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A Season Filled with Celebration… and Dietary Temptation

November 7, 2016 Lydia Buschenfeldt

Tips on Maintaining Good Eating Habits Through the Holidays

We are com­ing up on a sea­son filled with cel­e­bra­tions. There are the indul­gent hol­i­day fes­tiv­i­ties, the office par­ties, the big fam­i­ly gath­er­ings, the hap­py hours…and all seem to involve food! Not just food, but buf­fets, fam­i­ly recipes, com­fort foods, baked goods…seemingly end­less rounds of food!  So, how can you successfully–and healthfully–navigate it all?

Homemade almond butter cups

For starters, let’s look at some of the com­mon pitfalls.

1) If you thought high school was tough, no amount of peer pres­sure from 10th grade can stack up to your grand­moth­er’s guilt trip over skip­ping a sec­ond por­tion of her home­made mac­a­roni and cheese. Feed­ing peo­ple is how many fam­i­lies show one anoth­er love, so this is a tricky one to nav­i­gate. Estab­lish a plan ahead of time, includ­ing remind­ing your grand­moth­er how much you love and appre­ci­ate her, and then go ahead and fol­low your plan – be it a small sam­ple of every­thing, avoid­ing known intol­er­ances, or bring­ing your own item to share.

2) “It’s been a long year, so don’t you deserve this?” Try a men­tal cal­cu­la­tion of how many times you have said this one when eye­ing (and jus­ti­fy­ing) a buf­fet or oth­er indul­gent meal. To that ques­tion I would say, of course you do! You, dar­ling, deserve the sun, moon and stars, so that Mis­sis­sip­pi Mud Pie is a drop in your buck­et! But wait! Don’t you also deserve to be your hap­pi­est, health­i­est you? Don’t you deserve to be con­fi­dent, and in con­trol of your health and your life? Don’t you deserve the low­er A1C and cho­les­terol that comes with putting your health first? Ask your­self those ques­tions. I’m guess­ing they’ll end with a mike drop and a sen­si­ble, bal­anced plate, with just a sliv­er of the Mud Pie at the end of the most impor­tant celebrations.

3) Dietary restric­tions and aller­gies can seem like they force you to sit in the cor­ner and nib­ble on pieces of card­board – not so! The hol­i­days are a great time to try new recipes, explore new cook­books, and sam­ple new tastes. Pin­ter­est and Google are full of deli­cious ideas and inspi­ra­tion, no mat­ter how com­plex your list of restric­tions may seem. Most impor­tant­ly, ALWAYS show up to hol­i­day cel­e­bra­tions pre­pared with some­thing you can eat and you WANT to eat (i.e. don’t show up to a cook­ie exchange with a hard-boiled egg…not that I’ve done this myself…).

4) Two words: Get. Mov­ing! Tak­ing a brisk walk, enjoy­ing a spin­ning class with friends, or find­ing some alone time at the yoga stu­dio between fam­i­ly com­mit­ments will increase your feel-good endor­phins, boost your metab­o­lism, and help keep your body and mind in tip-top shape – all help­ful for mak­ing health-pro­mot­ing choic­es and remem­ber­ing that you are so very worth it.

Food, Health and Wellness food allergies, Self Worth

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Based in Fairfax, Virginia, Hatch Health and Happiness offers full-service face-to-face health coaching in Northern Virginia and virtually around the globe!
lydia@hatchhealthhappiness.com
610-220-7036

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Healthy Living — Great Recipes and Ideas!

Trail Mix

Bulk Bin Trail Mix

September 4, 2018 Leave a Comment

Sure, it’s tempt­ing­ly easy to grab a bag of pre-made trail mix –col­or­ful, effort­less, and with such fun names to boot! But have you ever stopped to glance at the nutri­tion facts of that bag of seem­ing­ly healthy options? More specif­i­cal­ly, check out the sug­ar con­tent. Some com­mer­cial brands of trail mix have as much sug­ar as a 16 oz bot­tle of soda! The main cul­prit is sweet­ened dried fruit, and some brands add can­dy as well. If that deli­cious mouth­ful of sweet and salty is your taste­buds’ desire, don’t despair. There are plen­ty of ways to make a deli­cious AND nutri­tious trail mix, all with ingre­di­ents from your gro­cery store bulk bin! [Read More…]

Product Reviews — NEW!

Purely Elizabeth Superfood Oat Cups with Granola Topping — Cranberry Pumpkin Seed

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Meal Planning

Meal Planning

July 31, 2018 Leave a Comment

One of the trick­i­est parts of most people’s healthy rou­tines is the meal plan­ning com­po­nent. Luck­i­ly for you, we have that cov­ered with the lat­est install­ment in our Hatch Video series! More…

Bloat Buster Smoothie

Bloat Buster Smoothie

June 4, 2018 Leave a Comment

Now that we are head­ing into the warmer months of the year, you may find your­self want­i­ng to spend less time in front of the hot stove top or oven. For­tu­nate­ly, smooth­ies are a great way to pack a lot of nutri­tion in one place. Check out the video below for one of my favorite smooth­ies — the bloat buster!

Pan roasted plantains

Pan-Roasted Plantains

May 1, 2018 Leave a Comment

Pan roasted plantains with mashed avocadoDespite the fact that plan­tains close­ly resem­ble a banana, they have a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent fla­vor and are def­i­nite­ly not to be con­sumed raw (you’ll only make that mis­take once!). Plan­tains are actu­al­ly a veg­etable, chock full of fiber, cal­ci­um and vit­a­min C. Pan-roast­ing the plan­tains allows them to caramelize, keep­ing the out­side a lit­tle bit crispy and the inside nice and soft. Cin­na­mon, gin­ger and turmer­ic add a tri­fec­ta of anti-inflam­ma­to­ry good­ness and a lit­tle sprin­kle of sea salt makes these plan­tains absolute­ly irre­sistible. Enjoy as is, or my favorite way –- with mashed avo­ca­do! More…

Energy bites

Energy Balls

April 2, 2018 Leave a Comment

Gluten, Grain, Dairy, Soy-Free and Vegan

Seeds need ener­gy in order to grow, and cul­ti­vat­ing your own healthy habits can take a lot of ener­gy too! Ener­gy bars and ener­gy balls are every­where we look these days. They are super easy to whip up your­self, but many peo­ple are intim­i­dat­ed by the thought. More…

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About Lydia and Hatch Health

Lydia Buschenfeldt

I was a happy, healthy, newlywed 4th grade teacher when a random virus paralyzed my GI system, along with parts of my … More...

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Client Testimonials

Rainbow

See what Lydia’s clients have to say…

I’d say Lydia Buschen­feldt has changed my life, but that would­n’t be exact­ly true. What she does is even more pow­er­ful. Any­one can tell some­one else what changes they ‘need’ to make to live a health­i­er life. It takes some­one spe­cial to enable and empow­er you to change your own life. Lydia is that some­one spe­cial. Dur­ing every ses­sion, at every twist and turn and bump in the road, Lydia meets me where I am with an incred­i­ble amount of knowl­edge and patience, and helps me iden­ti­fy one or two steps for­ward to accom­plish the goals I have for myself. She knows that each jour­ney is dif­fer­ent, and cus­tomizes our ses­sions so our dis­cus­sions are tai­lored toward what I need in that moment to help me build the health, future and hap­pi­ness that I deserve.
— L.S.
Man­as­sas, VA More…

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quoteThere is no passion to be found in playing small, in settling for a life that is less than you are capable of living. — Nelson Mandela

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Contact Lydia

Based in Fair­fax, Vir­ginia, Hatch Health and Hap­pi­ness offers full-ser­vice face-to-face health coach­ing in North­ern Vir­ginia and vir­tu­al­ly around the globe!
lydia@hatchhealthhappiness.com
610−220−7036

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