Willow Health & Performance

07/28/2022

We had a Yellowbirder reach out and share their experience working with Alyssa Broadwater, MS, RD, LD, CSCS. If you think one-on-one nutrition coaching and tailored food boxes are for you, click this link to start today! https://bit.ly/rxfood

07/14/2022

Food sourcing is so important and I’m thankful to companies like Yellowbird Foodshed that make that piece easier. You all know I’m a huge advocate for locally sourced food. This is a great way to both work with me to start improving your health and nutrition and get some great quality local food delivered right to your door.

You’ll get 3 appointments with me plus 3 individualized food boxes to meet your specific nutrient needs over a 6 week time period.

https://yellowbirdfs.com/product/guided-nutritional-counseling-and-rx-yellowbird-boxes?utm_source=Social&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=Promo

07/13/2022

Great opportunity to work with me and get great quaility, local food directly to your door!

https://yellowbirdfs.com/product/guided-nutritional-counseling-and-rx-yellowbird-boxes?utm_source=Social&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=Promo

Alyssa Broadwater, a talented Registered Dietician, and Yellowbird Foodshed have teamed up to guide you on your wellness journey! It starts with a 1-on-1 consultation with Alyssa, where you get food suggestions tailored to your likes, cravings, routines, and health conditions. Next, you receive your custom Rx Boxes made just for you! Alyssa will follow up between deliveries to check your progress and answer any questions. She is based out of Columbus, Ohio, and has been a member of YBFS for years. We're honored to partner for the benefit of our community!

Like Hippocrates said, "let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food." 🐥💛💊

https://bit.ly/rxfood

05/05/2022

Why is getting closer to your food important?
✅Better quality food
✅Improved relationship to food
✅Increased nutrient density
✅Supporting local economy
✅Increased pleasure from food

Central Ohio residents, get $20 off (a local CSA) during the month of May if you use my name (Alyssa Broadwater) in the referral box when ordering.

03/22/2022

1 in 7 couples struggle with conception and past fertility doesn’t guarantee future children. Do what you can to improve your fertility and the health of your future pregnancy by optimizing both egg and s***m quality through nutrition.

02/07/2022

Proponents of cheat meals promote being able to stay more strict or consistent the other days when you allow yourself a cheat meal or cheat day. But it usually just perpetuates a cycle of overeating and restricting.

You’re “really good” during the week then by the weekend all hell breaks loose. Instead of enjoying what you’re eating during the weekend, you end up way overeating and feeling terrible. Because you feel terrible and guilty for overdoing it, you end up overeating the next day or two as well. That leads to renewed motivation on Monday to “do better” this week.

But the cycle just keeps happening. And you start to anticipate not being able to control yourself on the weekends so you restrict even harder during the week to make up for it. And this behavior can easily lead to an eating disorder but if nothing else, it isn’t helping you reach your goals and it isn't fun.

What happens if you were 80% everyday of the week instead of 100% 4 days of the week and 20% during the weekend?

You’d probably make much more progress and food wouldn’t become a big stressor. And it’s much more sustainable. You likely could maintain that for decades to come.

01/31/2022

If we simply started cooking more and eating more at home, we could make a huge impact on health.

You'll start to be aware of nutrition
You’ll start to appreciate your food more
You’ll start to learn to differences between ingredient quality
You’ll improve your relationship with food
You’ll spend less money on food
You’ll end up eating better quality, more nutrient dense meals

Cooking doesn’t have to be complicated. If you can read and follow directions, you can cook. The key is starting simple.

People get intimidated by cooking when they try to do a fancy, complicated meal. Start small and simple. Have a piece of meat, a carbohydrate, and a vegetable.
Understand that cooking is a skill and just like any other skill, it requires practice and you will not be great at it right off the bat.

01/05/2022

The end goals for most people looks something like this:
-a focus on hunger and satiety cues to drive when and how much to eat
-relying on ingrained behaviors or habits
-auto regulation of food intake means you’re able to know how much you need to eat at given times and how that can fluctuate
-regular self check: basically being able to be honest and objective about your eating behaviors without judgement or guilt.

How one gets there can and should look entirely different from how someone else ends up there but these are the things we should be working towards no matter what your goal.

It takes quite a bit of time for most of us to learn how to eat this way. Especially because most of us are pretty far away from that. It's a great goal though because it allows you to meet your needs without having to think about food all of the time. Food shouldn’t be stressful.

01/01/2022

How do you find these sources? A lot of internet searching, word of mouth, and asking local online groups like facebook groups.

It’s really not hard to do, it simply takes time.

Understand that this is a years-long process so just start building a little here and there. It will never be perfect and there is always room for improvement so don’t get overwhelmed. What are the top 1 or 2 easiest things for you to start changing right away? Just start there.

I want to be clear, more than half of our food still comes from the grocery store. We don’t do this perfectly- I’m not even sure that exists. And I don’t think I would ever be willing to commit to only eating local foods. I like avocados. I like shrimp. I like oranges. I like having the convenience of variety. However, I try to do as much as I can. And If you’re trying to move this direction as well, understand that it’s not all or none. If the only change you made was getting your eggs locally instead of the grocery store, that can make a huge impact.

I did a video on our local food sourcing journey several months ago that I linked in my bio.

12/31/2021

12/27/2021

Have you been avoiding white potatoes because they’re unhealthy? Stop!

The similarities: Calories, Carbohydrates, Protein, Fat, Fiber, Potassium, Magnesium

And the differences: Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Manganese

In summary, both sweet and white potatoes are healthy and provide some good nutrition. It can really come down to personal preference which one you choose. Sweet potatoes are not inherently healthier than white potatoes. They have some differences in nutrients so the best things would be to get both so you’ll get a wider variety of nutrients.

12/13/2021

Leucine is the light switch that turns on muscle protein synthesis. This is the process that allows muscle repair and growth. Even if you’re not a bodybuilder, that process is super important for health. Maintaining a good muscle mass is one of the big predictors of health span and quality of life into old age.

Once that light switch is turned on, you need other amino acids to actually build and repair muscle but leucine is a necessary component to initiate that process.

Plant sources of protein are notoriously low in leucine. The best sources of leucine include animal products and specifically whey.

Per meal, you’ll want to aim for about 2.5-3.5g of leucine. The older you are, the more you need because with age, the body becomes less efficient in the muscle building and repair process. So if you’re using the protein powder as your only protein source at a meal or snack time, it should have 2.5-3.5g of leucine per serving. If the product doesn’t tell you how much leucine it contains, don’t buy it.

Vega sport is an example of a product that meets this criteria. The amino acid profile that is on their label is shown here.