In trying to help both myself and a special family member in our health and weight loss endeavors, I assembled this wordy, but helpful sheet for both of us to refer to. So I will share it with you as well! I used to work as a weight loss consultant with a national weight loss chain, but alas, I was terrible in sales, so the job didn't last. The rest of it did!
Helpful Hints For a Healthy Diet
First and foremost, eat breakfast at a reasonable time every morning, even if you wind up taking a nap afterward. Breakfast is your most important meal. Remember it starts the fire for your metabolism and eating on a regular basis keeps it going! Think of your metabolism as a fireplace that needs to have a continual fire in it. Feed it to keep it going!
Drink at least 60 ounces of water every day, like the one I showed you the other day. 60 ounces of water for you is a good target!
Take all your medications or vitamins, whatever the case may be, every single day, even if it increases your urine output. It rids your body of things that aren’t good for it!
Try to think of it like this: Eat healthy 80% of the time and you will be doing great! Or, eat healthy 5-6 days per week, and what you are used to eating 1 or 2 days per week.
Aim for no more than 3 pieces of fruit per day. While it is true that fruits contain sugar, the sugar is natural and will not affect your blood sugar level in a bad way for long. They are still healthy for you! They have fiber, vitamins and antioxidants!
Switch to whole grain brown rice instead of using white rice.
Don’t forget that tomatoes are fruit! Don’t forget that peas and corn are starches!!!
Instead of frying fish, eggplant or potatoes try baking or roasting them.
For vegetables, cut broccoli, cauliflower, bite size pieces of squash, onion and any other favorite and toss with a little bit of Olive Oil, sprinkle with salt free Italian Seasoning or any other favorite and roast on a baking pan for 30 minutes at 450 degrees. So yummy and very healthy!
For fish or chicken, coat bottom of baking dish with a bit of Olive Oil. Place chicken or fish in dish, and turn so it is all coated. Sprinkle with your favorite salt free seasoning and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour, depending on size. Add a side of brown rice or sweet potato and lots of vegetables!
Eat across the rainbow. In other words, eat as many foods with different colors as you can. Strawberries, sweet potatoes, bananas, dark green lettuce or spinach, blueberries and purple onions or cabbage is just an example! The more color your food contains, the more appealing and the healthier it is!
Imagine your dinner plate as a clock, and place chicken or fish from 12-3, potatoes from 3-6 and vegetables from 6-12. In other words, 50% of your meal should be vegetables, while 25% should be chicken or fish and 25% potato.
Instead of ground beef, use ground turkey or ground chicken. The reason I say this is because although you have said you use the leanest ground beef, beef is naturally higher in fat and calories than turkey or chicken. If you don’t tell, they probably wouldn’t notice the difference! Bob doesn’t! Rather than using white rice and ground beef to stuff squash or roll grape leaves, use the ground turkey or chicken and brown rice for a really healthy alternative! If you can still have what you enjoy and eat healthy at the same time, it is a double win for you!
Don’t fry your fish or potatoes, or cauliflower. I know you said you use healthy oils, and while that is a good thing, it is still frying your food in pure fat. Not such a good thing!
Increase your exercise as the weather gets warmer. Try walking just a few driveways away and turning around. The next day walk one or two more, and so on until you are getting a great walk every day! That will not only help joints feel better, you will kick your metabolism up as well!
Don’t forget we love you and we want you to be healthy and happy!
I hope this helps anyone trying to be healthier.
Love to all!
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