Comfort Food and Your Body: It’s ok to gain a little weight this winter

TDB Fitness Newsletter 10/17/2021

When the weather gets cold, we typically like to eat and drink things that will warm us up. Follow this week’s trainer’s tips for how to embrace your natural rhythm this winter, without forgetting your fitness goals!

Photo by Andres Ayrton from Pexels

Tip of the week:

Put the scale away

I don’t know about you, but when it gets cold out, I use food to warm me up. I love food. Comfort food sometimes feels like the only thing to look forward to during a bleak Michigan winter. The comfier diet, combined with the fewer hours of sunlight and reduced activity during winter, usually means I gain a few pounds in the winter. And that’s ok.

Please put the scale away. It’s my wish that we all get rid of our bathroom scales and take our minds off the numbers completely. Before you even consider your diet, before you consider your fitness goals, before you finish your cup of coffee in the morning; listen to your body. Your body will tell you what it needs because you will feel it. Your body sends your brain messages with pain, hunger, exhaustion, stress, etc in order to alert it to what you need. Focus more on going inward and giving your body what it needs and let that guide your diet and your fitness plan. Focus on fulfilling your needs and you will learn what “good” feels like for your body.

You can fit anything into a healthy diet. So if your body craves comfort food this winter, go for it. If you make listening to your body a practice, you will also notice if your diet gets out of balance and you need to cut back on the comfort food. Starting everything you do from a place of mindfulness allows you to make the decisions that are right for you.

Recipe

Vinnie loves a good stew. The following is a recipe for an easy-to make stew that both warms your bones, and follows Vinnie’s ground rules for maintaining a healthy diet. If you make this recipe let us know how you like it!

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 lb beef stew meat, cubed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 1 bag baby carrots
• 1 lb small potatoes, halved
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 6 cups beef broth
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp dried or fresh thyme leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• salt to taste
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1:1 cornstarch to water mixture

Heat large pot on stove to medium, add oil and beef. Cook until browned on all sides and remove from pot.

Add onions and carrots to the pan and cook until they start to soften. Add garlic and tomato paste and cook until paste starts to darken.

Once tomato paste has darkened, add the red wine and scrape the bottom of the pan to remove anything that may be sticking. Once you’ve finished scraping, add the beef back to the pot along with beef broth, Worcestershire, thyme, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover to cook for approximately 30-45 minutes.

Add potatoes and cook until tender.

Remove bay leaves, add frozen peas (they’ll thaw quickly) and cook for two minutes.

Enjoy! (Will feed a family of four).

Team Announcements

Halloween

Halloween is coming and we love a good costume. Join us for spirit week the week of 10/25/21. We will post a daily theme to the private Facebook group and invite all our teammates to dress up for their workouts. Make sure you share a pic!

T-Shirts

Interested in supporting the Team and looking good doing it? Click here to fill out the form to buy an official TDBFit T-shirt. Thanks for your support!

Got Tea?

Renea’s a really good person to talk to — it’s part of what made her an effective middle school teacher. She’s good at listening, asking pointed questions, and giving gentle feedback.

Have something you need to get off your chest? You now have the opportunity to Spill the Tea With Renea… Watch our social media this week, and you’ll learn how to take advantage of one on one vent sessions with Renea.