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Whole Foods Diet Expert and Best Selling Author

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January 16, 2014 by Kellie Leave a Comment

Oregon Healthy Living 30 Day Challenge Update, January 16

There are a lot of diet plans out there to choose from / and, in truth, almost every plan has worked for someone.  But finding the right individual plan is the key to quickly achieving goals and finding long term success.  To do this, Jami completed a simple questionnaire to help identify where her body derives energy from, how her body stores fat, and which foods will help create balance for her individual body type.  This helps create an individual plan with personalized recipes.  This week we will discuss proper portion sizing to ensure that not only is she eating the best nutrient-dense foods for her body, but in the proper amounts and ratio.  Readers can complete the same questionnaire as Jami to receive an individual plan and portion sizing information at therightplan.com Healthy Diet Plan.

Jami Young, Nutrition Challenge Volunteer

I have decided that change totally sucks! I like what I like. Really, don’t we all? In order to make a life change, I have had to change my mindset!  My semi-sedentary lifestyle has come to an end. Exercise at the gym has become my morning routine.  Kellie Hill at the Right Plan has me eating. I feel like I eat all day long. Funny thing is that I am losing weight. I am eating foods that I have chosen. They are not off of a strict list or out of a book that has a “DO” or a “DON’T” list, food that is from an actual store! This week’s goal is portions. Do we ever really eat an actual portion of anything? Cereal, I love cereal. Have you ever actually stopped and measured a cup of cereal? Trying to keep up with change in my life and so far change is good! [Read More]

If the link above is unavailable click here to download the PDF

Filed Under: Oregon Healthy Living, Press & Appearances Tagged With: cereal, diet, Eating, Food, health, Jami, Shopping, Weight loss

April 11, 2013 by Kellie 1 Comment

How Much and When Should I Eat?

Are you confused by all the contradictory information you read?  One magazine says to eat every 3-4 hours and another says to only eat three solid meals per day.  One diet plan says to eat right after a workout and another says to wait up to two hours.  How do you know who’s right?

Truthfully, it’s all accurate – almost every plan has worked for someone.  But, you could spend years trying all your friends plans, or the latest magazine article, or the newest celebrity diet and you may still not find the right path for you. That’s why I’m super-excited to bring you “The Right Plan” for you.

This questionnaire will help you identify your dominant gland, where your body derives it’s energy and how it stores fat.  This becomes the basis for your individual plan.  Understanding portion sizes, timing, and your best food choices helps make weight loss easy and simple.  Add in a few uncomplicated tricks and you’ll be on track to an all new you. Join Kellie Hill, Nutrition Therapy Practitioner to learn how to identify your best solutions to get the results you deserve.

What's my digestive body type?

Filed Under: Blog, Breakfast, Main Course, Side Dish Tagged With: diet, Grapefruit diet, health, Join Kellie Hill, Nutrition Therapy Practitioner, Shopping, Support group, Weight loss

February 19, 2013 by Kellie 6 Comments

Buckwheat Forum Question

buckwheat

A reader asks the following question:

“Is buckwheat a type of wheat?”

Please join this discussion and post your comments.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Here’s the answer . . .

Buckwheat is a Fruit Seed

No, buckwheat is not a type of wheat.  Actually it isn’t even a grain.  But, it is often referred to as a grain because it is usually eaten in ways similar to true grains.
Buckwheat is actually a fruit seed that comes from a plant called beech wheat, occassionally also known as silverhull or tartary.   It is related to rhubarb and sorrel. It does not contain gluten like wheat so it’s a great alternative for people who are gluten or wheat intolerant.
Rutin, a bioflavonoid found in buckwheat, strengthens capillaries and blood vessels, reduces blood pressure, and increases circulation in the hands and feet.  It is a powerful antioxidant against damage from free radicals and a very good source of manganese.

Types of Buckwheat

If toasted, buckwheat is known as “kasha” and becomes one of the few alkalizing “grains”.  Toasting it helps create a nutty flavor.  Buckwheat groats are the raw buckwheat kernels with their shells removed.  It can be ground into flour to use in crepes, pancakes, cakes, and soba noodles.

It makes a great side dish as well as the base for a salad. It can be simmmered similar to other “grains”.  Use 1 cup buckwheat to 2 cups water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for approximately 20 minutes. Add some fresh fruit, nuts, and milk alternative for a super breakfast.

One of my favorite ways to eat buckwheat is a granola called Higher Power gRAWnola from Ashland, OR.  The ingredients include organic sprouted buckwheat groats, organic Thompson seedless raisins, organic sprouted walnuts, organic sprouted pumpkin seeds, organic coconut, organic dates, wild unheated honey, organic vanilla, organic cinnamon.  Not only is it sprouted and gluten free, it’s organic too.  You can find this product at www.HigherPower.biz.  It’s fabulous!

Filed Under: Blog, Forum Tagged With: buckwheat, diet, forum

October 25, 2012 by Kellie 2 Comments

Diet: The No-Diet “Diet”

Diet: The No-Diet “Diet”

The holidays are right around the corner and for many people this is a time of indulgence, without regard to diet or health.  As we sit down to meals with family and friends, there is no reason not to enjoy the wonderful bounty of the season.  But, that doesn’t give us license to go crazy figuring we’ll just start our diet come the first of the year (making diet the ultimate four-letter word).  Planning on another fad diet will lead to inferior health.  To find and sustain optimal health, we have to change our diet permanently.  But that doesn’t mean restricting foods, counting calories, skipping meals, expensive shakes, etc. in order to maintain our diet.

Diet That Harm Your Health

Ultimately fad diets and quick fix diets do more harm than good. Many of these diets aren’t nutritionally balanced.  Some of these diets allow the continued build up of harmful toxins in your system, which can be detrimental over time. Often these diets replace natural substances with artificial ones or with over processed “low-calorie” or “low-fat” prepared foods which may have no nutritive value.

Diet Doesn’t Mean Deprivation

Yet, good, healthy eating doesn’t mean a diet of deprivation – in fact, friends are coming over tonight to carve pumpkins and I have chili in the crockpot, corn bread made, mulled wine on the stove, and a diabetic-friendly gluten free pumpkin pie in the oven which I’ll top with raw whipped cream.  Add a quick green salad and I plan on an enjoyably scrumptious evening.  (If everything turns out as good as I hope, I’ll have the recipes posted over the next couple of weeks).  That is my family’s diet!  It’s a bit more than an average day in our diet (we don’t usually have dessert) but it’s a healthy, minor splurge that allows us to maintain health and enjoyment with our diet.

Diet Key – Nutrient Dense Whole Foods

As you prepare for the holiday season, choose nutrient rich whole foods / a diet that will provide necessary nutrition and become a way of life. This is how you can enjoy a No-Diet diet.  When eating wholesome foods there are few limitations on the amount you can eat and there is no calorie counting. You should be able to eat until you are satisfied and as often as you are hungry.  The concept of diet no longer becomes a four-letter word to curse or scorn.

So, what are these magic diet foods you ask? Natural, organically grown foods that have gone through as little handling as possible. For example: fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes, and organic animal products raised without confinement, exposed to fresh air and health-giving sunshine, while eating natural foods which provide minerals and less fat. Dairy products should be from organic grass-fed pasture raised animals. Try yogurt, cottage cheese, and buttermilk which contain enzymes and bacteria that are beneficial to digestion. Fresh, wild caught fish. And don’t forget lots of filtered water.

Try to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible – your diet should include so raw foods, ferments, can carefully cooked foods.  These diet foods are best prepared from wholesome raw ingredients instead of devitalized packaged products. The more processing and handling foods get, the more contaminated they become.  This is why many of the fad diets will only work in the short term or cause additional health concerns.

My pumpkin pie started with raw nuts for the crust, an organic sweet pumpkin, eggs from pastured hens, local raw organic honey, maple syrup, and spices.  There’s no white sugar or flour, no dairy, and no grain yet it’s still sweet and delicious (I know because I tasted the filling – yummy).  Chili is nothing more than grass fed beef, homegrown tomatoes, local beans, farm fresh onions, peppers, and garlic plus some spices.  For most people this is a diet they can live with for the rest of their lives.

The real beauty of a No-Diet diet is that nutrient dense food doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult.

Treat your body to a diet including to the best foods your area has to offer this Fall. Your body will thank you with better functioning, a feeling of greater health, more vitality, less illness, better memory, and of course, stable weight. So, come the first of the year you won’t have to make any diet resolutions.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: diet, rightplan, shakes

June 17, 2011 by Kellie 1 Comment

Pyramid vs. Plate – New USDA Guidelines Announced

I wouldn’t be much of a Nutritional Therapist if I didn’t weigh in about the new “My Plate” approach from the United States Department of Agriculture.  I know, I’ve given my thoughts before about the USDA recommendations and not much has changed with the newest guidelines, but there is progress to be heralded.  Check it out at www.choosemyplate.gov.

A quick history lesson.  The USDA started providing food guidelines for Americans in 1916 with “How to Select Food”.  It was changed to the basic seven food groups in the 1940s.   There were three other designs until the one most people remember, the Pyramid, in 1992.  Grains were the “base”, followed by a smaller but equal division of vegetables and fruits, topped by a smaller but equal division of dairy and meats, topped by a tiny triangle of fats, oils, and sweets.  I think the “base” of bread, potatoes, and pasta with no discussion regarding whole grains versus refined, and increasingly genetically modified wheat sources has helped lead to America’s expanding waistlines.  In 2005 the updated pyramid was introduced that used colored wedges the length of the pyramid and steps on the side to suggest physical activity.  This change, I feel was a bit difficult to explain.  People got stuck on the sizes of the wedges and no one really understood the tapering at the top (including me, honestly).

So, here we are in 2011 with the new My Plate which is divided into four sections – fruits, vegetables, proteins, grains) and a small round finger bowl (I guess?) – dairy.  What I like is it’s easier to understand than the pyramid.  You can take your plate and actually divide it accordingly.  Although I’m not a big fan of the large portion of grains as well as fruit and dairy at every meal.  But, the familiar visual is good.  Maybe it will help people be reminded to make healthier choices.

I would still like to see a distinction between fruits and vegetables.  Although both, as nutrient-dense whole foods are wonderful, fruit really needs to be in greater moderation than vegetables.  A half of plate of veggies with the finger bowl of fruit would be okay.

I do not like the suggestion to use fat-free of low-fat dairy products.  Vitamins A, E, D, & K are fat soluble and need fat in order to be absorbed.  Plus, many of these processed foods contain a large amount of fillers, additives, colorings, and sweeteners to compensate for the loss of flavor without the fat.  Fat creates satiety so if you can enjoy dairy, use the real stuff, your body will know what to do with the nutrients and you won’t need as much to feel full.

It says to make at least 1/2 your grains whole.  I guess this might be a start for someone who is currently ingesting mostly refined grains, but I would prefer to see the recommendation as all whole grains, if you’re going to eat grains.  There really isn’t room for refined grains in a healthy diet.  It’s pretty clear that the more refined grains and sugars we’ve added into our diets the more chronic disease we’ve encountered.  Plus, more and more people are dealing with digestive issues from grains, including whole grains.  On the plate, a smaller portion would be fine by me.

Not to mention that people are still completely confused by the words “whole grains”.  Whole wheat bread isn’t necessarily a whole grain bread.  I’ll add this clarification in another post, but suffice it to say right now that it’s best to make your own or very carefully read labels.

Next, the USDA suggests comparing sodium on labels such as soups, breads, and frozen meals.  Unfortunately this continues the assumption that processed foods are healthy.  Few really are!  Sodium is just one of the many additives in processed foods to make them taste better and be more shelf stable.  There is also partially or fully hydrogenated oils (trans fats), high-fructose corn syrup and corn syrup, artificial non-sugar sweeteners, soy, gluten, etc.

I love the final recommendation – drink water instead of sugary drinks.  Although I’d add artificial soda pops, as well as moderate amounts of juice, alcohol, coffee, and tea to the “try to limit” list.  All these diuretics are damaging to our health if we don’t stay fully hydrated.  Water is the greatest nutrient we can give ourselves.

Look back to my April 20, 2011 blog “Who Do We Trust When It’s Called ‘Healthy'” for further rants and raves about the overall USDA and their guidelines.

But, as a new redirection for Americans and our eating behaviors, “My Plate” is a good step.  It’s clear and easy to follow.  I think most people understand that overweight and obesity are epidemic in America – more than 60% currently, and we have to make changes, portioning out a nine-inch plate is a good start.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: change, diet, of, or, would

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DISCLAIMER: The content shared on this site is for informational and educational purposes only. Statements/products discussed have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease or illness. Please consult your health care practitioner before making changes to your current diet or before beginning any herbal or vitamin supplement regimen or exercise program. Although Kellie Hill is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, the author(s) at The Right Plan are not licensed medical professionals, nor do they claim to be. They are not here to diagnose or provide medical advice to any reader.Affiliate Disclosure • Terms and Conditions© 2021 The Right Plan Nutrition Counseling & Kellie Hill Nutrition • Custom Web Design by Paradux Media Group