A Personal Trainer's Guide to Eating Healthier Foods

America abounds with hundreds of food choices including fruits and vegetables, a variety of meats and an enormous variety of prepared foods and fast foods. Due to technology and advancements in foods of convenience it is easy to have a complete meal ready in 15 minutes or less by placing it in the microwave. If you do not choose to go home for a meal it is possible to visit one of the thousands of available restaurants. Yet, more Americans are over-weight and in poor health than ever before due to the eating of foods that lack necessary nutrients for a healthy life. Is it due to our modern diet based on fast foods and convenient foods? Is it due to our stressed and hurried lifestyles that result in not wanting to exercise but rather sit in front of the TV and "veg out"? Or do we simply not know what we should be eating to perform at our best levels? How can we know what is healthy and what's not healthy?

We receive all kinds of advice daily on what we should be eating, what diet is the right one and even how much sugar and fat we need in our diets. There are many advertisements on TV and in magazines assuring us that their plan is the right one. Our friends and families and even our doctors make suggestions. How do we know which foods or which diet is right? Eating healthier simply means eating the foods that will strengthen your body and provide necessary nutrients such as minerals, vitamins, fiber and carbohydrates. These foods are those found in nature such as fruits and vegetables and lean meats.

It is more convenient at times to grab fast food or convenience foods due to our sometime fast-paced, hectic and stressful lifestyles. We determine to do better and start eating better by watching our sugar and fat intake and by eating more nutritious foods. Then something happens to get us off track and we fall back into our old routine of fast food. Don't give up. Promise yourself you will do better at the next meal. We all make mistakes. Be encouraged and learn from your mistake. Realize that many times we view food as our friend and a source of comfort. Sometimes it is necessary to distance ourselves from such friends that can do us harm.

Make a plan of action. First thing in your plan of action should be a way to get rid of all foods that are putting on the pounds and not providing nutritional value. Rid your kitchen shelves, your purse or briefcase, the drawer in your desk at work, your car and any other area where you have a "secret stash" of "comfort food". If you do not rid yourself of these things you will be tempted to return to such foods any time you need comfort, encouragement or support. Food that is our friend can also be our worst enemy.

Next, place good food and wholesome snacks into your personal space. For instance, put these snacks within easy reach while you are watching TV, playing video games or talking on the phone. At work place them where you can grab them for a quick "pick me-up". When preparing foods for meals prepare extra amounts that you can divide up to be used for other meals during the week. This will save time and will always assure that you have good food on hand. It will help when temptation comes to grab fast food because you are too tired to cook.

Keeping a food journal can help keep you focused on what you are eating. Record what you eat each day, including snacks. After each meal record the items that you have eaten. This will help you to see if you are eating foods that are providing the nutritional needs for each day. It will also be an encouragement to you as you look back over your journal and realize the progress you have made.

Make a goal to eat well balanced meals. Use meal times to relax from the pressures of the world. Take time to taste and smell your food. Make it an enjoyable occasion. Include fresh vegetables in your meals daily. Vegetables can be grilled, eaten raw, steamed and eaten in soups or drinks. Experiment and see what is best for you. Variety keeps boredom and monotony at bay.

Along with vegetables it is advisable to include lean meat and a small hand full of nuts or seeds. Drink plenty of clean, filtered water and cook with coconut oil. Limit or avoid most convenient, packaged and processed foods. A daily supplement of Omega3 fish oil is also suggested by many.

As you become more conscious of what you are eating you will also become more conscious of changes in your life. You will see improvement in your weight and your energy levels. You will sleep better and develop more mental clarity. Nutritious foods supply your body with fuel that in turn helps your body to function correctly that helps it to produce good blood pressure, healthy bones,shiny hair and beautiful nails. Recognize that only you can take control of your life and health. It is your choice. Let your food choices be true friends and not fair-weather friends that end up doing you harm.

Simple Carbs Are Not So Simple for Your Body

Let's get the boring yet necessary science out of the way shall we? Carbohydrates are one of the macronutrients that your body needs to survive. Along with protein and fats, carbs are part of the building blocks for every cell and therefore function in your body. Moreover, just like everything else in our lives, carbohydrates are classified into two types: Complex and Simple. The difference in each is the number of sugar molecules (I promise not to be this techy next time) in the chain. For example, simple carbs have only one or two sugars while complex carbs have three or more sugars. Therefore, it makes sense that the complex carbs will take much longer to break down and digest while just the opposite is true for simple carbs, they absorb and are digested very quickly. You need both however, it's the source and how much you get that matters.

Simple carbs, a.k.a SUGAR are most notoriously known in the obvious like candy, soda, and fruit "juices". But it is also very important to understand the simple carbs are also known as white, bleached, enriched flours, white rice, white pasta, (notice a connection yet?), and alcohol. Well doesn't that just suck! Yes, it does. Really it does. Most of us were raised on this type of diet. We were just fine with it during our younger years but in our thirties and beyond we may just notice uh, changes in ourselves. "Unexplained" changes. Sugar is also in fruit, vegetables, and milk. So if we are eating these things throughout our days then we are getting enough simple carbs in our diet. Anything in excess is well, just that, excess and will be stored as fat in the body. Does this mean you should give up your fruit for some candy? I won't even answer that one. Fruit, veggies and yes-even milk (I have mixed feelings about dairy that I discuss in other articles) have important nutrients associated with them. Eliminating them in your diet uh... Atkins, will be robbing your body of precious nutrients needed.

Complex carbs are things like whole grains; "whole" meaning the entire grain is intact therefore providing essential nutrition, brown rice, some veggies like broccoli, and legumes that consist of peas, lentils, etc. Complex grains take longer to absorb in the body and therefore doesn't create a spike in your blood sugar. Simple carbs do. Since they are absorbed quickly, they will create elevated blood sugars quickly, working the pancreas extra hard as this organ must deliver insulin to help stabilize your blood sugar. In addition, take the glucose to areas of the body that need it and deliver all the excess to the liver where it's stored as fat and is responsible for causing the liver to produce more cholesterol. What? Sugar is also responsible for high cholesterol? Who knew...

A diet high in sugar is a huge concern for us right now because most everything has sugar in it. Sugar is mostly disguised as high-fructose corn syrup or just corn syrup. A very cheap, highly stable concoction that was founded in the 1970s. A great invention for food manufacturers (long shelf life, cheap alternative to sugar, just a little bit needed which is VERY sweet) but a devastating one for human health. At this moment sugar is the leading cause of obesity and "Adult-onset" Type II diabetes (in quotations because children as young as five are found with symptoms of this debilitating disease). It's also responsible for internal inflammation - this is a topic for a later date as inflammation is the main contributor for a whole host of issues in the body including cancer and almost all autoimmune diseases.

Sugar affects your mood. Have you ever noticed you feel completely awesome after you eat a Snickers bar and wash it down with some Mountain Dew? I know I always did. We received that sugar "high" but as Newton so fantastically put it, "what goes up must come down". That awful crash you felt about an hour later was due to the outpour of insulin your body just put out to help stabilize your blood sugar. Now you're tired, cranky, moody, and irritable. It's just not worth that high. What most people do in that situation is reach for more sugar. Sounds just like a drug addict. In reality sugar acts just like a drug and there really are "sugar addicts" out there. Are you one?

What now? Here are the top five ways to make sure you aren't in sugar excess and you stay that way.

1.) Avoid white sugar. Try to stick with the natural sweeteners like raw honey, brown rice syrup, blue agave syrup, maple syrup, and stevia. Be careful however, with the syrups. They contain a lot of fructose and you must use those sparingly. Once you begin to get the white stuff out of your system and your taste buds have returned to normal, you may just find you don't want things so sweet and enjoy eating foods in their natural state.

2.) Avoid white flour. This is a hard one since it includes all of the pastries, bagels, doughnuts, cakes, cupcakes, pies, breads, and the list goes on. There are really no substitutions here. You will need to reduce these items before you completely eliminate them. For these it's best to just say no!

3.) Say no to the booze. Alcohol is pretty much fermented sugar. When you ferment sugar, you create alcohol. Moderation is the key however; I am not trying to take away all your fun. I want you to be aware of this fact and if it's sugar you want to stay away from then you must include all alcohol.

4.) Now white rice has very little sugar and actually, brown rice has more. It's the fact that rices both brown and white contain mostly carbohydrates so you want to limit the amount. I have no problem with eating rice and as we all know neither do the healthiest people on the planet Okinawa's population. But you must choose the healthier of the two, the one that has not been stripped of all goodness and sent through the processing mill a few times over. Choose brown or whole grain rices.

5.) Reduce your dairy intake. Dairy is made up of mostly lactose. Lactose is a sugar. When you add cream to your coffee your adding sugar with your sugar. When you're eating cheese pizza, you're eating sugar on top of sugar (crust). Just be away and reduce as much as you can.

6.) Read labels. This is the most important piece of advice everyone should adhere to. As I said before sugar is in everything, even newborn formula. You must read the labels for everything that you buy. If it contains high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup or any of the other sugars, which by the way anything that ends in "OSE" is sugar, ditch it! For example maltose, dextrose, sucrose, lactose all sugars.

These not so simple yet simple in theory changes that you make will have a huge impact on your health and therefore life. Even if you can't eliminate everything, just know with each step in the right direction is a step forward aimed at a healthier and happier life. If you have children please share this information with them. It is the children that suffer greatly now and it is our responsibility to make sure they live longer than their parents as this is the first generation of children that is expected to die before them.

The Benefits of Eating Organic Food

The organic versus non-organic debate has raged for a long time. Even in the 1970s, university professors of biology were highly skeptical that there were any significant benefits of organic fruits, vegetables or meats over their non-organic counterparts.

Research in subsequent decades has put this matter to rest at least among academics. It has become clear that the nutritional profile of organic versus non-organic foods can be dramatic. Apart from the presence of pesticides, fungicides and the like which are allowed on non-organic foods and are prohibited on organic foods, one can disregard the above considerations and focus instead upon the health benefits of the food. It has been found, particularly in the past 15 years, that many trace elements are present only in organic foods and are either not present at all or present only in insignificant quantities in commercially grown foods. Absence of these trace elements over time leads to serious health problems and vitamin deficiency.

The benefits of eating organic fresh fruit and vegetables whenever possible, as opposed to non-organic, cannot be highlighted enough as they contain many of the vitamins in sufficient quantities that our body needs to function correctly. The top twelve organic fruit and vegetables to purchase are apples, celery, strawberries, peaches, spinach, nectarines, grapes, bell peppers, potatoes, blueberries, lettuce, and cherries.

With soil nowadays lacking in the vital minerals and nutrients our body needs, it is recognized that the healthiest way to eat vegetables is either in their raw state which provides the body with the minerals, fibre, enzymes and vitamins it requires, or by eating some fruits and vegetables with their peels intact due to the vitamins and minerals being located under the outer peel.

In the case of meat the differences are far more extreme. Being relatively high up the food chain from vegetable to animal culminating in predator, meat animals aggregate large amounts of toxins in their tissues, especially the fatty tissues. It will come as no surprise that most of the expensive cuts of meat tend to be high in fat or marbling content as it is called. Consuming this fat can be very unhealthy and is best kept to a minimum.

Eating a well-balanced, healthy diet is essential to helping stave off potential life-threatening diseases and health issues such as diabetes, stroke and heart disease, amongst many others. In using organic produce as part of a healthy eating regime, you are investing in your health which is the most important investment you can ever make.