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Boost your day with breakfast: Top tips for avoiding morning meal mistakes Skipping or delaying breakfast Running on coffee alone Missing carbohydrates Not having enough protein Frustration with failure

Trying to lose weight? Relying on your memory or your stomach to tell you when you are full may let you down. But relying on your eyes may just help you out. When we ask our nutrition counselling clients what they typically eat in the course of a day and what they ate yesterday, they're rarely able to remember the accurate details.

How to create healthy eating habits that stick By Andrea Holwegner RD, Health Stand Nutrition Consulting Inc. – for CBC.ca If you hate the thought of healthy eating this articleis for you When I meet people for the first time and they find out I am a dietitian, there are often two types of responses.…

Go Mediterranean. A diet rich in fish, omega-3 oils, fruit, vegetables and legumes lowers the risk of heart disease, certain cancers and diabetes. But it also goes a long way toward fighting age-related cognitive decline, says registered dietitian Andrea Holwegner of Calgary. "Staying in line with this type of nutritional regime is good for your entire body, but particularly your brain since it's rich in DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), a type of fat that contributes to the fluidity of brain cell membranes, allowing nutrients to pass in and out," Holwegner says. Because it's full of omega oils that produce compounds to regulate blood, hormones and the immune system, the Mediterranean diet also impacts and improves long-term health.

Lynette, a vice-president of sales, left the house early each morning and returned home late most days from her demanding job. This often meant she had trouble taking the time to eat breakfast and pack a lunch. Midmorning, Lynette would guzzle coffee to keep her energy up. Lunch was often missed, or was choices from a vending machine or eaten at a restaurant with clients. By the time she got home from work, Lynette was in a state I call "homicidal hunger." This happens when you feel so hungry and out of control that anyone standing between you and the fridge is definitely in the way. Instead of a healthy dinner, Lynette would unconsciously eat whatever was convenient, such as crackers, cookies, dried fruit, nuts and chocolate chips. The evening was full of snacks and emotional stress eating. As a highly intelligent and overachieving person in her work life, Lynette was frustrated that she felt like such a failure when it came to losing weight and controlling her food choices. But with a little planning, Lynette was able to improve her weight and develop a more positive relationship with food.

Celebrate Food…from field to table! Here are 3 resources related to the 2011 national nutrition month theme “Celebrate Food…from field to table!” 1. Slow Food Did you know you have a wealth of small-scale growers, producers and ranchers who devote their lives to raising high quality food for our tables? Slow Food is an international…

By Andrea Holwegner, For The Calgary Herald March 10, 2011 Danielle was a 56-year-old engineer and mother of three who was trying to shed a few dozen unwanted pounds and reduce her blood pressure. She had tried various diets over the years, including high-protein, low-carb and most recently a vegan diet. She initially lost weight…

By Andrea Holwegner BSc, RD, For The Calgary Herald  February 24, 2011 I like to read the comics regularly for a laugh, but also for a glimpse of the harsh truth. I can still visualize a Bizzaro caption several years ago depicting a family eating dinner, where mom was saying, “finish your Pepsi and Cheetos…

Hydration for marathon runners is key for optimal performance.

By Andrea Holwegner, For The Calgary Herald January 20, 2011 Vanessa, a married woman in her 40s and the loving mom of two beautiful young girls, originally came to see me to gain control of a bingeing problem. She had always been an all-or-none eater. A “good day” consisted of only healthy eating. No sugar,…