Christina Pelletier of Weis Markets helps Nestor be more mindful of food and nutrition in the New Year. Time to put away the snacks and pastries of the holidays!
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
eat, feeling, year, salad, christina, wife, food, love, happy new year, cues, psychology, holiday, weeks, thought, muffin, big, healthy, night, tour, wise
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
wn S, T, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive, happy New Year to everyone out there. We’re gonna be rolling the crabcake tour in the 2023. And gonna have some some announcements of things going on obviously Raven season alive and well and playoffs percolating around here. We call them wise conversations when we get together with our friends, wives markets. And this one, it’s the last conversation of the year that I’m having. And you know, I think I offended Hannah last month when we were talking about eating all the good stuff and the holiday stuff. And I said, you know, she’s the one that allows me to, like, eat all that ice cream and have fun. And then there comes the, the other side of the holiday, where I did gain weight at Thanksgiving, I don’t think I gained weight at Christmas, which is kind of weird because I had a whole lot more eggnog and and bad stuff. And I was in New York City and eatin muffins that I love. Christina Pelletier is here she is the dietician, that doesn’t mean thigh it means it’s good for you nutrition, it’s good for you. Happy New Year to you. It’s always good to have you aboard. And we’re stepping right into your your lane here where we get to talk about maybe how to treat ourselves a little bit better if we gained a couple pounds last week, which some of us did.
Christina Pelletier 01:17
Yeah, happy new year. Thanks for having me. And that is definitely a concern that I hear all the time. I feel like it’s everywhere. But you know, it is normal to be nervous around the holidays, there’s always so much food around, but you know, avoiding those holiday foods or maybe changing up your family’s, you know, traditional dishes, things like that, to make them more nutritious, that could be a good approach for you. But, you know, there’s, I always love to be able to tell people that it’s totally okay to enjoy, you know, the holiday foods as they are. Because there are some kind of skills and techniques that you can use to, you know, make yourself feel better, you know, try to eat mindfully and alleviate some of that stress surrounding food.
Nestor Aparicio 02:01
Well, let me just say this, you know, I’m in pretty good shape. We talked about Planet Fitness around here all the time. Everybody knows me knows I’m going to yoga mat my back and like all the things that I talked about, just in the general sense of conversation around your Baltimore positive, but last week, and I’m going to, you know, I’m going to plead because Hannah’s not here, and she loves what she’s like, oh, so I’m the one that leads you to temptation. And Christina is here to clean it all up afterwards. And I said, Well, it’s sort of like that. But before Christmas, I wound up getting panettone A that I love to get this time of year. Neil’s came in from Germany and he saved my wife’s life on the bone marrow registry, sort of famously everybody knows you. Who Neil’s is we got spotted at the White House by one of my listeners because they recognize aisle six foot seven of the big German guy, my wife, and he loves chocolate mousse. And I have this great bakery out and support local business, Charles, he’s out in Catonsville and I ordered it ahead of time I hadn’t added a year and a half. It was just delicious, as I thought so I wound up and my wife and I know I’ve told you this and I know I’ve told her Hannah this, she loves to bake. And this time of year, her and her sister have a tradition of going to this stone bakery thing in Vermont and they take classes and they do pictures and they learn how to make a song and they learn how to make pronouns and all sorts of things. Last year was pie crossed, which got me into trouble for for savory pies after the holidays and whatnot. But um, you know, there comes a point where like, I had more and still do it still to 2022 I’m not 23 yet, but I still love pastries, I suppose the pan atony I began the day with today, but I have been eating cookies. I have been any pie. I have. I have not had as much ice cream. And maybe this is good. I thought about this segment a lot this morning. Because it’s the end of the year. And it’s a little bit of a confessional. Christina. I thought what was I going to say? Literally, I looked down this morning and I had cookies. A little bit of pecan cranberry pie. I had eggnog and I’m not gonna lie I’m telling you the truth. Okay, this is a true confessional now. I had no cookies, no cookies today. Oh, chocolate mousse, the chocolate he forgot the chocolate mousse in the trunk of the car. Do I darn right so I gotta eat it. So I began all this and I said ma’am Christine are talking about eating right being good. And so I’m not going to pretend that I you know not been Senator here. But I’ve only had vanilla ice cream this month. That’s been my concession because I feel like it was an ALA mode month last month and a lot of things involved chocolates and crunches and almonds and peanut butter and indulgence and eggnog and pumpkin and cinnamon. No lie on any of that. That I decided to go with just vanilla ice cream. So I have not only ice cream I’ve had in the last couple of weeks has been vanilla and I I feel like that’s a cut down for me. Is that all right? To admit that to you?
Christina Pelletier 05:04
Absolutely. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 05:07
thank you. Thank you. Thank you better now.
Christina Pelletier 05:10
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there’s food everywhere. You can’t help it. It’s good food too. You don’t want it to go to waste. I’m big on sustainability. I hate wasting food. So of course, you know, moderation portion. And you can tie in this mindful eating. So just being aware of your hunger and fullness cues. So, you know, really just looking internally to see Am I really hungry for this right now.
Nestor Aparicio 05:32
There’s a psychology of all of this really, right, like, see it, eat it. If it’s not in the house, they won’t eat it. I mean, if if I had pastries in the house, the other 51 weeks of the year, and we rarely have visitors, right, like so like my wife and I, there’s just two of us. And that’s the reason we don’t buy pie by the pie. We buy it by the slice, right? You know what I mean? That’s the reason ice cream so wonderful, because it sits in the freezer for, I think, five or six weeks to eat it fresh, but it gets crazy. But like we we my wife’s diabetic, I’ve explained this to you before, right, like so we were always measuring things. But there really is a psychology of all of this, especially as we head into a new year. And just say maybe do a little less, think about it a little differently. I love all of this. I mean, I could show overindulge. And I sort of kid about it. But I don’t I mean, but I don’t eat like this every day. And I did sweat it out for 90 minutes on a yoga class last night, but but for me, I don’t crave it, right. I’m not a person that feels like I need desserts 24 hours a day. But I think for people who struggle with this, this is especially a difficult time of the year with leftovers and the relatives of laughter. Halloween leads to Thanksgiving to Christmas leads to oh my god, that shirt doesn’t fit right. I mean, I I’ve been heavier most of my life until I was in my 30s I battled, you know, all of this. So I mean, I have deep respect for this. So I mean, I have deep respect, when you’re saying cues and things like that I’m thinking psychology is, you know, is is the training, we’re trying to change people’s habits. And that’s hard to do. It
Christina Pelletier 07:13
is really hard to do and to stick with it. And just really looking internally looking at those again, hunger and fullness cues. Are you feeling tired and the hungry? You know, fullness cues can be the opposite of you know, the way your body is telling you that you’ve had enough, you might be full, feeling satisfied. And it sounds really simple. But it is hard to actually determine what those cues are for yourself. Because I feel like we always do the external cues of Oh, it’s 12 o’clock. It’s lunchtime. Oh, it’s five o’clock, it’s dinnertime, or you smell the popcorn and you really want to eat it. But we really need to look inside and feel those cues of maybe you’re feeling some different emotions. If you’re lonely and you reach for the food maybe, you know there might be a better fix for that. And it really looking at those cues to see maybe the food isn’t going to be the fix for that.
Nestor Aparicio 08:14
Christina Pelletier is here we always love having her on and getting some mindful wisdom to begin the new year we call them wise conversations rather with our friends and wise markets and I need to say this I am my app is cleaned out. I I had Christina on my wife went away in early December, you know and I have a lot of sponsors I eat dinner and I was at Beaumont one night it was a cost us a couple of nights and last couple of weeks I was over Conrad’s one night and you’ll be really proud of me and I’ll be honest with you during the holidays I know I’m gonna be bad. So I’m 54 I’m getting older I’m better at this and as I’ve said you and I want to go back to feelings because we’re talking about the psychology this but I eat a lot of salad as well. I mean I’m not like I was accosted the other night got a Greek salad. I did my show at cost it’s two weeks ago got a Greek salad. I was in New York got a salad I was in DC for lunch million things burgers can add anything up doughnuts, all sorts of things at this great restaurant down in DC got a salad so I you know I sort of not eating badly five times a day or grazing or where you are just starting the day with something good you and I’ve talked about complex breakfast and oatmeal and how that changed my life and and fresh blueberries and strawberries, raspberries, bananas, the things that I begin my day with, but the feeling that you talked about with food. The thing that I try to avoid, and I was in New York City on Monday cocooned up it was 15 degrees and everything I love to eat five feet away, right, and you can overeat and the feeling I feel when I overeat, I guess my association psychology, the psychology for me when I decided to lose weight. And this is a 2006. I was 37 years old. Most of this stuff in my closet was extra large to hide things right now everything in my closet is kind of a smaller medium. To give you an idea of some pictures of me in Brazil and Argentina just won the World Cup, all my Argentina pictures. I’m 180 pounds, right so I’m just bigger in Argentina and I was eating steak and drinking wobec every day it was delicious. And eaten empanadas, it was great. But the feeling I had of being full every night and being out at a restaurant or being out somewhere and feeling like appetizer salad meal all the meal no leftover split the cinnamon, Oblivion, oh my god, right and you walk out and you’re like you just felt so full. I only get that feeling once or twice a year. And it’s a mistake. And it’s an accident. Because I have another slice of pizza or the other half of that cheese steak or, you know, whatever I would have that would make me feel bloated, full. Even on the crabcake tour when we went out and drank beer every day, which I did. Bless me, it’s less than a year I gotta confess to you, Christina, you know what I do here. But you know, I drink beer every day how crabcake every day for a whole like 31 days. And it didn’t gain weight as much because I avoided the the french fries and I avoided and I add salads almost every day and fresh fruit every day. Throw in fresh watermelon, all that good stuff, peaches, all the delicious summer stuff that I missed so much this time of year. But but I do love eggnog. But I would say that the psychology feeling that when filling that fool even when I’m out on eating tour literally in eating tour where chefs are bringing go look at what they did to me when I was out in Western Maryland, a chef got a hold of me brought 14 platters and threw them down. And it’s just that I took it all to the next town with me that I don’t like that feeling of being full, you know, and i i That’s really the thing that’s ended it for me, which is not believing that you’re anorexic or anything like that. I don’t want to feel that that would be the next option, you know that I need to eat so much that I need to put a pin in me that you’re that I need to go lay down or I need a moment alone or that I couldn’t even have a drink afterward or even wouldn’t want water. Because I feel that full and I spent years of my life now that I think back about how uncomfortable I usually was at 9pm most nights because ate too much.
Christina Pelletier 12:26
Yeah, and everyone is different. And even just recognizing that feeling and that you’re having that feeling is kind of the first step into kind of that mindful eating and then taking that step back and saying, you know, Am I really hungry? Do I need all of this food? Why do I really want it even? In? Are you still thinking about
Nestor Aparicio 12:45
that when the menu comes? Right? Especially restaurants are you know, it’s not cheap? I always say whenever we’re out like, especially when you’re in New York, you’re like, I don’t want to take a doggie bag, right? I mean, how much food? You know, am I going to carry around? Or am I going to bring home or is that going to reheat? Well? I mean, all those things that I think we thought about curb siting and keeping local business in order during during COVID. Right? So I always think about that decision, right? It’s that moment, you pick it up off the shelf at wise markets, or the moment you’re saying I could get this or that? Or you know, and meal planning. And I know that’s something you talk about with people all the time is meal planning.
Christina Pelletier 13:23
Yeah, absolutely. And just kind of going back to your New York restaurants, sometimes restaurants have even better like salads or healthier options. And like you could even make it home. I know. When other people make salads. For me, I always think it tastes so much better. But
Nestor Aparicio 13:40
I tell my wife that all the time to she didn’t believe she leaves and I’m like the salads aren’t the same when you’re not here.
Christina Pelletier 13:46
They’re not. And even maybe if you find a salad or like really yummy, healthier option at a restaurant, maybe try to even recreate that at home. I know it might be hard and it won’t be the same but just having those ingredients on hand. And yeah, again, just kind of, you know listening to your body and not getting too down on yourself if you over eat and you know, it’s not an all or nothing thing. If you feel guilty at one point, don’t think the whole day is a loss. Just kind of continue on. And you know, the goal is to find room in your diet for all types of foods, especially around this time when there are all types of foods available. Think about
Nestor Aparicio 14:31
the things that I love more than anything and some of them just happen to be really healthy. Like I think broccoli might be one of my favorite things. And when broccoli is well done and I know 10 different ways to make broccoli and make it tastes delicious, even with just a little bit of butter or a little bit of salt or a little bit of any garlic anything. And I think about the health like I love blueberries I love strawberries. I’ve learned to love things that I love and things that I don’t love. I don’t you know I don’t eat as much of it even if it’s kind Healthy, but I do love spinach and I love spinach 100 different ways. I like it, Amy, I noticed that the best way but overcast is with cream spinach and, but I like fresh spinach and I’ve just learned you can sprinkle a little bit of bacon in there and make it taste good, you can find a dressing that’s not so heavily fat laden and put other healthier things like nuts and fresh avocado. And, you know, obviously, salad today is just a good idea in general, right? I mean, just, that’s good advice for anybody that if you can find things that are considered to be a salad or healthy and find a healthy way to do it, you have sort of an oatmeal, something that’s a safe meal that you love that you can go to anytime and you don’t mind eating it two or three times a week, right. Christina Pella tears here, I’m getting carried away today, because I do think it’s important start the year right, we call them wise conversations. This is an ice cream scoop, or I’m gonna hear I’m gonna throw that way, just to for a little while, and I’m gonna get I’m gonna get healthier here with. So I’m New Year’s off of die and things like that. Just you and I’ve been doing this a long time, I’m trying to find some inspiration, you know, for the new year. And look, Jones and I’m just gonna give a free plug to his sister who had a really, really rough year. And we think the world of her and I just want to give her a little love. She sent this thing that I saw this morning that inspired me, and it’s to carry this with you into 2023 Do the things you love more often. And I thought you know what, I just want to say that on the radio and have that so give me some 2023 What are you going to do in 2023 that’s going to make next year better than the last
Christina Pelletier 16:37
I would say not food related at all, but be a better plant mom I am I always kill all my plants. Not food related, I know I want to be have a greener thumb and have more greenery around because I think it does make your mood better It brightens the day. So that is one of my goals. And also just you know, still be mindful of you know, the food that I eat, still enjoy my ice cream and my sweets, but you know, have those fruits and vegetables as well that we all know and love and also just getting outside more kind of, you know, enjoying the outdoors and getting in that exercise.
Nestor Aparicio 17:17
So my wife about a month and a half ago, I love these Morning Glory muffins, a place called Ovenbird here and but I like more nuts and I like a little more you know carrot, a little more zucchini, whatever. So she has been tinkering with a healthy muffin like with walnuts, just different things. Nothing chocolate related, nothing butter related, trying to figure out applesauce as a as a binder and just different things. So you know, this is something we’ve done in the 2023 to try to figure out things we really liked to eat things, we love things and try to find more ways to bring it home and more things. My big thing this year, and I hate the cold. We’ve been through this certainly the last two weeks. There’s nobody that you love 15 degree days, and not even Eskimos, you know, I mean, God bless these people live in Minnesota and whatnot, but, but chasing the Northern Lights that’s on my 2023 bucket list. And it’s sort of a cold weather activity, you know, you can chase him in the summer, but there’s less nighttime and you need nighttime to do it. So maybe my compromise would be to do it that way and stay up all night and Iceland or something like that in the middle of summer, but I’m going to chase the Northern Lights. It’s that’s the only thing left for me that like it’s a big thing. So that’s, you know, that’s my bucket list for you that and trying to eat better make better muffin recipes. Um, that’s all you know. That’s it. That’s That’s my 2023 goal. To good start eating healthier, wise, confident. Tell me what you do for wise markets. I always call you dietician, nutritionist. Are you both or either? Neither did I screw that up?
Christina Pelletier 18:56
Well, the dietitian they’re both similar but a dietitian has all the credentials. We went to school for four years, how’s our degree, and we did an internship and took an exam. So we have all the credentials and everything. But anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, so I am technically and so they don’t have as much they don’t have the credentials that we do. So if you’re looking for a dietician, look for that, RD, or rdn credential after their name, that’s how you know they’re professional. And nutritionist you mostly find on social media, that sort of thing. And they’re not aren’t not as reliable they can be but not all of the time.
Nestor Aparicio 19:39
Well, so So all dietitians are nutritionists but not all nutritionist or dietitians. Exactly. Christina Pelletier is here. I am appreciative of you joining us at our wise conversation is always great to have visits from our friends from wise markets with helpful hints and fun and sometimes it involves cooking and baking and good fun stuff. And sometimes it involves Hey, Ah New Years put the sweets away for a little while so we’re going to try that around your a little bit as well. Happy New Year to you I enjoyed my final segment of the year spending it with you and trying to talk about ways we can do better next year.
Christina Pelletier 20:12
Absolutely Happy New Year.
Nestor Aparicio 20:13
All right, there we go. So big shout out to Roxanne Luke Jones’s sister for reminding me to do the things that I love more often. In 2023 I’m reading right from right right. Wherever your energy goes, your attention your attention goes your energy flows. I know that to be true as well. Right now our energy is heading into 2023 Luke is doing all things ravens get us ready for that I am getting a Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery conjunction with our friends at Goodwill and when donation ready for 2023 as well I got some old friends we’re going to be visiting with I have some also some cool celebrity guests who only won in 2023. I’m going to be calling that out sometime in March and April to to ask some great guests as well as well as the Maryland crab cake tour in the summer. Again this year all made possible by our friends, wise markets and and all of our sponsors around your big appreciation to all them and all of you. I am Esther we are W NSTA and 1570 Toss to Baltimore. And we never stop talking Baltimore positive