Friday, January 7, 2011 at 07:14 AM
Photo Credit: John Cross, Mankato Free Press
This week, the Mankato Free Press, a newspaper in Minnesota, ran an inspirational article about Monte Meyer, Pastor of the Campus Lutheran Chapel at Minnesota State University. Monte, who is 49 years old, weighed 588 pounds back in July of 2009.
Photo Courtesy of Monte Meyer
Over the past 18 months, Monte has embarked on an incredible weight loss journey, losing 242 pounds so far. He aims to lose another 96 pounds in order to reach his goal weight of 250 lbs. How did we hear about this story at the NuVal offices in Braintree, Massachusetts? Well, one of the tools that Monte has used to meet his goals is NuVal! I caught up with Monte for a telephone interview yesterday. Monte is dynamic and passionate and yet humble at the same time. One thing for sure – he is determined to meet his goal and he had some great advice for readers of A Better Bag of Groceries.
When I called Monte, he was just finishing up his workout with his personal trainer.
Photo Credit: John Cross, The Mankato Free Press
He had completed an upper body circuit, including shoulders, back, rows, lateral raises, and dead lifts. “Muscle work is very important,” Monte told me. When Monte began his weight loss journey he was morbidly obese. His “Come To Jesus” moment was an ankle injury sustained on a family vacation. His body weight was becoming too much to bear. Monte lost his first 100 pounds with the help of Erin Gonzalez, a Registered Dietitian from the Mankato Clinic. It was Erin who turned Monte on to NuVal. So, Monte took a tour at his local Hy-Vee with the store’s Registered Dietitian, April Graff. “She taught me to shop the perimeter of the store.”
“Everything I used to eat was brown and beige. I already know what brown and beige tastes like. Now I like to try new things - especially when I see things with high NuVal scores.” So, what has Monte tried? “I love steel cut oats. They get a NuVal score of like a million, right?” Most are in the 90s, I tell him. Great choice. “I’m also venturing into quinoa.” I tell him about Catherine Katz’s Quinoa Salad recipe here on A Better Bag of Groceries. So we get talking about recipes. “Tell your readers – don’t just look at a new recipe, make it! It’s so much fun to try new things. NuVal forces you to try different flavors and different tastes.” Here at NuVal, we like to say that we’re a guidance system and we certainly don’t force people to eat anything, but Monte’s choice of the word “force” gives you a glimpse as to just how passionate and determined he is about his weight loss journey!
And yet, behind all that incredible determination and spirit (I could just sense his post-workout endorphin rush over the phone!), Monte is a very humble man. “I am a work in progress. I still have 96 pounds to go.” I asked him about his children (ages 23 and 17) and what they thought about his success so far. “They are relieved,” he told me. “I am sorry for the hurt I put upon them. I was always pointed at, made fun of. It was hurtful for all of us. You know, the greatest thing now is that not many people look at me anymore. I’m still overweight, but I blend in with other overweight people.”
Photo Courtesy of Monte Meyer
So, what’s is Monte’s secret to his success. “It’s 3 things,” he tells me. 1. Nutrition. 2. Exercise. 3. Accountability
As for Nutrition, “If you bite it, you write it,” says Monte. He uses a daily food diary on www.livestrong.com. His former diet was 5,000 calories per day and it included a lot of fast food. Now eating about 1900 calories per day, Monte aims to make more nutritious choices wherever he goes. As a Pastor, he might find himself at a funeral, being offered some scalloped potatoes. “I already know what they taste like, so no thanks. I want to try new, nutritious foods instead.” At a recent trip to Tony Roma’s restaurant, Monte tried Mahi Mahi with pineapple salsa instead of his old favorite (ribs). “I had never had pineapple salsa before! Delicious!”
As for Exercise, Monte works out with a personal trainer, Dawn Naples, two times per week.
Photo Credit: John Cross, The Mankato Free Press
He complements his personal training sessions with additional cardio and strength training for a total schedule of 30 minutes of cardio 5-6 times per week and 30 minutes of strength training 4 times per week. This is very impressive, especially when you consider that when Monte first hit the treadmill back in December of 2009, he could only walk at a speed of 2.6 miles and he had to stop every 5 minutes. “I figure that I used to spend about $25 per day on fast food. Now, I spend money on my gym membership plus $40 per week on my personal trainer. It’s a much better deal!”
As for Accountability, Monte says, that just like on The Biggest Loser (he watches the show religiously), you need someone to stand right next to that scale. “You need to look someone in the eye and be honest with them – and with yourself.” Monte laughs about all the press he has been receiving. His story even made the local television news (if you love this story – watch that video clip!) ”My kids think this will all go to my head, but it won’t. I’m not done yet. I’m on a journey, like so many people. Thank you for sharing my story with A Better Bag of Groceries readers. I need more people to hold me accountable on my journey.”
Photo Courtesy of Monte Meyer
Well, Monte, you have a whole bunch of ABBG Readers here behind you every step of the way!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Hy-vee
Tags: Hy-vee, weight loss
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 07:07 AM
This is the best story.
Meet Peter Streit.
Peter is an Assistant Manager at a Hy-Vee Supermarket in Sioux City, Iowa and he has been with the company for 20 years. Peter has six older brothers, all of whom are Store Directors for Hy-Vee. Peter is also a Dad to two young children: a boy in the second grade and a girl in kindergarten.
Hy-Vee was one of the first supermarket chains in the country to put NuVal scores on their shelves.
One day, Peter was shopping (at Hy-Vee, of course) with his son, Liam. They were in the pasta aisle, and Peter was about to toss the pasta he usually bought into the shopping cart, when Liam stopped him. “Hey, Dad,” he said. “Why are you buying that one. It only gets a 53. The higher the number the better, right? Shouldn’t we get the one that gets a 91?” Peter could hardly argue with his son who had noticed the NuVal scores, so he put the Barilla Plus pasta in his cart. That night, his son said, “Dad, can we have that healthy pasta for dinner?”
Well, that Healthy Pasta Night was the night that everything changed for Peter, his family and for all the first- and second-graders in Sioux City, Iowa.
Let me explain…
First, Peter started paying more attention to the NuVal scores in his store. Instead of his usual doughnut for breakfast, he chose a healthy yogurt and a piece of fresh fruit. In an interview that I conducted with Peter yesterday, he told me, “I’m a Store Manager. I’m always on the go and I’m surrounded by food all the time. I used to just eat what smelled good. Now, I think about the nutrition factor.” By changing his eating habits and starting an exercise routine, Peter has lost 35 pounds to date.
Next, Peter’s family also made major changes to their menu at home. During our interview, Peter described breakfast at his house Before. “My kids ate Pop Tarts, Toaster Pastries and Fruit Loops. Now they choose from yogurt (Peter’s kids like a Blue Bunny brand that scores a 100), Bare Naked Granola, Raisin Bran, Shredded Wheat, and whole fruit, especially grapefruit. While lunch has remained about the same for Peter’s kids (Minute Maid Kids Orange Juice with vitamins and Calcium which score a 70, fruit, and a turkey sandwich on Whole Wheat Bread), dinner has changed dramatically. “We used to eat a lot of red meat, hamburgers and canned vegetables with added sodium. Now, we eat a lot of fish, chicken and turkey. We have traded up to frozen vegetables with no salt added (a lot of them score a 100) or canned vegetables with no salt added. One of our favorite sides is Birds Eye Steamfresh Long Grain White Rice With Mixed Vegetables which scores an 89.”
Peter thought about how his son taught him how to eat more nutritiously. It was so simple and yet it changed his family’s health and their life so dramatically. Peter thought that more kids could teach their parents about better nutrition. He had an idea. What if HyVee sent some volunteers into the classrooms in Sioux City to educate children about nutrition and to teach them how to use the NuVal scores at their local grocery stores? How cool would that be?
So, Peter talked to his son’s principal and then to Mary Jo Salem, director of elementary education for the Sioux City Community Schools. With help from two Hy-Vee registered dietitians, Lindsay Lannan and Sarah Nelson, Peter put a program together. Beginning this fall, every first- and second-grader in Sioux City will receive three one-hour courses, teaching them basic information about the role of diet in a healthy lifestyle. The classes are very interactive and include great activities such as one from the Sugar Sleuth class, where the kids will measure out how many teaspoons of sugar are in gatorade, soda, juice, milk and water. The kids will play the Nutrition By the Numbers game (much like the one on the NuVal website), where players try to figure out which products score high, medium and low. The kids will go home with coupons for produce to encourage them to try something new, like kiwi. The goal is to begin in the first and second grade classrooms and then to add a grade to the program each year.
Peter and Hy-Vee are getting a ton of press about this program. You can read more about is here in this article from Progressive Grocer.
Peter told me, “NuVal is so simple. With the scores, kids can educate their parents on what’s healthy and together we can make strides in preventing childhood obesity.” I am just in awe of Peter and what he has done in Sioux City, Iowa! And I am also sending some support his way to help Peter maintain his weight loss and continue to meet his personal goals. “I’m about half-way there,” he told me. “The first 25 came off really easy, the next ten were harder.” I can tell that Peter is the kind of guy who can do anything when he puts his mind to it!
Oh – I will get in trouble if I don’t say this! NuVal is not a weight loss program. It is a nutritional guidance system. Got it? Great!
Congratulations to Peter and to everyone at Hy-Vee who is helping to make this fantastic program possible in the Sioux City School System!
Winner of Yesterday’s Giveaway
Congratulations to Commenter #30, Whitney. You’ve won the Pasta and Sauce Giveaway. Please email me at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com with your mailing address. Thanks to all who entered!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: Hy-vee, Uncategorized
Monday, May 24, 2010 at 06:57 AM
Do you remember a few weeks ago when I gave away some high-scoring cookies and chocolate on Trade-Up Tuesday? Well, the winner was this fabulous Mom, Stephanie. I always choose my winners at random (usually, I ask the kids to pick a number between 1 and total number of comments) so I never know who the winner is. Turns out, Stephanie shops at Hy-Vee where NuVal scores are on store shelves. I asked her if she wouldn’t mind bringing her camera along on her next shopping trip and she did! She also wrote this great guest post. Stephanie, you have a future in blogging!!
So, without further ado, I bring you Stephanie…
Stephanie and Her Kids on Mother's Day
Voting for Groceries
I’m that annoying lady at the produce section picking through the fresh items until I’ve found just the right candidate…whether its shaking, plucking, tapping, sniffing, hand-weighing, or rejecting items with brown spots…you better believe I end up voting for the best “candidates”. I have been known to block aisles while intensely reading labels scouring for pesky ingredients, calorie content, fat content, protein levels, sodium levels, and whatever else I can find that might sway my “vote.”
For me, grocery shopping IS somewhat like voting. Each item on my list usually has several options, and as the mother of three kids whom I believe deserve the best, I owe it to them to ensure I’m making the most nutritionally informed decisions when I vote (purchase). Needless to say, “vote-shopping” with three kids in tow can definitely take its time!!
Fortunately for my children who would rather be eating the items I’ve voted for, my local grocery store Hy-Vee has teamed up with Nu-Val in order to provide me with a nutritional grade (1-100) for various products that gets me in and out of my store quicker!
During my latest shopping excursion I took a few snap shots that highlight how easy Nu-Val scores have made some various “trade-ups” to a better candidate!
Lettuce
We love salads! I grew up on iceberg lettuce and have never had a problem with eating any other types of lettuce, but haven’t been able to ignore that the iceberg variety is generally cheaper. On my shopping trip I noticed a pretty big difference between the Nu-Val score for a regular head of iceberg lettuce (82) compared with the organic green and red leaf lettuces (100). I also noticed a pretty big difference in the price tags too so that made voting complicated for this mom on a budget. Fortunately, as I made my way through the lettuce section, I found a compromise!
Iceberg Lettuce: 82
Organic Red Leaf Lettuce: 100
Green Leaf Lettuce: 100
Pineapple
Sweet and Sour Chicken with Pineapple was on the menu for the week which meant I needed some juicy pineapple! I would normally have purchased the canned variety because it makes preparation so much easier, but not after comparing Nu-Val scores! With 74 additional points, I think I’ll sacrifice some time and cut up a fresh one myself!
Canned Pineapple: 25
Fresh Pineapple: 96
Bread
As you can imagine, bread is consumed in mass quantities in my household, and while Wonder Bread can be found cheap, it also makes you wonder what they put in that stuff! One quick glance at various Nu-Val scores and I knew I had three really decent candidates. I can’t always afford to choose the product with the highest score (what can I say…some candidates sway me with a good sales price!) but at least with the Nu-Val scores I know which breads to stay away from!
Nature's Pride: 33
Arnold's Soft Family 100% Wheat: 37
Sara Lee Multigrain: 42
Applesauce
Who knew comparing apples to apples really might be a worthy debate? The Nu-Val scores on these two candidates of applesauce that were right by one another on the shelves goes to show that there are healthier versions of even the healthiest foods! The obvious vote here is the applesauce on the right. (30 vs. 8!!!!) I love getting naturally unsweetened applesauce and then adding our own toppings like berries, cinnamon, almonds or walnuts for additional flavor!
2 Different Musselman's, 2 Different Scores
Macaroni & Cheese
Like most children, mine really enjoy mac n cheese. My son particularly wanted to “vote” for the product featuring one of his favorite superheroes, Spiderman, but I’ve long abandoned the days where I’d vote for a product based on the gimmick on the box. I switched over to making my own healthier version of macaroni and cheese and with the implementation of what my kids call funky noodles I don’t feel bad for abandoning Spidey and his whopping score of 5! After researching several pasta candidates that were fun-shaped, Nu-Val scores once again helped me make a better purchase vote.
Spidey Mac & Cheese: 5
Barilla Plus Rotini: 91
Hy-Vee Rigatoni: 57
I’m so glad that Hy-Vee has implemented Nu-Val scores! It certainly makes my shopping voting experience so much easier!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Guest Bloggers
Tags: Guest Post, Hy-vee
Monday, January 18, 2010 at 01:02 PM
My new co-worker Tina, who blogs about her life at Carrots N Cake and about NuVal at Trading Up Downtown, has a lot of fans. One of them, Candy Tenpas, mother and blog-reader was kind enough to answer Tina’s call for Guest Bloggers. Here, she tells about her trip to Hy-Vee.
Tina asked me to do a guest post about NuVal. Since we have a brand-new HyVee a few miles away I decided to do my weekly shopping trip there instead of at my usual grocery store. HyVee is one of the grocery chains that feature NuVal scores right on the price sticker on the shelf. I wanted to see if having the NuVal scores right in front of me would influence my shopping purchases. In general, I try to make healthy choices but I can always use extra help!
Produce
The first display I came to was naval oranges for 79 cents/pound. NuVal score = 100. Perfect score on my first item! I snatched up 3. The rest of my produce items scored 90 and above: Romaine lettuce, bananas, organic apples and a red pepper. I did notice that the bagged lettuce kits scored much lower than regular lettuce. I guess that shows how croutons and dressing can drag a score down! I also bought canned peaches for my kids (packed in juice—no sugar) which scored only a 14.
Dry Goods
I needed to purchase sandwich buns. I landed on Pepperidge Farm wheat rolls with a score of 29. They were the highest scored bun I could find. The lowest I could see what a hoagy roll for 8. I found the NuVal scores particularly helpful in the bread aisle. It can be so overwhelming sometimes to try to figure out the healthiest option amongst all the choices. The NuVal score made it easy without having to take the time to read individual labels.
I made my way to the popcorn aisle and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Jolly Time 100 calorie micro popcorn that I usually buy was a high-scorer compared to other microwave popcorns. It came in at 27. The lowest I found was the HyVee Kettle Corn at a 2. Yikes!
Next was nuts. This was where price trumped score. I ended up with the HyVee unsalted almonds at 47 because I couldn’t bear paying over a dollar more for the can of Planters Nutrition Almonds with a score of 52.
Beans were a surprise. I like to buy dried beans vs. canned because it’s more economical. I always keep them on hand and cook a few cups worth at a time to add to recipes and for salads. The bags of dried beans were all in the 90s compared to canned beans which scored more in the 40/50s. I also bought canned pork and beans. I didn’t even look at the score because no matter the score, I was still making The Pioneer Woman’s Baked Beans this week. So good!
Another surprise was canned tuna. I wasn’t planning on buying any but the 66 score changed my mind!
Frozen Food
I usually don’t buy frozen pizzas—I prefer to make my own –but my husband is going hunting this weekend and frozen pizzas are easy for the guys to make. My goal was to buy the highest scoring frozen pizza. I was happy to find that the HyVee brand Supreme Pizza had a score of 15 which seemed to be pretty high for frozen pizza.
Overall, I was glad to see that the store brand foods scored just as high as national brands. I like to save money where I can but I was worried that I’d have to pay extra for better NuVal scores. Not the case! Not every item at HyVee has a NuVal score at this point but Tina says that NuVal is working on it. In most cases, I was able to compare an unscored item with a scored item and make an educated guess.
Here’s some of what I brought home.
The total was $65.08 which is about average for our family. I didn’t need to buy anything in the meat dept so that helped keep my total down.
Note: The fire-roasted canned tomatoes are for Julia’s Almost Instant Tomato Soup. I hate to buy canned soups with all that sodium. This soup looks yummy and I can’t wait to give it a try.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Guest Bloggers
Tags: Hy-vee
