If you are planning on losing weight, a healthy diet is the most important thing to consider. Exercise is important too, without a doubt, but diet is the main thing in weight loss. I hope this article will give you some useful guidelines towards making healthy choices in your day-to-day eating habits.
1. Be sure to include healthy fats in your meals whenever possible. This is an important factor in maintaining your bodys required hormone levels both for fat burning and also for muscle building. Having adequate healthy fats in your diet also ensures that your appetite is kept under control.
You may be wondering where you can get all these “healthy fats”. Well, seeds, raw nuts and avocados are good sources, as are the yolks of organic eggs. Coconut oil contains medium chain triglycerides, a great source of healthy fats. Extra virgin olive oil has the highest level of antioxidants, and grass-fed meat has “conjugated linoleic acid”, which helps to build muscle as well as burn fat.
You could try this tip ” have a handful of raw nuts (walnuts, pecans or almonds are all very good choices) about a half-hour before meals, 3 times a day. They are great for helping to suppress your appetite, and also to give your body protein, some fiber and of course, healthy fat. You dont need to eat a lot of nuts ” they are high in nutrients.
2. Try to include at least one high-protein item with each of your meals. I prefer a grass-fed dairy product, a grass-fed meat product or something high-protein like beans or nuts. It helps to keep the appetite under control, and reduces the calorie intake.
Getting these proteins mean that your body will put on more lean muscle mass, if you are working out regularly. This in turn means that your metabolism will be able to run faster and burn off that fat.
3. When you eat a lot of protein with your meals, you also help your body to control both insulin and blood sugar levels. This is because the protein helps to slow down the breakdown of carbohydrates which are ingested. And although I am not in favour of those “low-carb” diets, I feel that the reason so many people find it such a struggle to lose weight, is that their intake of processed carbohydrates, and refined sugar, is so high.
It’s true that you have sugar in fruits also, but that is OK because they have fiber also, and fiber will slow down the response of the blood sugar. Avoid fruit juice though – it does not have this fiber, as the processing of the juice strips it out.
It usually follows, when people start to reduce their intake of grain (from bread, pasta,cereals, bagels etc), they begin to lose fat much easier. I would recommend that you minimize your consumption of grains, and concentrate on eating just fruits and vegetables. Just by doing this, losing weight will get a whole lot easier.
If you take action on these 3 steps towards a healthier diet, I am sure that you will soon see the evidence of a leaner body and increased energy levels.
