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How to Avoid Excess Snacking/Eat Healthy While Working From Home
Katherine Basbaum discusses how to avoid excess snacking and tips on eating healthy while working from home.
Featured Speaker:
Katherine Basbaum, MS, RD
Katherine Basbaum is a clinical nutritionist in cardiology at UVA Health. Transcription:
How to Avoid Excess Snacking/Eat Healthy While Working From Home
Scott Webb: If you're like me, you've been working from home a lot since the beginning of the pandemic, and either your scale is lying to you or you've gained a few pounds. Joining me today to help us avoid snacking and eat healthier while working from home is Katherine Bausbaum. She's a Clinical Nutritionist in Cardiology at UVA Health. This podcast is brought to you by the UVA Health System. I'm Scott Webb, Katherine. Thanks so much for joining me today. You know, during a COVID-19, a lot of people have been working from home of course, more so than usual. And I don't know about everybody else, but I've been treating myself to comfort foods, especially early on. I was wandering around the house and I would end up in the kitchen and I would find myself snacking at all times of the day and certainly early morning. So let's talk about this today. Let's talk about how we can avoid that excess snacking, and just generally speaking, how can we eat healthier, since many of us are working from home?
Katherine Bausbaum: Scott, I mean, you're definitely not alone. I can include myself. I've been working from home more since all this started and I have a lot of colleagues that are doing the same. I've heard a lot of stories and it was, it was a big transition, a big change, but there's definitely some things that we can do to kind of make sure that we don't go too far into, you know, getting out of our, our healthy habits and our healthy routines. Just as a lot of us have gotten kind of guidelines or strategies for how do you stay focused while you're working from home and not get distracted. It's good to make sure that you establish some structure for your Workday, right? So, you know, getting up at a certain time, making sure to take a shower, have your coffee, as opposed to just letting it be kind of loosey goosey. So the same thing, the same concept should be applied to your diet or to how you're eating during the day, if you're working from home.
So, we might wake up in the morning, normally, if we're going to go to work and then maybe pack some kind of a breakfast, have it at work. But when we're working from home, it's like, Oh, I'll jump on the computer, and you know, I'll maybe get hungry, maybe have something later, not a good idea. You don't want to start work and then just get all wrapped up and things. And then once you get hungry, you start wandering in the kitchen and then you end up just kind of grazing on random things throughout the day. You want to try as much as possible to have some structure, have a breakfast, whether it's, you know, while you're working or you take a little break, have some lunch and then maybe a couple of snacks. But if you don't establish that structure, you're putting yourself at risk of taking in way too many calories and probably the wrong sources of those calories.
Host: Some of the triggers for people when it comes to excess snacking or overeating, are there some known triggers that we can try to avoid?
Katherine Bausbaum: Obviously, there's a lot of stress and anxiety that has heightened you know, there's regular work and work stress and work anxiety, but things are heightened obviously, cause we're in a difficult time right now. So that can sometimes trigger the desire for, you know, quick, fast comfort food. The other thing, and this goes back to the importance of having some structure with your meals is if you go too long without eating, if you allow yourself to get like ravenous, your brain is going to take over, it's going to say to you, I need sugar. I need fat. I need salt. I need it fast. And I need it now because the brain is, you know, has depleted itself of energy and it's not able to make any kind of common sense or smart choices. So instead of being comfortably hungry and being like, Oh, I think I'm going to cut up an Apple and make a sandwich or have a bowl of cereal. If you wait too long, you're going to go for the food or the snack that is going to give you that instant gratification. And those are usually the junk foods. So you don't want to allow yourself to get so hungry that, that monster takes over.
Host: The monster. Yes, of course the dreaded monster. And you're so right, it's your brain, you know, you become ravenous and your brain just says, I need it. I need all this stuff. Give me some sugar, give me some salt.
Katherine Bausbaum: The other thing to keep in mind is that, you know, snacks, they're not required. You know, a lot of people feel like, Oh, well I should be having three meals and three snacks a day. And isn't that correct? Or, but that's not the case. The snacks are for if you get hungry between meals, and they should not be more than, you know, 150 to 250 calories, unless for some reason, you know, you, maybe you need to gain weight and then that should be a larger calorie snack. But the key is that you want something that's going to have kind of a satiating factor, something that's going to fill you up, but that's also going to be low enough and calories so that it doesn't derail because we are sitting more when we're working from home. I know I definitely am because I'm not running around the hospital, seeing patients in their rooms on different floors. I'm calling patients from my desk at home. So I really, you know, have to be careful with which snacks I choose. If I do kind of get the munchies or I just need something out of boredom, I just need to be popping something in my mouth to eat.
Host: Yeah. And you mentioned calories there is that how we should set goals for ourselves? Should we set a max number of calories per day and then just try our best to stay under that?
Katherine Bausbaum: You know, I'm not a big fan of calorie counting. I've had over the years, gosh, a very small percentage of patients or folks that counting calories works for them because it can be, for some people it does work, that's how they want to be. They want to be regimented. They like the numbers, it keeps them honest, it keeps them accountable and they'll use like the, my fitness pal or, you know, they'll use their different health apps or the Apple watch or whatever. But for the most part, I tell people that if you're making the right food choices, then you're eliminating the need to do all of that counting.
Host: As we get close to wrapping up here, talk about specifically at UVA Health, what services do you offer, how you can help folks and, and what you would recommend the steps for them to be, especially now with working from home and maybe with some rules and things being different at the hospital, how should folks get ahold of you and get started and take advantage of the services that you offer?
Katherine Bausbaum: We have 50 plus, 60 plus I think dieticians throughout the UVA Health in different specialties. So I'm cardiology. I see, you know, I do nutrition counseling for a lot of our cardiology patients along with our other cardiology, dieticians. The nutrition counseling center, which is over at Northridge is more of a general, it's less kind of disease specific or condition specific. They deal a lot with weight loss, with issues of like eating disorders with TCOS, with some bariatrics patients, they're kind of more of a larger umbrella of skillsets for different nutrition issues. We're back up and running. Most of the clinics, you know, we're seeing folks in person, if we're not, we're doing remote calls or remote, like telehealth visits doing kind of a combination of them right now, most of the listeners are going to know about this, but the UVA healthy balance blog puts out interviews and recipes and articles all related to health. And it's all coming from experts, coming from excellent sources. So I think UV Health does as an amazing job at providing the information good information and good resources for nutrition and wellness.
Host: So, as we wrap things up here, Katherine and great talking with you today what's your bottom line on how to avoid the excess snacking and eating healthy while many of us are working from home?
Katherine Bausbaum: Focus on three things, focus on number one. As we mentioned at the top of our conversation, try to get regular meals in, try not to let more than, you know, three or four hours ago before you're getting some fuel, if you're working from home. Number two, if you feel like you need a snack, make sure it's something with some substance that is not going to just kind of go through you and give you like a quick energy rush. And then it's, you know, just kind of leave your system. And that's the processed foods like the chips and the candy. Ideally, you don't even have those in the house. If you really crave them, you get in the car, you go get a single serving of it and you satisfy the craving. The types of snacks you want to go for are the ones that are lower in calorie that have some fat and protein. I keep a little bowl of pistachios in the shell, on my desk because it takes longer. Yeah, I can't just pop them in my mouth and it takes longer cause I have to take the shells off.
So, it slows me down, but I'm getting a little bit of fat, a little bit of protein, a little bit of carbohydrate, and I'm keeping my hands busy. If I'm starting to get stressed or I'll have like a miso soup or something, something just to kind of fill the void and get me to my next meal. And the third thing is to remember to hydrate because sometimes when we're not drinking enough, we're not drinking enough water. We're not drinking enough, sparkling water. We're not drinking enough. You know, ice tea, you know, I'm not a big fan of the sugar sweetened beverages. So try to stick with the no calorie, low calorie drinks, if you're not drinking enough, sometimes that can signal to your brain. Some hunger signals, which are false. It's really, your body needs fluid. It needs hydration. So if that happens, then you're going to eat when really what you needed was just to hydrate. And then all of a sudden you're adding calories that you didn't need. So make sure to be drinking throughout the day. Good, healthy beverages. So those are my three regular meals, light snacks, hydrate.
Host: Those are great tips and really much appreciated. I'm sure by the listeners and definitely by me, cause like you, I'm working from home and I need all the help I can get to avoid the snacking. And I love the pistachios because it causes you to have to work a little harder. So you can't quite eat them as fast. I'm a cashew guy. And so I just pop the top off and the cashews are right there for the eating, but the pistachios take a little bit of work and I love how you're sort of tricking your brain saying if you really want them, you're going to have to work for them. I think that's great, Katherine. So I loved having you on thank you so much. Great tips, suggestions, resources, and you stay well. Thank you.
Katherine Bausbaum: Thank you. My pleasure.
Host: That's Katherine Bausbaum clinical nutritionist and cardiology, UVA Health. For more information on healthy eating visit the Healthy Balance blog at blog.uvahealth.com/recipes. And thanks for listening to this podcast from the UVA Health System, I'm Scott Webb, stay well.
How to Avoid Excess Snacking/Eat Healthy While Working From Home
Scott Webb: If you're like me, you've been working from home a lot since the beginning of the pandemic, and either your scale is lying to you or you've gained a few pounds. Joining me today to help us avoid snacking and eat healthier while working from home is Katherine Bausbaum. She's a Clinical Nutritionist in Cardiology at UVA Health. This podcast is brought to you by the UVA Health System. I'm Scott Webb, Katherine. Thanks so much for joining me today. You know, during a COVID-19, a lot of people have been working from home of course, more so than usual. And I don't know about everybody else, but I've been treating myself to comfort foods, especially early on. I was wandering around the house and I would end up in the kitchen and I would find myself snacking at all times of the day and certainly early morning. So let's talk about this today. Let's talk about how we can avoid that excess snacking, and just generally speaking, how can we eat healthier, since many of us are working from home?
Katherine Bausbaum: Scott, I mean, you're definitely not alone. I can include myself. I've been working from home more since all this started and I have a lot of colleagues that are doing the same. I've heard a lot of stories and it was, it was a big transition, a big change, but there's definitely some things that we can do to kind of make sure that we don't go too far into, you know, getting out of our, our healthy habits and our healthy routines. Just as a lot of us have gotten kind of guidelines or strategies for how do you stay focused while you're working from home and not get distracted. It's good to make sure that you establish some structure for your Workday, right? So, you know, getting up at a certain time, making sure to take a shower, have your coffee, as opposed to just letting it be kind of loosey goosey. So the same thing, the same concept should be applied to your diet or to how you're eating during the day, if you're working from home.
So, we might wake up in the morning, normally, if we're going to go to work and then maybe pack some kind of a breakfast, have it at work. But when we're working from home, it's like, Oh, I'll jump on the computer, and you know, I'll maybe get hungry, maybe have something later, not a good idea. You don't want to start work and then just get all wrapped up and things. And then once you get hungry, you start wandering in the kitchen and then you end up just kind of grazing on random things throughout the day. You want to try as much as possible to have some structure, have a breakfast, whether it's, you know, while you're working or you take a little break, have some lunch and then maybe a couple of snacks. But if you don't establish that structure, you're putting yourself at risk of taking in way too many calories and probably the wrong sources of those calories.
Host: Some of the triggers for people when it comes to excess snacking or overeating, are there some known triggers that we can try to avoid?
Katherine Bausbaum: Obviously, there's a lot of stress and anxiety that has heightened you know, there's regular work and work stress and work anxiety, but things are heightened obviously, cause we're in a difficult time right now. So that can sometimes trigger the desire for, you know, quick, fast comfort food. The other thing, and this goes back to the importance of having some structure with your meals is if you go too long without eating, if you allow yourself to get like ravenous, your brain is going to take over, it's going to say to you, I need sugar. I need fat. I need salt. I need it fast. And I need it now because the brain is, you know, has depleted itself of energy and it's not able to make any kind of common sense or smart choices. So instead of being comfortably hungry and being like, Oh, I think I'm going to cut up an Apple and make a sandwich or have a bowl of cereal. If you wait too long, you're going to go for the food or the snack that is going to give you that instant gratification. And those are usually the junk foods. So you don't want to allow yourself to get so hungry that, that monster takes over.
Host: The monster. Yes, of course the dreaded monster. And you're so right, it's your brain, you know, you become ravenous and your brain just says, I need it. I need all this stuff. Give me some sugar, give me some salt.
Katherine Bausbaum: The other thing to keep in mind is that, you know, snacks, they're not required. You know, a lot of people feel like, Oh, well I should be having three meals and three snacks a day. And isn't that correct? Or, but that's not the case. The snacks are for if you get hungry between meals, and they should not be more than, you know, 150 to 250 calories, unless for some reason, you know, you, maybe you need to gain weight and then that should be a larger calorie snack. But the key is that you want something that's going to have kind of a satiating factor, something that's going to fill you up, but that's also going to be low enough and calories so that it doesn't derail because we are sitting more when we're working from home. I know I definitely am because I'm not running around the hospital, seeing patients in their rooms on different floors. I'm calling patients from my desk at home. So I really, you know, have to be careful with which snacks I choose. If I do kind of get the munchies or I just need something out of boredom, I just need to be popping something in my mouth to eat.
Host: Yeah. And you mentioned calories there is that how we should set goals for ourselves? Should we set a max number of calories per day and then just try our best to stay under that?
Katherine Bausbaum: You know, I'm not a big fan of calorie counting. I've had over the years, gosh, a very small percentage of patients or folks that counting calories works for them because it can be, for some people it does work, that's how they want to be. They want to be regimented. They like the numbers, it keeps them honest, it keeps them accountable and they'll use like the, my fitness pal or, you know, they'll use their different health apps or the Apple watch or whatever. But for the most part, I tell people that if you're making the right food choices, then you're eliminating the need to do all of that counting.
Host: As we get close to wrapping up here, talk about specifically at UVA Health, what services do you offer, how you can help folks and, and what you would recommend the steps for them to be, especially now with working from home and maybe with some rules and things being different at the hospital, how should folks get ahold of you and get started and take advantage of the services that you offer?
Katherine Bausbaum: We have 50 plus, 60 plus I think dieticians throughout the UVA Health in different specialties. So I'm cardiology. I see, you know, I do nutrition counseling for a lot of our cardiology patients along with our other cardiology, dieticians. The nutrition counseling center, which is over at Northridge is more of a general, it's less kind of disease specific or condition specific. They deal a lot with weight loss, with issues of like eating disorders with TCOS, with some bariatrics patients, they're kind of more of a larger umbrella of skillsets for different nutrition issues. We're back up and running. Most of the clinics, you know, we're seeing folks in person, if we're not, we're doing remote calls or remote, like telehealth visits doing kind of a combination of them right now, most of the listeners are going to know about this, but the UVA healthy balance blog puts out interviews and recipes and articles all related to health. And it's all coming from experts, coming from excellent sources. So I think UV Health does as an amazing job at providing the information good information and good resources for nutrition and wellness.
Host: So, as we wrap things up here, Katherine and great talking with you today what's your bottom line on how to avoid the excess snacking and eating healthy while many of us are working from home?
Katherine Bausbaum: Focus on three things, focus on number one. As we mentioned at the top of our conversation, try to get regular meals in, try not to let more than, you know, three or four hours ago before you're getting some fuel, if you're working from home. Number two, if you feel like you need a snack, make sure it's something with some substance that is not going to just kind of go through you and give you like a quick energy rush. And then it's, you know, just kind of leave your system. And that's the processed foods like the chips and the candy. Ideally, you don't even have those in the house. If you really crave them, you get in the car, you go get a single serving of it and you satisfy the craving. The types of snacks you want to go for are the ones that are lower in calorie that have some fat and protein. I keep a little bowl of pistachios in the shell, on my desk because it takes longer. Yeah, I can't just pop them in my mouth and it takes longer cause I have to take the shells off.
So, it slows me down, but I'm getting a little bit of fat, a little bit of protein, a little bit of carbohydrate, and I'm keeping my hands busy. If I'm starting to get stressed or I'll have like a miso soup or something, something just to kind of fill the void and get me to my next meal. And the third thing is to remember to hydrate because sometimes when we're not drinking enough, we're not drinking enough water. We're not drinking enough, sparkling water. We're not drinking enough. You know, ice tea, you know, I'm not a big fan of the sugar sweetened beverages. So try to stick with the no calorie, low calorie drinks, if you're not drinking enough, sometimes that can signal to your brain. Some hunger signals, which are false. It's really, your body needs fluid. It needs hydration. So if that happens, then you're going to eat when really what you needed was just to hydrate. And then all of a sudden you're adding calories that you didn't need. So make sure to be drinking throughout the day. Good, healthy beverages. So those are my three regular meals, light snacks, hydrate.
Host: Those are great tips and really much appreciated. I'm sure by the listeners and definitely by me, cause like you, I'm working from home and I need all the help I can get to avoid the snacking. And I love the pistachios because it causes you to have to work a little harder. So you can't quite eat them as fast. I'm a cashew guy. And so I just pop the top off and the cashews are right there for the eating, but the pistachios take a little bit of work and I love how you're sort of tricking your brain saying if you really want them, you're going to have to work for them. I think that's great, Katherine. So I loved having you on thank you so much. Great tips, suggestions, resources, and you stay well. Thank you.
Katherine Bausbaum: Thank you. My pleasure.
Host: That's Katherine Bausbaum clinical nutritionist and cardiology, UVA Health. For more information on healthy eating visit the Healthy Balance blog at blog.uvahealth.com/recipes. And thanks for listening to this podcast from the UVA Health System, I'm Scott Webb, stay well.