5 Ways to Get Healthier the Right Way

 With all the noise out there about getting healthier and how to perform at your max... Whether you’re simply looking to form good diet habits or explicitly looking for a healthy diet for weight loss, here are some essential tips to keep in mind! I am here to give you the real deal.

1. Focus on thoughtful eating, not deprivation.

Just as overeating can spoil your weight loss efforts, so can starving yourself with a rice-cake-and-coffee-diet. Deprivation or yo-yo dieting can, in fact, eventually slow down your metabolism and increase your risk of chronic disease. Weight cycling, which is repeatedly gaining or losing weight, is a common outcome of yo-yo dieting. Weight cycling may be linked to chronic inflammation and increase your risk of chronic diseases.

 

2. Look beyond calories.

Food is much more than just numbers. Eating a healthy, dynamic life involves more than just merely adding up daily calories. Your body needs to maintain a certain calorie balance over time to achieve a healthy weight, but that does not guarantee your body is also getting adequate nutrition. Choose foods based on their nutrient density – meaning foods with valuable calories packed with plenty of vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, and healthy fats.

 

3. Read the labels of reduced-fat products.

I want to set the record straight – eating foods high in fat does not directly translate to more body fat in all situations. In reality, fats are a significant source of fuel for your body. They help absorb fat-soluble vitamins and carotenoids. They can also help increase your satiety to keep you full longer.

The “healthier” properties of fats are often lost when processing many “reduced fat” foods, which are not necessarily lower in calories and are often higher in sugar. Don’t get me wrong; some reduced-fat options are very healthy! Low fat and fat-free milk, for example, are wonderful options that do not contain added sugars. The most important rule is to read the ingredients list. Many reduced fat-containing foods have added ingredients: sugar and salt.  

 

4. Make sure to eat veggies, not just veggie-based foods.

Although veggie chips, pasta, and crackers are gaining momentum, nothing beats the actual veggies at the end of the day. If every so often you are craving veggie chips that will satiate your need for a crunchy snack, check the ingredients first. Try good quality veggie chips made from one or two ingredients only - the actual vegetable and a little salt. Veggie chips, for example, are a blend of vegetable flour with added starch and are comparable to tortilla chips. There are also great dehydrated options that don’t have the extra calories or starch of other chips.

 

5. Monitor your sugar consumption.

Excess sugar intake is a significant driver of obesity, type II diabetes, and other chronic illnesses. But sugar is everywhere in the food supply – often hiding on the ingredients list, in many forms. Choose foods in their most basic form to help reduce your sugar intake. This means choosing steel-cut oats over instant oatmeal packs, for example. Reading labels is a great way to make sure you’re getting the most out of what you put into your shopping cart.

 Email mindyrothllc@gmail.com for more information!