Preparation

Goal for Client Intervention:

Encourage choosing healthier foods based upon their past experience in changing how they eat.

Intervention Options:

ADVISE:

• Focus on meaningful benefits.
  Eating less saturated fat (fat on meat and in dairy products) would be better for your heart.
  Taking steps toward healthier eating reduces your risk for __________.

ASSIST:

• Assist to verbalize a plan with a starting point to improve nutrition.
  Tell me a food you like. What could you do to make it healthier to eat?
  When could you start to make this one change on a regular basis?
• Encourage the inclusion of family or peer support.
  Who will be eating this with you?
• Discuss what has worked and not worked in the past.
  When you have changed what you ate in the past, what did you do that worked well?
  What happened if the change didn’t last?
• Encourage avoiding, changing or removing cues that trigger frequent unhealthy food choices.
  What do you see as your biggest challenge?
  Do you see a way to overcome this?
• Normalize relapse as part of the process and a learning experience.
  Everybody experiences some set backs.
  It is how you learn from them and try again with a better plan that moves you forward.

Resource Options (Click to order):

Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide
is for people 2 years and over.  Detailed recommendations for the number of servings from each of the four food groups are based on age and gender.

(click to download)

Body Weight and Health...What is the Link?

Smart Size Your Food

Learn to Make Wise Food Choices - Wherever You Go!

Using the Nutrition Facts Table: % Daily Value - Download this quick guide to label reading and the % Daily Value (%DV) to help you compare food products and make healthier choices and try out some of the %DV interactive tools.

Interactive Resources on Health Canada’s Website:

Canada's Food Guide  “Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide” is available for download on Health Canada’s website.

Take the Guided Tour - Flash version  – The “Guided Tour” is an interactive walk through the various sections of the new Canada’s Food Guide that will help you understand how much and what types of foods you need, as well as the benefits of eating well and being active. 

“My Food Guide” – is an interactive tool that will help you personalize the information found in Canada’s Food Guide when you enter your age, sex, physical activity level and your  favourite choices from each food group.

Interactive Resources on the Dietitians of Canada Website:

One Day @ a Time – takes  you through 9 daily scenarios that you may experience as you maintain a healthy and active lifestyle?

EATracker - another interactive tool which provides personalized feedback on the calories, fat and fibre in your food choices and on your physical activity level.

Let's Make a Meal – lets you build a one-day menu as you choose various menu items for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. The “Food Guide Calculator” helps you quickly and easily see if you are Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide.

Virtual Shopping Tour – Virtual Shopping Tour is an on-line grocery store to learn how to use the nutrition information on the label of packaged foods to make healthy food choices.

Other Resources on the Dietitians of Canada Website:

 
Plan Well - Get tips for a well-stocked pantry, cooking large batch meals, using leftovers adn healthy convenience foods, and packing nutritious lunches for the while family.

Shop Smart - Use interactive resoruces and download fact sheets to help you understand food labels to make healthy choices foryour family.

Future Intervention:

ASK:

• The last time we spoke you were making a plan to __________.
  Have you been able to choose more nutritious foods more often?

Click on Action (or whatever stage they are at) below for examples of what the health professional might say to clients. These are suggestions to stimulate your thinking about what you want to say to that particular client.