If you are one of the many that feel that they can’t give up the foods that they love no matter what, there are several key things for you to address. Don’t worry, they aren’t all bad! First, find out why it is that you can’t give them up. Once you are able to ascertain the reason, you can get the solution also as you will continue to keep in mind that you wish to keep yourself physically and mentally fit. - Are you connected with that big slice of apple pie because it was your favorite growing up, you may have an emotional attachment to the foods.
- If you love your mashed potatoes loaded with gravy, sour cream and butter just because you love the taste, that’s a different story.
Identifying why you have to have a specific food is important so that you can actually see the benefits of eating those foods. If you need apple pie to feel safe, you need to address this emotional problem. If you just love the taste, you can find ways to get much of the same taste without a lot of the calories.
Next, determine if there is a better way for you to get the foods that you like. For example, will sweetened sweet potatoes that are mashed still give you the same texture and creaminess that you are craving? By making small changes to the recipe you can get all of the flavor and texture that you want without causing yourself to become a victim of high fats and sugars that really do a number on your entire system.
Indeed you may want that slice of apple pie. But, use it in a different way. For example, instead of eating it every few days make it the reward that you get for a week of good eating. Limiting how often you get the treats means that you don’t have to give them up but that you don’t consume nearly as much of it, and therefore you can improve your health overall.
One limit to this is when the food itself is detrimental to your health condition. If you are a diabetic, you simply should not eat foods that are overall sweet because they can cause your blood sugar level to rise so fast that you can cause serious damage to your brain and your heart through the consumption of just some foods.
You should know what types of foods you can not eat. If you don’t know you should talk to your doctor about this. There are certain times in life that foods become prime suspects to leading to health risks. Food isn’t worth the risk of your life, is it?
How Can You Improve?
The awful, limiting diet that’s going to make your taste buds go permanently bland is up next, right? NO! You don’t have to be limited by what you can eat because most food that is available that is in its natural state is just fine for you! In fact, if you give it a try you may find that you like these foods better than you do the high fat, high cholesterol foods that you currently are eating.
Actually, foods are a main part of why people are unhealthy and therefore, it is a mandatory part of improving your health to improve your diet. If you can not commit to making changes here, your diet fitness can threaten your life through disease and even early death.
Yet, much of the damage that is done through eating the wrong foods can be reversed over time by eating a healthy diet. That’s exactly what you need to strive for here.
We’ve already talked about what foods you need to eat for a healthy diet, now you need to consider how you will make changes that you can actually live with. Here are several key areas to make changes and exactly how you should make them. Don’t fret about the foods you love, remember moderation is the key factor in real diet fitness health.
Heart Health
Improving your heart’s health is essential. If you take non-veg, you may eat lean cuts of meat. Paying attention to the amount of saturated fats in the food you eat is also key to improving your health and well being.
In addition, there are various foods that can help you to improve your hearts health. For example, replacing the vegetable oil in your diet with olive oil, in moderation can improve your health. Garlic is a great antioxidant for your heart too. Reducing the amount of sodium that you take in is also a key factor in improving health. Instead of using a lot of salt, try other flavor additions to your dishes.
1. Consume more fish. You should try to consume at least 2 to 3 servings of fish per week. Or take a supplement of fish oil.
2. Eat unrefined whole grains as they add fiber to your diet which reduced your cholesterol and keeps you feeling full.
Improving Health Risks
Another very powerful tool that you have when it comes to diet fitness is that of improving your health through the foods that you eat. Your weapon is that of antioxidants!
Antioxidants are powerful nutrients that are in fruits and vegetables. A good way to know if they are in the foods that you are eating is to look at the color of the food. The darker, richer and brighter the color is, the more antioxidants are in it.
Antioxidants can help to transform your health. They can help to repair damage to cells throughout your body and thereby make you look and feel younger. They can help to unclog your heart’s arteries from cholesterol. And, they help to remove toxins from your body which means a reduction in risks of cancer.
Using antioxidants for your overall health is a key factor in improving your health! While you can get many of them through supplements, you should instead consider getting them from whole foods as they are richer as well as tastier that way!
Eat Whole Foods
One of the best things that you can do for your health is to eat whole foods rather than foods that are pre-made. Yes, you are in a hurry and who has time to chop up vegetables? Well, there are reasons why an investment in a bit more time here can literally save your life.
Many foods that are pre-made contain high amounts of preservatives, or products that are placed in foods to keep them fresh and looking good. Some of these preservatives can clog up your heart, can lead to increased health risks for cancer and they put the pounds on.
The trick you should follow, then, is to visit your grocery store and walk around the outside aisles only as much as possible. No boxed dinners, no frozen entrees. The produce section is your friend filled with riches. Meats, milks, eggs and other fresh products usually line the walls of the building. Avoid the aisles and you’ll improve your health overall.
Overall Diet Fitness Plan
Does this sound like a lot of work? Don’t worry; we’ll make it simpler for you. Here are the tips that you need to get your diet fitness plan off the ground and allowing you to improve your health considerably!
1. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Visit your favorite recipe sites on the web and look for vegetable recipes that aren’t rich with sauces, butter or creams. Add one new recipe to your diet each week.
2. Start looking for leaner cuts of meat. Remember, meats that are high in saturated fat are clogging your heart. One good switch is with ground meats. Don’t reach for beef, but replace at least part of it with ground turkey or pork. You won’t notice the taste difference. Eat more fish, chicken and pork over beef.
3. Reduce portion sizes. No food in one sitting should be a larger quantity than the size of your palm. To help you to not feel hungry, eat a bit slower.
4. Visit the website of the American Heart Association to get heart healthy recipes. Try to look for ways to improve your current recipes through replacing butters, salts, unhealthy foods with foods that are better for you. Look at your grains. Replace white rice and pasta with whole grain. Replace white bread with whole grain bread.
5. Remove soda from your diet. This single movement alone will improve your health considerably. It adds weight to your body and it causes all types of health risks later in life.
6. Look at labels. Learn to read labels so that they tell you what’s in the foods you eat. Reduce the amount of fat, cholesterol, and sugars in the foods that you eat.
If you need to lose weight, then you need to consider a calorie reduction. Dropping just a small amount of weight means that you need to eat less and do more physically. There is no fad diet that is more comprehensively safer and effective than just that: eat less and get more exercise every day.
Eating healthy isn’t an option if you wish to increase your lifespan and increase your health. While you may love food, learning to make healthier recipes shouldn’t be something you put on the back burner because you are too busy, don’t like those foods (you probably don’t know what they taste like anyway!) or you think its too much work.
Food is a requirement to living and a healthy diet is an essential part of living a long life. Don’t make sacrifices here for speed, convenience or habit. Remember; while making changes at first is a challenge, you will get into the habit and will eventually love the differences you have made, I can assure you!
Be Happy - Keep Yourself Physically and Mentally Fit (Part 4)
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