Richa Prasad, co-founder and CEO from Coach Viva joined us today as we kicked off a new live video blog series where we will interview thought leaders on a weekly basis. Before Coach Viva, Richa was a senior program manager at Microsoft where she worked on Cortana Home and found herself being “Skinny Fat”, which led her to first to Doctor Google for answers on nutrition. After not finding what she wanted, she went into problem solving mode with her co-founders and create Coach Viva, which is an AI Health Coach with Empathy.
So often, people ask us for advice on nutrition, which we know is hard for a lot of people. We are big fans of approaches that are realistic, convenient, and accessible, which is why wanted to learn more about her approach with Coach Viva.
We appreciate Richa getting real with us about her initial struggles and now her tips, which felt easy to digest as a place to get started.
First, she asked us to think about our plate and trying to have 80 percent of the plate contents come from natural sources. She said, “If you are doing this, you are doing incredibly well.” She also mentioned that it’s important to not just focus on what you are eating, but how much you are eating. For fruits and vegetables, to help keep the price down, she suggested focus on what’s in season. Berries or Kale might not always be affordable, but apples and oranges are great too and more cost effective.
As she started to shift to eating healthier, she suggested focusing on incremental change over time vs. expecting things to happen over night. Also, she made a comfort effort to not eat out as much. Over time, she learned that comparing herself to others was unproductive. However, comparing herself to her own self 30-days prior made everything more realistic. We find the similar approach works with exercise. Setting realistic expectations, while also picking activities you enjoy will lead to better outcomes. Some people benefit from trying to overhaul everything, but often times, more success comes from placing a priority on realistic goals.
Richa’s Top Three Tips for Getting Started to Overcome Nutrition Challenges
- Drink more water. Sometimes our bodies can’t tell the different between being hungry and thirsty, so be sure to drink plenty of water.
- Eat within the same time-frame everyday.
- Food preparation: Her favorite thing to do is to cook rice for the week, roast some vegetables for the week, and cook one pot of lean meat for the week. If eating out all the time or don’t like to cook. Try packaged healthy foods snacks.
Check out the video on the Excy HealthYeah Live Video Blog at www.healthyeah.news.
