Snohomish County Fire Protection District 1
Nutrition program:
Snohomish County Fire Protection District 1 has worked over the last several years to instill healthy eating habits amongst the firefighters. Fitness and Nutrition must work hand in hand to have healthy fit firefighters. We also know that 80-90% of your positive results come from the nutrition part of our wellness program.The challenge is to instill healthy habits in the firehouse. We all know that the traditional meal at the fire house serves a hearty meal laden with fun, fat and flavor, but not necessarily the healthiest. The biggest challenges we face in the firehouse: time to cook meals, time to eat meals, staying consistent and the variety of backgrounds when you have a crew to feed.
Here are some of the reasons we should eat healthy!
10 Reasons to eat healthy
- Increases your mental ability to focus on tasks at hand and throughout the day.
- Gives you energy to make it through the day with a constant stream of energy, rather than feeling ups and downs as if you’re on a roller coaster.
- Speeds up your metabolism so you will lose fat. When you eat healthy by combining the proper amounts of macronutrients your body will have to switch “on” its preprogrammed “fast metabolism” mode.
- Keeps your muscles strong and conditioned. Why go to all the trouble at the gym if you are not going to supply your body with proper nutrition?
- Increase your bone density (via adequate nutrient intake and providing energy for resistance training).
- Increase your confidence, because you will look and feel better.
- Help you have more discipline in other areas of your life. Once you master food selection, you can master just about anything else you need to. Most foods that taste good-the ones we crave-are not the ones that will make us feel and look our best.
- Boost your immune system, allowing you to better fight infections and to defend against bacteria that you encounter everyday.
- Keep you moods balanced by keeping your blood sugar levels balanced. Do not be fooled, eating is a very hormonal experience. Insulin is produced by the body, and we need it to survive. But, too much insulin leads to fat storage/inhibited fat burning and increased appetite/hunger. You can avoid excessive amounts of insulin by scrutinizing the amounts of carbohydrates that you consume, which in turn keep your blood sugar levels steady. Excess insulin also diminishes the release of the hormone glucagon. Glucagon promotes fat burning by inhibiting fat-storing enzymes. Instead, it mobilizes fatty acids from fat stores to be burned for energy. Hooray for glucagon!
- Lower your risk of developing countless diseases, from heart disease to hypertension to diabetes to cancer. You have a longer, healthier, and happier life!
Some of the programs we have deployed at Snohomish Fire District 1 that have helped overcome the difficulties of healthy eating in the fire house:
1.)Education:
Guest speakers, nutritionist, family participation, provide classes: cooking, healthy eating, crock-pot cooking, BBQ cooking.
We have brought in guest speakers in nutrition to help educate firefighters and their families on healthy eating and healthy eating for athletes. We offered this class for free and invited family members to attend. We also provide a nutrition and diabetes class during a Paramedic educational seminar. This provided the PM with CE’s for recertification.
We also get these classes approved for ACE CE’s for our PFT’s.
Making fitness and nutrition a priority by placing it on training calendar and making it a VISA requirement.
2.)Live by Example:
Fire Departments always provide some kind of snack, coffee and drink when hosting classes. We decided that donuts, coffee, pizza and other fast foods are unacceptable choices. We started providing healthy choices at meetings and classes for less cost. You can incorporate the cost in with your class and you can provide participants with fruit, vegetables, good protein choices. This creates a healthy environment for instructors and participants. It also keeps the participant fueled during classes. This provides a place to educate and implement healthy eating and healthy choices. We provide educational info boards and recipes while providing healthy fuel during our fire and EMA educational classes.
3.)Tools:
Provide books on clean eating, clean eating magazines, recipe books for healthy cooking. Crockpots, blenders, classes and recipes. We have hired in a nutritionist to teach classes with crockpots, Grills etc… This provided firefighters healthy examples of meals for dinner and meals that they could prepare throughout the day while running calls. We also provide a commercial grade blender or vita-mixer that allows firefighters to make a quick, healthy smoothie in a rush. These type of blenders will also live through station life and several firefighters using it everyday.
4.)Meal plans: providing good examples for firefighters to follow this includes eating 5-6 times per day and learning to make healthy choices available throughout the day. Packing a healthy option in your bunker gear or with you on the fire engine or medic unit. This keeps us fueled throughout the day and also keeps us from grabbing a poor choice on a fire or out of rehab.
Below you will find guidelines that we sent to the firefighter by email so they can all access the guidelines at their stations. This information will also be a main topic for future nutrition classes. These guidelines are new to many of the firefighters, but extremely important. Providing these guidelines is the first step educating firefighters is the second step and them implementing them and having the crews live by these guidelines is the final and hardest step. Repetition is key. The repetition of these guidelines will eventually become a habit. PFT’s should live by these guidelines and constantly remind firefighters to keep themselves fueled properly.
Clean Eating Guidelines
Basic Principles:
1)Eat 5-6 meals per day/every day
2)Eat every 2-3 hour (no more then 4.5 hours)
3)Eat lean protein and complex carbs at every meal (complex carbs fruit/veggie/whole grain)
4)Drink at least 2 liters/ 8 cups of water each day
5)Never miss a meal, especially breakfast (pack a snack in your bunker gear)
6)Carry a cooler loaded with good food every day
7)Avoid ALL over processed, refined foods, especially white flour and sugar
8)Avoid saturated and trans fats
9)Consume healthy fats (EFA/essential fatty acid) each day
10)Avoid alcohol – another form of sugar
11)Avoid calorie dense foods that contain no nutritional value
12)EAT fresh fruits and vegetables for fiber, vitamins and enzymes
13)Stick to proper portion sizes –give up super sizing!
Portions size is important!
- 1 serving of: 4-5 oz lean meat = size of palm
- 1 serving of: Complex carbs = size of tennis ball
- 1 serving of: Fruit or vegetable complex carb = heaping handful
5.)Safety stand down: Work with training to meet the guidelines with the safety stand down. Provide firefighters with healthy recipes and tools to have a healthy nutritious and great tasting meal. Combine this with a fitness lesson and this is the training for the week. Provide recipes for firefighters to take home and make for their families.
6.)Support from Administrative staff:
Fire Chiefs and the Counsel members must support the health initiative and healthy efforts. Appropriate time should be allotted throughout the day for firefighter fitness and rehab meals. Lunch and dinner should not be skipped in order for drills and administrative work to be accomplished. Consistency is the key to success. We all know that firefighters will grab a pizza, teriyaki, or some other fast food or processed, sugar and fat laden item when they are hungry and in a rush. Don’t let this happen. Make your nutrition a priority!
Important helpers for following the eat clean meal lifestyle
- Eating Clean means several small meals throughout the day!
- No amount of exercise will reshape your body without proper nutrition.
- 80% of your health and physique comes from your nutrition.
- People believe that clean eating taste bad. If you start clean eating you will soon dislike the taste of sugar and processed foods (try it for 1 week). Your taste buds will start to reject the “bad” foods.
- Portions are important especially when you first start.
- If you experience lethargy mid-morning and/or mid-afternoon it is due to falling blood sugar. This is when people reach for coffee, soda, or sweet and salty snacks. Try eating a clean wholesome snack instead and drink WATER!
- It is important you get enough calories to maintain your muscle and lose weight or gain more muscle if that is your desired goal. You never feel hungry. You should eat when you body tells you to eat (every 2-3 hours).
- Access an activity counter and food nutritional guide.
A good website to visit to see how many calories you need each day is: . Find the (Daily Needs Calculator) and click on it. This website will calculate your calories for your age, gender and activity, you
Snack ideas for the station:
Hard boiled egg
1 apple with 1 tbs. almond butter
1 yogurt or soy yogurt
10 almonds
Low sugar granola ½ cup
Low fat mozzarella cheese sticks
1 piece fruit
Small handful nuts
2 corn tortillas
½ cup black beans or 2 oz chicken breast
Lowfat mozzarella cheese
Salsa
1-2 slices Ezekiel bread toasted
1-2 tablespoon almond butter
All fruit jam
2-3 oz chicken breast
Veggie sticks
Salad with balsamic vinegar for dressing
1 fruit
Veggie stick
Hummus for dipping
16 Baked chips with 2oz. melted mozzarella cheese
Salsa
Avocado
Egg white omelet with veggies and salsa
Whole wheat toast, dry
Almond butter for toast
Any whole food protein bar for your bunker gear