In search of a holiday gift that will have its recipient tearing the box open to try it out right away? No, it’s not the iPhone 6 plus, although it can be used in conjunction with one! This nifty gadget takes living a healthier lifestyle to a whole new level with its customized set-up and feedback, aesthetically pleasing visuals, easy portability, and unique features.  This item revolutionizes eating healthier, staying fit, and reaching personal goals. The best thing about this product is that you only need one to benefit your entire family! What is it? The Prep Pad by The Orange Chef Co. is essentially, a smart food scale that links to your apple device through Bluetooth using an app called Countertop. It identifies the nutritional density of a food item or meal according to its weight.

Photo by : WIlliams-Sonoma

What does it do?

Objectively, the Prep Pad:

• Provides you with a customized nutrition label for a specific food item or meal based on its weight
• Displays a pie chart that is divided into carbs, proteins, fats and overall calories
• Upon placing an item on the scale and identifying what it is using the smart search, it will tell you the nutritional information for the specific item (including micro-nutrients/vitamins)
• Upon placing an entire meal on the scale, and identifying each item individually, it will tell you the nutritional balance of your meal in accordance to your personal health goals, height, age, weight, gender, and activity level
• Tracks your food intake and saves it to the Countertop app so that you can review, and refer back to it for certain meals or recipes

Subjectively, the Prep Pad:

• Makes you more self-aware and conscious of exactly what you’re putting into your body
• Helps prevent overeating by teaching you proper portion sizes
• Educates you to recognize how much a portion is by the size of an item (also a good way to teach kids how much an ounce is, etc.)
• Helps raise and promote overall awareness of nutrition and what you’re eating
• Makes you mindful of your eating habits
• Will make an awesome holiday gift for someone special!

What else can it do?

 – It can save your meals or individual food items to your “favorites” for future reference and easy access to frequently eaten foods so you don’t have to re-enter or re-weigh it

-It can level out bowls and other containers for bigger items that won’t fit on top of the Prep Pad or for foods with messy consistencies such as sour cream so that they’re not accounted for in the weighing of a food item

– It provides you access to review your nutritional intake at any time (by meal, day, week, etc.)

– It has the option to divide meals into serving sizes by selecting the number of people who will be eating it

– It keeps track of your calorie intake and provides you with a “balance score” (out of 100, with 100 being completely balanced), based on your nutritional health goals along with your height, weight, age, gender, and activity level to help you create balanced meals and stay on track with your goals

– Has a barcode scanner for items that are not in the more than 300,000 item search library

-Has the ability to have multiple different items on it at once and still provide their individual nutrition info, as well as the overall nutrition info for the entire meal by providing the option to change the item as soon as there is a change in weight on the scale. For example, if I put a handful a blueberries on the scale, enter blueberries, and am presented with its weight and nutritional information, I could then put a handful of almonds on the scale and enter almonds, it will give me the nutritional information of the almonds according to the added weight (difference in weight before and after the almonds were added)

– Allows you to share recipes or meals on social media easily or through email/messaging

– Can be used in conjunction with the “Jawbone UP” activity trackers to sync your exercise and suggest meals and recipes for you to replenish your body after a workout based on your health goals

I downloaded the Countertop app on my iPhone and created an account using my email account (you can also use Facebook for convenience or if you plan to share a lot of stuff on social media). After creating my account it then asked me a few questions in three separate categories, and this is what it looked like: “About Me”

1. What’s your name?
2. What’s your height?
3. Are you male or female?
4. What is your birthdate?
5. What is your current weight?
6. What is your weight goal? (lose/gain/maintain)

In the next section, “Activity” it asks you to rate your activity level on a scale of 1 to 5, and here’s how they described the levels

1. Sedentary- No purposeful(or intentional) exercise
2. Light- Exercise equivalent to 4,000 steps a day
3. Moderate- Moderate exercise 3-5 days a week (included activities like Yoga)
4. Heavy- Moderate or more vigorous exercise most days of the week (sports)
5. Exceptional- Intensive training (extreme athletes training for marathons, triathlons, etc.)

The last section titled “Calorie Goal” provides you with a daily calorie goal to follow recommended by USDA based on the information you provided in the previous two sections. It also provides you with the recommended balance pie chart from the USDA that states a balanced meal consists of 50% carbs, 30% fats, and 20% proteins. There is an option to customize your pie chart percentages as well. When I entered my information (Hayley, 5’3, Female, June 18^th 1992 (22 years old), 130lbs, I want to maintain my weight. I do heavy activity), the USDA recommended my daily calorie intake to be 2,505 calories per day. Everyone’s recommended calorie intake is going to be different, depending on the personalized info they entered. Overall this product does a fantastic job promoting a healthier lifestyle. It’s educational, portable, and easy to use. Everyone has something to gain by having a Prep Pad, and it would be a perfect holiday gift for

• Your health conscious friend
• A person you know that is trying to become more health conscious
• Someone you care about that YOU want to become more health conscious
• Visual learners
• Technology hoarders
• Your calorie counting friend
• Athletes
• That one person you know that’s always on a diet
• People with diet restrictions

The Prep Pad is a perfect holiday gift to give right before the start of the New Year when everyone is making strides towards living a healthier lifestyle. It truly is a gift that keeps on giving.

It’s time to celebrate Moms.  Though we designate only one day to honor them, they really deserve it every day. In exchange for their dedication to caring for their family, we offer them gifts of gratitude. Whether it is a bountiful bouquet of flowers, a gift certificate to the spa they’ve wanted to go to or even some shiny jewelry, we offer these gifts to show how much they are appreciated.  But gifts do not have to be something tangible or costly or even extravagant.  It can simply be a home-cooked meal for mom for a change.  With the many supermoms in existence, why not make them a deliciously healthy meal?  During those couple hours on Mother’s Day she can relax, and hopefully try not to think about the damage that’s being done to her kitchen.  Most importantly, it really does give time to regenerate.  However, once Mother’s Day comes to an end and there are no more presents to open, nor healthy meals to be eaten, some may forget about eating healthy altogether.  Though, making healthy meals is not impossible.

For moms to continue eating healthy, follow these, not only helpful, but healthful tips.

1. Start with baby steps.  If eating healthy meals is not the norm, start off by finding foods you enjoy and easy recipes to go along with them.
2. Size matters and moderation is key.  “In moderation” is a commonly used phrase when discussing food consumption.  “Eat these or that foods in moderation”, but what does it mean?  Think of it as portion control and consume foods in smaller portions.  A good tool to help with portion size is MyPlate, which offers a visual to what a plate should look like and what it should contain: vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, whole grains, and dairy.
3. Consider your eating habits.  Do you eat in front of the TV or inhale a meal because of time?  Eating while watching TV or using a computer can result in mindless eating, sometimes overeating can occur too.  Enjoy a healthy meal at the table and take it slow.  By slowing down, overeating is minimized.
4. Listen to your body.  Be mindful of how your body feels.  It allows some time for your brain to register that your stomach has had an adequate amount of food (approximately 20 minutes).

Taking the time to eat healthy will fall into place once it becomes second nature. One of the simplest ways to get the most nutrition out of a meal is to eat a rainbow.  Not literally of course, but to eat foods that contain a variety of colors.  Try a few of these examples: bright orange carrots have vitamin A that help with eyesight.  Berries, such as blueberries, raspberries and crisp greens like kale or spinach are super foods that contain phytochemicals that can lower cholesterol levels or decrease risks for various diseases.  So when making a healthy meal, eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. The more colors the better, since a variety of fruits and vegetables offer beneficial vitamins and minerals your body needs. All the components of eating healthy and adding more nutrients into your diet include all the elements needed to building a healthy meal.

Here are 10 easy tips for making healthy meals:

1. Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.  Remember to choose a rainbow to get the different vitamins and minerals various foods offer.
2. Choose lean proteins, such as lean beef or pork, chicken, turkey, beans or tofu, and at least twice a week choose seafood as a protein of choice.
3. Eat whole grains.  Look for 100% whole grains or 100% whole wheat, which is high in fiber, and good for your digestive system.
4. Try some dairy.  Include a cup of fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt, or low-fat cheese.  Dairy products provide the necessary calcium for bone health.
5. Avoid extra fat.  Don’t eliminate fat altogether because our bodies need it, but limit the amount of added saturated and trans-fat to meals like butter or margarine.
6. Take time.  Just a reminder that eating is not a race.  Take time to enjoy the healthy meal you just created and taste the flavors.
7. Minimize the plate.  Using a smaller plate helps with portion control and prevents overeating.
8. Staying home.  When you cook your own meal at home in comparison to eating out, you are in control, and who doesn’t like to be in control?  You know exactly how everything is prepared, and what is put into the meal when you make it yourself.
9. Be adventurous.  Try new foods.  Take one new food a week, and find a simple recipe, and make it your own.
10. Satisfy your sweet tooth with fruit.  It’s naturally sweet without the extra sugar or fat.  Add some to low-fat yogurt to make a parfait or cut up some of your favorites to make a refreshing fruit salad.

In addition,one of the most important tips I would say in making a healthy meal is to make it a family effort.  By including the entire family, everyone is learning healthy habits, and everyone motivates each other to continue to not only eat but create some pretty awesome healthy meals.   Everyone benefits, and once the family gets the technique down to making healthy meals, they may even take over and start cooking for you — let’s hope!

As previously mentioned, eating healthy is not impossible, but it does take time and thought. Remember the reward of health outweighs the negatives, if there are even any. You are a Supermom, you can do anything!

As a mother of a fun and feisty 3-yr old daughter (named Nyiah), I might even venture to say that my perspective on motherhood changes daily.  What my child learns from me, what I learn from my child, what I learn from others- it’s like a constant graduation through life.  

During the last 30 days, I have had the opportunity to experience multiple aspects of motherhood from other mothers’ eyes.  I found that when a mother protects, inspires, and honors her children, she also impacts everyone around her.

Protect– On April 14^th, we launched a 12-month Skinny Gene Diabetes Prevention Program in San Antonio, TX.  We have the honor and privilege of working with these beautiful mothers over the next year. Each woman has a strong commitment to family (and community) and the determination to give her kids a chance to live a healthy, diabetes-free life. (Read More)

Inspire– In the last 30 days I also found Mary (Fit Factor Kids) who is fighting childhood obesity and inspiring children to take the steps towards living an active life. In addition to her kids fitness videos, she launched a walking challenge, “Walk the Tworld” (T stands for Twitter) to encourage families to walk 100 million step in the month of May.  I thought this was awesome, so I wanted to help… (Read More)

Love and Honor: Last month, I took the opportunity to walk in the San Diego March of Babies, in honor of Henry- a precious little boy who knew his mother’s love, although he was never given the chance to see her face.  

With Team Henry walking in Chicago, I thought I’d arrive in San Diego’s Balboa Park and be the sole representative for Team Henry. Boy was I wrong! The thousands of participants weren’t just walking in honor of their “miracles” and “angels”,  but for all babies and children- even our beloved Henry.

As I walked, I was reminded of a few important things that day:  

No matter what the situation is…when you have support, you are never alone.

AND  

There is no strength like the strength of a mother, and there is no love like a mother’s love.