Facebook has more than 100 million hours of video watch time per day. Video expands reach and drives traffic to websites. Hubspot reports video will compose 74 percent of all internet traffic for 2017 and 80 percent of global internet traffic by 2019. Video is not going away, and it’s only going to get bigger and better.

As dietitians, video is something we cannot ignore.  It’s such an incredible opportunity to inform, influence and inspire. As the nutrition experts, dietitians have a unique opportunity to embrace video and share healthy recipes or evidence-based messages. If you want to create and optimize video content for your business or private practice, you can find resources to help guide you through the process. Planning, filming and producing good video content takes time and effort. These tips can help get you started on the road to video content creation.

Assess Your Time

Creating and producing video content is time consuming, especially in the beginning. If you don’t have the time, you may think about hiring someone to do it for you.

Know Your Purpose

Do you want to create hands-in-pans style food videos? Do you want to do nutrition education or teach online classes with video? Do you want to start with live streaming? Think about who you want to reach and how you can create a solution to their problem when it comes to food and nutrition. Ask your audience what they would like to see. You’ll know your purpose when you know what your audience wants.

Learn About Video

Video has a large learning curve, and it’s important to have good resources to learn about the process. A couple of dietitian-centered resources are my Facebook group, Making Food Videos for Dietitians, where I answer questions, share articles and tips and showcase members with a Video of the Day prompt. And here on Stone Soup I’ll be doing more vlogs and posts that focus on different aspects of video production for dietitians.

Have the Right Equipment

It doesn’t have to be expensive. A camera, tripod and software is the bare minimum for creating video content. If video content is something you continue to use, you may want to invest in more equipment, such as lighting, better software and props.

Set a Date

Video can be an intimidating venture. Give yourself a couple of weeks or a month to learn and then set a date for filming, producing and releasing your first video. Having a concrete date helps you get on the road to video creation.

The post Video Essentials: 5 Tips to Get You Started appeared first on HealthStylz.

I have been baking since I could reach the counter. Cookies were a treat I always looked forward to making with my mom. I confess this has resulted in a massive cookie cutter stockpile over the years. I stopped buying plastic ones because they don’t cut as well, and they end up being used for my kids’ play dough creations. My favorite type of cookie cutter is metal, so I was thrilled to review Ann Clark Cookie Cutters.

If you are a serious cookie baker, you understand how important the cookie cutter can be! You want clean cuts and an easy-to-clean cookie cutter. You also want the food to release from the cookie cutter and not cause tears. I put these cookie cutters to the test using the ultimate tester, my 9-year-old daughter! My daughter and I are in the kitchen together every day coming up with easy and fun food. We both love getting creative and have used cookie cutters for food other than cookies. I let her pick out her favorite cookie cutters and we decided to jazz up her lunchboxes to test them. Her picks were Ann Clark’s unicorn, heart, crown and fidget spinner! Here’s what we did with them:

1. Unicorn watermelon with fresh blueberries. With unicorns being so popular right now, this was fun for her to show off to her friends at school. Now everyone at her lunch table wants a unicorn cookie cutter.
2. Princess PB&J with heart cheese. Her princess obsession took over and she combined the crown cutter with the heart cutter. She packed some fresh strawberries on the side to go with her royal-shaped food!
3. Fidget Spinner ham & cheese with pretzels. Of all the cookie cutters, this was by far the most popular among the other kids. If you don’t know what a fidget spinner is, you will now. All the kids have one, so needless to say my daughter was the official “cool kid” to have her fidget spinner sandwich!

Results

Each of the cutters cleanly cut into the desired shape. The food released easily from the cutters on the first try, and each one was also easy to clean. The fun shapes resulted in a great table conversation for my daughter, and she was the envy of the lunchroom!

The post 3 Easy Ways Cookie Cutters Make Lunch Boxes Fun appeared first on HealthStylz.

Watermelon Pizzas

Yields 4 to 5 pizzas

Ingredients

• 1 mini seedless watermelon, sliced into 4 or 5 thick discs
• ½ yellow watermelon, sliced
• 12 ounces vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup sliced strawberries
• 1 cup blueberries

Instructions

1. Let each child have a slice of yellow watermelon. Cut out different shapes with cookie cutters and set aside.
2. Give each child a watermelon disc for a pizza base.
3. Top each base with vanilla yogurt.
4. Let each child design their own pizza using yellow watermelon shapes, strawberries and blueberries.
5. Cut each pizza into 4 sections and serve.

Video music: www.bensound.com

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