Nutrition Facts: What You Need to Know

I once overheard a woman telling her friend in the local grocery store “I just gave up eating healthy.  It’s so overwhelming to remember all the guidelines.  Eating whatever I want to eat and not caring is so much easier.”  It makes me sad when I hear people give up on treating themselves well.  The body is our home and was not meant to be abused or neglected.

Each body is unique – what works for some people may not work for others (for example, I am a vegetarian but some people just feel better eating meat). At the bottom of this blog I have a special free offer to help you figure out exactly what your body wants. However these 10 guidelines work no matter who you are (unless, I guess, you’re allergic to eggs or lemons!).

Here are 10 Helpful Nutrition Facts:

1. Lemon is your best friend!!

• Lemons are one of those “secret weapons” that can add a little kick to fresh vegetables, spinach salad, fish or chicken.  Lemons alkalize the body (that is, balance your internal pH levels) and add a lot of flavor but very few calories.

2. Keep Your Plate Colorful

• When you sit down to eat, make sure you pick food from across the color spectrum; different colors offer different antioxidants.  Think, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and red cabbage. Just think of how beautiful that looks (and tastes too)!

3. Use a Seven-Year-Old’s Vocabulary

• Currently the FDA has over 3,000 “approved” food additives, and unless you have an amazing memory, you often need a dictionary.  Another alarming fact about these “approved” food additives: NO ONE knows for sure how they affect the body.  David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health recommends this rule: “If a seven year old can’t pronounce it, you do not want to eat it.”

4. Take the Complete Organic Challenge

• By choosing to buy and eat only organic food, you can drastically change your life. Food is fuel for your body.  Why would you want to choose processed foods knowing how they can negatively impact your body?

5. A Dozen Eggs: A Healthy Staple

• Never leave the grocery store or farmer’s market  without a dozen eggs in your fridge at home.  A boiled egg provides a daily snack that is 70 calories, and  full of protein, iron, & vitamin D.

6. A Balanced Meal is a Balanced Body

• When planning out meals and snacks, pick a mixture of carbohydrates, fat and protein.  By keeping these three food groups balanced, you keep the body’s bone health, blood sugar and weight management in line.  The key is not overusing any one type of food.

7. Be conscious of what your body needs.

• Everybody has different needs, and while we don’t want to cut out entire food groups (that would be silly), we may find through a process of elimination, (or not being able to eliminate at all), that we are allergic to certain things. Wheat and dairy are common when it comes to allergies (I am allergic to both and have grown to accept that). Try cutting out one group at a time for about 10 days and notice how your body reacts.

8. Breakfast Helps With Weight Loss

• When you wake up, your main priority is eating breakfast.  Research shows breakfast can help you lose weight as well as keep it off.  A good breakfast includes fiber with protein and a little fat. By adding a little fat to your breakfast you actually jump-start your metabolism.  You won’t be hungry again till lunch.  EXAMPLES,  oatmeal with nuts and fruit or boiled egg , yogurt and fruit or some protein powder with milk or almond milk (for people like me who cannot tolerate dairy). 
  

9. Watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

•           The film will hopefully inspire you to run to the store, buy a juicer and get juicing for optimal health. http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

10. Acknowledge Your Inner Critic

•           This last guideline has nothing to do with nutrition and yet is vital to your health. Your thoughts create your reality, and if you have a critical voice running your life, changing your eating plan will feel extra challenging.

Just for today, begin to notice that critical voice that drives you to eat. It takes up so much of your life force by draining you of valuable energy. Notice that nasty voice instead of trying to ignore it, cease fueling it by no longer agreeing with it. For example, if that mean voice says, “You have tried every diet and there is no hope for you,” your job is to stop, listen and go about your day. Don’t feed that voice, but instead say to yourself, “I appreciate your opinion voice, however, I have a different one and I know I am ok”.

Health is a gift, one not to be taken for granted. While nutrition is a science, you can keep it really simple and just practice one or two of these guidelines for the next 30 days and see how you feel. Taking care of you and your body is not something that needs to be on the back burner, because you’ll pay with your health and happiness sooner or later. And my hope for you is that you have a peaceful, healthy, quality of life.

And on that note, I have a special offer to help you on the path towards that life. Sign up for a free, 15-minute laser phone consultation with me. The time is yours to ask questions about these guidelines, get personal advice based on your specific situations and needs, discuss issues that have prevented you from living healthfully in the past. It’s 15 free minutes, no strings attached, to jump-start your journey to self-love and health. Email me here to set up a call with me.

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