Diet and Health

You are almost there.  There is just one more thing and not everyone will need to do it, only those of us that have bad habits.  You must stop all of your bad habits.  Now you do not need to stop all of your bad habits at one time.  Just one step at a time.  Also, you do not want to tell yourself that you can never do these things again.  You need to maintain mental control over yourself.  Tell yourself that you can do them, but you just do not want to do them today.

Bad habits that should be quit are:  smoking of any kind - smoking is a death sentence for you and your loved ones, junk food such as soda and donuts - cause obesity which leads to death, dwelling on negative things - stress is also a killer, eating fast food - once again a killer.

You can do it, I know you can.  Diet and weight loss are easy tasks to take on to save your life.  It is much easier to diet and lose weight than it is to have surgery or worse die and leave your loved ones without you.

 Take your health seriously, save your life today.

Congratulations!  If you have come this far you are now eating healthier and exercising on a regular basis.  Keep up the good work.  Now it the time for you to keep up a positive mental attitude.  Don’t be discouraged if you miss a day exercising or eat too much at a party.  Just get right back on the wagon and keep going.  Come up with a positive, motivating mantra for yourself such as “I know I can” or “Just keep moving”.  Use this mantra to keep your mind clear of negative thoughts. 

To help keep your mind positive avoid talking about your diet or weight loss plans with negative individuals.  The last thing you need is someone raining on your parade.  Just allow them to see the results.  Soon they will see you lean and strong and they will ask you how you got that way.  People that are naysayers could thwart your entire progress.  Avoid them!

If negative thoughts about problems or issues you have in your life keep popping up in your mind.  Erase them.   Visualize that your mind is a large chalk board and the negative thoughts are written on the chalk board.  Now imagine yourself with an eraser, erasing all of the negative thoughts.  Do this everytime the negative thoughts pop into your head.  There is no need for you to dwell on anything, it never helps and it can actually hurt you.  Stress kills and it ruins your motivation for continuing with your new healthy lifestyle.  Hakuna Matata! No worries!

After you have cleaned out your kitchen and started eating healthy, the next thing you will want to do is add exercise.  You will need to exercise a minimum of three days a week.  Optimally you would want to exercise five days per week, but you can work up to that amount.

SLOW START PROGRAM - If you are not in shape, you can start slowly.  You may want to consult a doctor before starting any exercise program.  Start by walking just five minutes per day, three days per week.  Slowly increase until you are walking 45-60 minutes per day, five days per week.

REGULAR START PLAN - If you are in reasonable shape and have recently spoken with your doctor about starting and exercise plan, you should be able to walk 30 minutes per day, three days per week, gradually increasing until you are walking 60 minutes per day, five days per week.

Next you will want to add some weight training.  There are things that you can do even if you do not have access to weights, you can do lunges, squats and crunches.  If you do have dumbells, you can learn various arm exercises.  Slowly increase your weight training until you are weight training for at least 30 minutes, three days per week.

To change your lifestyle, feel better and live longer you will need to start some new habits.  To set yourself up for success you will need to learn some new recipes.

Find recipes for all of the new healthy products you wil be eating such as barley, wholegrain pasta, brown rice, etc.  Add healthy fish, such as salmon and plenty of fruits and vegetables. 

You do not need to stress yourself out by telling yourself that you cannot have the things you used to eat.  Just slowly cut them out of your diet.  If you are eating healty 90% of the time and you slip in a donut every once in a while, you will still be doing better that you were before.  It is all about having mental control over yourself.  When you tell yourself you can’t have something, your brain starts to work overtime to manipulate you into having that item.  Tell yourself you can have anything you want, but you are just choosing not to have it today. 

Eventually you and your body will get used to your new diet and appreciate what it is doing for your health.  You will then not want or desire junk food any longer.

Make sure you always have plenty of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds handy for snacking so that you are not tempted by chips and junk food.  Sunflower seeds are much tastier than any kind of chip on the market.

If you have decided to get healthy, feel better and live longer, you should start today.

You will need to prepare your home for your new lifestyle.  You can set yourself up for success by cleaning out the unhealthy foods and filling your refrigerator and pantry with healthy foods and snacks.

 You can start by removing all items that have high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils out of your refrigerator and cupboards.  These items are so unhealthy they should be thrown away.  High fructose corn syrup leads to high blood sugars, diabetes and obesity.  Hydrogenated oils leads to plaque build up in the arteries, heart disease and eventually death.

You should also stop buying all white flour products and switch to whole grains.  If you have white flour breads, white rice, instant or rolled oatmeal and white pasta, you can finish what you have in your cupboards but do not buy anymore.  You should only be eating whole grains and steel cut oats or groats.

Whole grains are healthier for your body because they help your body to process foods better.  They keep things like your blood sugar properly balanced.

Whole grain items take longer to cook.  Pasta cooks in about the same amound of time, but brown rice takes about 50 minutes to cook and steel cut oats or groats take about 30 minutes to cook.  If you are cooking your rice or oats in a shorter amount of time they are probably not healthy rice and oats.

Bread - White flour, enriched wheat flour and the likes are not healthy breads.  You need to buy a wholegrain bread.  The best are whole wheat berries or ezekiel bread.  Most likely you will not be able to find a healthy bread in the bread section of your grocery store.  You will need to buy your bread in the health food section or natural food section of the grocery store.  (I find it hilarious that only one small section of the grocery store is called the “health food” section.  Shouldn’t it all be health food?).

Rice - Sorry but, minute rice, parboiled rice or white rice is not healthy.  You should be eating brown rice.  It takes longer to make but you will quickly get used to starting it ahead of time when you are making a meal.  You can also make a large pot at the beginning of the week and serve it with many meals.  It come in long and short grain and both are healthy.

Pasta - White pasta is not healthy.  Whole grain pasta is now available in the regular pasta section of the grocery store.  You can get it in the healthfood section as well.  You can also buy pasta made of kamut or rice which are both very healthy.

Oatmeal - If you are eating instant oats or rolled oats they are not healthy.  Rolled oats are processed over and over again.  They are steamed and rolled and steamed and rolled.  All of the goodness is processed right out of them.  Steel cut oats, which are just sliced whole oats and groats, which are whole oats are the healthiest and what you should be consuming.  They take longer to make up it is worth it.  You can make a large pot at the beginning of the week.

Cereals are generally not healthy and should only be consumed in small portions.  Do not fall for the hype that Cheerios or Heart Smart or the like will lower your cholesterol.  Heart Smart has High Fructose Corn Syrup in it. (Heart Smart originally had both HFCS and partially hydrogenated oils, but they remove the oils after consumers complained.)  If you want to lower your cholesterol eat steel cut oats or groats every day.

Juices are generally not very healthy either.  It is healthier to eat a piece of fruit and drink a glass of water.  Drink juices in moderation.

Fill your refrigerator with healthy foods such as wild caught fish, fruits and vegetables and wholegrains. 

Buy fruits and vegetables in easy to snack sizes so that you are encouraged to eat them and they are always available.  Such as baby carrots, blueberries, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, etc.

Good luck!  Start today for a lifetime of healthy eating.

Unfortunately, food manufacturers use partially hydrogenated in many products.  If you are not paying attention, you are probably eating a high amount of these dangerous oils.  Partially hydrogenated oils lead to plaque build up in your arteries.  They contribute to obesity in children and adults.  Search your cupboards and remove all partially hydrogenated oils from your home.

Partially hydrogenated are used at many restaurants and fast food restaurants.  Ask whether your meal contains them and let the restaurant know that you will not be coming back until they stop using them.  There are so many restaurants using hydrogenated oils it will be difficult for you to find one that does not use them. 

It is time to clean out your cupboards and throw away everything that has High Fructose Corn Syrup or HFCS. The corn industry has been running a huge campaign to convince Americans that HFCS is not harmful. That is a lie. They say that it is almost the same as sugar. I think they are talking about the taste only. High Fructose Corn Syrup is not just like sugar. HFCS is processed differently in your body. It bypasses the normal body functions of going through the liver and the pancreas and goes directly to the bloodstream. This fact makes it highly dangerous. It is one of the key contributors to childhood obesity, childhood type 2 diabetes, adult obesity and adult type 2 diabetes. Throw out everything in your refrigerator, freezer and pantry that has HFCS in it.

written by Mitestarossa 

Cauliflower has such a mild taste that your kids will not even notice it and it is a white translucent color that they will not be able to see.

PREPARE THE CAULIFLOWER AHEAD - Steam the cauliflower and then mash it up with a hand potato masher. You can freeze or refrigerate them if you have extras. You will only be able to camouflage a small amount, possibly up to a 1/4 cup in your child’s food.

BAKED POTATO - Prepare your potato by baking it in the oven for about 50 minutes until soft or in the microwave for about 6 minutes. Mash the potato while still in the skin and hot. Add in butter and salt for flavor. Then add in as much mashed cauliflower as possible without it becoming too noticeable.

RICE - Prepare your rice as per the package instructions or steamer instructions. I prefer wholegrain brown rice, it’s healthier. Mix about 1/4 cup mashed cauliflower. My kids like ketchup or soy sauce on their rice, which further camouflages the cauliflower, add a sauce if needed.

OATMEAL - Prepare the oatmeal per manufacturers instructions. Preferably steel cut oats. You can make a big pot at the beginning of the week and refrigerate it until you need it. Heat up only the amount you need each day. Mix in some of the mashed cauliflower, try for approximately 25% of the total meal.  Garnish with honey or sugar if needed.

If your child will eat cauliflower without the above camouflages it is the healthiest. Try cooking it in a lot of butter or cheese to make it pleasing and add salt if needed.

written by Mitestarossa 

It is time to clean out your kitchen and make it healthy. It is very difficult to stay healthy with a kitchen filled with your favorite treats, no fruits and vegetables and unhealthy standards. Throw out the bad and start buying the good if you want to make any progress in your health.

THROW AWAY ANYTHING WITH (Partially or not) HYDROGENATED OILS - I am not a scientist so I can not even begin to tell you how terrible these oils are for your health and well being, but I will say that they contribute significantly to plaque building up in your arteries, obesity and heart disease.

THROW AWAY ANYTHING WITH HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP - Recently I have seen ads on television claiming that HFCS is the same as sugar and has the same effects. Don’t be fooled by these lies. HFCS bypasses your body’s natural process through your pancreas and liver and goes straight to your blood stream. This is very bad for your system and contributes to weight gain, obesity and getting diabetes.  IT IS NOT THE SAME AS SUGAR, learn for yourself. Sugar is much healthier for your body.

DOCTORS WILL TELL YOU - DON’T BUY ON THE INNER ISLES OF THE GROCERY STORE - You know the places where all of the packaged foods are. Avoid these areas. The healthy areas are around the outer isles of the store, such as the meat and poultry department, bakery, produce, and dairy.

CUT OUT CEREALS - This is a tough one because cereal manufacturers want you to think that cereal is healthy.  Well, I guess if you compare them to donuts, they are healthier.  Cereals and instant oatmeals are very high in sugar. I am not sure if there is such as thing as a cereal that is healthy, which is what the manufacturers want you to believe. Any health benefits are lost with the high sugar content in cereals and instant oatmeal.

EAT STEEL CUT OATS or GROATS, NOT ROLLED OATS - Rolled oats (Quaker Oats) are processed over and over again, taking out most of the goodness of the wholegrain. I know that steel cut oats take much longer to cook, but they are worth it and you can prepare a large amount ahead of time to save yourself the trouble and then just heat it up each morning. If you are preparing your oats in less than 30 minutes, most likely they are not the healthy variety.

EAT WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT BREAD - Most of the breads on the shelves at the grocery store are not healthy, just look at the ingredients, I don’t care what they call themselves. Buy your bread in the healthfood section of the grocery store. Sprouted wheatberries are the healthiest. Isn’t it strange that there is only a small section of the grocery store called the healthfood section. The whole store should be healthy food, right?. Ironic isn’t it?

BUY WHOLEGRAIN BROWN RICE - Not white parboiled rice. Sorry, no more minute rice for the new healthy you. If your rice takes less than 50 minutes to cook, then it is not the healthy brown rice variety.

That flat belly will come with an overhaul of your entire body. Regular exercise (even in small amounts) and eating healthy will help you to achieve this goal.

EAT HEALTHY - Don’t eat anything that has high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils. High fructose corn syrup bypasses your body’ s normal processing system and goes straight to your blood stream. This increases your chances of obesity and diabetes. Have a lot of healthy food on hand so that it is easy for you to eat healthy. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains. You are worth it!

EXERCISE REGULARLY - Even if you have to start out small, 5 minutes of walking, it does make a difference. Gradually increase the amount of time to 45-60 minutes of walking per day. That’s right, every day! Then start a weight lifting program.

CONCENTRATE - Working on your abs will help. There are many different kinds of crunches you can do so you don’t get bored. Double crunches, reverse crunches, etc. Also, tightening up your abs can be done anywhere at anytime. I tighten up my abs while driving and try to hold it for as long as possible. It really does help.

GET SUPPORT - Track your progress online at sites like mydailyplate.com and livestrong.com It is great to support others while helping yourself.