Do not Stress About the Food!!!!

Hi Everyone

Are you thinking.....eating healthy is too hard? I say....keep is simple and do not stress. I see people getting so caught up in calorie counts, weighing food, percentages of proteins, carbs and fats that the new healthy food choices become an overwhelming chore. Have you heard of the saying.....throw out the scale.....well....apply it to the food....throw out the scales and calculators. Look at it this way....if you are eating pastries, white breads, and high sugar empty calorie cereals for meal 1 or breakfast....simply switch it out for a healthy choice such as oatmeal and while you are at it....throw in some blueberries. Sound easy.....now enjoy how the meal tastes. Often times eating healthy needs to start with just that.....EATING HEALTHY. OK....moving on to meal 2.....this would be a snack between breakfast and lunch.....resist those donuts sitting out in the office break room....and bring out that Clif bar you brought today. Again, take your time eating and enjoy the flavors. Meal 3......the friends want to go to their favorite pizza restaurant......well....you can opt to go and select the salad bar and throw in some egg whites, load up on the vegies and mixed greens...ALL DRESSINGS ON THE SIDE.....try to avoid the creamy stuff.....dip your fork in the dressing and enjoy the colorful mixture of greens, vegies, beans, proteins, that managed to make it on your fork. Meal 4.....another snack between lunch and dinner......I love to mix Non Fat Knudsen cottage cheese with a light and creamy Yoplait yogurt and throw in a few raw almonds....YUMMO. Meal 5......this is usually dinner.....load up on your favorite vegies and a grilled boneless/skinless chicken breast seasoned with spice. If you are a night owl.....you will feel hungry about 2 1/2 hours after meal 5.....I love to have rice cakes on hand with a smear of peanut butter....this does the trick. I also have vanilla whey protein powder on hand and will sometimes mix that in some vanilla silk light soy milk.

So....you see....eating healthy is just switching out unhealthy choices for healthy choices and the above is just a sample of the many wonderful choices you can make. Normal hunger is every 2 1/2 hours and eating small meals throughout the day keeps your metabolism turned on, your blood sugar stable, and eliminates the urge to grab that unhealthy choice because you are hungry. Eating this way should keep you feeling satisfied and NEVER hungry. Eating is WONDERFUL and incorporating healthy food choices and ENJOYING them will set you up to adapting a healthy nutrition lifestyle and you WILL SEE A CHANGE in your overall health. So....I challenge you to start today....begin with switching out the unhealthy choices for the healthy ones.....no calculators and no food scales. If you want to write down what you eat for time sake in order not to go over 2 1/2 hours....that is all I would worry about. If you want to include a protein, carb, fat column per meal.....simply put check marks next to those nutrients for your info that they were included with each meal. That is it though.....do not make this a overwhelming task.....and remember to ENJOY getting healthy!!!!

Stay Healthy!!!!
Darla:)
http://fitness-4-you.com