|  SIMPLE NUTRITION TIPS
I love talking about nutrition with all my clients. I understand, first hand, the battle to lose weight. What I stress to my clients is that they cannot go on a "diet". Diet's don't work, period! The key is to change your lifestyle to incorporate healthy eating and this coupled with exercise will give you the results you want. Remember, almost 80% of your success is diet, so the bottomline is, you can workout all day long if you want, but until you change your eating, you will not see all your hard work. That being said, I will give you some of my tips to get you started. - Nothing happens overnight. In order to change your diet, you need to do it slowly. By this I mean, rather than cutting out everything at once, cut out one thing at a time and replace it with something healthy. For example, if you eat "white" anything, start by changing everything to whole wheat. I'm not telling you not to eat it at all, just modify it. Next week change something else. If you eat a night time snack that you can't seem to do without, focus on making that one snack healthier, or doing away with it all together. Make that your goal for the next week. My point is, if you tackle one or two things at a time, within a couple weeks, you've cut out 10 things without even realizing it. If you do this, over time, you will be able to change your diet without ever going on a "diet". Its a lifestyle change that doesn't have to feel like a punishment, because you did it gradually.
- You must eat to lose weight. What I mean by this is you cannot starve yourself and expect to melt the pounds away. I don't care what common sense says, it does not work! Your body adapts to circumstances and the bottomline is, if you suddenly reduce calories, your body goes into starvation mode and hoards the excess calories you've already stored in you fat cells. It also slows down your metabolism, which means that when you go off the diet, you will likely gain back all the weight, plus excess weight you wouldn't have gained had you not gone on the diet in the first place. In short, dieting slows down your metabolism exacerbating the problem you were trying to fix in the first place.
- Eat frequently. You can pick up any nutrition article, magazine, etc. and it will tell you to eat 5-6 small meals a day. While I agree with eating more often, I hesitate telling people to eat this often. It makes sense for the person who has impeccable eating habits and understands portion control, but for the normal person, I don't think this is the case. To tell someone to eat that often tends to backfire when you're trying to lose weight. My suggestion is to eat three small meals a day and one, maybe two snacks a day. The three meals should be small and they should consist of high quality, nutrient-dense food, including lean protein, fruits and vegetables. I usually recommend a snack at the tough time between lunch and dinner (3-4:00). That seems to be the time people struggle the most and this will keep them satisfied until dinner.
- Eat lean protein which includes chicken breast, turkey breast, fish, egg whites, non-fat cottage cheese, to name a few. Eating protein is extremely important for a number of reasons: 1) It helps build more muscle mass, especially when consumed right after a workout. 2) It makes you full for a longer period of time and therefore, keeps you from overeating. 3) It is more difficult for the body to digest than other nutrients, thereby increasing your metabolism, as it needs more energy to breakdown the food. So, in short, I suggest eating some form of lean protein at each meal.
- Eat fiber. There are numerous benefits associated with dietary fiber including lower cholesterol, reduced risk of heart disease, and improved absorption of minerals and other nutrients. In addition, fiber slows down the digestion porcess, which helps you control your appetite and cravings, as well as it helps you feel fuller delaying hunger from one meal to the next.
- Stay away from processed or junk foods, period! Next time you're in the supermarket, take a look at the ingredients in these foods and see if you can pronounce any of them. Not only have these chemicals in the food been linked to a range of diseases, the chemical food-substitutes are loaded with sodium, trans fats, processed grains, and refined sugars, all of which are going to sabotage your efforts in losing weight.
- Plan your meals. It is important to try to have a game plan regarding what you are going to eat for the day. I always try to figure out my meals for the day, at the start of my day. It keeps my eating under control because Im thinking about everything I put in my mouth. If it was not part of my menu for the day, I'm less likely to eat it just because it's there. It basically keeps you organized with regard to what and how you'll eat and it keeps you thinking about it, so you're less likely to slip up.
- FInally, my last tip is portion control. This is ,in essence, the key to weight loss. The bottomline is simply, you want to burn more calories than you take in. So, yes, eat more often, but eat smaller portions. For a guage of portions sizes, use your fist for a serving of protein, 1/2 cup for dairy, and a handful for most other foods. I hope my tips were helpful.
If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to contact me at RMullin66@hotmail.com. Good luck! | | | |