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Healthy Office Habit Tips w/ Mara Feil

We actually have a very special guest right now that we're going to have that's going to call in her name is mary file, and she works in new york at a at, and her website is called stand up health, and she is actually an experts and helping people make better choices at work. So welcome, mat. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks for being here. How are you doing? Great, you know, just, uh, just trying to get people a little bit healthier and a little bit happier today. That's great. So we were just talking about some of the challenges that people face when they when we get to work and there's, just so many things there to derail us from making the decisions that we already decided we want to make, but they're just really hard in this situation, of course, you know, it's it's hard enough when you don't have people what seems like conspiring against you by, you know, even with the best intentions pushing food or leaving that cook your brownie on your desk, you know, when you don't have ...

that it's hard, so when you have that person or those groups of people that unintentionally seemed to sabotage all eating goals, it makes it that much harder, so hopefully we can, we can talk about how little little changes in behavior and habits can really build up and make a difference in castaic into regan plan yes so tell us about you and your work and what you d'oh yeah s o when I found it stand up health it was based on the idea that diets don't work and we all have been on a diet we all know that diet leads to thinking about food dreaming about food and all of those behaviors combined with guilt or deprivation on ly causes you to crave the food more that creating them needs to binging when usually go off the diet we all know what happens when you started binging it's usually that downward cycle so what I do is I specialize in teaching people and inspiring people to make little tweaks so not diet but it's lifestyle changes so it's incorporating more of the good and therefore crowding out the bad and by default that accumulates to positive habits and if open wait for works the weight loss for improving energy improving digestion and it makes it fun and enjoyable. Yeah, I love it and we were talking earlier wear like it's so rare to hear people talk like this I mean so often it's just you know you do you hear people who like, specialize in health or specialize in nutrition and it's all about don't do this don't do this don't do this follow these rules and you know it seems like you and I have both had the same experience where we know it doesn't work so why are we doing that when we could focus on little things that are actually much more enjoyable that actually do work yeah so you know you're charlie right yeah yeah well I was going to say take us through specifically how some of your advice on how to handle work because I know for a lot of people work is you know, it's a big part of your life you know I would we were just doing a little bit of math and if if you only count lunch and I know a lot of people you breakfast and dinner at work but if you only count lunch that's you know almost a quarter of your meals a week and then you add snacks in there and you're talking about a huge huge impact on your health and your life just what you eat at work and so obviously if that's the case there's a tremendous potential there tio improve your life in for it in so many ways by just handling that work situation absolutely and that all comes from being prepared there is you know what we were all in school it was it was prepared for your exams prepare teo open you know to make the most the most doors open for you and in the work world is preparing to stick to your eating plan and how do you do that? It requires a little bit of forethought, and it doesn't mean thinking about it every day because we all know that if there's too many decision points in a day that is not a good decision completely falls by the wayside. So the point is is that you prepare a little bit early on in the week and math preparedness will carry you through so hopefully the weekend so there's certain things that you can dio whether it's cooking a big batch of food on a saturday or sunday portion it apportioning it out into small containers, bringing it with you. I love that so we talked about batch cooking a little bit yesterday, but you have some favorites that you, khun suggests that it works really well in office setting. Oh, absolutely, I'm a big fan and you can change by the season when whether you shop for your farmer's market or your local supermarket is grab a few pounds of fresh vegetables over the weekend, chopped them up and tossed them in a little bit of coconut oil, a little salt a little bit of pepper and roast them for about ten minutes, fifteen minutes that's it and then, while that's cooking get a batch of keen law or another whole grain, whether it's, a craft bulger wheat or brown rice and make a double batch of that and then well that's all cooking lay out your tougher wears me out five of them and when everything's done take a half a couple of their grains and put that on the bottom scooping your veggies and then you can add in you're more your perishable vegetables that day so you're gonna you can I draw avocado that day? You conundrum tomatoes that day but the bates and the bulk and that hardiness is going to come from food that really can last all week in these little tougher wears a song that you keep it in the fridge I love that so much hell. And how long does that take like would you say from like roasting the vegetables to tupperware? You know there's lots of little there's lots little trick so to pay a little bit more you can get chopped up organic broccoli already or you can spend a few more minutes and cutting yourself probably all in with the vegetables about half an hour. I encourage people to keep their veggies a little bit crisper so that if you are heating it up leader you still leave a little bit of the of the dietary fiber intact so undercooking us back and the king will cure all cooks in fifteen minutes so no excuses everyone can you know in between a tv show pause your dvr throw a match on the stove and then add in your avocados and you're you're fresh veggies day off well, I love this so much is because I, you know, we've been talking about how you know, I've been emphasizing that we we believe that health costs all this time that it takes a lot of time that you well, it takes a lot of time to get exercise, but you're saying, I've been arguing that it's actually an investment because you you put a little bit of time in and you're talking about only half hour on your day off, and then you get four, five meals throughout the week, plus all that extra focus, all that extra energy from not completely depleting yourself by eating stuff that just isn't good for your brain and body, exactly and aa lot of my clients will say, oh, well, I don't want to eat the same thing every day. I don't want to eat the same thing either you don't have to, so if you're cooking two or three baking sheets of vegetables, maybe one tree will have your cruciferous vegetables your your brussels spread your broccoli or cauliflower on another pin you can have your leaks in your butternut squash or your sweet potato and another you can have your seasonal right now it's a scary guests or its other spring onions and then when you make your containers, every container doesn't have to be the same, but what you know about throw a few colors and age, but mix them up and then when you go to eat them it's going to taste like an entirely different meal I've end that's such a great point too, because this is what I do all the time I I made basically the same dish, so like the process of cooking, the food feels identical, which is good because that means it's a habit that means it's a strong and easy thing for me to do without a lot of energy, but I'll you slightly different vegetables, maybe use a slightly different vinegar rat or something like are slightly different grain, and then it can feel like an entirely different meal or an entirely different experience, and you don't get bored with basically doing the same thing over and over again. Exactly, and I tell my clients to is take advantage of herbs take advantage of really great citizen ng was like the goma zeos or, you know the the you know any of the coconut amino acids or any organic tamar ese add in those toppings, that's going to give it a little bit of flavor, your fermented meet so was your kim cheese to add a little bit of distinctiveness to your dish but you're keeping it simple and you're getting rid of all extraneous decision points I'm a big fan of sir raja yes yeah jewish is became mixture suraj in a little bit of me so in a little bit of maple syrup and it's the best dressing for anything I love it so what else? What how what other things can we do to a plan and make sure we're ready so I'm a big fan of always carrying around little snack bags filled with seeds and nuts my three favorite seat in the seas I tell all my clients is helps ease number one they're filled with amazing trifecta of beneficial facts of fiber and protein that it's gonna elevate any meal so whether you're having a really ordinary vegetable soup from the corner bodega or you're breaking in a some sad that you made throw those hemp seeds on and you're going to get an extra with three tables ten grams of protein you're going to get that extra fiber and that fat so you know it can elevate any meal whether it's brown bag or or take out where can you get something like hemp seeds I feel like that's is it common? Yeah so somebody's has calm him cede some calm ham parts the kids you always want to buy organic to really prevent any sort of pesticides or gmo issue is depending on that crop but your local supermarket should have it most at least in new york, most bodegas have himself new york has it? I'm sure california has it and on def, not any of those online retailers will have um so if we couldn't find something, I feel like emcees, they're a little a little new like could use something like a sunflower seed are a little more something a little more common absolutely sunflower seeds you agree shia seeds are definitely all the rage they make a wonderful addition to anything um and flax meal as well is a great additive. And if those seemed too esoteric like you said doria sunflower seeds air great raw almonds uh, wrong walnuts with that you just want to watch your sodium because a lot of them are filled with oils and an extra salt. Great! And then you said you portion these out it's a little baggies is that like something you d'oh ahead of time at home or can you buy in that way? Yeah, so I called the costco effect, and the problem is when we buy these massive quantities of things it entices ut eat more and they've done all these wonderful studies showing that just by having it in front of you, you end up eating it twenty five percent more of the time, so the trick is portion them out, but then hide them keep you know keep three daysworth in your top desk drawer and put the rest in that bottom drawer behind you and then replenish your stocks as you need it but these things are high in approaching high in fat and high in fiber but you still don't want to go overboard that's a such a funny thing we were just talking about that how there's certain foods where you just wanna open the bag and just eat you like well it's healthy so I can just keep eating it but then then it kind of ruins your dinner because you're right you do sort of a probably two or three times more than you needed oh totally and there's certain foods where portion control is a problem or difficult I love to snack so I have to be careful you know you never want to snack out of an almond bag because that's just going to lead you down a path you don't want to go but have been heating up in unsalted at a mommy so with the baby soybeans are great thing to snap gone if if you want it if you want more than just a small portion um homemade popcorn you know if you go to your farmer's market right now they have wonderful purple popcorns and all different colors with different antioxidant levels throw that in a pot with some coconut oil or grapeseed oil the high heat and pop it and then you can send him in or cacau powder and then you can go to town and snack on that that's great cause that almost if you get the craving for something a little sweeter you can sort of just like a little a sprinkling of the cow chocolate powder cinnamon makes it gives it that desert like feel without dessert like calories exactly exactly and sometimes you know when people are in brownies rand knew were cake or whether it's the super bowl that you're watching or your favorite tv show you want something sweet there was gentle or sweeteners that just won't affect your blood sugar so you know so much and as a result you can eat more of it with that that downward spiral of energy concentration and yeah I love it I do have a question we do absolutely welcome mara we got you got a question from somebody goes by the name of cookie monster so there I need to get some really new habits they really interesting what you're saying about flags because they've heard that the whole feeds can't be digested easily a tall but if you ground them then you lose all the beneficial oils because they oxidize quickly what's yours your take on fractal what's the best way to eat it yeah that's a great question um and I know a lot of that is true so unfortunately our bodies cannot digest the flax seed so you do want to grind the key with the flax news you want to keep it refrigerated if you're going to grind it far out in advance that's going to allow that's going to actually preserve all of those delicate omega threes in there, but most importantly is you do want to grind it and does the heat to grade to the nutrient value when you're cooking it, you generally don't want to heat it too high for any of the antioxidant rich foods you want to keep the heating really below about one hundred twenty degrees and that really will constitute a raw ingredient for example, a rock cow powder isn't heated above that certain threshold same with honey and basically what happens is when you heat on ingredient like that coming, for example or it degrades those trace vitamins and minerals so that's best like I did sprinkle like sprinkle that on your salad sprinkled in your soup with that on your cereal your o'neill in your smoothie and you're good to go awesome! Thank you, mar and erica, you have a question here one of our students so earlier we were talking about times that we felt bullied at work and I couldn't think of feeling bullied about food at work, but it did just dawn on me that um I did feel little alienation because people would bring in doughnuts to meetings and I didn't eat them, but I didn't feel bullied about it, but then I didn't feel like I was contributing anything back. Do you have ideas of foods that I could bring in that people would enjoy or not roller eyes and think all this is some health food type thing? Yeah, definitely my favorite thing to combat that sweet cravings are our dates, and my trick is is get one with the pets in them. They're insanely suite, so you can I'll need a few at a time. They look beautiful, you can get artisanal dates, you can get store bob's lines and you can put a minimal and you can nibble on one of those pop of human your mouth. And really, I swear by by really your second when you're like, I am, should it out and that's not going to affect your blood sugar the way that, you know, doughnut sort of coffee cakes well, and you will actually be more productive, and it would concentrate more than your colleagues, which probably would be in a sugar coma by the time you're done with your date. It's actually, our military, our production designer boards and dates for this morning's appreciate when you have won some. Dying to dive on those this afternoon very last question mara wendell is asking that there obviously a lot of people loved your idea about the popcorn what other sweet or savory toppings are seasonings do you recommend they're actually really ok to eat yeah um so really depends if you want to go sweet or savory if you want to go to sweet route my two favorite sweeteners or are your brown an organic brown right syrup or a one hundred percent pure maple syrup I prefer to go the b route on the maple safer it's a little bit richer you can then you can use a little bit less because you get that intensity of the flavor the alien drizzle that on a popcorn and delicious if you want to know more of the savory route and you love nacho cheese you can try a little bit of the nutritional yeast on your popcorn the benefit of nutritional yeast is it's packed with big complex so twelve there's full lead in there and it's just going to give you another zap of great vitamins and minerals awesome yeah celtic sea salt is probably the second favorite just a tiny little bit goes a long way and it's also going to help with cravings later because so much of our cravings is from a deficiency in a vitamin or mineral so with that celtic sea salt you're going toe replenish all of your levels and you won't have to worry about craven's. I love it. Will maris so build with great tips and advice to tackle the office and you can check her out at stand up health with two piece we have it appear dot com and check her out and thank you so much for joining us today was fantastic, you know? And if you have any questions, just send me an email. Great, thanks, man. So that was fantastic. Awesome, amazing tips and tricks for eating healthy the office, anybody have any super insights are going to try? I think that the different things on popcorn sounds pretty interesting because it's, like, sounded good a good healthy options particles not something I associate with being healthy, right? But it has all those and I feel like craving quenching properties like it's, it's, crunchy, it's, salty it's, kind of buttery, and then you could make it either sweet or savory, depending on the mood you're in family love it. Yeah, I thought, uh, her idea about partitioning the different vegetables throughout the week was really interesting instead of ah, just cooking them all and then going ok, I'm just going to sue about just a scoop each day you can really of course, took them all the same time, but then partition them out for different days, right? You say you do all the hard work has already done and that you love that. The suggested recipe she had was basically what can really made us yesterday wear totally set, like everybody has lunches for the rest of their lives. Fantastic.