This week we continue our look at how to live a healthier life. Last week, I went into more detail on why we should want to be healthy - if you missed it, see below. Living healthy will save you from many health problems down the road (making you un-happy) - not to mention the fact that your body will feel so much better in the present moment, if it is a healthy one (making you happy).
Today's focus is on nutrition and it's an important one. Now, don't get me wrong - our bodies were made to move and physical activity will most definitely be a future blog post. However, you don't need to exercise for hours a day if you are eating the right foods. Tosca Reno, author and fitness guru puts it into these terms: gaining a healthy body is done through 80% nutrition, 10% training, and 10% genetics. That's a huge emphasis on what you're putting on your plate every day.
I am continually amazed when I hear people talk about going to the gym to "run off the ice cream" they just ate for supper. Maybe you've thought something similar yourself. Let me make this next point very clear - **calories in DO NOT = calories out. ** Your body does different very different things with a Snickers than it does a carrot, so STOP thinking you can eat what you'd like because you are good about exercising. Even if this method has "appeared" to work for you in the past, you would be wise to develop a different approach. Unfortunately, at some point it will catch up with you (either in the form of appearance or disease).
I also am surprised when people talk of diet food tasting bland (or worse). It is my experience that usually these people are those who go on fad diets where they only eat grapefruit for a week, or rely on pre-packaged meals and shakes to sustain themselves. Those are also usually the people who are cranky when they're on "diets" because they are starving all of the time!
Remember - you are going to be eating for the rest of your life - you want the food to taste good! It's OK if the food tastes good! There are LOADS of healthy foods out there that do indeed taste delicious (in fact, you may find that once you quit eating junk food some of your taste buds are awakened and the healthy food is more flavorful).
As for being starving all of the time, if you are eating a healthy diet, you really don't need to count calories. Counting calories is a relatively new concept and I can assure you people did a fine job of eating for many years before the nutrition facts were printed on our food. Besides, it's pretty tricky to eat too much healthy food. Have you ever seen someone un-button their pants after a meal and say, "Man, I should've stopped at that last fork-full of spinach." Probably not. So relax a little and enjoy the food you're putting in your mouth.
But what is considered healthy food? With so many stories in the media contradicting each other, I admit it can be tricky to figure out sometimes. Start here - trust your gut. You probably have a pretty good idea of what is good for your body and what isn't. And if you don't, well stay tuned for next week's post when I'll unveil the mystery that healthy food has become.
Until then, go munch on some celery.
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