What is for Dinner - Healthy Habits

Foundry has been busy this month and February flew by! The Yampa Valley finally got some snow after a below average January and it feels like we are finally in the full swing of winter.All of this snow was vital to many of our Wellness Activities this month, and we made sure we got outside and enjoyed it! We planned some fun things this month, check out what we were up to in February!

Healthy Habits:

This month for Healthy Habits group we focused on meal planning. Before we dive in, let’s talk about what meal planning is. Meal planning is writing out what you are going to eat throughout the week. You can meal plan for all of your meals(breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks), or just one or two meals (lunch and/or dinner). You can choose to plan every single day of the week or just pick a few days of the week, whichever is the most beneficial to your needs and schedule.

Meal planning is a great tool to help you eat healthier, introduce more variety to your diet, reduce waste, and save time and money! By planning your meals ahead of time, you have the opportunity to choose healthier meals, and plan on introducing a variety of fruits, vegetables and proteins throughout your week. With a plan in place, you can utilize leftovers for other meals, therefore reducing waste, as well as saving yourself some time and money. Having a game plan for your meals will save you the struggle of coming up with the answer to the question “what are we having for dinner?” every night and reducing the likelihood of resorting to fast-food or less nutritious food options.

Before you begin meal planning her eare some things you might consider:

-      How many people are you cooking for?

-      How often do you eat out? Include nights you eat out on your meal plan

-      Do you need to plan for packed lunches?

-      What is the busiest time of your day? Reserve quick or easy-to-make meals for these nights

-      What foods do I already have in my kitchen?

-      What is your food budget?

-      What foods are in season?

-      Cooking skills

-      What is on special?

-      Family likes and dislikes

Once you have taken the above list into consideration, it’s time to start meal planning! The first step is to choose the main meal for each of the days in your plan. Select the main course for that meal and then add other foods to balance the meal. Think about varying your proteins throughout the week and include a variety of foods from each food group. Remember to use leftovers when planning your other meals (breakfast and lunch) for the week as well as remembering to plan for snacks.

After you have come up with your meals and snacks for your week, begin working on a grocery list based on your meal plan. Make sure you look through what you already have in your kitchen to avoid food waste and to help save yourself some money. The last step is to go grocery shopping! When shopping, stick to your list and don’t go to the story hungry, your budget will thank you!

Below is a Sample 5-day meal plan for reference:

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Wellness Activity Highlight:

Steamboat Springs is a town full of tradition, and one of the best-known traditions is their annual WinterCarnival. This year Steamboat celebrated its 108th Winter Carnival, although in a much smaller capacity than normal, due to COVID restrictions.While in normal years, Foundry takes part in some of the tradition, we were unable to join in the public festivities this year. With some creative thinking, we decided to pay homage to the tradition of Winter Carnival and celebrated our own Foundry version here at the Ranch!

           Our main event was our friendly snow sculpture competition between staff and residents!The theme of the snow sculptures was “Get On Board!” Residents carved out a battle canoe, while staff worked on a two-seat rowboat.

           In addition to our Snow Sculptures, CEO Ben Cort led us in creating our very own SnowShelter. Staff and residents took turns digging out and fortifying the shelter and when all was said and done, it could fit at least 4 adults sitting on folding chairs!

           We made the most of the beautiful weather that afternoon, and enjoyed some treats brought in by staff. Check out our social media posts for more pictures from this fun event!

 Yoga:

Yoga plays an important role in the Wellness program at Foundry Steamboat. Yoga is offered three times a week in addition to the fitness and core classes. Combining both strength training and yoga throughout the week, we aim to create a well-rounded and sustainable routine that can be easily translated into life after treatment.

           Having a regular yoga practice can boost overall health and is shown to provide stress relief, alleviate pain, increase energy levels, increase muscle endurance and strength, promotes flexibility, results in better sleep, increases self-awareness, encourages self-reflection, and fosters emotional healing.

Here is our Yogi Amanda’s go-to Breath and Flow!

My classes are more breath focused than posture focus. Yoga can be really intimidating, and the game changer for me in my personal practice was finding the breath and letting go of the idea that the poses were the goal. The asanas(postures) are really just stretches and we expand as we link the movement to the breath. In a trauma informed practice, the students won't hear a lot of the technical names for poses. We move at a gentle, restorative pace and the focus is letting the spine be long while we focus on the exhale.

I would like to share a breath practice that is my favorite technique to use in class. Typically, when we are in a flight/fight response our breathing is very shallow, and when we hear"take a deep breath and relax" we might notice that it doesn't actually help us relax. If we can actually focus on the exhale being twice as long as the inhale, our heart rate can slow, blood pressure can drop, and our muscles may begin to relax.

Unequal ratio breath practice:

-Find yourself seated, feet planted on the ground if you can and see if you might soften the shoulders.

-Notice your breath just as it is without judgement, and notice if it can slow as you focus on relaxing the shoulders away from the ears

-On an inhale through the nose, see if you can count as you fill up in the chest and then the belly. As you reach the max of your inhale, pause for a moment before releasing the exhale from the belly, then the chest and see if your out breath can be one count longer than your inhale was, and repeat this for a few minutes, maybe extending the out breath a little longer each round

Example:

Inhale 1 - 2 - 3; Exhale 4 - 3 -2 - 1

Inhale 1 - 2 - 3; Exhale 5 - 4 -3 - 2 - 1

Inhale 1 - 2 - 2; Exhale 6 - 5 -4 - 3 - 2 - 1

Namaste!

Thanks for stopping by to see what we’ve been up to inFebruary! We can’t wait to share what March will bring!

- Cait Mowris, Wellness Director – Foundry Steamboat Springs

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