Happy New Year! Another holiday season, done and dusted. Gone as quickly as it arrived. And if you’re like most of the population, the last three months may have left you with a souvenir around your midline. If you’re suffering from a little post-holiday food guilt, let me offer up some encouragement, support, and a resource to help you pivot and proclaim some new healthy habits.
Reflection
I ate my way through the holidays
Resolution
I really need to clean up my diet
Renewal
Enlist support to help me with my goals
January is notoriously the month of reflection and resolution. Largely, these tend to center around an individual’s weight, appearance, or overall health. If this is you, keep reading. There’s a local resource you may not have been familiar with, and I’m here to introduce you to the nutritional guidance you probably didn’t realize was so close to home. Something that will help transform that resolution into a reward.
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Andrew Akhaphong, a Registered and Licensed Dietician with Mackenthun’s Fine Foods. His role helps promote HAES®, one of the company’s practiced philosophies with their health and wellness services. HAES®, Health at Every Size, is a holistic approach that promotes health and well-being for people of all sizes.
Andrew meets his customers, clients, and patients exactly where they are and supports them by helping them understand that small adjustments to their lifestyle can make incremental differences, and those add up over time! "People don’t realize that even just one intervention can make a big impact," says Andrew. Andrew isn’t here to make you feel guilty for overeating or consuming too much during the holidays (or any other time of the year). He’s here to get you started so that you can make conscious choices for your health that will allow you to experience the boundless energy that comes from reducing the risk of chronic disease, enhancing your body’s resilience, and ultimately supporting your overall quality of life. Health is wealth.
"Sometimes a customer or client just needs me to fill in the blanks," says Andrew. "A simple way to change a diet is to evaluate your protein vs. carb intake. Where can you cut sugar and fill up on protein instead?"
Andrew is currently working on his doctorate in Clinical Nutrition but also possesses a certification in culinary arts. He offers nutrition education, meal planning support, and medical nutrition therapy, a service that allows him to collaborate with a patient’s physician to review their blood work, medications, and current diagnosis to help determine how nutrition plays a role in managing their care. Many don’t realize that certain interactions with foods and medications can disrupt or affect their health. His expertise allows him to triage some of the concerns that his clients might have, and together, they address dietary needs that may help the individual lose weight, reduce risk, increase the consumption of essential nutrients, and/or help them uncover connections with foods that affect their gut health. Those symptoms alone can often affect a person’s weight and well-being.
If mindful eating and focused nutrition are things that you struggle with, you’re not alone. Social media, television, advertisements, convenience, and time. They all contribute to the pressures we fall victim to, making it challenging to stay on track. Diet is the number one thing that most Americans struggle with when it comes to weight loss or gut health. Exercise is important, but you can never outrun a poor diet.
We’re a society that demands prompt results, instant gratification, and the path of least resistance. Healthy efforts and realistic weight loss goals take time. Consider working with a licensed professional who can help you create a mindful plan around nutrition. Contact Andrew, or the next time you’re out shopping at Mackenthun’s, stop and schedule an appointment to meet with him. You can’t celebrate if you don’t initiate! https://mackenthuns.com
People don’t realize even just one intervention can make a big impact. A simple way to change a diet is to evaluate your protein vs. carb intake. Where can you cut sugar and fill up on protein instead?
