Last month I wrote the post, “I’m eating real food and not losing weight!” where I revealed six common roadblocks to weight loss when following my PFC balanced way of eating that I outline here. The short list was nowhere near conclusive to what I see with my clients, and in this post I’ll address… Read more »
Smart grocery shopping is key when transitioning to and maintaining a “real food” approach. The supermarket can be a stressful, agonizing experience if you don’t have strategies in place before you get there, and if you don’t have a plan of attack, you may be tempted to toss items into your cart from your past… Read more »
Educating yourself with evidence-based nutrition information and breaking free of the lies you’ve been told. Reestablishing a healthy relationship with food, and with your body. Learning what works for your body, and that what works for Jack or Jill may not be what works for you. No longer assuming that your complex body can be… Read more »
Many people have a banana as a morning snack, assuming it’s a healthy choice; hoping it will hold them over ‘til lunch once the post-breakfast rumbles set in. However, this is NOT the type of snack I would recommend to anyone who is looking to feel energetic, manage their weight or keep cravings at bay…. Read more »
I made another appearance on Twin Cities Live talking about the best and worst fast food choices from the value menu. If you are familiar with my approach to healthy eating, you will know that I am not an advocate for fast food… ever! “Healthy” and “Fast food” are not terms that belong in the same sentence…. Read more »
Reflecting over the last week on the Low Carb Cruise, I don’t even know where to begin. It was filled with new friends and jam packed with information, food, adventures and some strong drinks ;) The cruise left from Galveston, Texas and visited Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan, Belize and Cozumel, Mexico. We had presentations during the… Read more »
Alright, you’ve been trying this “real food” way of eating, and swear you’re following my guidelines to a tee, but you’re not losing weight… Is this you? I’ve had clients who have experienced this before. I’d like to tell you about common roadblocks I’ve seen in my practice, when people are diligently following my real food approach,… Read more »
Fruits and vegetables are a funny thing, because it seems like kids either love them or hate them. Or maybe they love fruits, but not vegetables. Or maybe the other way around. With the recent headlines on the sugar craze in the media, we’re seeing the detrimental effects of having too much sugar and not… Read more »
WCCO Radio covered the Big Food Giants and how major food manufacturers like Pillsbury and General Mills have known of the addictive qualities of their processed foods that are contributing to the obesity epidemic for a while now, but as their sales skyrocketed, they didn’t make any changes. I give my opinion on whose responsibility it… Read more »
I bet you’ve always wondered what a dietitian would say if she/he were to give you their top suggestions for living healthier. Well, whether you’ve wondered or not, I’m offering it! Here are my top six suggestions for getting on track to living a healthier lifestyle today. 1) Eliminate (or at least, reduce) processed foods: Boxed,… Read more »
I am still in complete disbelief at what happened yesterday. As a marathon runner myself (who has yet to qualify for Boston but would have finished about the exact time the bombs went off,) I feel like my own family was attacked. I feel violated, abused and broken. To turn a national event, where we… Read more »
In this episode of the Smarter Science of Slim, one of the top ranked nutrition/exercise shows on iTunes, Jonathan Bailor and I talk about calories, metabolism, common sense and how I continually work through the bogus of conventional wisdom to keep my focus as a Registered Dietitian research-based.
Despite what you may have heard, it is not only “okay,” but actually VERY IMPORTANT to eat a bedtime snack! The common response to this is, “But I thought we weren’t supposed to eat after (insert time here)?” Let’s unravel this myth, by looking at the following three arguments: 1) Bedtime snacks provide unnecessary calories…. Read more »
When the producer from the popular TV show, Twin Cities Live contacted me about doing a nutrition segment on the show, a LOT of topics came to mind. Of them all, in my opinion, the greatest health and nutrition misconceptions lie in the fact that people still believe that fat is the enemy. Despite what we’ve… Read more »
Juicing is a hot topic, as many people think it’s a healthy choice to make fresh juice. It’s tasty and delicious. Wanna know why? Because it’s all sugar. Now, before you start getting defensive and putting your argument together about how it’s healthy, because of all the nutrients and vitamins in the fruit that you’d never… Read more »
Have you seen the billboards or heard the news? PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew has announced their new breakfast drink. It’s called Mountain Dew Kickstart. As if it weren’t bad enough that the main source of calories in the American diet is from soda. It’s no wonder our rate of obesity, diabetes and heart disease continue to… Read more »
As the days pass, the time is nearing when I’ll be boarding the cruise ship in Galvastan, Texas for an exciting week with a bunch of my favorite people! This year, I’ll be a keynote speaker on the 2013 Low Carb Cruise, alongside some of my favorites from the nutrition realm: First, there is Robb Wolf, author of the New York… Read more »
In honor of April Fools Day, my goal was to “unfool” you by debunking common nutrition myths. Lots of light was shed on topics that many people are confused about. Your feedback was fantastic! Instead of taking the suggestion of writing a book on all this stuff (it’s in the queue), I decided to compile the… Read more »
With a family history of high cholesterol and a total cholesterol number in the 220’s myself, one may be shocked to hear that eggs are my all time favorite source of protein. Many people even think I eat an abnormally high number of eggs, as I go through a few dozen each week! On a typical… Read more »
Now that you’ve heard you should be feeding your kids real foods, what kinds of real foods are actually “kid friendly?” I spend a lot of time putting together realistic meal plans and brainstorming snack ideas for kids to show parents and kids that they don’t need to rely on high-sugar, pre-packaged foods. A recent… Read more »
I usually get a couple reactions to this question. The first is the “ignorance is bliss” mindset: “I don’t want to know. PLEASE don’t tell me.” The second is more honest: “Probably a lot of ingredients that are REALLY bad for me.” Which is, unsurprisingly, very true. Now let me get something straight: I’m not… Read more »
Is it strange to think that kids can eat the same foods as adults? Spending an ample amount of time working with a pediatric population, I get frequent puzzled looks by parents when I encourage them to feed their children the same foods that are healthy for them, the adults, to eat. Increasing rates of… Read more »
“How are you sleeping at night?” You may be surprised to hear that this is one of the first questions I ask clients at their initial appointment. But the fact of the matter is that over half of adults struggle with insomnia, and the average American gets 6 hours and 50 minutes of sleep per night,… Read more »
Nutrition information is more accessible today than EVER before. Flashy advertisements for new diets promising magical outcomes are on billboards, in magazines, on television and all over the web. Everyone has their own solution to your health problems. In addition to the overwhelming amount of information, nutrition is an ever changing field based on the… Read more »
This post is dedicated to the health of your heart, in honor of February’s “Heart Month.” Heart health may be one of the most confusing areas in the nutrition realm, because of the significantly conflicting approaches. For years, many doctors and dietitians have been preaching the “eat less fat, less cholesterol and more whole grains”… Read more »
You may have read my post entitled The Big FAT Lie, so now you know the importance of eating fat for weight loss, blood sugar stability, disease prevention, mental focus and overall health. This post is intended to give you some practical, simple ways to start incorporating healthy fats into your day to day meals and… Read more »
Is fat making me fat? Ever since the late 1970s, we’ve been obsessed with low fat foods. The media is still supporting this message through its marketing of “low-fat,” “lite,” “fat-free,” and the one I love to hate the most, “skinny” products. We are still being taught that skimping on fat will help with weight… Read more »
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That’s a common phrase we’ve all heard, and for good reason. The word “breakfast” breaks down into two words: “Break” and “Fast,” because breakfast is the meal that *breaks* your overnight *fast.* After sleeping for hours, it’s important to “jump start” your metabolism first thing in… Read more »
This is the question I get from many of you who long to make healthy changes to your lifestyles, and just aren’t sure where to begin. It can be overwhelming to decide where to begin, so let me help you by offering a few (and by “a few,” I mean six) starting points for you… Read more »
You probably already know that Eggs are my “gold standard” for breakfast. That being said, I get asked several times on a daily basis for an alternative to eggs (the reasons are endless: egg aversions, allergies, egg burnout, lack of time.) My first suggestion, of course, is to try to make eggs work because eggs… Read more »
Making our resolutions are certainly easier than keeping them. The hype and enthusiasm for becoming healthier always seems to die out after the first month or two of the new year. Don’t let that happen to you this year. These five suggestions will help you set goals that are achieveable…and then actually achieve them. 1)… Read more »
The other day, one of my Twitter followers asked me, “What is the #1 nutrition mistake you see people making?” I answered with the first thing that came to my mind, but the question has lingered ever since! It got me thinking of several common traps people fall into on their journey to health and… Read more »
Are Truvia and Stevia the same thing? Thanks to a false-advertising job well-done, many health conscious consumers have been tricked into believing that Truvia is the same thing as Stevia. The (disappointing) truth is that, despite the fact that Truvia is marketed as a “stevia-based sugar substitute,” it is NOT equivalent to Stevia. Not even close, actually…. Read more »
Think of all of the years you’ve been living on this planet. Now think of all the times you’ve eaten foods saturated with sugar, artificial sweeteners, trans fats, preservatives and pesticides. Think of the courses of antibiotics you were put on to kill the unhealthy bacteria in your system and think of all the chemicals,… Read more »
I am proud to be a co-host on “Low-Carb Conversations With Jimmy Moore & Friends,” a podcast radio show that airs on Fridays! This show has been one of my favorite health shows for a long time now, as I love the energy, insight and honesty that Jimmy and his friends bring! As some of the reviews… Read more »
I have some exciting news to share! I am one of eight finalists to be the cover of Women’s Running magazine. Read my full profile and cast your vote here: http://womensrunning.com/covermodelcontest. (ps—my aunt just discovered that you can vote once PER day through August 15th!!) You can read more about my journey as a runner in… Read more »
Life doesn’t always go as planned. Neither do my runs. My favorite time to run is first thing in the morning. I love starting my day on the right foot (well, both my feet, actually.) But lately instead of running in the dark of the early morning, I’ve been getting into work earlier so I… Read more »
As you may already know, I eat eggs for breakfast nearly every day. It does take time to make eggs in the morning—not a lot of time, but we all know how some mornings can be very rushed. Because of this, I like to always have a back-up. I try to make it a priority… Read more »
With vegetarianism steadily becoming mainstream and embraced by many, chances are you’ve met a vegetarian, read something about it or at least wondered what the hype is all about. According to the Vegetarian Resource Group, the number of people following a vegetarian diet is 6-8 million, up from 0.5-2 million in 1994. My friends, family, Facebook… Read more »
I get so many questions from all of you asking what I personally eat for meals and snacks, along with which brands I choose. As you may have noticed, I’m not ashamed to share my eating habits and strategies with you! The “What Cassie Eats” blog series is dedicated to sharing my personal nutrition and… Read more »
Tonight I had the desire to make pancakes (yes, pancakes for dinner!) — but don’t be fooled by the picture! These are not your traditional, carb-heavy pancakes. This is a recipe that I invented in my kitchen tonight, and it’s one that will certainly be used again! My favorite thing about these pancakes is that the… Read more »
Happy Cinco de Mayo! For a lot of us, this holiday has become yet another excuse to gorge on foods that are high in carbohydrates and trans fats, such as nachos, cheese dips and margaritas. Add a nutritious twist to your fiesta with a healthy guacamole dip as a way to incorporate some healthy fat… Read more »
The month of May. No processed foods and no television. Are you in? Rules if you accept this challenge. No TV. Blackout-May. Nothing to eat that was not on a tree, from the ground or free range (meats/fish) — BT (@BT) April 20, 2012 This challenge was presented by @BT on Twitter. I am now… Read more »
Celebrate Earth Day by eating cleaner, greener, plant-based foods and incorporating strategies that are better for our environment. Here are five easy ways to be greener: 1) Eat greener and cleaner. Focus on increasing your consumption of green foods, such as leafy greens, fresh vegetables and fruits in your diet. 2) Eat local. Grow your own… Read more »
It’s National Animal Crackers Day. The Animal Cracker: A well-known kid-friendly snack that makes both kids and adults smile, presented in the shape of friendly circus animals in fun, colorful, strategically marketed packaging. I used to be a fan of these critters, too. I don’t mean to rain on their parade by bashing them on their very… Read more »
Another holiday approaching means likely temptation with candy dishes, baskets and heavy meals. Here are my quick tips for minimizing nutrition stress this Easter season and maximizing the purpose of the holiday: Fill baskets with fun stuff. Easter is the second largest candy-giving holiday, next to Halloween. Go against the grain and fill the kids’… Read more »
This post is an elaboration and clarification of where I stand on the use of artificial sweeteners (also called sugar substitutes,) “light” and “fat-free” foods. In my opinion, the greatest health misconceptions revolve around products that use these terms and these chemicals. Food manufacturers are telling us low-calorie and low-fat is good, while current research… Read more »
Celebrate Saint Patrick’s day with green foods that full of nutrients and antioxidants! Here are five foods and one superfood formula that will make you feel GREAT and their color will make you feel IRISH! (Hint: None of them combine the words Shake and Shamrock…) Avocados: Technically a fruit, avocados are packed with nearly 20… Read more »
And how could one of those benefit me? Registered Dietitians are food and nutrition experts, nationally known to be credible for providing nutrition information. It’s a long road to obtain the Registered Dietitian (R.D.) credential. To become an RD one must: Complete a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition or Dietetics Complete an American Dietetics Association (ADA)-approved… Read more »
Fast food choices for children have been at the center of the latest nutritional news. This week, McDonald’s implemented a new effort in improving the nutritional content of Happy Meals by including apple slices and a smaller kid-sized portion of French fries. It’s wonderful that McDonald’s is increasing their commitment to consumers by taking steps… Read more »
Healthy eating and good nutrition is important all year long, but March is “National Nutrition Month,” where we are reminded of and celebrate the importance of healthy eating. Good nutrition contributes to your overall health and can help you maintain a healthy weight and reduce your risk for chronic diseases, like heart disease, diabetes and… Read more »
Nearly two-thirds of Americans wrongly believe that sea salt is a low-sodium alternative to table salt. While we’re on the topic of debunking this myth, let’s talk about ways to cut back this salt in our diet. This is important because excessive dietary sodium increases a person’s risk for high blood pressure (which, according to… Read more »
February is “American Heart Month” not only because of the romantic aura that spreads beyond February 14th, but also to raise awareness of the organ that beats for your life, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Heart disease is a vital topic to discuss as it’s the leading cause of death in America…. Read more »
We’ve all seen the intense, passionate gung-ho mentality that magically comes in with the new year. Plans for getting serious about losing that fifteen pounds or that new gym membership because “this time” you’re going to get serious about prioritizing your life goals. At the gym we call it “New Years Resolutioners” —but as annoying… Read more »
We all find ourselves struggling to stay on track nutritionally at one point or another during these holiday months. It’s normal to have a meal, a day, a week or even a few months where you fall into an unhealthy rut. For many, this seems to happen during the holiday season. Exercise is even more difficult—… Read more »
It’s that time of year again: Dieters have anxiety from being surrounded by temptation at every angle—the overly-advertised candy sales at every store near you; the “fun-sized” pieces of candy begging to be eaten from the free-for-all dish at the adjacent cubicle; the soon-to-be overflowing pillowcases of candy collected by the kids. Parents are stressing… Read more »
Thanks to everyone for supporting my marathon! I couldn’t have done it without each one of you. My article entitled “My First Marathon” was published on the RunAddicts website. You can check it out here, and feel free to leave your thoughts/comments :) http://www.runaddicts.net/stories/my-first-marathon
Here we are on National Coffee Day, a day with a surplus of coffee promotions at your various local venues. But there’s so much contradictory information out there on coffee that you may be hesitant to celebrate by using your “BOGO” coupon for a double dose of the good stuff. Consider me your personal investigator;… Read more »
As a Registered Dietitian, I get a lot of appalled looks when I reveal that I attend the State Fair not only one, but six or seven full days each year. I’ve even had people tell me they are surprised I attend the fair at all, since I’m a dietitian. Some won’t even step foot… Read more »