(KUTV) Salt Lake City – Don’t give up on your New Year’s Resolution just yet. Dr. Shawn Talbott, a nutritional biochemist who researches how to help people feel, look, and perform their best, appeared on Fresh Living to share the 5 R’s of Resolutions.

January 17, 2018 was the annual “Ditch New Year’s Resolution Day” – where people are encouraged to just forget about any of their promises to get healthier – or lose weight – or improve, start doing, or stop doing anything in 2018.

The rationale behind Resolution Quit Day is simple – lots of people who make New Year’s resolutions will break them or give up on them before the end of January (some estimates say 80%).

Recently on Fresh Living, we talked about how you can strengthen your resolve (or get back to your new habits if you’ve already quite) – with a PLAN. (WATCH HERE)

One reason for the high quit rate is that people are lacking in either motivation or confidence. When we assess “Readiness to change” (the first R) – we want people to rate themselves at least a “6” (on a scale of 1-10) for both motivation (the change is important enough to you) and confidence (that you have the skills/knowledge to achieve it).  If your score is lower than 6, then you probably need to scale back your aspirations (such as lose 10lbs instead of lose 50lbs).

If you’re Ready with sufficient motivation and confidence, then you need to identify the next three Rs:

Reminder – a trigger that initiates the behavior (that you want to change)

Routine – the practice of the behavior

Reward – the benefit you’re getting from the behavior

For example, maybe you want to stop eating ice cream while watching late night TV? You can’t just tell yourself to simply “stop doing that” – you need to Replace the old habits with a set of new habits (that’s the 5^th R).

Using our late night ice cream as the example…

In this scenario, you’re still using the same “reminder” and getting the same “reward” – all that has changed is the “routine” – which is really the core of the thing that you wanted to change.

This is just a “simple” example of habit change – but the general rule applies to other more complex behavior changes. Break the habit down into it’s 3-part cycle (three Rs – Reminder, Routine, and Reward), make sure that you’re Ready to change the cycle, and then Replace the old behavior(s) with new behavior(s).

About the Author: Dr. Shawn Talbott received dual Bachelor’s degrees in Sports Medicine (B.S.) and Fitness Management (B.A.) from Marietta College, his Master’s degree (M.S.) in Exercise Science from UMASS, and his Ph.D. in Nutritional Biochemistry from Rutgers. His research is focused on natural products to support human performance and psychological vigor (physical energy, mental acuity, and emotional well-being).

Dr. Talbott’s recent projects include two academic textbooks, an award-winning documentary film, and several best-selling books translated into multiple languages. His work has been featured on The Dr. Oz Show, the TED stage, and the White House.

On the Zoom with Pat tonight (Tuesday), guest host Mark Zuckerbrod and I will give an overview of Amare Global (The Mental Wellness Company) and then take YOUR questions.

Tune in at 9pm ET (8pm CT, 7pm MT, 6pm PT) at http://amare.timetodreamagain.com/asset/show?id=RU2I7NVF

Hope to see you there!

In the last two months, two major health/fitness publications have released feature stories about the close link between microbiome balance, gut-brain-axis function, and mood states such as depression, anxiety, and stress.

On Dec 21, 2017, SHAPE magazine ran a story entitled, The Surprising Way Your Brain and Gut are Connected – can your microbiome affect your risk of mental illness? Experts weigh in.”

On January 19, 2018, Men’s Health magazine ran a story entitled, “Could the Bacteria In Your Gut Be Tanking Your Mood? The connection between your gut and brain is stronger than you may think.”

Having worked in the area of “mental wellness” (stress, burnout, vigor) for most of my career (almost 20 years – yikes!) – it is extremely gratifying to see how these ideas are starting to hit the mainstream consciousness (out of the lab and into the public where people can actually benefit from them).

Lots of very exciting things to come – including targeted natural therapies to help people restore microbiome balance and optimize their entire gut-brain-axis to improve mental wellness and physical health.

Register

http://kutv.com/features/fresh-living/feeding-your-microbiome

(KUTV) Salt Lake City – Are you feeding your microbiome right? Dr. Shawn Talbott, a nutritional biochemist, joined Brooke and Caitlin on Fresh Living to explain what a microbiome is and how to take care of it.

Dr. Talbott writes,

“Today, we’ll be talking about how we can improve both our mental wellness and our physical health by properly nourishing the bacteria in our guts – the microbiome. The microbiome is the collection of 100 trillion bacteria that live in our digestive system. They’re important for our health because they help us digest food, but they also produce a wide range of nutrients and other chemicals that help keep us healthy.

For example, the microbiome controls how our immune system works, it regulates how much inflammation we have in our body, and it produces neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine that help determine our mood. So, how do you keep those beneficial bacteria healthy? You feed them the right types of foods – and that means lots of fiber, protein and phytonutrients.

Unfortunately, these nutrients can often be bitter and not exactly delicious – so I have my two assistants here today – my daughter Courtney Talbott and her friend Jaclyn Optiz. They’re both nutrition students at CalPoly and they created these recipes (see below for recipes).

On Saturday December 30th, we’ll be speaking and giving a cooking demo on the topic of “Feeding Your Microbiome” at the Everything Nutrition Expo (aka FitCon) at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah. It should be an absolutely packed day with classes, seminars, demos, and exhibitors from 10am-6pm – with our “Feeding Your Microbiome” seminar at 4pm.”

Microbiome Smoothies

Green Goddess

Makes 16 oz

½ Pear
½ Banana
¼ Avocado
1 C Kale
1 TBSP Almond butter
1 C Almond milk (or milk or your choice)
¼ C Rolled oats

Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth! Add ice cubes or freeze some ingredients for a thicker smoothie.

Feel free to add all the ingredients except almond butter, milk, and oats to a freezer safe ziploc bag to make a ready to blend smoothie pack.

Raspberry Chia

Makes 16 oz

1 C Raspberries
1 Acai packet
¾ C Pomegranate juice
¼ C Almond milk (or milk of your choice)
3 TBSP Chia seeds

Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth! Add ice cubes or freeze some ingredients for a thicker smoothie.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream

Makes 14 oz

½ Avocado
1 Banana
2 TBSP Peanut butter
2 TBSP Cocoa powder (unsweetened)
¼ C Rolled oats
2 TBSP Chickpea protein powder
¾ C Almond milk (or milk of your choice)

Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth! Add ice cubes or freeze some ingredients for a thicker smoothie.

Microbiome Muffins

Spiced Carrot Cake Muffins

Makes 6 muffins

¼ C Applesauce
½ TBSP Vegetable oil
2 TBSP Granulated sugar
2 TBSP Light brown sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla extract
¾ C Carrots, finely shredded
¼ tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
¼ tsp Nutmeg
Pinch Ground cloves
1 ½ tsp Baking powder
½ C Flour
¼ C Chickpea protein
¼ C Rolled oats
¼ C Walnuts, chopped
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F) and grease or line a muffin tin.

Finely shred carrots and chop walnuts.

In a large bowl, beat together applesauce, vegetable oil, and sugars until combined. Add in egg and vanilla, followed by carrots.

Add the remaining dry ingredients, scraping the bowl as needed until no streaks remain.

Divide the mixture evenly between the tin.

Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container for up to several days.