Do you want to diet or do you want to LOSE FAT

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Do you want to diet or do you want to LOSE FAT???

Part Two

by Laura Brand

I hope you are now convinced that dieting is, shall we say, for the birds! Eating is meant to be both nutritious and enjoyable. (Did I hear a sigh of relief?!?) In this article, I will give you a few eating tips to help you maintain a healthy, nutritious lifestyle without feeling deprived. So, here we go…

Eating tips:

a) Gustation (taste) – If you like the way food is prepared, you will be more inclined to eat them. You should learn how to prepare foods that are good for you, in a way that tastes good to you. This takes a little effort, but it is worth it! Most health and fitness magazines have whole sections for healthy recipes, and there is a proliferation of healthy eating cookbooks on the market. Make it your goal to try at least one new healthy recipe per week.

b) Satiety – Foods that satisfy your hunger and blood sugar levels will leave you less likely to snack. These foods should be low on the glycemic index (i.e. should release sugar into your bloodstream more slowly). For more information on the glycemic index, you can either e-mail me or read about it online or in The South Beach Diet book. Eating five or six small meals a day keeps your blood sugar levels elevated, and does not allow you to get too hungry. For those of you who are on a workout program: if you consume your highest calorie meal nearly two hours before you train, you will have the greatest energy levels during training and the smallest prior to inactive periods. I understand that this is not always easy to do because of schedules, but it is always a good idea to eat at least a complex carbohydrate before you work out to ensure adequate energy levels.

c) Calorie control – By regulating your diet in a way that you are not consuming high calorie foods primarily consisting of fat, you can control how many calories go into your mouth! Enough said. Moving on…

d) Eat for health, not just weight loss – It is important to eat a balanced diet that has an adequate amount of macronutrients, vitamins & minerals, and plenty of water. The three macronutrients are protein, carbohydrate, and fat, and you need a combination of all three. Some people may need more of one than another depending on how active or sedentary their lifestyles are, as well as their fitness goals. It is a good idea to try to get as many of your vitamins and minerals as you can straight from the source – i.e. fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Most doctors also recommend taking a daily multi-vitamin. You should also drink a good amount of water, approximately 64 ounces a day or more depending on your activity level during the day.

e) Eat for life, not just for the short-term – Someone recently said to me, “We’re in a marathon, not a race”, and that made so much sense to me. I have a strong conviction that many of the health problems and diseases in this country are either directly or indirectly related to our food choices over the span of our lifetime. Therefore, we should be more concerned with making healthy food choices each and every day, not just for a few weeks here and there. It’s a quality of life issue. It is very true; we are what we eat.