Posts Tagged ‘eating healthy’

Sugar is E.V.I.L.  It is like a best friend who stabs you in the back.  Yes, it is yummy and it is readily available but it truly is very very bad for you, in many different ways.  In addition to being empty calories with no nutritional content, sugar burns “hotter” in your system, creating more free radicals that do various types of damage within your system.  From wrinkles to cardiovascular disease, excess sugar plays a role.

What types of sugar?  All of it (white, brown and even fruit and fruit juices, maple syrup and honey) is converted into triglycerides by the liver and are subject the damage from free radicals.  These damaging triglycerides then attack your arteries, which leads to cardiovascular disease.  Ready for this?  Cancer and tumor cells FEED off of sugar. Need i say more?

Course correction:

• Eat fruit when you crave sugar as it provides antioxidants that also fight against free radicals.
• Limit your intake of sugar in the foods you eat to a very very minimum.
• If you must have sweetness, my favorite is Stevia, a natural sweetner that is very yummy.
• Read your labels (or investigate nutritional content online) and become aware of the added sugars in the food you eat.  An easy way to check sugar content is with this super simple formula:  Take the total number of carbs from the label. Subtract the amount of fiber. Divide the remainder by 5.  Now, you have the number of teaspoons of sugar in that food.  For example:  if there are 30 grams of carbs on the label and 5 grams of fiber, that means you have 5 teaspoons of sugars in that product.  (30 minus 5 = 25.  25 divided by 5 = 5)

Most of my busy, traveling clients have the same complaint…finding healthy, nutritious foods while on the road. And they have the right to complain!  Have you tried finding a healthy snack in a convenience store or vending machine lately?

Good luck.

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Often times, when we’re in need of a distraction, of comfort or a reward for a good day, or bad, we reach for food. Many times, we’ve been programmed to do this…..what did you celebrate your first birthday with?

I often wonder why sugar treats and salty-crunchy snacks seem to be the “go to” foods in just such an occasion. Why don’t we celebrate with a juicy orange or find comfort in whole wheat? Is it because we were programmed to connect comfort, celebration and reward with food? What were you given at the doctor’s office after your shots? After your first breakup, what big bowl of sugary silkiness comforted you? Yep….definitely programmed!

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Deciding to make the commitment to changing your lifestyle, lose weight and get healthy can sometimes feel like an overwhelming challenge. Often that challenge is multiplied when dieting has been a constant struggle and a history of weight loss and gain is in your past.

The exciting thing is that you can say goodbye to the past and start powerfully in your in your new commitment to health. Begin by implementing the following motivation tips which will give you new skills and slates in which to work from.

This first tip is one in a series of ways in which to finally take control of your life and health. Ready for the first? It’s really the easiest so let’s start there….

(1)    Bullet Proofing your Kitchen

All twelve step programs have the same first step – do you know what it is?

It’s admitting that you are powerless to give up the things you are addicted to, to acknowledge that you can’t resist them. And there are many things that people can become addicted to….it’s not just alcohol or drugs, but food as well.

When you finally admit this lack or power to resist food and/or the sugary beverages that you may also crave, it actually makes you more powerful, because you know that something has to be done and you are ready to take the next step.

And, come on, you already know what foods you have trouble with, so just get rid of those foods! Don’t have them around you and don’t bring them into your house. After all, if it is not there, you can’t eat it!

Bullet proof your kitchen by creating a microenvironment of health right in your house. If you know that ice cream is your weakness and that even one spoonful of ice cream will lead to eating the entire tub, then don’t keep any in the freezer– why tempt fate, or your willpower. In the struggle between Ben and Jerry’s and your willpower, your willpower will always lose. That’s because of your primitive limbic brain.

The limbic brain controls many unconscious chores for your body. Breathing in and out, blinking your eyes and flinch at a flying object all come from the instruction of this portion of your brain. The limbic brain is also responsible for your fight or flight response, your need to mate and yes…..your need to eat.

The problem is that when we were being biologically designed, fast food wasn’t on every corner and bags of calorie dense chemical cocktails couldn’t be wheeled in a cart to our car. Back then, food wasn’t plentiful and didn’t contain a great many calories. Back then, we had to work hard for our food and expended calories in hunting, gathering and preparing it. Today, sticking a hand out of the car window provides a calorie feast of non-food that our body doesn’t know how to process. But, the limbic brain doesn’t care….it urges us to eat what it sees…..and NOW. That’s why it is important to purge these nasty non-foods from your home environment, so your limbic brain doesn’t have anything to focus on.

If you live with other people, ask for their co-operation, or create an area of the kitchen that is your place and keep the rest of the kitchen off limits. And remember, the rest of your household doesn’t need to eat junk either. Be a good role model and urge the people you live with not only to support you, but to choose health from themselves as well.

Now that you’ve used this concept to make your kitchen a healthy environment, begin extending it to other parts of your life.  Bullet proof other areas of your life too by identifying “toxic situations” or “toxic friends” – those events or people who are not supporting your best life.

Did you already think of one? Now begin considering how you can bullet proof yourself from that person, limit your exposure or have the crucial conversation with them that is long past due.

Yes, when you admit you are powerless to resist, you are able to take action to create an environment that supports your goals and the commitments your have made to yourself. Why weight? Begin bullet proofing your kitchen and other areas of your life too.

When I heard those words, I couldn’t help but laugh. Coming from an intelligent male with many years of education under his belt, the earnestness of that comment was truly astounding. And, it got me to thinking….we do live in a world where eating a salad once a week is considered a very big deal.

On a daily basis, I have conversations with people who swear to me that they eat really well, make good food choices and simply don’t understand how the weight continues to creep on or refuses to creep off.  Inevitably, “eat really well” involves processed food they believed to be healthy or simply hadn’t factored in their calorie laden beverages (that’s not food, right?)

Studies show that Americans simply eat vegetables on a daily basis, with one exception – the potato, which is often fried or smothered in fat. Even lovely green vegetables are showing up battered on many a plate. Can’t count those either!

It’s not hard to get your veggies in for the day. For breakfast, sauté veggies with your omelet and snack of veggie strips throughout the day. Bring at least 3 cups of chopped vegetables in a baggie and make sure you eat them before the day is gone. Order a salad for lunch with low carb dressing. The salad acts as a fiber shoot and helps push the other food you eat out of your body sooner. Add spinach instead of iceburg lettuce to your sandwich.

See how easy it is to get in your servings?

And be sure to let me know how much better your feel, and look, once you begin adding veggies to your life. After all, that is the reason they were put on this earth, to give your body the nutrients it needs to be health!