How to Eat Healthy for Life

Looking beautiful can only be effectively achieved if you control your diet. You can only control your diet if you know what you are eating. There are many popular diets on the market today. This article will explain how to eat healthy for life and avoid the fad diets.

Steps

1. Determine how many calories your body needs to function each day.

This number can vary wildly, depending upon your metabolism and how physically active you are. If you're the kind of person who puts on 10 pounds just smelling a slice of pizza, then your daily caloric intake should stay around 2000 calories for men, and 1500 calories for women. Your body mass also plays a part in this: More calories are suitable for naturally bigger people, and fewer calories for smaller people. If you're the kind of person who can eat anything he or she wants without putting on a pound, or you're physically active, you may want to increase your daily caloric intake to 3000-4000 calories, a little less for women. Also consider that the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you need to function. The bad fats are saturated and trans fat, which you do not need any of in moderation. Someone on a 2000 calorie diet should consume less than 20 grams of saturated fat a day, and trans fat can and should be avoided all together. The good fats are plain fat, which you should eat about 30% of your calories in, and poly and mono saturated fats.

2. Don't fear fatty foods.

You need to consume fat from foods for your body to function correctly. However, it's important to choose the right kinds of fat: Most animal fats and some vegetable oils are high in calories and are high in the kind of fats that raise your LDL cholesterol levels; the bad cholesterol. Contrary to popular belief, eating cholesterol doesn't necessarily raise the amount of cholesterol in your body. If you give your body the right tools, it will flush excess cholesterol from your body. Those tools are monounsaturated fatty acids, which you should try to consume regularly. These are the good fats, and they help lower the bad cholesterol in your body by raising the good cholesterol. Foods that are high in monounsaturated fatty acids are olive oil, nuts, fish oil, and various seed oils. Adding these "good" fats to your weekly diet can lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease. Consider sautéing vegetables in small amounts of olive oil, and grabbing a hand full of mixed nuts for a snack instead of a candy bar. There are also various supplements that contain these good fats that you can take daily.
3. Carbohydrates are important.

You need to eat foods high in carbs since they are your body's main source of energy. The trick is to choose the right carbs. Simple carbs like sugar and processed flour are quickly absorbed by the body's digestive system. This causes a kind of carb overload, and your body releases huge amounts of insulin to combat the overload. Not only is the excess insulin bad on your heart, but it encourages weight gain. Insulin is the main hormone in your body responsible for fat storage. Eat plenty of carbs, but eat carbs that are slowly digested by the body like whole grain flour, hearty vegetables, oats, and unprocessed grains like brown rice. These kinds of food not only contain complex carbs that are slowly digested by the body, but are usually higher in vitamins and other nutrients that are beneficial to the body and they are higher in fiber which keeps your digestive system running smoothly.

4. Eat larger meals early in the day.

Your metabolism slows down towards the end of the evening and is less efficient at digesting foods. That means more of the energy stored in the food will be stored as fat and your body won't absorb as many nutrients from the meal. Many American families tend to have their big meal at dinner time. The problem with this is your day is basically over, and your body's need for energy isn't as great as it is early in the day. This large meal, late in the day, can also make you feel tired, and who wants to feel too tired to have fun now that the workday is over? Try eating a medium-sized meal for breakfast, a large meal for lunch, and a small meal for dinner. Better yet, try eating 4-6 small meals over the course of your day. That keeps your body fueled for the whole day without dumping a large amount of food into your stomach, which your body might have a hard time digesting.

5. Don't skip breakfast!

Many people do because they don't feel they need to eat breakfast, or they just don't feel hungry first thing in the morning. Research shows that people who skip breakfast are usually fatter than those who eat a well balanced breakfast. Although you might not feel hungry first thing in the morning, if you skip breakfast you will feel extra hungry come lunch time, making you more prone to overeating for your afternoon meal. In addition, skipping breakfast makes your body think that you are starving. After all, by lunch time, you may not have eaten in almost eighteen hours. For the rest of the day after you skip breakfast, your body will store up most of the energy you get from food, instead of allowing you to burn it, in anticipation of food scarcity. Not only will this cause you to be tired during the day when your body isn't using the food that you ate, but the extra energy stored up will result in weight gain.

6. Make eating fun.

Avoiding simple carbs and fatty foods doesn't need to be boring. Have fun not only with the food, but with the meal. Eating with family and friends makes the meal more satisfying than eating in front of the TV or in the car on the way home from work. You will also eat slower when enjoying your meal which gives your body time to feel full before you burst a button. There are more creative cooking resources available to us than ever before. You can find great tasting recipes in magazines, books, and right here on the Internet. Eating baked fish three or four times a week can get boring, so do a little recipe hunting to find more exciting ways to prepare your meals.

7. Buy non-fat or reduced fat foods.

This is done not to avoid getting fat, because eating fat will not make you fat. And it's not about eating less Calories. It's about control. Control over what kinds of fats you put in your body. For instance, olive oil has many health benefits, so buy non-fat or reduced fat salad dressing and add a table spoon of olive oil to the jar. You'll have a salad dressing that tastes great, and is also better for your health. So buy the non-fat foods so you can replace the missing fat with "good" fats. Remember, you do need to eat a moderate amount of fat each day.

8. Give yourself a cheat day.

Cheating doesn't mean pigging all day on all the wrong foods once a week, it means enjoying a food you really love once a week. Have a couple slices of greasy pizza on Sundays, or a big slice of double chocolate cake on Saturdays. This cheat day will help you stick to the change in diet, and in some ways it's actually good for your body. Special occasions, such as birthdays in the family, count as cheat days.

9. Avoid excess amounts of alcohol.

You know that heavy drinking is bad for your body, but it's also bad for your will power. A heavy night of drinking could send you to the fridge pigging out on all the wrong foods. However, many studies show that a beer or glass of wine a day is actually good for the body. Wine contains anti-oxidants which help fight illness and that moderate amount of alcohol can help you relax. Excess caffeine can also be bad for the body since caffeine stimulates your body into producing insulin in the same way that carbs do.

Tips

* Eating healthy will give you some health benefits, but you won't achieve the full benefits possible unless you exercise. Exercising doesn't have to be hard, and you don't even have to break a sweat. Just going for a short 30 minute walk four times a week will greatly improve your health.

* If you consume more Calories than your body needs each day, your body will store the excess energy as fat. In today's society, that excess body fat is unnecessary. We are no longer hunter/gatherers. Your next meal is as close as your local grocery store and we don't need extra energy stores to hold us over till the next meal.

* Use extra virgin olive oil when cooking. It's more pure, and is better for your heart than other kinds of olive oil. The darker the better. Furthermore, "light" olive oil has as many Calories as extra virgin olive oil -- the "light" refers to the color and flavor intensity. Unfortunately, though, using extra virgin olive oil when cooking at higher temperatures ruins the flavors that make it "extra virgin".
* This takes patience. You won't see a drastic drop in your cholesterol level or weight or increase in your energy level immediately. You need to give the changes in diet some time to kick in.

* Have a positive and upbeat attitude. If you start your new diet thinking "This is something I have to do," instead of "This is something I want to do," then you've already failed before you started.

* Don't let a little cheating turn into a lot of cheating. Remember, nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels.

* Adding whole, unrefined grains to the diet can add valuable vitamins and minerals that would otherwise be lost, however it can completely upset our digestion as well. Many animals that eat grains have 4 stomachs they use to digest them adequately, and ferment them so they can uptake nutrients. Humans have only one stomach, and if you introduce grains without first fermenting or sprouting them you may experience digestive upsets. There are various anti nutrients in grains (like phytic acid) and enzyme inhibitors that will prevent mineral absorption and lead to deficiencies and digestive problems. To remedy this, take oatmeal and soak it the night before in a little bit of yogurt. This will make it taste slightly sour, but make it more digestible. Sourdough bread is also another good example.

* Lettuce is a great choice of natural fiber, and can taste great with the proper healthy dressings. You can make a great salad with nuts, raisins, and whole wheat croutons. Mix it in a bowl so it's evenly distributed and place it on top of a salad. Use a sugar free and low carb balsamic dressing; it has less than 1 gram of carbohydrates and 0 Calories. The head of lettuce is 21 Calories, plus the nuts and raisins and whole wheat croutons which could range depending on size but for this example we will estimate 100 Calories, bringing you a very low calorie and filling meal for only ~120 Calories.

* Choose wheat bread instead of white bread. Processed carbohydrates such as those found in white bread are harder to draw nutrients from, and therefore are seen as empty Calories.

* Smoothies are great for breakfast. Combine the following:
o banana
o 4 medium-size strawberries
o 1/2 cup of skim milk

* For protein, try adding boneless skinless chicken breasts, or tuna.

* Non-fat yogurt can make a great snack, and its healthy bacteria can help with various stomach problems.

* Carry water with you at all times. Try to drink water in place of soft drinks and other flavored beverages. A good rule of thumb is to drink half your body weight in ounces per day.

* Consider eating organic. Organic food isn't made with the use of a lot of harmful chemicals, or other harmful processes. Not only is organic food good for you, but it is sustainable and good for the environment too! Other foods can be extremely harmful to the environment.


Warnings

* Rarely have organic foods been proven to be more healthy than the regular option, so don't think that just because it is organic, you can eat as much as you want. There have been no proven studies that the non-organic foods are unhealthy because of chemicals. Much of the time, the organic option has just as many calories as the normal option. So even if it is organic, make sure you pay attention to your caloric intake.

* You should always consult your doctor before making drastic changes to your diet and your lifestyle.

* Excess body fat is hard on your body. It's hard on your heart because it needs to work extra hard to push blood through your larger body. Your body builds extra veins that run through the extra body fat and has to work harder to push blood through those veins.

* Excess body weight is also hard on your muscles and joints. Carrying around extra weight puts more pressure on your knees, hips, and back. While this might not have a huge effect in your youth, you will feel it as you get older.

* Any drastic change in your diet can cause constipation, so make sure you eat a lot of dark green leafy vegetables, or take a fiber supplement. The constipation will go away after a week or two, but you should consult your doctor if it continues.

* Make sure there isn't a lot of unhealthy food in your house that can tempt you. Give or throw away the foods you shouldn't eat.