Planning for Nutritional Success

Planning for Nutritional Success:

Eating well does not have to be a chore or be complicated.  Here are a few tips that I feel are the keys to eating well and feeling better.  Being nourished is about fuelling your body and supplying it with all it needs for great health and vitality.  It has nothing to do with depravation, punishment or poor taste.  In the beginning it will take some planning as you enhance your lifestyle but after a few weeks you will wonder how you could ever have eaten any differently.

NUTRITION TIPS

Ø  Eat breakfast/something within a half-hour of getting up in the morning to kick-start your metabolism.

Ø  Eat something every 2-3 hours to keep your energy levels up.  Small consistent meals through out the day will keep your blood sugar levels balanced, keep your energy up and allow your body to use the nutrients eaten and not store it.

Ø  Eat balanced meals – Have a non-starchy carbohydrate (fruit or vegetable), protein and good fat at every meal.  This will provide your body with the fuel and building blocks it needs to build a stronger, leaner and more efficient body.

Ø  Have variety in your meals.  Don’t eat the same foods all the time.  No one food gives you ALL the nutrients your body needs.  Eat a variety of heath conscious foods and fuel your body with the various micro-nutrients as well as add uniqueness to your meals.

Ø  Stop eating 2 – 3 hours before bedtime.  You need your energy in the morning when you are about to take on the day..  Not just before you lay down to go to sleep.  If you eat it and don’t use it.. it will only get stored. 

Ø  Eat foods that are natural: the closer a food is to its natural state the more nutrients you can get from it and the more benefit it will have to you.  Foods that are processed not only have toxic chemicals and substances you do not want in your body but many of them are also “Dead” not living, have no life so can not provide life or building substances that you as a living being need to grow.

Ø  Limit the amount of alcohol you drink: Unlike other foods, alcohol is only comprised of calories and has ZERO nutritional value, that’s why they say it is empty calories.

Ø  Pay attention to behavioral patters.  Do you eat better on days when you exercise, do you eat worse on days when you are in a bad mood, when you eat on the run, when you miss meals??  Pay attention to your eating patterns.  If you can identify your behavioral eating pattern it makes it easier to change the behaviors that cause you to over or under eat.

Ø  Remember: Nutrition is a way of life, changes you make now are a change to your lifestyle not just a temporary fix, that is why the results of these changes will last a lifetime.  You are not to feel deprived with this new lifestyle you should feel great, have more energy and wonder how you could ever have eaten any differently before..  It should feel good after a couple of weeks once you get use to it.  Remember the 80/20 rule.  As long as you are eating the right things, at the right times, in the right combination 80% of the time, 20% of the time you are free to eat what you like.

By: Anita Amoako