FOOD & NUTRITION
ITS NOT THE SIZE OF FOOD. ITS THE CALORIES & FAT IN IT
Its very important to know this. I see people make this mistake all the time. They confuse the size of food with how much fat or unhealthy it is. For example a 2lb watermelon may have 90-100 calories. while a chocolate chip Muffin is 650 calories. Or a Chocolate Donut is 360 calories. If you have 2 chocolate donuts thats 720 calories. Even 2 chocolate chip cookie can contain 80-120 calories. See how small cookies are. This is how people easily add too much calories & too much fat into their diet. The human mind sees a small cookie & thinks oh its small I can eat 8 of these. But you've just eating around 960 calories & sugar & fat. Then you add a Soda or a sugary drink which may only say 97 calories or 120 calories. But then remember Sugar turns to Fat. So if you drink a lot of sugary drinks that are low in Calories but high in sugar its like drinking a glass of Fat. This is why doctors, nutritionist & fitness trainers always recommend you drink water & in moderation Natural juices, ie: Apple juice, Cranberry juice, Orange juice, ( IN MODERATION) meaning half a glass maybe twice a day. But through out the day you should be drinking a lot of water. Because the only thing all of those high fructose sugary drinks are doing is adding Fat & sugar into your diet which is unhealthy can lead to diabetes & heart problems. SO its very crucial to understand the nutritional benefits of food. Not the size of it, As you see a 2 lb watermelon will fill you up. & be low in calories & fat. Yet a small cookie will not fill you up. But will be high in Fat & calories. Which is not good when trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy diet & weight size.
THE PALEO DIET, SORTA....
The Paleo diet has been very much talked about lately in certain social circles I've been traveling in. This lead me naturally to wanting to try it for my self. First & foremost let me give you a quick definition or idea of what the Paleo diet is & what it consist of
Paleo Diet Definition: is an effort to eat like we used to back in the day…WAY back in the day. If a caveman couldn't eat it, neither can you. This means anything we could hunt or find – meats, fish, nuts, leafy greens, regional veggies, and seeds.
If this is the definition that we accept & adhere to, then obviously bread, rice, & many other things are immediately cut from our diet. The problem is that many people including my self have become accustomed to foods like bread, rice & can you believe CORN is something that many Paleo dieters claim shouldn't be eaten.
To make a long story as short as possible, I tried the diet being very strict for about 1 month. After nearly losing my mind trying to figure out if I should eat that or eat this & spending a lot of time googling Paleo diet do's & don'ts. I finally decided that the diet was indeed working in aiding me to lose body fat. This was because with rice bread, cookies, brownies, potato chips ( pretty much snack foods) & liquids like soda, sugary drinks & excess sugar being absent from my diet & introducing more veggies, fruits & lean meats ( stay away from processed meats like bologna, sausage, processed ham etc... ) It allowed me to become leaner & decrease body fat. It was also easy to replace those snack foods with new healthier things to snack on, ie: Almonds, natural plantain chips. However I realized I could not spend the rest of my life googling if I should eat this or limiting my self completely from foods I grew up with. This is where the SORT OF comes in play.
I decided I would stay on the diet & make it a new lifestyle choice. So it went from a diet I was trying to a lifestyle. These are 2 very different things. I also said to myself if I'm going to make this a lifestyle I would have to tweak it a little. To make it a whole lot simpler, I stopped googling every thing before I ate it. I made up in my mind. If its green or a vegetable I would eat it. I also started to eat Legumes in moderation Which were forbidden on the strict Paleo diet. I stayed true to The basic principles. NO BREAD, NO RICE, NO SODA, NO SUGARY DRINKS. As far as I could with out over thinking I ate things that were more natural & unprocessed. The most important thing at least for me was at least once a month I gave myself permission to have a cheat day. One day a month where I could eat anything I wanted like Bread, cookies, pizza, burgers , fries Milk shakes etc... This helped me get the cravings out & kept me on track & disciplined to continue the new lifestyle. I felt like I was staying the course but not completely depriving my self. So, obviously I think the Paleo diet is great whether youre hardcore & 100% strict. Or you tweak a little to better suit you. As long as you adhere to the basic principles & don't forget to work out have plenty of healthy physical activity. I think like me, you'll find that its a great lifestyle.
before & after
before & after
No comments:
Post a Comment