If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

-Steve Prefontaine

Its Not What You Eat But How You Eat It

Many people are weary of anything billed as a “diet”.  Either they don’t like the idea of the fanaticism of the diets members, or its strictness, or even the idea of having to eat something different than they do now.

Many of us know we need to do something to be healthier, but we just cant bring ourselves to adopt a “diet”.  This is a post for for those people.

The term diet has gotten some negative connotations.  In truth, a diet is any pattern of eating behavior.  Eating fried chicken for every meal is one type of diet.  Eating nothing but carrots is another.  All of us are on diets right now, some healthy, some not.

The first thing to come to grips with is that in order to adopt a more healthy lifestyle, you need to stop thinking of dieting in terms of stopping and starting, but rather in changing.  Many people are afraid to “start” a diet for fear of failure.  This should change.  When you feel you can no longer continue to eat a certain way, then change.  Think of it as the plug and chug method but with food.  If it works, use it, if it doesn’t, change it.

Instead of offering advice and giving you rules on exact foods to eat, we are offering you a diet plan that is more fool-proof.  There are two guidelines to follow, but they are not rules so there is no need to worry about breaking them, only to keep them in mind.

Restrict Saturated and Trans Fats. Simple enough, right?  If there was only one thing you needed to pay attention to, this would be it. What are Saturated and Trans fats?  Saturated fats are found in all animal products, coconut oil, and some nuts.  Basically they are solid at room temperature.  Trans fats are unsaturated fats- or fats that are liquid at room temperature- where hydrogen atoms have been artificially added to make the fat solid.  You may have heard the term Partially Hydrogenated and this is what it refers to.  Hydrogenated means added hydrogen.  This is by far the most destructive substance in every-day foods.

You can easily avoid them by minimizing eating fried foods, cut out margarine, and eat leaner meats or fish.  You don’t have to stop eating these foods, but just keep an eye on any label that lists the Saturated Fat % in double digits.

Limit the Sweets. This is a big one too.  Too much sugar can cause diabetes and weight gain.  Actually, there is one loophole in this rule.  If you have to have some sweets then eat them as a reward.  After any sort of cardio workout, the muscles have used some of their energy stores, and those need to be topped off.  The  best way to do this is to consume a sweet food right after the workout.  Chocolate milk is one of my favorites.  So the next time you are feigning for some candy, just go for a quick jog, or bike ride, or swim or walk or hike, then enjoy.

THE CRUX OF THE WHOLE DIET IS PORTION CONTROL. If you pay attention to the above rules, then the basis of the whole diet is to restrict your portions.  Try to eat more frequent and smaller meals.  Basically, you can eat what you want, but just eat less of it.  Another loophole, and one that justifies the workout habits of many people, is to think of working out as a way to burn off the excess calories you consume.  Many people run 5k and 10k races to counteract the empty calories in sweets, beer, or other foods they enjoy.

Try to think of your health in the following hierarchy:

Healthiest lifestyle- Slim and active. This person eats a diet with good fats, without bad fats.  They keep a slim healthy weight and they workout to keep it there.

Average Healthy Person- A little husky but active. Great goal for the normal person.  There has been recent research showing that its not what you look like on the outside (chunkiness) but whats on the inside.  If you are overweight, but you bike or swim regularly, then you are at a much lower risk of cardiovascular diseases than a skinny sedentary person.  This person would have a pretty good diet, and balances any unhealthy vices with healthy exercise.

Unhealthy- Slim but inactive.  This person may have the benefits of a good metabolism or good eating habits, but their inactivity means their cardiovascular system is weaker even than the overweight exerciser.

Unhealthiest Lifestyle-Overweight and inactive.  This person is at the greatest risk for cardiovascular diseases.

An easy way to check your progress on the diet, if you want to lose weight, is to check your weight.  Once a week, in the morning, right after you wake up, drink a glass of water and weigh yourself.  This is close to your base hydrated weight.

If you find yourself gaining weight, double check by weighing yourself again the next morning and either add a few extra minutes of exercise, or just cut out a little bit of some of the meals to help bring this number down.

If you find yourself losing more weight than you want, then you get to eat more, or if you want, cut down on your exercise.

You should try to aim for about 5 pounds +/- your goal weight and stay in that range.

Happy eating!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 by GrowStronger at 4:41 pm and is filed under Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.