Saturday, 28 November 2009

• Healthy Rules to Live By!

  
  This post is contributed from a Healthkicker fan, Jean Anne.

   

  1. Eat to live. Don’t live to eat. Of course, everyone enjoys eatingfood. But do you notice that healthy people eat only when they arehungry to keep their bodies running? This flows into Rule #2.
  2. Eat only when you are hungry. Listen to your body, it will tell you when it needs food. Rate your hunger on a scale of 1-10 (1 being so hungry that you want to stuff any kind of food into your mouth and 10 being so full you can’t even move and feel so sick). When you wait until you are starving, you tend to just stuff your face full of food until your pants feel tight. This is a major no-no. You want to eat something small when your hunger level is around a 3 or 4. This will feel like your stomach is empty, but not to the point where you are dying of hunger. This is when you will want to eat something small until your hunger level reaches around 7. This is the level where you don’t feel full, but you feel satisfied. Remember that you don’t want to fill your stomach up that much but you just want to feel satisfied. If you’re still hungry in 30 minutes, eat a piece of fruit or a vegetable.
  3. DRINK WATER. This is such an easy task, yet tons of people don’t get their daily water supply. You are supposed to drink half your body weight in ounces. Your body is 70% water so it is crucial to drink it. Also, sometimes your body will make you feel hungry even though it is really thirsty. Water also fills youup, allowing you to eat less at meals. Not a big fan of the flavorless taste? Crystal Light is your new best friend. Crystal light isn't that great for you, but I figure if you won't drink water otherwise, it's better than nothing. Your body gets its water, and your taste buds get the flavor. (Side note: Water also assists in flushing out toxins likefat. Drink up!)
  4. Eat Slowly. Yes, this is a big factor in health and weight loss. It takes your brain 20 minutes to realize that you are full. So, put your fork down in between bites and take a sip of water. This will fill you up faster.
  5. You’re not a kid anymore. This means that you don’t have to finish the entire portion of food on your plate. If you leave some food on your plate, that’s fine. If you feel satisfied but there’s 2 bites of food left on your plate, don’t eat it, leave it there and throw it away. In our society, portion sizes are out of control, and we have been brain washed to think that heaping spoonfuls and second helpings are normal. They’re not. Know your portion sizes.
  6. Read Nutrition Labels. Let’s make icecream our example. Maybe the ice cream container says 130 calories. But 130 calories for how much ice cream? Make sure to read the serving size. It’s probably 1/2 of a cup. If you just mindlessly scoop ice cream into a bowl, you could be getting way more calories than you wanted leaving you feeling upset when the scale isn’t going down. Remember that ice cream really isn’t a food you want to be eating anyways. Don’t be afraid to measure out exact portions of your food. Use measuring cups and spoons to make sure that you have the right portion size. And, yes, calories do count.
  7. Count your calories. It sounds ridiculous, but if you don’t keep tabs on the amount of calories you consume, then you will never even begin to lose weight. You should keep a food journal and write down your calorie intake for the day andinclude every single thing. That Starbucks latte could be setting youback 150 calories or that hot chocolate could set you back a whopping 500 calories!! Having a handful of chips here and a brownie there, really adds up. Don’t let this ruin your goals. This is why you need to follow the drink more water rule, so you will feel full and find yourself snacking less anyways. You should eat a small meal every 3 hours.
  8. Eat closely to whole foods. For your health, you should be eating as many unprocessed foods as you can. This includes: fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds. Now, just because they are good for you does not mean you can eat more. We all know why fruit and vegetables are good for you. They provide you with vitamins and minerals. Even eating a salad with tons of vegetables in it is great for you. Just sprinkle a tablespoon of ground flaxseed on your salad to get the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that you need. Whole grains are good for you in moderation. Whole grains fill you up and keep you feeling satisfied.
  9. Fast foods = fat foods. Let’s take this into account. A small container of fries is about, what, 500 calories? Do you honestly think a potato is 500 calories? No way. One potato is roughly 150 calories. Where do the extra 350 calories come from? Oh, from the fatty oil they fry it in. And I can assure you, it’s not extra virgin olive oil either. Stop eating fast food.
  10. If it’s white, don’t take a bite. This is a motto to live by. It’s ok to eat white foods sparingly, but try to avoid it at all costs. This includes: sugar, white bread, and whiterice. These products have no nutritional value, and add empty calories to your diet. You don’t want sugar in your diet, so use stevia ortruvia. These are natural sweeteners that were extracted from plants and have zero calories. Opt for sprouted grain bread and brown rice.
  11. Read the ingredients. If you look at the ingredient list and the list looks like the beginning of a novel, then don’t even think about putting that junk into your mouth. The first few ingredients are the main ingredients in the product, so if the first ingredient is sugar, then skip that. You want to avoid sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or anything that is hydrolyzed or hydrogenated. Say you put a twinkie and an apple on a shelf and left it there for a month, which would be eaten by bacteria and other organisms? The apple, because the twinkie is full of trans-fats and saturated fats which preserve the shelf life of products. Manufacturers don’t pump trans-fats into products for YOUR health.
  12. Soda = fat. Did you know that onecan of soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar? Soda is extremely bad for you. Don’t think that it’s much better to drink diet soda. Diet soda is full of chemicals including Phenylalanine. Phenylalanine is not achemical, but an essential amino acid, but it is already produced inyour body. Phenylalanine is a hidden danger to anyone consuming aspartame. Most consumers don't know that too much Phenylalanine is a neurotoxin and excites the neurons in the brain to the point of cellular death. However, Club soda is just carbonated water so, hey, there’s some water intake.
  13. Eat in. Try to make all your meals. Even if it’s something simple. You control what goes into your food. Restaurants use the cheapest means of cooking possible. This means fatty, calorie-laden foods like oils and shortenings to cook their foods in. Get a cookbook and learn to cook for yourself.
  14. DO NOT SKIP BREAKFAST. Studies show that people who eat breakfast are in fact healthier and leaner. On a tight schedule? Bring a drinkable yogurt, or granola bar or apple. Whatever you do, make sure it’s healthy. Stop eating those sugar-filled cereals. Make oatmeal instead. Make egg whites. Do it. Seriously.

   

  What are other healthy rules to live by?

  • 11:00 AM
  • 1035 Views
  • 22 eProps
  • 10 Comments