How Food Can Fuel Your Future

Welcome to National Nutrition Month®! It’s a great time to shine the spotlight on healthy food choices that can support your weight and wellness goals.  

This year’s theme is “Fuel for the Future” – a forward-thinking focus that inspires a recipe for a healthier you and a healthier planet in a couple of ways.  

First, we celebrate the importance of sustainability when we consider nourishing food choices or habits that are also planet friendly. What does that look like? One way is enjoying more plant-based options, which happens to be the description for two evidence-based eating patterns that participants learn about in the Wondr program: Mediterranean and DASH. These eating patterns are colorful, energizing, and part of a more sustainable system because they are rooted in plenty of nutritious vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, and whole grains.

Some other ways we can eat more sustainably include:

1. Enjoy more plant proteins. Think about delicious (and budget-friendly) beans, lentils, peas, and nuts.
2. Fill up on fiber. Focus on more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, which can help conserve resources.
3. Love on leftovers. About 30–40% of the U.S. food supply gets thrown away. Planning ahead for a few simple meals and a recipe for a soup or a casserole that can help utilize any leftovers not only saves money – it also saves time.

Second, when we look at how the Wondr Skills apply to sustainability and the “Fuel for the Future” theme, slowing down, checking in, and savoring the flavors of the foods you enjoy helps you lose weight and maintain or sustain that weight loss. This is not a diet. You are engaging in food and movement strategies that are sustainable!

Each day when you choose to practice your Wondr skills, you improve your health in the moment. Those moments add up to days and weeks and then years of better health. A little bit of preparation and consistency sets up your “future self” in the best possible way, resulting in greater energy, more mobility, less disease risk, and a stronger and happier you. It’s a gift you give to yourself and to your loved ones.

You can commit to fueling up your future by:

1. Meal planning ahead of time. Planning meals ahead allows for creating variety and optimizing flavors and overall nutrition.
2. Meal prepping when you can. That could look like chopping up a few of your favorite veggies, making up your H2Orange the night before, and bagging up a few of your favorite Hunger Savers to place them in your car, office, purse, or briefcase.
3. Tapping into other time-saving tools so that you can relax with friends or family or take a walk. If you need inspiration, consider a batch cooking or sheet-pan meal from the Wondr Kitchen. Preparing a few meals ahead means you have a ready-to-go meal you can look forward to which can reduce the temptations that blindside us when we are busy or stressed!

These small choices will add up to support your health and weight goals. They’re great ways to care for yourself, your future self, and even the planet.