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This Healthy Conversations COVID-19 podcast was recorded on August 6^th, 2020.

Prakash Chandran (Host):  While staying indoors prevents the risk of COVID-19, there may be in home consumption habits that are affecting your health. Though things are stressful, it’s important to take positive steps towards a healthy and nutritious lifestyle. We’re going to talk about it today, with Ginger Cochran, a Registered Dietician Nutritionist at Tenet Health Central Coast.

This is Healthy Conversations, the podcast from Tenet Health Central Coast. I’m Prakash Chandran. So, first of all Ginger, it’s great to have you here today. I’m curious as to what the most common eating and drinking habits that you’ve observed during this pandemic.

Ginger Cochran, MS, RDN, CEP, CDE (Guest):  Some of the most common things that I’m seeing is that people are grazing all day so it’s just kind of like one long day. There’s not much structure to it. Breakfast and morning time kind of blends into the evening. There’s a lot more comfort baking and cooking so a lot more bread baking, cookies, all kinds of different things especially when there are kids at home or not, it’s across the board everyone seems to be baking a lot. I’ve also seen a lot of Zoom cocktail hours, drinking a little bit more and more frequently whether it’s within cocktail hours or just ending the day.

Host:  I feel like you have described my lifestyle exactly. My wife and I were talking about gaining the COVID-19 during this pandemic just because we have just been isolated and we’re at home and eating makes us feel better. Drinking makes us feel better. And when we do connect with our friends like you mentioned on Zoom, we’re having a drink and so, I’ve certainly gained weight. How do we even begin to start changing this?

Ginger:  It starts with being mindful of kind of what’s going on so realizing the scale might be tipping up or the clothes are getting a little bit tight and just kind of thinking about, kind of what is your day looking like. How has it changed? Is it blending all together and there are just snacks going on throughout the day. Is it those cocktail hours that have been added in? So, kind of what have been – there’s been a lot of it that has been different since COVID hit but, what has been different in your food consumption. And so, has the structure of having breakfast, lunch and dinner kind of been lost. Is it the alcohol intake? So, just trying to do an assessment of like where are these coming in like what habits have been changed.

A lot of people it might just be the extra cookies that are happening because they are baking, comfort baking and those are in there and you just need to at least identify what’s going on. And kind of thinking about changing that structure around. So, the first step is really to become mindful of what it is and thinking about your day to day and then kind of thinking about what action steps or things can be kind of switched around to kind of reduce that in your day to day. It’s really hard because food is comfort and a lot of many people’s comfort things have been taken away whether it’s socializing at whatever location it might be, going to the gym or so many different things. a lot of people are turning to food for comfort right now. Especially if they are working from home. So, like one thing I’m seeing is someone is now working at home, now they’re eating all day instead of being in their office where they’re wasn’t endless snacks or their kitchen right there. So, kind of thinking about where your office located and access to snacks and things like that.

So, that would be the first step is just assessing where are these extra calories or foods coming in.

Host:  Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think just that first step of being mindful of what’s going on and also yeah, just kind of recognizing we are in this different world right now. We’re in the middle of a pandemic and so, things obviously are changing on the outside and on the inside at home. Just the amount that we’re snacking, the amount – we’re just not used to being at home and being able to just snack on some potato chips during a call for example. I’m basically describing myself here. so, talk to me about maybe some small achievable goals after you’re mindful of what’s the environment of the food environment around you. What are some small achievable goals for eating and drinking less that people can start implementing today?

Ginger:  So, I mean it’s going to vary by person but somethings that are pretty common is kind of thinking about if you’re mindless snacking, where are those snacks. Are they in your desk drawer at home or are you – many people, myself included will mindlessly just walk in the kitchen when you had no idea why you are there, you were there for like something completely different beside food. And so thinking about where are those snack foods that you might be overindulging in. Where are they located? Because if they are at eye level, in the refrigerator, in the cupboard, I even do if you are here in my office, now you can see me waving my arm, like if it’s in arm’s distance, it needs to be moved into a location where you either need like a step stool to get it, you need to go open another door to get it, you need to bend down and get those snack foods. Somewhere that makes it more challenging to actually get those mindless snacking foods, first of all. Ideally, don’t buy them. But it’s kind of depends on family dynamic of what’s going on.

But trying to think about my own snacking where those things are located in the house and move them. Plate of cookies on the counter looks really easy to mindlessly snack or all the chips or snacks are hanging out on the counter. Definitely move those. And making sure that there’s healthier snacks at eye level and in arm’s reach. So, you can constantly get those, that kind of reinforcement of oh I’m maybe apples or whatever fruit is in season right now like keeping those things around. Some fresh, we’re really lucky around here to have some great like vegetable boxes that will be either delivered to your house or somewhere real close. So, and we have access to a lot of like fresh vegetables and fruits that you can kind of keep more at eyelevel just to remind to witch up apple or chis kind of things. like switching things out. That would be one of the things for mindless snacking.

If it’s baking, a lot of people are comfort baking right now. Thinking about you don’t often want to give it to your neighbor because they are probably having the same issue that you are. Because really everyone is, a good portion of people are. Kind of thinking about either freezing things right away after you make them. I mean you could give them away. Or trying not to bake them or thinking about healthy, there’s lots of different healthy swaps when baking things. So, instead of using like white refined flour, maybe trying like almond flour or something else instead. Or trying avocado instead of butter. There’s all kinds of different fun experiments you can do to at least increase the nutrient profile in something so that it’s a little bit healthier.

Host:  Yeah, I wanted to ask you a little bit about a good template that someone can follow around how often they should be eating and the types of foods they should be eating because as you correctly mentioned, I think people are not only going to the store and buying whatever they want but just at the beginning of this, stockpiling a lot of this stuff, a lot of these snacks that weren’t necessarily good for us and they are just around. So, maybe talk to us a little bit about what regimen we should be following.

Ginger:  It really varies by the person. But mindfulness is key. People who do the best when I work with them and that’s trying to lose weight for example, they’re the ones that are food journaling. Whether it using – there are many different online apps, or they are just journaling. But online apps are pretty nice because they calculate things out for you. But writing things down helps people stay mindful and also helps them say like wow, everything in my diet today was brown. Like it was crackers, it was chips, it was this maybe meat and potato. There wasn’t any color in there.

Ideally, someone I like just putting it in cups to making their eating like five or more cups of vegetables a day. That varies but kind of seeing how many colors are you getting in and you should be getting in more than two colors at each meal and at least a color, not counting brown at each snack. So, it’s not so much like a template but being mindful. Kind of writing things down and looking am I getting vegetables in. is all one thing? Does every meal have cheese on it? Or every meal have – it helps you see your own patterns so you can realize what you might be overconsuming.

Host:  Yeah. it also ties into shopping habits right, at the grocery store. You’re probably used to buying a lot of brown foods as you mentioned and being a little bit more mindful when you are there, taking in more vegetables, taking in things that you can as you mentioned, swap out like avocado or almond flour. Those types of things are things you should be aware of while you’re shopping for groceries. Is that correct?

Ginger:  Yes. And definitely when you going to the grocery store, go with a list. It makes things a lot easier. Don’t go when you are hungry. That makes things a lot more expensive too. It just naturally drives to more high caloric foods like chips and cookies and things when you are going in hungry or tired. But definitely go in with a list and it doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be vegetable and some kind of protein whether it’s plant based or animal based protein. And when you go in with a list, you can first look at your list to make sure there’s a variety in there. And you stay with it and then kind of look at your cart too, is there a variety there as well. So, kind of just do two double checks to make sure that you are getting the rainbow of colors should be represented on both your list and in your cart too. And it helps too because with like vegetable or a fruit intake. Lots of people kind of stick to their same things all the time. So, it kind of makes them realize oh I’m only eating green stuff. I never eat anything purple or red. So, maybe adding some other colors in there too so thinking a rainbow of colors should be consumed regularly.

Host:  That’s good advice. We’ve talked a lot about the intake or intaking energy, but also one part of living a healthy lifestyle is expelling energy. So, that ties into exercise. So, can you talk to us a little bit about how exercise plays a role in all of this?

Ginger:  Exercise plays a huge role. You can’t outrun a bad diet. So, you really need both. But making sure that you’re having movement throughout the day whether it’s walking or upper arm exercises or some people lots of times will hear about people well I have a bad knee, oh I have a bad hip or I can’t move or with my pregnant population they might be like cramping and they can’t walk. But we have arms too. So you can actually do cardio with arms as well. And making sure you’re getting some movement throughout the day. That increases serotonin and it helps with blood flow, it helps with mood, it helps with sleep. There’s an endless amount of things that exercise helps with and lots of times with COVID, a lot of people have lost their schedule and so rethinking your schedule like for your new life whether it might be a walk in the morning, lots of times that helps people. That morning routine seems to be important for a lot of people because you are starting your day with it.

So, adding some kind of activity in there. Sometimes people are like well I have no time for me. I get up at 5:15 in the morning so I make sure that I get some mental activity in before I’m seeing patients. Because I see the difference. I’m able to think more clearly with my clients and my patients. So, kind of thinking your schedule and where you can fit it in and also thinking about your – ending your day too. That can help as well as where lots of people where they’re mindless snackers at night. It’s very, very common for many different reasons. Because especially if you are sleep deprived it’s keeping you up because you are still doing something, you are craving carbs and it’s kind of a comfort thing and so, I’ve had people where they’ve started a walk in the evening before bed and that’s helped them decrease how much they are snacking at night. So, just kind of thinking of where you can fit that in throughout the day but it’s a really important component for your mental and physical health and the recommendations for basic health benefits is 150 minutes a week. For weightloss and weightloss maintenance, it’s 300 minutes a week. And it doesn’t have to be like an hour all at one time. It can be spread into like ten minute increments or whatever is realistic for you to do. And like slowly increase that.

Host:  Just as we close here, is there anything else that you’d like to share with our audience around how they might improve their eating and drinking habits during COVID?

Ginger:  Accountability is key. That’s one of the biggest things. I’ve worked a lot in weight management over the years and the biggest things is that accountability. So, putting your goals down, getting a clear vision of what you’re going towards and whether you want to share it with someone else that has – there’s probably someone else in your network that has the same kind of goals and keeping each other accountable, checking in, online apps will like remind you to log in which is nice. But all the Smart Watches now, those will remind you too to get up and move which are nice. But even just having that accountability, a friend or a family member or I have a lot of people coming in and seeing me regularly to stay on track and so, the more accountability, that daily accountability you can get, the better it will keep you on track towards your health goals. It’s about progress not perfection. So, lots of times, people don’t meet their goals 100%. Let’s say they wanted to food journal every single day or they wanted to get five workouts in that week. But remind yourself it’s about progress not perfection. Focusing on what you have accomplished because it’s going to be more than what you were doing and realize that it’s not about the perfection, it’s about the growth.

Host:  That is fantastic advice and a perfect place to end. Ginger, really appreciate your time today. Super helpful and informative. That’s Ginger Cochran, a Registered Dietician, Nutritionist at Tenet Health Central Coast. Thanks for checking out this episode of Healthy Conversations. For a referral to Ginger or another provider call the Tenet Health Central Coast Physician Referral Line at 866-966-3680. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you at www.tenethealthcentralcoast.com/about/podcast. This has been Healthy Conversations, the podcast from Tenet Health central Coast. Thanks and we’ll see you next time.