Start to Make Health a Knee-Jerk Reaction

I actually remember a time when I was making really good choices in the food i ate.  I also remember that I had no remorse about it, it actually felt great to do so.  Of course, you have to know what choices are better than others in the first place.  If you haven't grown up in an environment that fostered healthy food, then you might need to educate yourself in what exactly the better choices are.  My education has been going on for 25 years, so at this point it's not hard for me to know which foods are good for me and which aren't.  But not all people have received this education, so the education has to start at some point.  How about now?  There's so much information out there in regards to nutrition, much more than in past years, so we have no excuse to not know how to eat.  There might be a why behind why we eat a certain way, but let's put that aside for now.  Having the knowledge, in this case, really does give you power, the power to make good, informed decisions easier.  When we're standing in the supermarket with an thousand cereals staring us in the face, it would be very empowering to know which is the right one, wouldn't it?

So start educating yourself as to the right way to eat.  Start small, of course, one element of eating at a time.  Remember, this isn't conquering why we eat, just what we should eat.  Here are a few beginning concepts to get the ball rolling in the right direction:

1.  Buy whole grain.  This is a big statement, I know, but it can be easy.  White flour turns to sugar in your body very quickly, so you have to stop eating it.  There are so many choices in stores now, there's no excuse.  And it's easy to choose the whole wheat or whole grain alternative to your favorite breads, rice, etc. There are a ton of yummy fiber, protein, whole grain rich breads out there, so no more wonder bread!  Make the statement, I don't eat white bread*, and start buying the brown breads.  This includes english muffins, bagels, hamburger and hot dog buns, too.  It's all out there, so start making that choice instead.

2.  Stop eating and drinking fake sugars.  Splenda is found in a lot of places nowadays.  That, and other artificial sweeteners.  You would think these remove some calories from your diet, but artificial sweeteners are chemicals (plus much more bad stuff) and you really shouldn't consume them.  Doctors tell pregnant women not to eat it, what does that tell you?  Go for truvia, which is a natural sugar from the stevia plant, instead.  It's found in the sugar aisle.  A popular, and easy to find drink to boost your water, is Crystal Light's Pure variety.  And cut down or cut out sugary drinks.  As Jillian Michaels says "Don't drink your calories!".  Start drinking water, cut and dried, nice and simple.

3.  Don't eat a lot of red meat.  Sausages for breakfast, ham sandwich for lunch, hamburger for dinner.  You just ate close to your weekly allotment for red meat.  Be conscious of how much you eat.  Again, many times, ground turkey, ground chicken, or soy products (like boca burgers) can be substituted for many red mean meals.  Try it, and remember to add a lot of spice!  Original Mrs. Dash works well in so many dishes.

We all want to get to a point where making these healthy choices will become second nature, without any emotion attached to it.  That only comes with positive, decisive statements, and practice!

*If you look back at my previous post Motion to Motivate, step 5 explains the process of making statements that mimic how we ultimately want to be.  Yesterday, I used the statement out loud, "Don't get a doughnut for me, honey, I don't eat donuts".  And it tricked my mind in to believing the statement was true, that the decision was already made and I didn't need to make it again.  It absolutely worked, and there was no willpower involved.  Very powerful!!

Ok, I know I've been posting a lot of information in regards to the science of weight loss, but now will come real posts on the real challenge I am facing now in losing weight.  There are so many nuances of losing weight and the amount of things that go through my head every day is staggering.  I've think about food and losing weight all the time, all day long, and I have to share some of it with you all so we can build a community and do it together!  Come back and see!