5 Tips for Healthier
Eating By Steve Edwards From Team Beachbody - Click here for resources, tools and
information to help you to reach your health, fitness and positive lifestyle
goals!
Almost everywhere we go we're reminded that we need to
eat better. We can't take a trip to the grocery store, read the paper, or
browse the Internet without being reminded that we're getting fatter and less
healthy, and how we need to change our dietary habits. Along with this obvious
information, we're also given a smorgasbord of options that all promise to turn
the tide on the obesity epidemic. Some of these are reasonable, but most are
marketing gimmicks that are often expensive, rarely effective, and sometimes
border on the bizarre. Below, we offer five simple, traditional, money-saving,
and effective ways to take control of your diet.
Eat slow. As more and more daily
activities get heaped on our plates, we tend to get bogged down and do
everything in a rush. Learning to eat slower will help make each meal an
experience. And the more that eating is an experience, the higher the
likelihood that you'll want to make it pleasant. One of the effects of eating
slower is that you'll tend to make better food choices. Furthermore, the slower
you eat, the better chance you'll have of not overeating. Your body registers
when it's full fairly quickly, but we've become a society of speed eaters who
inhale far too many caloriesbefore our natural responses even have time
to take effect. Eating just a bit slower can be enough to allow your brain to
feed you healthy signals. Also, chewing your food thoroughly has two additional
benefits. For one, you'll taste your food better. Therefore, if you're making
better food choices, it will heighten the pleasure of the meal. It also aids
your digestion process. Well-chewed food puts less stress on your body to break
it down and, hence, you'll feel more energized following your meal.
How
slow is "slow"? A study done at the University of Rhode Island showed that
those who chewed their food thoroughly ate less in 29 minutes than those who
chewed their food slowly ate in 9 minutes. So you can still slow down and have
plenty of time to enjoy your lunch hour.
Drink less during meals. Most of us
are aware that we don't drink enough water (more on this later), but meals are
not the place to catch up. Liquid dilutes your stomach acids, which can
counteract some of the work you've done following step one. Furthermore,
"washing down" your food is exactly the opposite of what you want to be doing
with your calories. The less you drink while eating, the more effective your
meal will be.
How we became a society that quaffs large quantities of
liquid while eating is a bit of a mystery. No other animals do it naturally, so
it's most likely an effect of advertising. Not much can be worse for you than
combining "hamburger, fries, and a Coke," which some ads offer up as the
pinnacle of a manly meal. Water alone, which is healthy, dilutes your stomach
acids and should be limited, but coupling your meal with sodaeven diet sodais
just plain awful. Not only does soda contain calories, it also contains
phosphates and acids that change your stomach's ability to digest the food
you're eating. Not to mention that they are all overly sweet, which interferes
with your ability to savor the flavor of natural foods and negatively impacts
your enjoyment of the meal. There's probably a lot more rationale behind the
fact that wine has been the meal accoutrement in most cultures. It tends to
enhance the flavor of foods but, more importantly, it's generally consumed in
small quantities. A four-ounce glass of wine is plenty to "wash down" most any
meal, and that's all the liquid you need.
Drink more
water (except during meals). As we've stated time and
time again, plain water is incredibly good for you and most of us don't drink
enough of it. Beginning each day with a large glass of water is one of the best
practices to turn into a ritual. This step alone both helps hydrate you for the
day and can instill a habitual response for wanting to drink more water as you
become dehydrated.
Staying hydrated affects almost every aspect of your
life. It makes you less hungry, so it's one of the best weight loss tricks you
can do. You cause less cellular damage, so you'll function better on almost
every level. You'll be more energized, think better, work out more effectively,
and recover from workouts and stress quicker, and your skin will stay supple
and young-looking.
How much water you need varies, but most of us should
drink six to eight or so eight-ounce glasses of it a day. This is, of course,
highly variable, which is based on temperature, activity level, and the rest of
your diet. A diet that is filled with natural foods that contain waterlike
fruits and veggieswill require that you drink less water, whereas the standard
American "junk" diet of fast "convenient" foods, sugar, and fatty meats will
require that you drink more.
Do keep in mind that, while unlikely, you
can drink too much plain water. This is mainly a concern if you're
exercising a lot. Plain water dilutes your body saltselectrolytesand excessive
diluted amounts can cause a condition called hyponatremia. However, most of us
consume far too much salt in our diets, making this diluting effect a positive
one. For a normal person, hyponatremia isn't a concern unless you're drinking
in excess of a gallon of water per day.
Eat more
fruit. Most of us don't eat enough fruit. Fruits offer
us not only an abundance of fiber, water, vitamins, and minerals but also
bioflavonoids, which protect our blood vessels, as well as provide
well-documented antioxidant benefits. Fruit has gotten a bit of a bad rap
lately because of its "high" sugar content, but even people with diabetes may
eat three to five servings of fruit a day. The sugar contents of plain sugar,
honey, candy, sweets, sodas, etc., are basically empty calories. Replacing your
standard sweets with fruit is probably the best dietary swap you can
make.
Fruit (100 grams)
Fruit's sugar content is often
exaggerated. For example, let's look at the sugar content of some raw fruits.
Value shown is percent sugar
Banana - 19.6
Raisin - 14.2
Apple -11.0
Pineapple - 10.6
Grapes - 9.3
Peach - 7.5
Cantaloupe - 6.5
Grapefruit - 5.2
Strawberry - 4.5
Watermelon - 3.2
Furthermore, natural raw fruit fructose sugar is sparse, not
dense, making its calorie impact limited. It is metabolized through the liver,
and there, it is generally converted into liver glycogen stores. Since raw
fruits offer fiber, fluids, vitamins, and minerals that start on the acidic
side but degenerate within digestive straits toward alkaline-ash metabolites,
they are regarded as the healthiest appetite-suppressing whole-food snacks you
can choose.
Change your focus. Instead of
focusing on the junky foods you shouldn't eat, try focusing on the foods you
should eat. The easiest way to do this is to focus on what these foods can do
for you and how they will make you feel. This can take a little practice
because our natural tendency is to let our mind slide into "craving" mode. But
by learning to crave performance from your body, your mind will naturally begin
to crave foods that make this happen.
The easiest way to begin this
change is by focusing on how your workout feels when you've eaten well and how
it feels when you've eaten poorlycan you
"Tilt, Tuck & Tighten"
with Shaun T or
Turbo
Jam® with Chalene Johnson without getting exhausted? At no time will
your mindset desire to create good habits than when being put under the duress
of exercise. This is the time to reference those chili-cheese fries you had at
lunch or the cake you ate at a coworker's going-away party. Nothing creates
cravings for plain whole foods like referencing how your body is feeling during
the 45th minute of P90X®
Plyo.
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Related Articles: "10 Foods You
Should Eat" "7
Foods with Healing Power" "The Great Diet Soda
Debate" "8
Tips for Storing Fresh Foods" |