Our Dietitian’s Top Tips for Maintaining a Balanced Diet

Most of us know that diet and exercise are important cornerstones to a healthy lifestyle. But that doesn’t make it any easier to put these into action in our daily lives. March is National Nutrition Month and the dietitians at our local Hancock Health Wellness Centers know that obtaining a balanced diet can be tricky and, some days, it might feel downright impossible. That is why we have distilled some dietitian approved wisdom for maintaining a healthy diet during the month of March and beyond!

Steven Tsaparikos, RD, LD, CHC, is a Clinical Dietitian Nutritionist working out of the Hancock Health Wellness Center New Palestine. He sees quite a few clients coming in with common questions, especially related to easy ways they can implement dietary changes. Here are some of his top tips to help people maintain a more balanced diet and, in turn, a healthier lifestyle.

Hydration is important, even when the sun isn’t making you sweat. Water helps with skin and organ health throughout every season and keeps joints lubricated. It flushes toxins from the body and helps to deliver nutrients. By increasing water intake, Steven hopes it will help his clients form healthier habits and feel better. “A quick way to figure out how much water you need to be drinking,” he says,” is taking your body weight or adjusted body weight in pounds and dividing it by 2.” So, if you weigh 180 pounds, you should be drinking about 90 oz of water a day. Bottoms up!

Protein helps our bodies to create new cells, build muscle, create immune cells, and manufacture enzymes for the body. Increasing your protein intake will not only help with daily function, but it will also make toning up, gaining muscle or losing body weight easier. If you are physically active, and especially if you do any resistance training, Steven recommends you consume about 0.7-1.0g of protein per pound of body weight per day. So, if you weigh 180 pounds, you should be getting roughly 126-180gper day.

We hate to break it to you, but your mom was right. You need to eat your vegetables, and regularly. Not only do vegetables provide nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, they are also an important source of fiber and water. Consuming these things will help to stave off hunger and can lead to better portion control of other foods. Aim to eat at least 2-3 servings of vegetables daily.

At Hancock Health, we like to preach prevention, and eating a healthy diet is one of the easiest ways tonot only feel your best but also prevent the onset of serious illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes,high blood pressure, cancer and more.

If you need some help getting on track, come and see one of our dietitians at your local Hancock Health Wellness Center in Greenfield, McCordsville, or New Palestine. Like Steven, they can offer you simple ways to make small but lasting changes in your eating habits. Slowly, over time, these will fuel you to reach your healthy lifestyle goals. Happy National Nutrition Month!