How To Be Mindful and Eat Healthy Feat. Registered Dietitian

Finding a balance with eating healthy can be challenging. Creating boundaries can equally be difficult. Personally, I haven’t had the best relationship with food. As I mentioned in a Letter to my Middle School Self, I struggled with my body image and began to binge eat. Since then, I’ve gotten better at eating a balanced meal, but still fall into negative guilt tripping tendencies. When I got the opportunity to interview Registered Dietitian, Alyssa Kwan, I was ecstatic to get educated and hopefully find new ways to improve the way I view my food consumption. This is how to be mindful and eat healthy featuring Registered Dietitian, Alyssa Kwan.

1. What is your profession?

I am a Registered Dietitian (RD)! Currently, I practice inpatient and work with acute patients in a clinical setting.

2. What got you interested in becoming a Dietitian?

I first became interested in nutrition as an undergrad at UC Davis! My grandfather had a chronic disease that was nutrition related and I became very interested in senior health, well-being, and nutrition. I decided to pursue preventative health and nutrition, and pursued my Dietetic Internship (residency for nutrition) at UCSF.

From there, I was introduced to clinical nutrition and decided to combine both interests of geriatrics and dietetics, working with veterans in the inpatient setting. I currently work as a Clinical Dietitian at the VA Medical Center.

3. What are your recommendations for getting started and maintaining a well-balanced diet?

A healthy and well-balanced diet should incorporate all food groups! In general, people should emphasize fruit and vegetable intake with meals and follow healthy dietary patterns across all life stages. No one nutrient is vital. Food and nutrients go hand in hand, and no food or nutrient should be thought of in isolation. It is so important to keep in mind that dietary habits should be made in a long-term fashion. Make food enjoyable!

4. Sometimes eating habits shift drastically from the week to the weekend. What are your tips for finding balance and boundaries shifting to and from the weekend?

(For example, I have a tendency to eat way more sweets on the weekends than I do during the week.)

Eating habits vary with seasons, appetite, activities, and people! That is completely normal. I find that it helps to plan out during the beginning of the week what you will make and meal prep to add consistency. However, it is important to keep in mind that one meal or one day is not an accurate reflection of overall intake.

I like to think of the 90-10 rule! 90% of the time you eat a well-balanced diet, and 10% you don’t, and that is perfectly fine. Remember to make your eating habits for yourself and your needs, they should always fit your schedule and be individualized.

5. When it comes to purchasing healthier choices for meals, many people have found that it’s more expensive to go with the healthier choice versus fast food. Do you have any suggestions on how to purchase healthier choices on a budget?

I find that buying in bulk has been very beneficial! It is also absolutely fine to purchase frozen fruits and vegetables! There is a huge misconception that frozen foods are “bad.” In fact, frozen fruits tend to be higher in nutrients, as they are picked when they’re at their prime ripeness and
then frozen.

Again, meal prepping also helps, because you end up using similar food products to divvy up the weeks’ worth of food.

Following the Interview on Healthy Eating

I really appreciated this introduction on how to eat healthy, especially since the source of information came from a Registered Dietitian. To be honest, when I did extensive research on healthy eating or diets in the past, I would get overwhelmed because there seemed to be a million ways to go about being healthy. While I’m grateful to have the internet be the source of the all knowing, I gained a lot of comfort in the guidance that Alyssa gave.

For instance, I was extremely insecure about the drastic change in my own eating habits from weekday to weekend. This is the first time I’m learning about the 90-10 ratio rule and all I can say is that I’m going to be a lot more kind to myself going forward.

*Update* Since the chat with Alyssa, I have looked at foods with brand new eyes and I’m happy to announce that I’m getting a nice mix of fruits and vegetables, as well as the savory and enjoyable snacks.

The last concept that I’d like to touch on is what Alyssa said about eating habits that individually fit you. What a healthy and powerful message! It’s a reminder that each of us are unique and how that individualism is a major part of our consumption.

Maybe what works for me doesn’t work for you and that’s okay. Or maybe we have similar ways of balancing meals and that is also okay. But at the end of the day, I believe that Alyssa’s ultimate message is do what is best and makes sense for you. So that’s what I’m going to do.

The Conversation on Food

What an awesome experience to learn how to eat healthy and be mindful from a Registered Dietitian! A special thank you to Alyssa Kwan for joining me in this conversation and shedding some light on her experiences.

Meet Alyssa

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Good luck on your journey,

Harumi