Don't be burned but heartburn meds

If you’re someone who takes medicine daily, any medicine, it’s important to step back and consider whether you still need to be taking it. I’d also brush up on the side effects. While I’d love doctors to focus on getting patients off unnecessary meds, let’s face it medicine is a business. But if you, or someone close to you, are one of the 15 million Americans who take a certain type of acid blockers, there are some serious side effects.

There is a class of acid blocking (“heartburn”) meds called PPIs. Examples of PPI’s are Prevacid, Nexium and Prilosec. The concerns about taking these meds long-term have been out there; however, almost daily I have a client in my office who feels they’re totally safe.

Whenever I see one of these meds in a new client’s chart I ask a few questions.

How long have you been taking this medication?

Have you tried going off of it?

What modifications do you make in your diet for your reflux or heartburn?

The answers are quite similar. Most clients have been on their acid blockers for a while- usually years. They haven’t tried to discontinue them and they “can eat anything on these meds so there’s no need to change their diets.” Sigh. It’s so backward. The meds are like pain killers; they aren’t improving the condition. And just because you “can eat anything” doesn’t mean you should.

Stomach acid has important functions. We need an acidic environment for maximum vitamin and mineral absorption. On PPIs you see more bone fractures because calcium absorption is compromised. There have been cardiac side effects researched as well. There is an increased heart attack risk on PPIs. There’s also less gut diversity or less “good” bacteria when there’s less acid. Our gut flora is connected to mood and food cravings. Stomach acid helps digestion and prevents infection.

These meds should be used short term or occasionally. If you are interested in going off of your PPIs, you need to wean yourself gradually you can have rebound symptoms. As you decrease your dose, address your diet. For starters, try decreasing alcohol, sugar and caffeine. You can try a spoonful of apple cider vinegar diluted with water before meals. I also like a probiotic, vitamin D and glutamine supplement to restore your gut health.

While I only focused on these acid-blocking medications, talk to your physician if you are interested in discontinuing a particular drug. And yes, there are certain cases where you absolutely need a particular med, even the acid blockers. More often than not, this isn’t the case.

Is food an issue in your relationship?

Sure you want to eat that?

What are you uncomfortable discussing? Sex? Money matters? I would normally add politics to this list but most of us have extinguished that fear this election season. Today I’m shooting a news segment on couples and food. The producer joked to me “it’s easier to get heroin users to talk to us.” I sent a few emails to clients and friends. We have two women and one man on board to open up about food differences in their relationships. However, the majority of the responses I received went something like “this is a huge issue for us but I’m not sure we want to air our dirty laundry.” Really? We weren’t asking people to strip naked. Rather “he’s a health nut and I’m not” that sort of thing.

When a client enters into a new relationship I always ask, “what kind of an eater are they?” While this may seem unimportant initially, while everyone is on good behavior, you eat three times a day, it will matter. If you love to stay home and cook and he wants to go out every night OR he is gluten free and you are “gluten full” you need a game plan.

No need to completely convert

“We need to work on his eating” a client told me last week referring to her boyfriend.

“No we don’t” I said. Let’s work on your eating. As long as your partner isn’t AGAINST your eating regime, you’re ok. We don’t expect our significant other so think the same way we do and so they don’t need to eat the same exact way either.

My husband loves golf, I promise you he spends more hours golfing than eating. I tried it and I don’t love golf (understatement alert). He doesn’t expect me to golf, we’re good.

Metabolism Matters

When it comes to eating, metabolism, gender and age affect how much you should or can eat.

A tiny woman shouldn’t match a big guy or you’ll have relationship weight gain.

Homemade Helps

Cooking at home allows you to share the experience of meal prep and menu selection. If one person likes fries or steak, you can make baked fries or sweet potato fries and grass-fed steak. Or, you can add a veg for the healthier eater. There’s usually that Venn diagram overlap or some common ground.

No Food Advice While Eating

This is the same advice I give to parents of teens.

“Are you sure you want to eat that?” is never going to be met with “oh you’re right, I don’t’ want to eat that.” If you’re going to say you’re worried about their health, I am sure but don’t worry about it at the table. There is nothing sexy about policing your mate.

Finally, as I said in my blog last week, let’s not be so shy about this. Whether you’re in a new relationship or a longstanding one you can discuss food and eating. Just don’t contact Foodtrainers for “couples Foodtraining” we don’t offer that service for a reason.

We're not on camera, tell me about your relationship food issues. Do you and your partner eat similarly? Was that always the case? If you do not, what do you do to compromise?
And finally, happy halloween...if you missed it here is a link to our "healthy sweets you can eat newsletter".

The Horoscope Diet

Do you ever read your horoscope and feel it rings eerily true? Maybe you don't read horoscopes at all but, even if you say that, I'd guess when you see yours you peek. Horoscopes are confusing for me. I'm what they call "on the cusp" between two signs. This makes me insecure as sometimes I'm a Leo and other times a Virgo. I've sided with Virgo mainly because everyone says "you're SUCH a Virgo." What they mean by that is that I'm particular and either neurotic or a control freak or, in my case, both. 

Anyway, I'm on a plane right now. I have my usual seat next to the crying baby and I read Marie Claire magazine in an attempt to distract myself. In about 10 minutes, I found myself on the horoscope page. My horoscope basically said do one thing at a time. Revolutionary? No,  but it was a reminder I needed. For example, yesterday I was in the house for most of the day and found myself making a red white and blue açai bowl, researching a trip to Hawaii, reading the first section of the Times, purging two drawers from my closet...you get the point. At 10pm I realized I hadn't done the 1 thing I needed to do which was packing for the trip I'm on. 

It occurred to me that this acute case of ADD (not making light of ADD) could be seasonal or summer-related. I see a lot of it with my clients. If you're suffering from the summer sloppies - don't say you'll wait until September to get it together!!! At the same time, you're not going to clean everything up. So pretend you're a Virgo and do one thing! Do you need to socialize a little less and cook or bbq at home? Ditch the day drinking? Stop staying up late? Pick one thing and focus on that behavior for now. If you'd like you can do our Sept Squeeze to focus on your food even further (we're announcing the details next week). And if you're wondering about my birthday? I'm sure you're not but I made my own reservation (Virgo) at Senza Gluten.

Are you a horoscope person? Or, can you relate to the need to focus on one thing versus many? 

Paleo Phil, Mickelson Wins at Weight Loss

Most people watching yesterday’s final round of the British Open were likely focused on who would win the Claret Jug (or is it mug). I watched, and although it was as exciting as golf can be, I wasn’t fixated on the jug/mug. Two topics were more interesting to me. The first was that these athletes breaking records and duking it out were both in their forties. And second, Phil trimmed down.

It turns out Phil has gone Paleo and upped his fitness game and, as a result, he’s dropped 25-ish pounds (over 2 stones). I’m not sure that Phil got the idea from Lebron. It’s not as though Lebron started the paleo diet but of course “Phil lost weight following the Lebron diet” was a headline I came across more than once. Lebron was hardcore paleo for 67 days. This means their diets consisted of fruit, vegetables, protein, nuts and limited carbs (no dairy, no grains/gluten/sugar).

For me, it’s one thing for average people to pursue paleo but quite a shift from old-school “carbing up” for athletes to do it. A part of paleo I wholeheartedly endorse is the concern with better-sourced ingredients (grass-fed meat, wild fish etc.). I’m off to the beach in 10 days so I’ll give Mickelson credit and say I’ll be loosely following the Phil Plan.

Do you watch golf (it’s ok to admit it)? Did you notice Phil looked more fit? What do you think of paleo?

Are Periods Going Public?

We field a lot of hormone-related questions. After all our hormones affect everything from our appetite to our mood, throw in 198 other potential symptoms and you have a major wellness impediment. Last month, Carolyn and I filmed a video we called “WTF PMS” because a) we didn’t feel the need to choose a classier title and b) let’s face it we have no issue with semi taboo topics. The strange thing is that cycles, hormones and periods have sort of come out of the closet. Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story called “Candidly Spelling Out the “P” word about period tracking apps. One could argue that using “P” instead of period is neither candid nor spelled out. On the same day, I received an email from Greatist “what’s up with digestion during your period”. I feel one-upped by them because they hit two taboos in one title, dang.

Check out the video for our Food First Aid Kit for PMS, find out why the snack below from Navitas Naturals is a PMS crusher and hear our PMS theme song. We'll also introduce you to the new "zoodle" in town, yup hello swoodles. Subscribe to our you tube channel and let us know if there are topics you’d like us to tackle. Be Well (wink).

Do you think it’s good that woman (and men) can discuss hormones and other touchy topics? What are your worst PMS symptoms? Do you track things in an app?

12 Swimsuit Diet Secrets

Fun slideshow via Health Magazine for some summer inspo. Yes, I voted for our beloved green tea (extra cred for matcha, try unsweetened almond milk matcha latte at Fika if you haven't). And of course because Foodtrainers help you be booze trainers and "lose while you booze" a fun "healthy' cocktail idea utilizing the superpowered Wakaya ginger.
I'm not sure I agree with the intro that summer best time to lose, summer has its own challenges.
See what you think.
What do you do to keep it healthy when it's summer (even though technically isn't)?

Weight loss secrets in George Hamilton's closet

On Sunday, I was watching OWN (Oprah’s network) but not Super Soul Sunday (my fave), this time I was watching Where Are They Now. Oprah was interviewing George Hamilton…you remember him super tan, dapper, dated Elizabeth Taylor?At one point in the interview they showed footage of George’s closet.  My heart tends to skip a beat when things are lined up and organized perfectly but there was something else. George had multiples of the items that work. At seventy-something he knows he likes denim shirts when he’s dressing casually and white dress shirts on other days.  This reminded me of my gingerade kombuchas in the fridge or my son’s chia pods.

The next day I spotted this article on Facebook. It’s about men from Steve Jobs to President Obama and this same concept of wearing the same thing every day.  Obama said:

‘I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.

Granted-when it comes to clothes men can certainly get away with more of a uniform concept but I am intrigued about the food or diet equivalent of all this. While we don’t want to eat the same exact food each day, there is an ease to a certain degree of repetition. After all “what should I eat?” when we’re stressed or tired isn’t going to turn out as well as the person who automatically goes to the salad bar at lunch.  I know, after years of counseling, that for every person who loves rituals and repetition there is another person who would be bored to tears dressing or eating similarly.

I say use rituals as anchors. Maybe you eat the same one or two breakfasts or have green tea every day. Perhaps you get to work and always fill a water pitcher.  Oftentimes one positive step can lead to others and over time you don’t even think about it.

Are you a creature of habit with your diet or your wardrobe? Do you prefer repetition or variety? Why is George Hamilton so damn tan?

The Mother In-law Challenge

Last week, I was in my office for client sessions. Many clients had Rosh Hashanah on their minds. For any special event, I try to gather information in order to formulate a plan. “Where will you be for the holidays?” On this particular day three clients informed me that their mother in-law was hosting. Each of these clients shared this with evident apprehension.  Humor is my favorite antidote for anxiety so I dubbed it “the Mother In-law challenge” and we went from there.

When my sessions were over, my mind drifted back to mother in laws and all the accompanying stereotypes. This definition made me chuckle.

 A phrase appended to names of relationship, as father, mother, brother, sister, son, etc., to indicate that the relationship is not by nature

There are books written on the subject including one from psychologist Terri Apter entitled…What do you want from me? And it will come as no shock that the most complicated relationships are between mother in-laws and daughter in-laws.

The food dynamic stems directly from the family dynamic. First, these relationships are “not by nature” these are not your parents where the comfort level is greater. And second, all family gatherings evoke some level of tension. This tension you may carry is as big an obstacle as your MIL. I will go on record and say my beautiful, Swedish MIL is a healthy eater and always has a Foodtrainers-friendly spread for family meals. However, I’m more at ease with my family…of course we have our issues but I’m used to them.

You have to be comfortable with eating well and that may mean foregoing certain holiday foods; you don’t need your mother in law to be comfortable with it or eat like her. I'm assuming you don't dress like her or act like her, right? If your mother in law carries the food-pushing gene, you have two choices. My first rule is “accept but don’t ingest” which I’ve mentioned in LBT and on the blog before. People are often more concerned with what you take or put on your plate than what you actually consume. If your MIL actually assesses your intake, I would employ the best food pusher advice “push back”. It's best to push back with a compliment such as “this is so delicious but I think I’ve had enough”. As far as the tension, mentally prepare yourself for that too. Walk yourself through with "I may be on edge, there will be lots of people but I'm going to be sure to put all my food on a plate and eat slowly." 

For better or for worse, you will have many more in-law meals and the sooner you carve out what works best for you in terms of strategy the better.

If you’re “Rosh Hashanahing” I wish you a happy new year.

What is the hardest part of holiday meals for you? Why do mother in-laws get a bad rap? Or should they get a bad rap?