Smart food buying habits

We have the power of choice to decide which foods to buy at the grocery store. The key to success is planning ahead. 

Planning ahead can improve your food choices. Healthy decisions start at home. 

Start by streamlining your food shopping to one or two days each week. Fewer trips to supermarket mean fewer opportunities to buy the wrong types of food.

I do it once a week on weekend when I am not hungry or rushed for time. I plan what food I need to buy and stick to my shopping list. By taking the hurry and unpredictability out of food shopping I buy and stock up foods that are building block for healthy meals. 

Healthy choices can make a healthy you.

Eating healthy when away from home is possible

While eating healthy when away from home could be difficult, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Two days ago I was hungry after a few hours of driving and almost went to fast food restaurant near the hotel.

Found motivation to go to the supermarket, bought vegetables and turkey breast and came back to the hotel.

Felt good. I needed positive experience, because it doesn’t always end up that way for me when I travel. I found it that it was possible. When I was weak and contemplating eating at the fast food restaurant I asked myself what was more important to me.  

Eating healthy does not mean eating foods that you do not like

For me eating healthy means eating natural, unprocessed foods. Eating real foods, not food products.

Many people mistakenly think that foods that are healthy must necessarily be unsatisfying or taste bad. Of course, that isn’t so. 

To lose weight and keep it off, it is important to change your perception that healthy foods will not satisfy you as much as your favorite dishes.

Eating healthy does not mean eating foods that you do not like. It is about getting away from fake foods and embracing real ones. 

It means giving your body what it needs to thrive. 

Eliminating or at least limiting processed foods is an important element of healthy eating.

Eating healthy will also ensure that you stay healthy while using weight.

Made Better Choice Today

Real example of making better choice while eating out. Two photos are from the same place. 

I am posting them to show what worked for me at lunch time today. See the difference? 

The person I had lunch with made the choice in the upper photo and drank soda. 

I made the choice in the lower photo and drank water. We both were happy with our choices.

Remembering why we want to lose weight or maintain it, if you are already there, helps when ordering in restaurants. 

Planning what to eat and where makes it easier for me.

Guest Post: Life Style Changes to Feel Good for Life

Failure is everywhere. People are sick and in pain. This is not necessary. Let's learn how to be successful in our health. People have lost 50, 75, 100 pounds with minimal effort. They feel so good, they would never go back to old habits.

Myths: 

If I stop eating, I'll lose weight.

I have to be hungry to lose weight.

I'll never be able to have a piece of cheesecake (substitute your favorite) again.

I'll feel deprived.

I'll have to exercise 2 hours every day.

Diabetes runs in the family.

Foods are either Carbohydrates, Proteins, or Fats. Meals should have 50% Protein, 25% good carbs, and 25% fats. Monosaturated are the best.

Carbohydates:  Which are good, which are not? Rule of thumb. Don't eat the white stuff.  Also known as processed. Eat fruits and vegetables for your carbs. Avoid white flour, white sugar, white potatoes, white rice, white pasta, and white bread. Substitute whole grains, sweet potatoes, brown rice, couscous, quinoa, pasta made of spinach, bell peppers, whole wheat. Bread made of whole grains. No enriched white flour.

Why?

The white stuff is highly processed. This means it gets into your blood stream as sugar way too fast. Your blood sugar spikes. Your pancreas has to quickly release insulin to get your blood sugar back down. It goes too far down. Now you are famished!!  Quick, eat something with sugar or highly processed to get your blood sugar back up. This roller coaster is bad for your whole body- every cell. Insulin is our fat storage hormone. Spike blood sugar, release insulin, hold onto fat like a sponge holds water. This happens when we eat high Glycemic foods.

Eat Protein, good fats, and unprocessed carbohydrates.

Your blood sugar stays within a nice normal even range. Your pancreas now releases Glucagon. Glucagon   is our Fat Releasing Hormone. Your blood sugar stays in the good range. No hunger, no shakiness, no foggy thinking, and Release Fat!! This happens when we eat low Glycemic foods.

Jump Start with low Glycemic foods for five days. Sugar cravings will go away. Drink 1/2 your weight in ounces of water. Flavor the water with fruits and herbs so it's not boring. Walk 30 minutes 3 times a week. Eat low Glycemic foods every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Nibble a little dark chocolate as a reward.

Focus on what you want, not what you don't want.

Our brains will believe whatever we tell it over and over. Say everything in the positive.

Picture yourself as your new You. Tell yourself how good you look, and how great you feel. 

     

+++

Guest post provided by Janice Moranz, MD.  Janice runs Albuquerque Health and Fitness MeetUp Group. The group has over 400 members. You can contact Janice at janicemoranz@comcast.net

http://www.meetup.com/Albuquerque-Health-Fitness/

Nation of Fat People?

Almost everyone seems to be on some kind of diet these days. 

Most of us want to live healthier lives, lose a little bit (or a lot) of weight, and generally feel better about the food we put into our bodies. 

After decades of portion control and counting calories we still consume lots of empty calories and are becoming a nation of fat people. 

If we don’t seriously and effectively confront it, we may become a nation of inert, unhealthy, unproductive fat people by the middle of the 21st century.

One does not need a degree in science to understand why it happens. Diet fatigue and diet failure happen for a reason. If you restrict how much we can eat you are likely to end up with the following pattern. You take a break, and start again later, take another break, start again later and so on. 

Even if lose weight, you will regain your weight or more, when you jump right back to eating “normal” (pre-diet) size meals.

Exercise is excellent for health but not that important for weight loss

While the exercise myth for weight loss still appears in high-profile initiatives like the first lady's Let's Move! Campaign, more and more individuals learn and experience that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly overstated. 

Message that exercise is not important in helping people lose weight is getting more support in research and in media. 

I always pointed out that exercise was good for your health. At the same time I also dared to say that exercise wasn't necessarily helping us lose weight. My simple truth that that you don’t have to exercise to lose weight was not getting me many new online friends. 

This statement was considered too controversial on some weight loss forums. It even got me banned from a website that declares that it “helps facilitate honest conversation about weight loss”. 

Can you lose weight without exercising? Of course you can. Physical activity is a minor component to the economy of weight loss. The critical component is what you eat.