Feed Me Well
Being healthy is more than counting calories, more than exercise, more than dieting. Your overall state of "health" is made up of your mental, physical and emotional well being. Being healthy and feeling healthy is all about balance.
One aspect of health is your own energy balance, which is the balance between the energy you take in (what you eat and drink) and the energy you put out (what you do). What you can eat daily and still maintain a healthy weight depends on what types of food you put in to your body and how much physical activity you do. It is all about the balance of the scale.
Below are some simple and easy to use recommendations and resources to help you with your own energy balance.
Buy Local
Locally grown and raised foods allow you to:
- Eat fresher, better tasting, and healthier food
- Help your farming neighbors stay in business
- Sustain our rural heritage
- Protect the natural beauty of the mountains by preserving farmland.
- Encourage sustainable, environmentally-friendly agricultural practices.
- Strengthen the local economy
Here's how to find local food:
- Visit the Local Food Guide and find participating grocery stores and restaurants, tailgate markets, CSAs, and businesses that buy local.
- Look for the Appalachian Grown label, a symbol displayed with farm products grown or raised in Western North Carolina and the southern Appalachian mountains.
- Ask restaurants where they get the food they serve and grocery stores where they get their produce. If it wasn't grown locally, let them know you value freshness, good taste and local family farms.
Balancing Energy In—Energy Out
5*3*2*1 Almost none
- 5 or more servings daily of fruits and vegetables
- 3 structured meals a day (eat a healthy breakfast, less fast food, and more meals prepared at home)
- 2 hours or less of screen time
No more than 2 times dining out per week - 1 hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily
Eat 1 portion size per meal - Almost None: Limit sugar sweetened drinks to "almost none"
Learn more about it
The following resources can help you learn more about nutritional health and how you can change your life and improve your balance one step at a time, one meal at a time and one experience at a time.
Appalachian Sustainable Agricultural Project
ASAP helps create and expand local food markets that will preserve our agricultural heritage, give everyone access to fresh, healthy food, and keep our farmers farming. Our mission is to collaboratively create and expand regional community based and integrated food systems that are locally owned and controlled, environmentally sound, economically viable, and health-promoting.
ASAP’s Local Food Guide http://buyappalachian.org/ for Western North Carolina and the Southern Appalachian mountains helps you stay healthy by buying local. Use this guide to get connected with healthy, fresh food; the farmers who grow it; and the markets, grocers, and restaurants committed to using locally grown products.
If you are looking for kids and family friendly farm adventures and events in the region, please visit the online calendar to guide you.
Activate Asheville
http://www.activateasheville.org/
Activate Asheville is part of a national effort led by the YMCA of the USA, known as Activate America: Pioneering Healthy Communities, a project that engages key community stake holders to develop strategies that reduce barriers and increase support for healthy living in the Asheville area.
We believe that we can impact the quality of life of all people in the Asheville area - children, adults, families, students, seniors, employees. We want to increase the level of activity in our community.
Eat Smart Move More North Carolina
Eat Smart, Move More NC promotes seven evidence-based, individual health behaviors to reduce obesity. Eat Smart, Move More NC has developed key messages around each of the following behaviors. To read more about the seven targeted behaviors and what you can do please visit: eatsmartmovemorenc.com/
Be Active North Carolina
How much do you walk each day? Walking is an important part of our daily balance and studies have shown that wearing a pedometer can increase the amount of movement an average of one mile! For more information on how you can get involved and join the thousands of others counting steps and being active, please visit: beactivenc.org
Fit Community for a Healthier North Carolina
Fit Community For a Healthier North Carolina provides a great resource for eating well. It provides tips and suggestions for how a family can help maintain a healthy balance by eating better. For more information please visit: fitcommunitync.com
-Rachel Carson
