Alexa L. Fishback - Womens Health The Daily Fix: Your Guide to Healthy Habits for Good Nutrition

A S A WORKING WOMAN , I have a unique set of concerns about my health, nutrition, and body that seem strangely underrepresented in the abundance of wellness and diet literature that lines the shelves of our bookstores. As a nutritionist, friend, and sister, I realize that many women share a similar set of grievances and are eager for a resource that speaks directly to their needs. We want intelligent strategies to combat the health issues we face every day. For instance, how do we avoid gaining a few pounds after starting a new job that requires a gazillion hours a week? How can we stave off the afternoon slump that inevitably hits at 3 p.m., leaving us in desperate need of a catnap? Can we create a healthy balance between eating at home and trying the citys newest hot spots; going to the gym after work and unwinding with friends and a glass of wine; cooking in to save money and ordering out to save time?

I want to provide a tool for professional women to achieve their goal of a balanced lifestyle. Feeling good and energetic and yes, having that slim body youve always wanted is achievable, and without making drastic life changes or feeling deprived.

The crux of The Daily Fix is that your everyday eating and physical activity habits matter most when it comes to weight management and a healthy lifestyle. Unlike a diet, you do not go on and then off a habityou form and adopt it, and it becomes part of your life. It doesnt matter so much if a few times a year you get together with friends and polish off a pint of Ben and Jerrys, or if you need an extra-large chocolate chip cookie when you are PMSing. In fact, enjoying your favorite junk foods once in a while is a necessary part of life (says your nutritionist). It is the eating behaviors you engage in habitually that make a true impact on your waistline and ultimately on your health. A smart way to look at this concept is in terms of frequency: It is not just what you do, but how often you do it. If there are certain foods you eat every single day, lets make sure they are healthy habits. I will focus on what you are doing five days in a row every week rather than your behaviors during the weekend, and further, what you do fifty weeks of the year, not during the two weeks you are on vacation.

The Daily Fix is structured chronologically around your workday schedule, since you naturally spend the majority of your time at your job. I am not going to suggest any hard-and-fast rules that impose strict boundaries on your life, e.g., do not eat any carbohydrates, or drink blended power shakes for all of your meals for two weeks. Rather, I want to use the natural framework of the workday to help you establish a clean and sustainable meal and exercise routine. As working women, many of us have fallen into the same predictable patterns of meal, snack, and physical activity habitswe get to work the same way every morning, eat from pretty much the same selection of foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, graze for snacks at about the same hour each afternoon, and do the same workouts week after week. Chances are, you already practice some very good daily habits, which I hope to build upon. But you probably also have quite a few bad ones, which we will try to reduce in frequency. In short, we will target and fix your workday routine to combat the common, unhealthy patterns that often lead to weight gain and low energy in women our age.

I have devised a list of healthy habits for you to incorporate into your life, Monday through Friday. These daily fixes hold the key to looking better, feeling more energized, slimming down if you need to, and living longer. They are truly a lasting foundation upon which you can build a lifetime of good health.

Some of you might already be comfortable with these habits, while others may find them particularly daunting. For the latter crew, consider this: Patterns of eating and physical activity are learned. Behavior therapy suggests that it takes about three weeks to change a bad habit or to form a new, good one. I will show you how to incorporate these fixes into your workday, and after three weeks, you should find that you no longer crave your former vices and new, healthier habits have taken their place.

My goal is not only for you to make healthy, wholesome eating routine, but also that you find it to be pleasurable. I want you to taste the foods that you eat instead of mindlessly scarfing down a bunch of convenient, processed junk orequally as badlive a life beholden to iceberg lettuce salads and diet soda. People in their 20s and 30s have the most sensitive palates, so this is a good time to learn to savor your food. Why waste your high palate on a bunch of mediocre fare? Women, in particular, have a more sophisticated olfactory system (for smell and taste) than men, making us even more capable of savoring every morsel (maybe this is also why we are more drawn to the neighborhood bakery than our male counterparts?). Food is something we are faced with every day, and the sooner we figure out how to eat deliciously and healthfully, the better off we (and our families) will be, present and future.

The Daily Fix is designed to be an entertaining and educational cover-to-cover read, as well as a quick and handy on-the-go reference guide. Whether youre looking for a quick snack idea, the number of calories in a glass of wine, a nutritional solution to PMS, or a strategy to fit exercise into your busiest day, you can flip open this book and find the answers youre looking for. Welcome to The Daily Fix, ladiesI hope you find it enjoyable, informative, and slimming.