about that in another blog post!) and updates to several other health and lifestyle factors.

One of these updates is cigarette smoking, which is now referred to as nicotine exposure. This category has been broadened to include e-cigarettes (vaping), and exposure to secondhand smoke.

Vaping is a big concern, especially among youth. According to the CDC, e-cigarettes have been the most commonly used tobacco product among youth since 2014.

Our Dangers of Vaping poster warns youth and adults about the harmful effects of e-cigarettes. Here are some teaching tips to go along with it:

  • For health professionals and health educators: this Healthcare Provider Conversation Card will help prepare you to talk to kids about vaping.
  • For parents: this tip sheet will help you discuss vaping with your children.
  • For everyone: watch this video from MD Anderson Cancer Center to learn the basics of vaping and e-cigarettes.

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

Manage Your Mind

When it comes to a healthy lifestyle, many people say, “I know what to do … I just don’t do it!”

We know we should fill half the plate with fruits and vegetables.

We know exercising is important.

We know water is healthier than sugary beverages.

When knowledge isn’t the issue, it’s time to look at things differently. It’s time to work on mind management!

How can you help your students or clients use mind management to achieve their nutrition, health, and fitness goals? You can start with the following messages, which are communicated through our motivational posters:

I Am motivational poster

  • Forgiving a setback: When you overindulge or skip a workout, acknowledge it and move on. Beating yourself up makes it harder to get back on track.
  • Not giving up: When you get discouraged, think about what’s going well for you. You may not be losing weight, but do you have more energy or feel more comfortable in your clothes?
  • Planning and working to success: Even if you know what to do, you need a plan and you need to keep working on it. A healthy lifestyle is a life-long process.

Mindful Eating poster

  • Why am I eating? Ask yourself this question when you reach for food or beverages. Take time to figure out if you’re truly hungry.
  • Enjoy the experience: Don’t rush through meals and snacks. Savor every bite. Slow down, put your food on a plate, sit down.

Keep a Healthy Mindset poster

  • I can do it: Positive, compassionate self-talk is key to mind management.
  • Never quit: Nobody is perfect; giving up is not an option.

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

 

A Different Kind of Freedom

Independence Day will be here before we know it. As we celebrate freedom in the United States, we have some unique materials that prompt your clients, students, or employees to consider a different kind of freedom.

Our Freedom from Chronic Disease materials inspire folks to think about their health and realize that good health can bring them freedom, now and in the future.

What kind of freedom are we talking about? Here are some examples and ideas you can use to discuss Freedom from Chronic Disease:

  1. Freedom from worry. Someone who has a long family history of heart disease may spend lots of time worrying about it. Would making a diet or lifestyle change now, even if it’s small, help to alleviate this worry? Maybe feeling more in control will lead them to make more healthy changes.
  2. Freedom from medications. Think about the money you can save by not having to take cholesterol-lowering drugs, for example. All meds have side effects, so not having to worry about that is another form of freedom that people may not consider.
  3. Freedom from expensive healthcare. Chronic disease means seeing specialists, undergoing tests and procedures, paying for prescriptions, and more doctor visits in general. These things are costly in dollars as well as your time.
  4. Freedom from high food costs. People think that healthy food costs more, but a little education can go a long way when it comes to healthy eating on a budget. Healthy food doesn’t have to be organic or gourmet!
  5. Freedom to do what you want to do. This is important as you get older. When you’re healthy, it’s easier to travel, play with your grandkids (or great-grandkids!), and stay independent.

Spread the word about the benefits of Freedom from Chronic Disease with posters, banners, bookmarks, and stickers!

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

 

Foods to Fight Stress?

We’re big fans of the Mediterranean-style eating pattern, so it’s not surprising to see it recommended in this this article from the Cleveland Clinic to help people fight stress.

Vegetables, legumes, nuts, fruit, whole grains, fish, lean protein, and healthy fats are foods that can help lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Why not offer some nutrition education to help your clients, students, or employees manage their stress? An added bonus of teaching the Mediterranean eating pattern is its positive impact on heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and overall health.

We have all the materials you need to spread the word about the anti-stress Mediterranean way of eating:

  1. Start with our Mediterranean Diet PowerPoint show. With 100+ slides, handouts, and a leader guide, this has everything you need to put on a webinar series or a lunch-and-learn session. It’s also useful for individual consultations.
  2. Create a bulletin board display about ways to relieve stress, centered on our Mediterranean Diet poster. Also include information on sleep, exercise, meditation, and other stress-fighters.
  3. Add an anti-stress look to your office or classroom with our Mediterranean Diet 9 Photo Montage Print. It’s a beautiful way to advertise stress-relieving, Mediterranean-inspired foods.

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

The Art of Advertising Healthy Food

Are you looking for a beautiful way to advertise healthy, fresh food? Our food art posters are the answer!

These one-of-a-kind masterpieces combine professional photography with motivational messages that will make you want to drop everything and go to the nearest fresh produce market.

Here are a few of my current favorites:

  1. Shine a Light on Veggies features a stunning still-life of asparagus spears. Asparagus is in season in many parts of the country, so what better time to increase its exposure with this gorgeous poster?
  2. Brighten Your Basket reminds you to fill your supermarket cart or farmer’s market basket with fresh produce like those pictured: onions, avocados, Meyer lemons, radishes, and baby bok choy.
  3. Bring the Farm to Your Table says it all with a beautiful display of fresh baby carrots, beets, potatoes, chard, and asparagus.
  4. Nature’s Fast Food’s juicy peaches and bright red cherries will have your mouth watering for these summer tree fruits!
  5. Grown, Not Processed is the ultimate advertisement for choosing a variety of colorful, fresh fruits and veggies. It promotes beets, garlic, peaches, fennel, radishes, carrots, greens (kale, lettuce, parsley), portabella mushrooms, and oyster mushrooms.

Framing these food art posters will give your office or waiting room an upscale feeling. But they’re also affordable enough to be used (framed or unframed) in cafeterias, hallways, and classrooms.

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD