NEW YORK Hugh Jackman said goodbye to Wolverine in 2017 but has said he will carry the character with him always -- just not the diet or workout regime.

In a tribute to the beloved character and Jackman's insanely shredded physique, "The Eternals" star Kumail Nanjiani posed as the X-Men character in the most recent issue of Men's Health, which highlighted how the actor transformed his body for the upcoming Marvel movie.

Jackson shared his reaction toNanjiani's homage in the magazine with Fox News while at the launch of Montblancs first-ever Smart Headphones MB01 in New York City.

MARVEL'S 'ETERNALS' ACTOR KUMAIL NANJIANI REVEALS SHOCKING BODY TRANSFORMATION

"Wow! That really looks like the set," he smiled. "That is so cool."

Jackson complimented Nanjiani's dedicated to packing on the muscle --"If you've done all that work, get your shirt off!"

Kumail Nanjiani paying tribute to Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. (Emily Shur for Mens Health)

The Emmy, Grammy, and Tony-winner spent 17 years of his life playing Wolverine in the X-Men universe.During that time, he was on and off intense diets and workout regimes to get him in the best, most shredded shape possible to portray the mutant action hero.

HUGH JACKMAN SAYS CRITICISM EARLY IN HIS CAREER BECAME 'AN ASSET': 'I STUCK IN THERE LONG ENOUGH'

"I do heavy weights in the morning for about an hour, and then I do 45 minutes of higher-volume lifting in the afternoon. My least favorite is the legs... I do quite a few chin-ups and rows. I do mostly old-school lifting with a lot of squats. I actually do more front squats than I do back squats, and I do a lot of deadlifting," Jackman told the LA Times in 2014.

Besides hitting the gym for hours a day, the Broadway star would not only eat more but eat in a more strategic way.

There were times when I would literally eat with the mindset of working out. One more mouthful, one more, come on, come on, youve got to finish this meal,'"he told Men's Journalin 2013.

Nanjiani's fitness journey didn't come easy, either.The 41-year-old actor revealed on Instagram in December, "I found out a year ago I was going to be in Marvels Eternals and decided I wanted to transform how I looked. I would not have been able to do this if I didnt have a full year with the best trainers and nutritionists paid for by the biggest studio in the world."

"Im glad I look like this, but I also understand why I never did before. It would have been impossible without these resources and time," he added.

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Hugh Jackman reacts to Kumail Nanjiani's transformation into Wolverine: 'That is so cool' - Fox News

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Optimal amounts of good quality sleep is vital for health. But you already knew that, right? And simply knowing its important doesnt mean youre getting enough.

In a new Sleep Report by Bensons for Beds it has been revealed that almost a quarter (23%) of Brits admit theyre so tired on a day-to-day basis that they cant concentrate at work and a third (30%) of us say they spend the day longing to get back into bed. We asked nutritionist Kim Pearsonwhy its so important to start prioritising shut-eye and how to get a better nights sleep.

Many of my clients are busy juggling work commitments and family responsibilities while trying to maintain an exercise routine and squeeze a social life in somewhere. The pressures of modern life can mean that looking after our sleep needs can often be compromised. Unfortunately, without enough good quality sleep, youre sabotaging yourself in a number of different ways. Sleep affects our hormones and hormones affect our sleep.

Here are just three ways that the interaction between our hormones and sleep can get out of balance, and what you can do to restore it.

Sleep and your weight

Many of my clients come to see me because they want to lose weight. If youre trying to lose weight, or maintain a weight youre happy at, a lack of sleep wont do you any favours. You may have noticed that when you go without a good night sleep, you feel hungrier the following day with the desire to eat more than usual.

Could sleeping in separate bedrooms save your relationship?

Sleep deprivation causes a hormone imbalance that directly impacts your hunger. After a shorter night sleep your body produces more ghrelin, the hunger hormone and less leptin, the satiety hormone. If you wake up feeling like you could eat a feast, its likely youll reach for sugary or starchy foods to satisfy this hunger rather than the healthy, balanced diet you had planned.

Sleep and stress

Stress can make it harder to sleep and lack of sleep can make you more stressed. Its a vicious cycle. Cortisol is one of the main stress hormones, and it should follow a certain pattern over the course of the day, starting off at a peak in the morning (to get you up and on the move) and gradually tailing off until the evening (so youre relaxed and ready for bed). Stress can lead to an imbalance in this rhythm and can result in cortisol levels being raised at bedtime.

7 steps to a good night's sleep, according to an insomnia expert

This leads you feeling wired, but tired, which is a recipe for poor sleep and more stress the following day.

Sleep and blood sugar levels

One key to achieving good sleep is to work on stabilising your blood sugar level. Starchy carbs and sugary foods break down into simple sugars and rapidly cause a spike in your blood glucose level. The more glucose you have in your blood stream, the higher the amount of insulin your body releases to carry the glucose into cells and restore balance. If your diet is high in sugar and starchy carbohydrates like bread, rice, pasta and noodles, you body produces more insulin, which can result in a subsequent blood sugar dip.

A nighttime sugar crash can trigger release of the stress hormones which can wake you up or shift you out of deep sleep in the night. For this reason, and many other aspects of health, its important to focus on balancing your blood sugar levels.

Ready to set yourself up for a more restful night? Heres are my dos and donts for better sleep:

Read a book before bed to help you decompress (Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash)

DO

- The body thrives on routine so aim to get to bed at the same time most nights. Set a reoccurring bedtime alarm to remind you to switch off Netflix, turn off your phone and get to bed. Consider investing in an alarm clock so that you can keep your smartphone out of the bedroom.

- Try to have your last meal of the day at least four hours before bedtime and have a meal based around lean protein and plenty of vegetables with healthy fats.

- Maintain a comfortable temperature in your bedroom - not too hot, not too cold.

- Keep your bedroom completely dark so that youre not disturbed by light. If you dont have blackout curtains, try wearing a sleep mask to block out light.

- Aim to take some gentle exercise every day. If gyms arent your thing, start with swapping your bus ride to work for a walk, or taking up a 20 minute daily yoga practice.

- Make an effort to relax for at least 15 minutes before going to bed. Try a good book, a warm bath or meditation.

- Managing your stress throughout the day can help you get off to sleep better at night. Try Link Nutritions Relaxsupplement which contains L Theanine, an amino acid found in green tea, known for its ability to promote relaxation without making you feel sleepy.

- Sip a relaxing evening drink as part of your wind-down ritual, such as the Pukka Night Time Organic Latte.

- Listening to a sleep meditation can be a very effective way to help you drift off, or get you back to sleep if you wake in the night. Download MEYAthe pioneering meditation app which uses binaural beats to help encourage delta brainwaves, those generated in deepest meditation and dreamless sleep.

Avoid carbs before bed (Photo by Bruna Branco on Unsplash)

DONT

- Eat heavy, starchy carb-based meals or high sugar foodsclose to bedtime.

- Drink caffeine after midday. Avoid coffee, tea, energy drinks and fizzy drinks.

- Drink alcohol. Many people think that alcohol helps you sleep because of its mild sedative properties, but it actually results in lighter, more restless sleep.

- Engage in stressful activities such as playing competitive computer games or watching high-intensity films too close to bedtime.

- Use your smartphone in bed. It emits the same sort of blue light as the morning sun, which can impact your circadian rhythm.

Kim Pearson is a qualified nutritionist and weight loss specialist based on Londons Harley Street. She consults clients in London and internationally via her virtual consulting room. For more information about Kim and the services she offers, visit her websitekim-pearson.com

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A nutritionists guide to a better nights sleep - Evening Standard

This requires a very specialized skill set.

First, we manipulate a hive so that the bees have the natural impulses to raise a queen bee.

To do this we do two tasks. We temporarily remove the original queen. Every hive has a queen, because without a queen the bee population will dwindle and the hive will die. This gives the bees an overwhelming urge to create new queens in order to replace the removed queen. This is called an emergency impulse or creating emergency queens.

Next, we pack the queenless hive with surplus bees. Hives that feel like they do not have the space to grow and expand will want to naturally divide themselves. They will raise swarm cells, and will leave with the old queen, letting the new queen be born and take over the existing hive. This is how hives naturally multiply in the wild. It is called the swarm impulse.

We graft larva into cell cups and place them into the queenless/packed hives. The bees accept the graft as it is their only option for raising new queens we removed all of their other choices.

There are three types of bees in the hive: worker bee, drone and queen.

Worker bees are girl bees and comprise the majority of the hive population. They are from a fertilized egg.

Drones are boys. They do not make up a large percentage of the hive population. They are from an unfertilized egg.

There is typically just one queen bee per hive, and she is born from a fertilized egg. The queen bee and the worker bee are genetically the same, but turn into different types of bee based on the diet that they are fed as a larva. The worker bees know what to feed the larva based on the size of the cell the larva is placed into. Queens are fed a diet of purely royal jelly and worker bees are fed royal jelly for the first few days, then eat bee bread, a honey and pollen mixture.

We use a tool to gently pick up the recently hatched worker bee larva and lay it down in a plastic queen cup, the same size and shape as the cell that a queen larva would be found in. The larva is about the size of a comma. We have to be very graceful and gentle in this task, as the larva is very sensitive and easily damaged. By doing this, we are changing the course of the little worker bees life. She will now grow up to be a queen.

We place 120 recently grafted cells into the queenless hive. The worker bees begin raising them as queen bees.

After two days, we perform a task called reversing, which reintroduces the old queen in the hive. We do this with a queen excluder. It is like a queen fence worker bees can travel through it, but the queen cannot. This allows us to keep the grafted cells separate from the queen. If she were to be near the cells, she would destroy them, as she only wants one queen in the hive.

Now we just count down until the queen cell hatches. We remove the cells from the hive before they hatch (day 11 after placing in the hive). If one cell were to hatch before the others, the virgin queen who would emerge would kill all of the other future queens.

We raise around 2,000 queen cells a day. Customers pick up their cells and place them into the new hives that they are making.

When we had a warm spell in Minnesota, Travis flew back and checked on our hives. All hives are heavy with honey and have big populations. He could not find a dead hive, so we are anticipating high survival.

We have seen an uptick in sales of our Minnesota-hardy hives as beekeepers have been checking to see if their hives survived. We bought a new (to us) truck before we left for Texas, with only 60,000 miles on it, a Dodge 5500 with a hemi gas engine. B&D Welding in Hubbard did a wonderful job creating a custom aluminum 14 ft. flatbed for us.

Travis Bolton is a 2001 Park Rapids High School graduate. Chiaras interest in honeybees began on the Tibetan Plateau, where she lived for five years. The couple has a honey house in Menahga and hives in Sebeka, Akeley, Midway and around the Twin Cities. Bolton Bees can be reached at http://www.boltonbees.com or boltonbees@gmail.com.

Link:
BOLTON BEES: The intricacy of raising queen bees - Park Rapids Enterprise

Editor's Note: Here at The Beet, we're looking at two weeks of working from home and waiting out the next phase of the new Coronavirus outbreak, when we are all being asked to practice social distancing and we're trying to keep calm in the face of uncertain events.

So we decided to share this "reboot" diet, just in time to eat healthier, feel stronger and stay well. We are launching Your Two Weeks of Clean Eating to help you be your healthiest now.

We don't want you to think of this time frame (during the weekswhen everyone is working from home) as a chance to go off the rails, eat chips for breakfast, and leftover pizza all day long. It's not a moment for "anything goes" but a time to "hit refresh" on your habits, and come out of thishopefully feeling healthier and stronger andhaving more energy and a fitter body, clearer skin, perhaps event having lost some weight... in other words, feeling better than you went in. Eating an orange for a snack (nature's fast food) and green tea for a beverage is always a good idea. Do it now and you feel like you've taken control of your health!

One note about the word "clean" or "cleanse" that we need to clarify. Here at The Beet, were staunchly anti extreme detox or juice fasting, since your body can detox of its own accord (thank you liver, kidneys, and other amazing organs that make this an organic and natural process). But there are some gentle tips and techniques you can boost your normal digestion and healthy metabolism after a slow and stressed-out winter.

This is where the foods you eat and the liquids your drink matter. Choose wisely and you will feel amazing. Choose poorly and you'll feel as fried as the bad guy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Energetically speaking, Spring is a time for rebirth and new growth, so take this moment to start swapping out winters starchy squashes, roasted root vegetables and heavier oils (which are good for rooted, grounded wintertime energy) in favor of lighter, fresher ingredients and preparations (think: steaming and lightly sauteing, adding baby greens andfresh fruit). Youll feel as if youve "Spring-cleaned" your body, no juice fast required.

Proper hydration is a year-round requirement for a healthy body, but starting your day with warm lemon water in the morningthis week can help rehydrate and energize you after a long nights sleep. Even better, lemon water can kickstart sluggish digestion first thing in the morningwithout the help of coffee.

Before you have yourfirst cup of joe, fill a mug with 8-12 ounces of hot water (near-boiling but not quite) and squeeze in the juice from half a lemon. Sip slowly. Warm water stimulates thegut and intestines, and lemon juice increases your natural stomach acid production, which helps you absorb more vitamins and minerals from food.

Intuitive eating is essentially all about tuning into your bodys needs. Practice mindfulness at every meal to learn to recognize the signs of hunger, fullness, and satiety. Setting aside proper time and space for your next meal without distraction (meaning no phones, computers, TV or eating on-the-go) can help you take note of how youre feeling in the moment. Think about the meal bite by bite, and savor the taste, texture, and increased feeling of fullness as you go.

Be sure to honor your hunger cues, and eat when youre truly hungry, but also recognize when youre eating simply because youre bored, angry, stressed or tired (we all do it!) or just because someone else opened a bag of chips (we are guilty of this too!). In those cases, remove yourself from the food source (either your kitchen, the work pantry, or your friend with the bag of chips) by taking a walk, whether it's around the block or a real hike in nature, or spend a couple of minutes journaling or doing gentle yoga and breathing, which can heal you more than junk food when you don't need it can do.

Now that the weathers warming up, raw foods can have more of a place on your plate than in the dead of Winter. In colder months, raw foods take longer to move through the digestive tract, requiring more energy to break down, which can actually leave you feeling fatigued rather than energized. In Spring and Summer, raw foods provide a cooling effect on the body, which is refreshing when the mercury rises, and they leave you feeling lighter and more energized. If you don't have one already, pick up a spiralizer or buy pre-spiralized zucchini, carrots, and squash, try your hand at pressed salads, or simply add more raw fruits and veggies to your snack rotation.

Dont get us wrong: We love the intense flavor and sweetness brought about by roasting a tray of veggies in the oven. But the beauty of steaming is that the veg retains most of its nutrient content and stays super hydrated, which means more benefits for your body. Break out that bamboo steamer basket or the under-appreciated stainless steel steamer basket and start steaming your broccoli before topping it off with a little furikake. Youll never look back.

Kvass is like kombuchas sassy older sistera bit earthier and saltier, but still bubbly and bright. Beet kvass is a traditional Lacto-fermented beverage with major probiotic benefits, and you can make it right on your countertop. Beets are incredibly liver-supportive and fermenting them provides a food form of probiotic bacteria that can help aid digestion. Its a great springtime sip to mix with a little sparkling water whenever you need a pick-me-upand thanks to its lack of sugar and caffeine, it is actually a bit higher on the health spectrum than most bottled kombuchas.

The ultimate fast food, smoothies are packed full of fiber, healthy fats, antioxidants, and plant proteinif you make them properly. To use a smoothie as a meal replacement, make sure to check all the boxes: Aim for just one to two cup servings of fruit, toss in some seeds (hemp, chia, flax), pick a veg (frozen cauliflower or zucchini work well, as do baby leafy greens), and choose an alt-milk (oat, almond, coconut). Add a plant-based protein powder of your choosing, and drizzle in vanilla, maple or other sweeteners to taste. Find a formula you love, then make it for breakfastitll hold you over till lunch, no 11 am snack cravings insight.

We could wax on about the myriad benefits of drinking dandelion root tea: everything from protecting the liver to stimulating more bile flow from the gallbladder to help with fatty acid breakdown to balancing blood sugar. Try a cup of dandelion tea after dinneror even in place of your morning beverage (after lemon water, ofc). There are several great herbal coffee alternatives out therewe love Rasa, which combines dandelion with other herbs and spices for a warming and health-supporting morning drink without the jitters.

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The Best 7 Ways to Reboot Your Diet to Stay Healthy and Spring Clean Your Body - The Beet

Labels, physical and social have become an integrated part of our identity as individuals as well as our identity within people groups. Why would this matter? What is the point?

For the past few years I have been working in a food distribution company marketing food to restaurateurs throughout Minnesota. In sales, our focus revolves around consumer trends. At least once per month we take time to discuss our consumer, what they think, how they buy and what matters to them. It is important to know our market. Our last discussion got me thinking ...

It seems that the consumer of today is continually seeking an identity surrounding the food they consume and how it makes them feel. As a farmer, consumer perception certainly drives out markets. The new need to identify oneself and how we choose to eat could potentially cripple our market if we dont pay attention to it. So, are you a carnivore, vegan, vegetarian or a flexitarian? And what diet do you adhere to? Keto, paleo, gluten free, dairy free? The list goes on and on.

Personally, I get frustrated and overwhelmed by the number of different labels that currently exist in relation to the food we eat. Please dont misunderstand me, in that I believe it to be beneficial to have an educated understanding of where your food comes from and how it is raised. But the labels of today are definitely next level. In addition, they are changing constantly. We have major corporate companies like mine investing time and money to better understand this.

I think it important for those of us in agriculture to take notice. Our livelihood, way of life and the food supply for the world depends upon how we as farmers approach the ever-changing opinions of our consumer. In the next several months, I am going to take time to discuss the current state of food identity in the United States and how it will affect the American farmer, what we grow and how we grow it.

For the moment, I would like to leave you contemplating what all this may mean for us. Better yet, what do you consider to be the most important issue facing agriculture when it comes to diets, labels and consumer perception?

Lawrence and her husband Bryan raise turf grass, alfalfa, corn and purebred Hereford cattle near Princeton, Minn. She works for the Minnesota Farm Bureau Foundation and is state coordinator for the Speak for Yourself program. Reach her at marytinathefarmerswife@gmail.com.

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Food labels, diet labels and how they affect agriculture - AG Week

MANSFIELD Work, travel, eat, work out, sleep. Thats what Strive to Thrive contestant Chuck Keesees weekly schedule since joining the contest.

Keesee has traveled anywhere from Alaska to Hawaii every week due to his job as a district manager for Gorman Rupp.

You can't outwork a bad diet, Ive learned, Keesee said.

Married to his high school sweetheart and with three kids, Keesee has to also find time to balance his home life with everything else.

Although concerns with the coronavirus have kept people from traveling, Keesee is not one of them. This week hes in Las Vegas for a trade show, and then hell go to Texas for more work-related commitments. After that he plans on taking his family on a vacation to St. George, Utah and San Diego, Calif.

He also recently traveled to Columbus for the Arnold Sports Festival, which he participated in as a white belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Chuck Keesee, 43, is a district manager in training. Hes originally from Bristol, Tenn. and moved to Mansfield to be closer to family. As a hobby, he participates in martial arts at theWolverine Stevens Mixed Martial Arts and Fitness centerhere in Mansfield.

Keesee cant meal prep due to airplane restrictions, which can sometimes give him the temptation to eat out when hes tired and spending two days out of the week in the airport. Finding time to work out has also been a struggle.

For most people that are overweight, food is their comfort, Keesee said. So when hes tired he, wants to go and just get something really greasy and fattening to make (himself) feel better. However, in the back of his mind, he knows he cant give in and settles for yogurt or fruit.

Since beginning the contest, the easiest part for Keesee has been the diet portion due to the fact that hes competing against others and thinking twice about going overboard with his meals.

Just going to drink water, those sorts of things are a challenge, but if it wasnt for this competition, I wouldnt be doing it, he said.

Keesee has tried to focus a lot on a variety of different exercises with every trainer at the Ohio Health Ontario Health & Fitness Center.

Keesee currently stands in second place and hopes to reach second by the end of the Strive to Thrive competition.

Every one of them (the trainers) has a different thing that they like to do, so Im kind of taking all of those things and applying depending on where Im at and what options I have, Keesee said. Now Ive got this huge repertoire of options to go after.

Keesee currently stands in fourth place after losing 4.55% of body fat so far. Because of his busy schedule and heavy traveling, hes not aiming for first place and hopes someone else will win the grand prize of a free gym membership at the OhioHealth Fitness Centers in Mansfield.

Im just thankful for this opportunity, Keesee said. Its been fun, its been educational and theres just a lot of things Ive got going on in my life, and this adds a whole other complexity to it. But if its comfortable, youre not growing, so I figure the challenges are just going to work out better for me in the long run.

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Learning to balance work, travel, family time and fitness keeps Strive to Thrive contestant busy - Richland Source

Kate Nye knew for a long time that she wanted to be an Olympian. Growing up a gymnast, she said, she naturally had "this fascination about the Olympic Games." At age 15, though, injury and surgery led her to give up on gymnastics and fall into a self-described athletic limbo. "I didn't really know where I fit in since that was the only sport I did for so long."

Nye started doing CrossFit to stay in shape, and her coach nudged her into competitive weightlifting. In her first national competition, the Youth Nationals in 2016, Nye ended up earning a bronze. "That's when I kind of realized," Nye said: though she enjoyed CrossFit, she knew she was more "messing around" with it. "I had an actual talent in weightlifting." She started competing seriously and ended up falling head over heels. "I fell in love with the training and competing, and it was the best decision I've ever made."

That's no exaggeration. Nye holds all of the American records at her 71-kilogram weight class and is a 2019 world champion in both types of Olympic lifts, snatch and clean & jerk, as well as total, which is derived by combining a lifter's successful lifts in a single competition. In 2019, she also became the first American to be named the Best Woman Lifter of 2019 by the International Weightlifting Federation.

Now, Nye has her sights set on making the 2020 Olympic weightlifting team, which means she needs to up her game even more. Literally: Nye's normal 71 kg division isn't offered at the Olympics. Instead she'll be going up to the 76 kg class, which means she's working to gain weight through her diet while keeping up her strength in training. Nye talked to POPSUGAR about what that looks like, from the gym to the kitchen, and how she's staying focused on making it to Tokyo in a few short months.

Nye works out six to eight times a week in a combination of three different kinds of workouts: strength, technique, and accessory lifts. Strength-wise, she works on getting stronger through squats, deadlifts, and pressing. "We're usually doing a cycle of squats," Nye explained. "Maybe front squats, maybe back squats, maybe high-volume, maybe low-volume. The core of it is the strength aspect." (The "front" and "back" refer to where you hold the barbell: with front squats, the barbell is across your chest; during back squats, you hold it behind your head and across your shoulders.)

For technique work, Nye finesses her form in the two competitive lifts: the snatch and the clean & jerk. The snatch requires the lifter to heave the barbell up from the ground and over their head in a single motion, starting in a squat and coming to a stand. (Watch Kate set a junior world record in the snatch here.) In the clean & jerk, lifters use two motions to get the bar over their head, first lifting the bar from the floor to a front-racked squat and stand ("the clean") and then shifting the bar overhead ("the jerk"). Here's what a clean & jerk looks like. Still with us? "We're doing usually tons of variations to fix technique problems I have" in both lifts, Kate explained.

You might not do snatches or clean & jerks in your everyday weights workout (although they probably sound familiar if you're a CrossFitter). The accessory work that Nye does to "strengthen the little muscles," though, will sound familiar: Romanian deadlifts, single leg squats, and overhead presses.

Last but not least: core work. "Since I was a gymnast, I know every ab exercise ever made," Nye joked. Her current favorite is the dead bug, a move that targets the full core and works on stabilization at the same time. "They're kind of fun and not very intense, which is good for me."

Diet-wise, Nye focuses on eating intuitively. "I don't track anything. I eat what I need as an athlete." She gets six to eight ounces of protein in every meal, usually ground beef, chicken thighs, and sausage. "I eat protein that has more fat in it, since I'm not cutting weight," Nye explained. She'll add a couple cups of carbs as well as veggies. Well, "We try to do veggies. We need to work on that!" she said. For a healthy fat, Nye said guacamole is her go-to. She avoids protein powder and said she tries to keep her diet "as whole as possible."

From diet to training to her mental health, all of Nye's focus is on making it to the 2020 Summer Olympics. In order to get there, she said, "you've got to do the work to max potential. I think that's the best way to put it. You've got to keep striving for that next kilogram on the barbell."

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visit teamusa.org. The Tokyo Olympics begin July 24 on NBC, and the Tokyo Paralympics begin Aug. 23 on NBC.

Read more:
The Workout Routine and Intuitive Diet of a CrossFitter Turned World Champ Weightlifter - POPSUGAR

March is National Nutrition Month. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer with the University of Minnesota talks about what healthy eating habits are, what parents can do to encourage their kids to have healthy eating habits and more.

Her research focuses on a broad spectrum of eating and weight-related outcomes including eating disorders, unhealthy weight control behaviors, body image, dietary intake, weight stigmatization and obesity.

Q: What are healthy eating habits?

Neumark-Sztainer: Healthy eating habits involve a combination of things. One is enjoyable eating, such as eating family meals or eating at a social event. Another is intuitive eating or paying attention to our bodys cues (e.g. when your body tells you youre full to stop eating). We can also engage in mindful eating when we pay attention to what we are eating and more fully enjoy the food that we are eating. Finally, it is important to eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, choose nutrient-dense foods, and avoid foods that are high in calories and low in nutrients.

Q: What are things parents can do to encourage healthy eating habits?

Neumark-Sztainer: The four cornerstones I focus on in my book Im, Like, SO Fat! Helping Your Teen Make Healthy Choices about Eating and Exercise in a Weight-Obsessed World are the following:

Model healthy behaviors: Avoid dieting; avoid making weight-related comments; engage in regular physical activity that you enjoy; and model healthy but not perfect eating patterns and food choices.

Make it easy for your children to make healthy choices: Make healthy food choices readily available; establish family meal norms that work for your family; make physical activity the norm in your family; limit TV watching; and support your childs efforts to get involved in physical activity.

Focus less on weight and more on behaviors and overall health: Encourage your child to adopt healthy behavior without focusing on weight loss; help your child develop an identity that goes beyond physical appearance; and establish a zero tolerance policy for weight teasing in your home.

Be available to talk with and listen to your child: Listen and provide support when your child discusses weight concerns; when your child talks about dieting, find out whats really going on; keep the lines of communication open no matter what; provide unconditional love, not based on weight, and let your child know how you feel.

Q: What are signs that someone may not have healthy eating habits?

Neumark-Sztainer: Unhealthy eating habits may include under- or over-eating, not consuming enough healthy food each day, or consuming too much of one type of food or drink. There may also be a change in ones attitudes toward eating, such as not enjoying eating, fearing eating, avoiding eating with others or using food as a coping mechanism.

Think about whether there has been a change in your childs behavior (e.g., eating, level of activity, social interactions), mood (e.g., becoming more socially withdrawn) or physical appearance (e.g., weight change). As a parent, it is not your place to decide whether your child has an eating disorder that is for a professional. It is within your role as a parent to identify any possible problems; open doors for communication with your child; get your child to professional help for diagnosis as early as possible; and work as a collaborative player with members of the health care team if they decide treatment would be helpful.

Q: What should people do if they believe a loved one may have an eating disorder?

Neumark-Sztainer: The chance for recovery increases the earlier an eating disorder is detected. Talk to the person in a manner that shows a great deal of caring, concern about specific behaviors and firmness about the need for help. Make sure to prepare for your conversation up front, write down what you want to say and practice on someone else.

Q: What are you doing to advance research on healthy eating habits?

Neumark-Sztainer: At the University of Minnesota, we are conducting one of largest and most comprehensive studies on eating and weight in adolescents, young adults and families called Project EAT. The project involves the long-term study of two large cohorts of adolescents from the Twin Cities as they progress from adolescence through adulthood.

I currently have funding from the National Institutes of Health to learn more about how best to work with young people and families dealing with challenging life circumstances such as poverty, racism and exposure to stressful life events. We need to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our most vulnerable populations, because we are witnessing growing disparities and inequities in eating and weight-related problems. It is now clear that eating disorders influence young people from different social and ethnic/racial backgrounds and we need to learn more about how to ensure that the needs of all youth are being met.

A newer area of research that I am engaged in involves the study of yoga and how this practice can help with issues of body image, eating practices, and other measures of well-being. This interest stems from my own yoga practice and in-depth study of this practice.

Dianne Neumark-Sztainer is a professor and head of the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

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Nutrition expert talks healthy eating habits | Opinion - Southernminn.com

Keith Phaneuf

Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano threw the governors words about a debt diet back at him Wednesday.

Updated at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday with final vote on state bond package.

The Democrat-controlled legislature is expected to approve a two-year, $4.7 billion bond package Wednesday that shatters Gov. Ned Lamonts planned debt diet for state borrowing by more than $1.1 billion.

The House of Representatives approved the borrowing plan 126-20 following a one-hour, early-afternoon debate. The Senate approved it 31-5 at 6:40 p.m., following a two-hour debate.

And while Democrats insisted the bond package they negotiated with the governor would advance economic development, affordable housing, municipal aid, transportation and other priorities, Republicans countered Lamonts reversal would weaken Connecticuts standing on Wall Street.

More than half of the Republicans in both chambers voted for the bill. But Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R- North Haven, said that was because the package included three overdue state grants to cities and towns that are paid for using bonded dollars, adding that many legislators were worried that would face criticism back home if they voted no on Wednesday.

Governor Lamont has repeatedly told the public that he was committed to limiting bonding to the core functions of government, Fasano said. He has blasted his predecessors for overusing the states credit card. He told credit rating agencies, investors, businesses and taxpayers that he would be different. But today he is going back on that promise.

The governor and his fellow Democrats in the legislatures majority agreed on $2.3 billion in new borrowing for the current fiscal year, and $2.4 billion in 2020-21.

In addition, legislators already have approved $322 million in borrowing for this year and $351 million for next for capital projects at public colleges and universities and for the states bioscience and defense-related economic development programs.

Couple all of that with another $706 million in transportation-related borrowing approved previously for this fiscal year, and the total, potential hit to Connecticuts credit card exceeds $6 billion over the two fiscal years combined.

Lamont, who took office in January 2019, pledged to curb this borrowing, and particularly to clamp down on the single-largest category general obligation borrowing.

General obligation borrowing bonds that will be repaid over many years with resources from the budgets General Fund should be limited to just under $1 billion per year, Lamont said. Thats in addition to the G.O. bonding used for higher education and special economic development programs.

But the bond package adopted Wednesday includes $1.4 billion in general obligation bonds for this fiscal year, and $1.64 billion in 2020-21.

Fasano, who held a late morning press conference in the Legislative Office Building, stood before a poster board containing a series of quotes from Lamont and state Treasurer Shawn Wooden hailing the debt diet during his first months in office.

The credit rating agencies, investors, businesses around the globe and our taxpayers are watching what we do and have responded positively so far, Lamont said last July. As we move forward we cannot let them down by returning to old, bad habits and hoping for a different result.

Fasano noted the average annual borrowing in the latest bond packagenearly matches the heaviest level of borrowing during Gov. Dannel P. Malloys administration. Annual state bonding exploded dramatically under Malloy, who served from 2011 2018. Connecticut struggled during this period with a very sluggish recovery from the great recession and frequently used its credit card to ease pressure on the state budget.

Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, and Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, discuss the proposed bond package.

But Max Reiss, the governors communications director, countered that the debt diet is not over.

Thats because legislative approval is just the first stage in a multi-step borrowing process. The State Bond Commission must approve any legislative authorization before any borrowed funds can be spent.

As governor, Lamont chairs the 10-member bond commission and his budget office sets its agenda.

Reiss noted that under Lamonts leadership, the commission has allocated about half of what the prior administration averaged while simultaneously making the necessary and needed investments we were able to under existing authorizations.

Reiss added that this is not a time for baseless allegations and finger-pointing, but it is time for effective governance of this great state and its finances, which will always be measured and balanced with making appropriate investments in Connecticuts future.

And the top Democrat in the Senate said the package recognizes critical needs in education, transportation, social services, economic development and housing, and would have tremendous long-term benefits.

This is a capital bill that does meet the needs of the state of Connecticut in so many different respects, said Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, who called it a reasonable, responsible level of capital borrowing.

Wednesdays action ended a yearlong stalemate between the governor and his fellow Democrats in the legislature over borrowing and tolls.

Connecticut ranks among the most indebted states, per capita, in the nation, and debt service costs consume more than 10% of the annual budget, a problem that prompted Lamont to press for his debt diet immediately upon taking office.

But the governor also had been urging lawmakers to curb their borrowing as part of a larger plans that also involved tolls and the state budgets Special Transportation Fund.

Connecticut borrows just under $800 million per year for transportation work, pairing that with about $750 million in federal grants to support highway, bridge and rail upgrades. The STF covers the annual payments on that borrowing, buttransportation officials say the aging, overcrowded infrastructure is overdue for a major rebuild and more resources are needed.

Lamont wanted tolls first on cars and trucks and later on trucks only to bolster the STF and, in turn, enable more transportation borrowing. And he frequently warned lawmakers that he couldnt approve a bond package until tolls were resolved because absent toll receipts he would need to shift existing bonding away from non-transportation programs and into highway, bridge and rail work.

The governor finally conceded in February that lawmakers wouldnt approve tolls and the new bond package does add $200 million in annual borrowing to be repaid out of the budgets General Fund to complement the existing $780 million per year in bonding supported by the Special Transportation Fund.

The bonding bill not only ends the standoff between Lamont and legislators but also releases three non-education grants for cities and towns that had been held up by this process.

The state will borrow $166 million per year for communities, including:

Municipal advocates have argued for months that the delayed road grant is particularly problematic for local budgets.

Half of the $60 million TAR grant normally is given to communities shortly after the fiscal year begins on July 1 to help pay for summer road repaving and fall tree-clearing work. The second half goes out in early January to help fund snow plowing.

Both payments have been held up because there has been no bond package.

Mark Pazniokas :: ctmirror.org

Gov. Ned Lamont, center right, reached a deal on bonding with top Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney (right) and House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz.

But Lamont has said once a bond bill is sent to his desk, he will hold a bond commission meeting soon to expedite release of the local aid.

These are ways Connecticut is a partner for our municipality, Looney said. While most other states have counties that assist their municipalities, Connecticut lacks this third level of government, he noted, adding that makes state assistance even more critical.

The bonding deal includes many other components besides municipal aid.

More than $850 million over this fiscal year and next combined would be borrowed to support municipal school construction and renovation projects and another $84 million for improvements to municipal water treatment plants.

Lawmakers included $200 million for urban economic development initiatives statewide, $90 million for development of Connecticuts deep water ports, and $30 million in economic assistance grants for small towns.

The package also includes $45 million for a new transit-oriented, quasi-public development agency and$65 million to renovate the XL Center in Hartford.

More than $200 million over this fiscal year and next combined would be authorized for affordable housing program. The bulk of those funds, $175 million, would be dedicated for theFlexible Housing Program, which provides grants and loans for the development of affordable housing projects.

Community-based, nonprofit social service agencies were winners in the bond package, receiving $50 million in total across this fiscal year in next to help cover capital expenses.

Nonprofits, who provide the bulk of state-sponsored social services for the disabled, mentally ill, abused children, drug addicts and others, also have been seeking additional operating funds in the state budget. Leaders of these nonprofits say state funding has not kept pace with the cost of inflation for nearly two decades, forcing agencies to reduce or eliminate programs and cut staff.

Lamont has not supported that request for additional funds in the operating budget to date.

Legislators also included $5 million in bond package to support various efforts to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus across Connecticut.

Other components of the package include:

Not all Republicans saw the bond package as negatively as Fasano did, and that town aid played a key role.

In the House, a little more than half of the GOP minority voted for the bond package. And while the same was true in the Senate, some House Republicans publicly praised the bill.

Rep. Livvy Floren of Greenwich, ranking House Republican on the legislatures bonding subcommittee, went so far as to say it adheres to the debt diet without imposing starvation.

Floren later modified her description, saying it might better be compared to intermittent fasting.

Both Rep. Chris Davis of Ellington, ranking House Republican on the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said they voted for the deal to secure overdue aid for towns and additional funding for transportation work.

But Davis and Klarides both said the bond package was too large, and urged Lamont to use the bond commission to restrain actual borrowing.

We absolutely are 100% behind the municipal aid and the transportation funding, Klarides said. But youre forced to vote for things you dont like to get the things you do like.

Klarides noted her caucus offered an amendment to cut more than $380 million in proposed borrowing out of the bond package, but House Democrats rejected it with a party-line vote.

But House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said the House Republican support shows Fasano is more concerned with partisan politics than with the education, economic development, transportation, and other priorities the bond package supports.

Ive been saying for months now we have to put an end to this political division thats ruling this state, the speaker said.

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Legislators to break Lamonts debt diet by more than $1B - The CT Mirror