Everyone thinks that what you eat is key to controlling body
weight. And that’s true … sort of. Americans are eating bigger portions and
drinking more liquid calories than ever. There is no doubt that this bump in
calorie intake has contributed to obesity.
But how
many calories you burn every day can offset extra calories that you take in.
And even though people may be eating more calories than they did 50 years ago,
they are moving even less and therefore burning even fewer calories through
activity than before sedentary, automated lives became the norm.
Studies
on populations like the Amish and the Aborigines who don’t use much electricity
have found that they move doing daily tasks for about eight hours a day. They
aren’t training for marathons, but they are active during most waking hours.
The point? It’s crucial that you move more all day, every day to offset what
you eat.
Although
moving more is the key message of this series, you do still need to watch what
goes in your mouth. An excellent way to do that is to consume more good-for-you
food. To do that it may be helpful to shy away from diet-think and look at what
you eat from a whole new perspective…
A New
Way to View Eating
One
overlooked aspect of food you eat is its ability to nourish your body. So many
people get fixated on how many calories or fat grams or carbs they take in that
they fail to recognize what’s most important—whether they are getting the
nutrients they need.
Every
cell has a specific function. And how that cell operates depends on if it has
vitamins, minerals and other biochemicals to help it do its thing. These are
obtained or made from the food you eat. Sure, your body can cope when it
doesn’t get everything it needs. But like a faulty engine or a leaky roof, it’s
not working at its best and may eventually fall into serious disrepair.
Early
signs that you may not be well nourished can be poor skin (acne, rashes, pale
skin tone), slow healing, a tendency to bruise, headaches, feeling sluggish,
cloudy eyes, poor memory and reaction times, heavy limbs and a multitude of
other symptoms. If you don’t feel or look 100 percent, a major contributor may
be a poor diet. You need to understand too that a vitamin and mineral
supplement is not enough to cover your bases because there are nutritious
components in foods that haven’t been identified by scientists yet. So you can
still be missing out if you are not eating enough good food.
Eating
Rules to Live By
You may
be hoping for the perfect diet or eating plan. I’m not going to go into detail
about calorie counting. Any diet will work in the short term. And whether a
particular diet admits to it, all diets work based on cutting calories. But not
all diets nourish you as they should.
Instead,
you should “diet” without dieting by following five key principles for every
meal. If you focus on nourishment rather than deprivation, over time, you’ll
fuel your body with what it needs and automatically cut down on the bad stuff
that keeps you fat. If you make these changes along with moving more, you will
lose weight and you will keep it off forever..
1.
Eat as many veggies as you can.
Never
limit your vegetables. Veggies have so few calories and are so ripe in
nutrients and fiber that you should eat them at every meal, every day. Picture
this: three giant dinner plates filled with 1 cup of broccoli, 1 cup of
cauliflower, 1 cup of baby carrots, 1 cup of yellow squash, 1 cup of cucumbers,
1 cup of spinach, 1 cup of red peppers, 1 cup of tomatoes and one portobello
mushroom … this heaping slab of vegetables has about 200 calories! Yet you
could probably not eat all of it at one sitting—you’d be too full.
But you
could easily drink one super-sized soda and take in almost three times as many
calories, or eat a small cheeseburger and take in 400 calories. Add fries and a
shake and you’d eat about five times as many calories as you’d get from that
veggie smorgasbord . Get the picture? If you need to feel full when you eat,
the key is to fill up with good stuff.
If you
don’t find most vegetables appetizing, find some that you like. Or disguise
them. Sprinkle grated cheese, olive oil, Tabasco
Throw
extra veggies into everything you make at home: sandwiches, eggs, casseroles,
burgers, pizza, soups, frozen dinners, pasta. If you eat out, always order vegetable
side dishes or veggie toppings on pastas, pizza, sandwiches and burgers.
2.
Drink no cal or low cal.
Liquid
calories don’t seem to register as extra caloric intake in the body. As a
result, your body doesn’t dial down how much you eat later, you simply store
the extra calories from that soda as fat. So cultivate a taste for water to
soothe your palate. Or unsweetened tea. Or add a splash of juice to a glass of
water. If you knock out the sodas, juices, energy drinks, smoothies, beer, wine
and coffee concoctions, you can save hundreds, even thousands, of calories
every single day. Depending on how much you drink, if you simply switched to
no-cal drinks, you could drop pounds in a matter of months.
3.
Eat more fruit.
Several
fad diets spread the nasty rumor that fruit is fattening. It’s not and you
should eat as much of it as possible. Sure, any food calories add up. But find
one person who got fat from eating too many oranges, bananas and watermelon.
People get fat from eating too much fried food, fast food, sugar drinks and
processed items. Eat fruit every day, every snack, every meal if you can. Eat
it in place of a sweet snack, or halve your dessert and include fruit.
Certain
items like avocados, nuts and olives have a reputation for being fattening and
so many people avoid them. Not a good idea. These contain fats that your body
needs.
• Munch
on nuts every day. Eight walnut halves, about a handful, have around 100 calories
and lots of fiber. One candy bar has over 200.
• Snack
on olives. Ten black olives have about 50 calories. One small order of
fries has about 300. The olives have fewer calories but are mostly healthy
unsaturated fat. The fries have more calories and are high in bad, saturated
fat.
• Add avocados to dishes.
Spread guacamole instead of butter on a piece of whole-grain toast: Yum! A half
an avocado has 150 calories—and healthy unsaturated fat along with vitamins and
minerals. Add an avocado to a tomato and basil salad along with a splash of
olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and your dish is less than 200 calories.
Compare that to a classic Cobb salad, which can be more than 600 calories and
high in saturated fat.
5.
Never skip breakfast.
Many
overweight people eat late at night then wake up not hungry and skip breakfast.
This is a recipe for overeating. If you fuel your body with small portions of
food at regular intervals, you are less likely to get cravings and binge. Plus
you are more likely to have less body fat since dramatic fluctuations in energy
intake encourage your body to store more fat.
If you
make these long-term lifestyle changes, which will improve rather than
drastically alter the way you eat, you’ll feel better, get healthier and slim
down.
If you need help with a meal plan check out my 90 Days to a New You program.
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