BY CHARLOTTE WEBSTER
Managing your weight with a healthy diet is a useful and not so difficult exercise. All it takes is discipline and understanding. Understanding that certain foods are bad for you, calls for the discipline to apply the knowledge you have.
A healthy diet puts you in the right frame of mind, supports your mood, and effectively maintains your weight. You are what you eat. Healthy eating equates thinking right, acting right, and therefore feeling and being right. Good food is an antidote for stress, and enables the individual to address situations with a sober judgment. For women, it actually also eases the symptoms of menopause. Committing to a healthy diet will help you look and feel , think, and look your best.
Every time you resist the temptation to eat a yummy pizza, it directs you thoughts to a nice plate of Salmon fish with vegetables instead. You are a unique being, therefore your body responds to different foods differently. Some people don’t like fish, though it is worth identifying the precise reason you have this particular dislike. It may be connected to a childhood repulsion to the bones in the particular type of fish you ate at an earlier stage in life, perhaps in your childhood, You may want to experiment on other types of fish that have no bones. Don’t self impose a blanket ban on fish unless your body is particularly allergic to fish.
Diets low in sugar, refined carbs, vegetables, and high quality sources of protein are good for the mind and body. Every time you are drawn to that KFC where you frequently stop for chips and fried chicken, remind yourself that discipline and wisdom requires that you wait to get home and cook a healthy meal. Even if you feel hungry, convince yourself that it is better to buy a salad meal and an apple until you get home. The denial of your usual vices that drives you to immediately attend to hunger with the nearest available munch that will satisfy your hunger is not the answer. Travel home with a relatively light stomach and sit to a healthy plate of go good full, without filling the plate up. Moderation in everything is key, and keeping the mind active with positive thoughts of progress and solution strategies to address any other lurking issues in your life, is the best way forward.
REFINED CARBS
Always remember that refined or simple carbs like white rice, white bread, or all products of white flour, are simply taking you backwards in terms of where you should be. Strive to form good habits of eating because you will be the beneficiary of the associated rewards. Refined carbs can easily lead to a dramatic spike in blood sugar, leading to an ugly cycle of feeling hungry and being prone to overeating. Controlling what you eat and how often you eat, is an important sign of maturity in the development of a person. Individuals can be mature in other areas of their lives, ideal standards of maturity require that we take a mature approach to every aspect of our lives. Eating unhealthily is like a person working hard, buying a nice car and a nice house, but driving recklessly and leaving the big nice house in a mess often.
The discipline and practice of eating healthily and managing your weight with a healthy diet, is an invaluable quality to have. If you don’t have that discipline, those who do are better developed than you in that area, to your shame. The good news is that it is never too late to start eating healthily, all it takes is determination, understanding, and consistency. Even if it means preparing a healthy packed lunch for work the night before, it is worth the effort. Don’t be a sheep and follow your work colleagues to indulge in unhealthy living, because everyone has different paths at different stages of their lives. Be motivated and inspired by those you see eating healthily, because they have come to a realization that everyone really should have come to.
Many women consume more sugar and refined carbs than recommended, but reducing the amount of starches, candy, and desserts is only part of the solution. Sugar is hidden in lots of foods, including canned soups and vegetables, pasta sauce, margarine, frozen dinners, and many foods labelled “low fat” or “reduced fat.”
Always opt for food and liquid with no added sugar. Make it a practice to always read the nutritional breakdown of everything you buy in the shops. Avoid all soda and energy drinks, and also sugary teas and coffee drinks. Soda drinks contains 10-12 teaspoons of sugar, an equivalent of 150 calories. Don’t be fooled by diet cokes and other diet drinks that advertise no sugar; they generally contain artificial sweeteners that contain hidden sugars, and they also trigger sugar cravings. There is a direct correlation between consumption of sugar and weight gain. Beat sugar, and your life will be sweet.
REGULAR BUT SMALL MEALS
Some people have lost weight by starving themselves of food over long periods of weeks or months. This sometimes works, but is not the best way to manage your weight with a healthy diet. It is better to have something in your stomach, even if the food is light. However, it is ironically better to starve yourself than to eat unhealthy food. Very long periods between meals can make you feel weak, irritable and demotivated. A breakfast consisting of a healthy cereal with minimal sugar, one slice of brown bread and and a boiled egg without the yoke is a good morning start. Yes, fried eggs probably do, looks, smells, and tastes better, but say no! If you love the smell of the onions and ingredients you add to you fried eggs, use those same ingredients on your salad meal, but turn your back on fried food as much as possible.
Some good fats known as Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are good for the body. The latter include fats found in food like olive oil, avocados, almonds and hazzlenut(bit not cashew nuts or peanuts), sardines, fish like herring, mackerel and others.
Bad fats, also known as trans fat increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Managing your weight with a healthy diet means that you stay away from all bad fat, and make a habit to do so.
