My Personal Approach to Health and Wellness

October 2018 marks the two-year anniversary of The Nutrition Atlas. When I started this blog, I was a dietetic intern finishing my training. Now, I am a registered dietitian nutritionist and work full-time at a hospital run by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. This project has been so many things for me: a way to keep abreast of new developments in the field of nutrition and dietetics, to dive deeper into topics that interest me, and to share what I’ve learned. It’s also served as a diary of sorts through which I’ve watched my nutrition philosophy evolve over time. As a health care provider, I strive to promote evidence-based research in my clinical practice and in the advice that I give on this blog. But health is personal, and I’ve found that the research findings often resonate more with people if they’re accompanied by a personal story. In this post, I’m going to share a little bit about my own approach to wellness.

I typically start my day around 6:30 am with a glass of water and twenty minutes of yoga and/or pilates. Although brief, this practice significantly improves both my physical health (better flexibility and core strength) and mental health (improved concentration and focus). After a strong cup of coffee I walk to work, a two-mile uphill trek that is one of my favorite parts of the day. I eat breakfast with my colleagues in the hospital cafeteria: typically oatmeal with nuts and dried fruit, eggs, or plain yogurt with low-sugar granola. I like to use my thirty-minute lunch break to take another walk around the neighborhood; I find that getting some fresh air in the middle of the day clears my head and re-energizes me for the afternoon. For lunch I’ll have a big salad with whatever veggies are in the salad bar that day plus beans, tofu, or tuna. I’m usually hungry again mid-afternoon, so I’ll grab a greek yogurt with almond butter for extra protein, or some fruit and/or nuts. Dinner really depends on what I’m doing that evening; if I’m home I’ll make something simple like a stir fry, or have a whole wheat wrap with turkey and avocado. I also enjoy cooking with friends and exploring local food options — I live close to the Mission District in San Francisco where the Mexican food is to die for. I’m a light eater at night; I find that I feel much better and have more energy if I stop eating a few hours before I go to sleep.

I don’t currently have a gym membership. With my walking commute and the walking that I do around the hospital I usually average about seven to eight miles a day on foot, and I love hiking, cycling, and exploring new neighborhoods on the weekends. I’m an active person by nature and I tend to go through different fitness phases; when I lived in Boston I belonged to a gym where I did spin and weightlifting, and I was an avid (amateur) swimmer in college. There are so many ways to make exercise fun, and challenging myself to find new ways to incorporate it into my lifestyle keeps it from feeling like a chore.

Eating well and staying active feels easy to me right now, but it hasn’t always been this way. I used to be a lot more concerned with having a “perfect diet”: little to no sugar, fruits and vegetables at every meal, no refined carbohydrates, etc. This did not make me happy, and honestly, I don’t think it made me much healthier either. My relationship with food really shifted when I learned how to eat mindfully. Mindful eating, which is a technique that involves using all of your senses to experience food, allowed me to relax about my diet. I became more aware of how different foods made me feel, and began to more easily notice when I was eating out of habit or boredom rather than because I was actually hungry. Mindful eating allows me to enjoy a slice of good-quality cake without guilt, and to listen to my body if it tells me that it needs a thick slice of pizza rather than a salad on a cold day. I don’t eat a lot of processed food or sugar because I know that I won’t feel well if I do, not because I feel like I shouldn’t. That being said, sometimes a Reese’s peanut butter cup really hits the spot. I just have one instead of five.

I can’t stress enough that wellness is extremely personal — there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. People respond differently to different foods, diet patterns, and exercise routines. This is why dietitians often double as lifestyle coaches; we use techniques such as motivational interviewing to help clients identify their own health priorities and come up with SMART goals: those that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. I feel incredibly grateful to have found a career that I am passionate about, and which challenges me and allows me to connect with others. It’s taken a lot of trial and error to figure out which strategies work best for me, but reflecting throughout this process has made me better able to help my clients do the same. Thank you for reading The Nutrition Atlas, and here’s to year three!