Diet Fitness, You Are What You Eat,Really!
“Diet” is a word that is only second to that of exercise when it comesto hatred by many people. But, here, we aren’t talking about a diet to
lose weight. We aren’t talking about a diet that you will go on to lose
weight and then come off of later.
What you need to accomplish through a diet is to train your body to
eat healthily. You need a diet that is actually a way of eating, not a
temporary thing but a permanent thing.
Although that sounds even worse, dieting is something that is simple
to do healthily even if you can’t live without certain foods. You can do
it even when you are in too much of a rush and don’t have time. And,
you can do it with lots of favors that you AND your children will enjoy.
Don’t think about a diet that’s taxing, troublesome, limiting or boring.
Think of your diet as being free, open, full of taste and adventure, with
all of the comfort that you want and need, too.
What’s Healthy?
The foods that you need play a significant role on your health. Foodsare the fuel that your body requires to do a good job at the tasks that
you ask it. In our machine look at the way that food works, the food
that you consume is the fuel that your machine needs.
If you don’t give it quality food, it won’t perform the right way. Have
you ever gone to put gas into your car and gotten to a really bad gas
station where the fuel wasn’t high quality or even up to standard? It
slows your car down. You don’t get the gas mileage that you are used
to and you may even need to perform more maintenance on your car
than you usually need to do.
In the way of your body, healthy food is just as important. If you
consume the wrong foods all of the time, your body will not be able to
perform as well as if you gave it the highest quality foods.
•Without nutrition, your body can become ill faster and with
greater intensity.
•Your body does not heal as quickly from injury.
•Your blood pressure rises, your heart rate increases to unhealthy
levels.
•You are more prone to limitations physically as well as mentally.
All sorts of problems arise from not eating a healthy diet of food. But,
what is healthy and why is it healthy?
•Vegetables are one of the highest nutrient rich foods out there.
They provide antioxidants to a high level that helps to heal your body,
improve your physical fitness from the inside to the out, and they are
very low in calories meaning you can eat more.
•Fruits are sweet so they can solve the sweet tooth. They also
provide you with antioxidants and all types of nutrients that give your
body the fuel it needs.
•Whole grains are also an important product of a healthy diet.
Unlike “white” foods, whole grains give you so much more health.
They don’t cause you to gain weight like others. Choosing simple
differences from bread to pasta to potatoes allows you to get the
tastes that you love but without the added calories, fats, and sugars
that can cause you health issues.
•Water intake is also important. Those that do not get enough
fluids end up having a body that retains water rather than having less.
The body goes into dehydration mode, causing you to keep in all that
you can. Consuming enough water means that you’ll system is
hydrated, you’re eating less and that you aren’t getting as many
calories from other liquids.
•Meats are important parts of the diet, too. You need protein but
you shouldn’t want to get it from fatty meats. Improving your diet to
just lean meats will allow you to cut down on the intake of cholesterol
which will ultimately clog your heart minimizing blood flow to the rest
of your body.
If you don’t do anything else, improving these five areas is all you
need to do. The good news is that you don’t often need a lot of work
to make them happen.
Your doctor may have additional or different recommendations for
your health, too. He or she may recommend a diet that is different for
your specific health issues. In addition, you may want to find out if
there are any possible problems with the foods that you eat to your
overall health specifically for your health problems.
Dieting To Lose Weight
Finally, if you need to lose weight, you need to minimize the amount of
calories that you are taking in by monitoring how many you are
consuming.
The average person should consume about 1800 to 2000 calories per
day. If you are dieting and need to lose weight, you need to reduce
this amount to at 1500 to 1600 calories per day. Go with the
reductions that your doctor recommends here so that you have
enough fuel for the day but are not allowing your body to store the
extra fuel as fat throughout your body.
Where Are You Now?
When it comes to improving your diet fitness, you need to take into
consideration the location that you are right now.
What do you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner? How many calories
are you consuming per day?
To help you to see the clear picture of what’s happening to your health
in the foods that you eat, take note of how a normal day or week goes
for you. Here are some steps to follow to find out how healthy your
diet actually is and how healthy it isn’t!
1.Spend one or two days recording the foods that you eat in an
average day on a piece of paper. All foods and drinks should be
noted!
2.Figure out how many calories you are consuming in an average
day.
3.Look at your list of foods and see how many of them are high in
transaturated fats, sugars and calories in general.
4.How many servings of vegetables and fruits are you getting?
How many servings of protein has been lean protein? Did you get in
any whole grains? How much soda did you drink (which puts pounds
on your waist each time?)
5.How often did you eat without actually being hungry but being
instead bored, anxious, stressed or otherwise emotionally impared?
When you look at these facts you may clearly see where the problems
lie. Being honest with yourself is important, though. For most people
this is as simple as tracking what they eat over the period of a few
days to a week.
Seeing just how much in calories as well as in unhealthiness can really
cause them to see what reality really is rather than to assume they are
doing okay.
I Can’t Give It Up!
If you are one of the many that feel that they can’t give up the foods
that they love no matter what, there are several key things for you to
address. Don’t worry, they aren’t all bad!
First, find out why it is that you can’t give them up. For example, are
you connected with that big slice of apple pie because it was your
favorite growing up, you may have an emotional attachment to the
foods. If you love your mashed potatoes loaded with gravy, sour
cream and butter just because you love the taste, that’s a different
story.
Identifying why you have to have a specific food is important so that
you can actually see the benefits of eating those foods. If you need
apple pie to feel safe, you need to address this emotional problem. If
you just love the taste, you can find ways to get much of the same
taste without a lot of the calories.
Next, determine if there is a better way for you to get the foods that
you like. For example, will sweetened sweet potatoes that are mashed
still give you the same texture and creaminess that you are craving?
By making small changes to the recipe you can get all of the flavor and
texture that you want without causing yourself to become a victim of
high fats and sugars that really do a number on your entire system.
Indeed you may want that slice of apple pie. But, use it in a different
way. For example, instead of eating it every few days make it the
reward that you get for a week of good eating. Limiting how often you
get the treats means that you don’t have to give them up but that you
don’t consume nearly as much of it, and therefore you can improve
your health overall.
One limit to this is when the food itself is detrimental to your health
condition. If you are a diabetic, you simply should not eat foods that
are overall sweet because they can cause your blood sugar level to
rise so fast that you can cause serious damage to your brain and your
heart through the consumption of just some foods.
You should know what types of foods you can not eat. If you don’t
know you should talk to your doctor about this. There are certain
times in life that foods become prime suspects to leading to health
risks. Food isn’t worth the risk of your life, is it?
How Can You Improve?
Okay, here is comes. The awful, limiting diet that’s going to make
your taste buds go permanently bland is up next, right?
NO! You don’t have to be limited by what you can eat because most
food that is available that is in its natural state is just fine for you! In
fact, if you give it a try you may find that you like these foods better
than you do the high fat, high cholesterol foods that you currently are
eating.
This section of our book is long for a reason. Foods are a main part of
why people are unhealthy and therefore it is a mandatory part of
improving your health to improve your diet. If you can not commit to
making changes here, your diet fitness can threaten your life through
disease and even early death.
Yet, much of the damage that is done through eating the wrong foods
can be reversed over time by eating a healthy diet. That’s exactly
what you need to strive for here.
We’ve already talked about what foods you need to eat for a healthy
diet, now you need to consider how you will make changes that you
can actually live with.
Here are several key areas to make changes and exactly how you
should make them. Don’t fret about the foods you love, remember
moderation is the key factor in real diet fitness health.
Heart Health
Improving your heart’s health is essential. For this, eat lean cuts of
meat. Paying attention to the amount of saturated fats in the food you
eat is also key to improving your health and well being.
In addition, there are various foods that can help you to improve your
hearts health. For example, replacing the vegetable oil in your diet
with olive oil, in moderation can improve your health. Garlic is a great
antioxidant for your heart too. Reducing the amount of sodium that
you take in is also a key factor in improving health. Instead of using a
lot of salt, try other flavor additions to your dishes.
1.Consume more fish. You should try to consume at least 2 to 3
servings of fish per week. Or take a supplement of fish oil.
2.Eat unrefined whole grains as they add fiber to your diet which
reduced your cholesterol and keeps you feeling full.
Improving Health Risks
Another very powerful tool that you have when it comes to diet fitness
is that of improving your health through the foods that you eat. Your
weapon is that of antioxidants!
Antioxidants are powerful nutrients that are in fruits and vegetables.
A good way to know if they are in the foods that you are eating is to
look at the color of the food. The darker, richer and brighter the color
is, the more antioxidants are in it.
Antioxidants can help to transform your health. They can help to
repair damage to cells throughout your body and thereby make you
look and feel younger. They can help to unclog your heart’s arteries
from cholesterol. And, they help to remove toxins from your body
which means a reduction in risks of cancer.
Using antioxidants for your overall health is a key factor in improving
your health! While you can get many of them through supplements,
you should instead consider getting them from whole foods as they are
richer as well as tastier that way!
Eat Whole Foods
One of the best things that you can do for your health is to eat whole
foods rather than foods that are pre-made. Yes, you are in a hurry
and who has time to chop up vegetables? Well, there are reasons why
an investment in a bit more time here can literally save your life.
Many foods that are pre-made contain high amounts of preservatives,
or products that are placed in foods to keep them fresh and looking
good. Some of these preservatives can clog up your heart, can lead to
increased health risks for cancer and they put the pounds on.
The trick you should follow, then, is to visit your grocery store and
walk around the outside aisles only as much as possible. No boxed
dinners, no frozen entrees. The produce section is your friend filled
with riches. Meats, milks, eggs and other fresh products usually line
the walls of the building. Avoid the aisles and you’ll improve your
health overall.
See you in the next part...
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