Quit Dieting and Start Living Healthier

As I stated in a previous blog post, the point of this blog is not to teach you how to diet, but how to change your eating habits for the better. I don't want you to fear food. I don't want you to keep away from something you are really craving: like chocolate, or your favorite fast food restaurant. Eating should be about moderation, and loving every bite in your mouth.

A few months ago I picked up a book from Bethany Frankel called Naturally Thin. It has become my new way of looking at healthy eating. Its not that I didn't do some of these things before, but it changed the way I looked at food and my diet and the way I think a lot of people should look at it too. She had 10 rules that she believed were very important. In an effort not to steal all of her work from her, I will give you guys the rules I felt were the most important and my journey along they way. If you want to buy the book, I would be more than happy for you. Its a good read and extremely helpful.

The first thing I'm going to tell you is to quit dieting. Quit keeping the food away that you know you want. Just LIMIT yourself to how much of it you eat. I don't care about the whole "oh I can't stop" or "its just too good" excuse. If you want to learn how to eat right, you actually have to learn how to control yourself a little.

So, the first rule Bethany has, that I really like is: Your Diet is your bank account. You want a hamburger, have it, but don't have a large fry and a large shake with it. Have a small hamburger and a small fry. And do think that because you splurged on a yummy hamburger you should just "start your diet again tomorrow." You wanted it, you ate it, now let it go. Choose better for dinner and your snack, and your meals tomorrow. You should eat what you want, but you also have to learn how to pace yourself so you don't go through the whole kitchen in a night. If you choose to have a hamburger today, its not like the shake wont be there tomorrow. You can get the shake any other day, just not at the same time that you are getting the burger and fries.

I promise, you wont die from not eating something because you want something else, but the nice thing is you DO GET TO CHOOSE. Whatever you want, you can eat it. Just learn to eat in moderation.

More later,

The Health Guru

Healthy Happy Chicken = Healthy Happy People

There are many different arguments as to why someone should or should not eat free range meat. There is a pile of ethical reasons why it wrong but I don't want to talk about that here.

About a month ago I decided to start eating only Free Range meat products. Although what got my attention was the ethical problem with keeping animals so caged up, what kept me devoted to the idea of eating free range is the benefits of it.

When animals are not kept free range, they often kept in either extremely close quarters to one another, or in tight pens where they are unable to move at all?. How are chickens(for example) supposed to stay healthy when they are up against hundreds of other chickens and there is fesses on the ground that is rarely cleaned up?

These extremely tight quarters all day, everyday lead to animals being malnourished and just plain unhealthy. People often state that they wouldn't sell any meat that was malnourished, but the neglect to realize that most of the meat we eat today is pumped with water and hormones to make sure that they don't look unappealing.

Strictly upon the fact that any meat is shot up with hormones and unnecessary water makes it unappealing for the health factor. When trying to get healthy, you want to stay with as many natural things as you can and hormones to make a chicken look plumper is definitely not natural.

Beyond that fact when an animal is cage bound they are fed a certain type of grain. The grain they are fed has things such as corn and protein that animals aren't meant to break down. When they eat what they would normally eat if they were in the wild their body would naturally break down the food and turn it into protein for us to eat.

On top of all that, free range animals actually have less calories and fat than caged animals. In fact, grass fed beef has the same amount of fat as chicken or turkey and so therefore it actually isn't as bad for you as regular caged red meat. There is also Omega-3 found in free range meat( yet not in caged). According to Eatwild.com "Meat from grass-fed animals has two to four times more omega-3 fatty acids than meat from grain- fed animals. Omega-3s are called "good fats" because they play a vital role in every cell and system in your body."

With all these facts in mind you might wonder why more meat isn't free ranged. After all, a lot of the land and our food goes to feeding the animals that don't actually need our food to be fed. The answer? It is slightly cheaper. If we were to free range all animals we would no longer have things like the McDonald's dollar menu. Fast food chains started off this abuse animals scheme and people like the food so much they ignore the problem and the health.

If everyone was eating healthy, we wouldn't have to worry about fast food places. There have been some restaurants that strive that are free range. The most obvious example is Chipotle. Here is a restaurant that is doing extremely well and all their meat is free range. It isn't even really all that expensive, people just aren't willing to shell out a few extra dollars.

Be careful of the wording though. There is no FDA watch over free range and so many animals who are "free ranged" are really just given 5 more feet to move. You want to look for animals and animal product that is free ranged organic. That will tend to lead you in the right direction. On top of that, find places you trust to buy things of that nature and stick to it. Places like Trader Joes in California has a wide variety of free range meat, cheese and egg that will definitely keep you on the right track. If you want to be picky about it and you aren't sure read the box, they often explain their definition of free range. If they don't, the generally put the area they are from and you can look it up for yourself before purchasing a product. The extremity of your decision is all yours. You can not do any of it or you can do all of it. If we are what we eat, do you really want to have hormone deranged meat inside you? This is a life altering decision due to the scarcity of free range meat, so don't worry if you don't think you can commit to something like this. This blog is just meant to give you and idea. Now you can make your own decision.

More to come,

The Health Guru

Working out the Kinks

Now, although I have written quite a few blogs about eating and eating alone DON'T forget the workout half of the bargain. It is a part of the deal, and you won't get to the weight you want to get to without it.

My new favorite workout is hot yoga. I get a mix of a calm cardio workout, always a full hour and being in a room that gets up to 90 degrees keeps me sweating off the extra fat as well as great exercise. The problem with doing hot yoga is that it costs money. You can't get the kind of heat and experience from anywhere but at a studio. Even if you cranked up your heater (and ran that bill high) you still would not get the kind of extremes and practice that you would get in a class. There are however DVDs that do basic yoga (or power yoga) and gyms such as 24 Hour Fitness that have free yoga classes. These are good ways to get the exercise and flexibility that yoga has to offer in cheaper ways.

Another great way to loose weight is to train for something. Whether it be a triathlon/decathlon, marathon, 5k, swim contest etc. Having the goal behind your workout will help your motivation even on the days you don't really feel like it.

Try to do 3-4 challenging workouts a week. Whatever thing(s) you choose to do to work out try to do it a couple times a week. Those days that you are just not feeling it, can't get yourself motivated, or are exhausted from a previous workout, get up and MOVE. Walk on a treadmill(if you have a gym membership), walk around your neighborhood, walk back in forth in your house. If you aim to do at least 30 minutes of WALKING on your off days, you will see a serious improvement. It is amazing how our body's just need activity to get into and remain in great shape.

It may not seem like it, but there tons of different workouts to do. You don't have to choose one work out and stick with it. You can do muscle building, running, biking, swimming, dancing, yoga, pilates, surfing, paddle boarding, hiking, soccer, baseball, softball, basketball...the list can go on and on. Get a group of friends together and go throw a Frisbee, or make a goal of going on a hike every weekend or grab a friend and walk around the closest mall for an hour(without shopping). There are tons of ways to stay active and interested.

The number 1 thing to remember is not to get out of the habit. Do something every day. Walking is wonderful for our bodies, it is low impact and costs nothing. We can do it any where, anytime. Weather, sore muscles, tired, busy, stressed and all the other excuses that someone can make aren't going to stop my idea that if you just do a little activity every day you will get your body into great shape! I am prone and hear over and over again people who are also prone to the "I can't work out because..." Those days should be over! There is no excuse! Have a busy day: get up 30 minutes earlier. Stressed out with finals? Read on the treadmill. Work got you busy? Walk during your lunch break. There is no excuse for not working out other than "I don't feel like it" and you can't let you do that to yourself and your hard working demeanor you are trying so hard to build up. Once its a habit, you won't know how to stop.

So get moving!

More to come.

The Health Guru

How to eat delicious and healthy!

After not writing for a few days I decided to give my readers an easy recipe.

First let me suggest something about meat. Nutritiondata.com shows us that meats such as turkey and chicken are much better for us than any sort of red meat. There are a million different ways to make those two things (tacos, salad, grilled, broiled, baked, barbecue, teriyaki..etc)so that you are less likely to notice that you eat a lot of it.

My favorite thing to do is put rubs on my chicken. Fresh and Easy (a local store near me) has a great white meat rub that I put on a lot of my chicken. It gives it tons of flavor and it makes it easy to eat with another seasoning, or even just on its own. Rubs also add almost no calories. They tend to just be herbs and spices which are diet friendly.

That being said, here is an easy recipe for dinner, that will fill you up and has tons of flavor. If you don't like any of the vegetables I put in feel free to exclude them, or even add different vegetables you like better.

Chipotle Ranch Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
-Bell Pepper (any color, I chose red)
-onions
-romaine lettuce
-tomato
-Chicken
-chipotle ranch dressing (El Torito brand- you can buy it in your local supermarket. If you don't like that replace it with whatever dressing you'd rather use)

Directions:

- Chop up and mix all the vegetables on a plate. (The nice thing about vegetables is you can put as much as you want-they are low in calorie and help fill you up.)

- Grill the chicken (on an indoor or outdoor grill. If you don't want to do that you can cook it in a plan with a teaspoon of olive oil or pan on the bottom to help it from sticking and burning)

- Cut the chicken into slices and place on top of your salad

- Place the dressing on top

and Ta-Da. It is as simple as that.

One more tip:

Dressing can be fattening, sodium filled and a waste of precious calories and fat content. Although every once in a while enjoying a more fattening dressing can be good, try not to only eat salads that are drenched in dressing. If you think you won't enjoy it, you will. It might take a bit of getting used to so that you don't have as much dressing on your salad, but if each time you put just a bit less, pretty soon you won't need much dressing at all to still taste delicious. Also, there are things (Balsamic Vinegar and Oil being the main one)that you can put on your salad that taste great and don't add on too many grams of fat. Take a look at those bottles, you will be surprised at the nutrition in just two tablespoons of your favorite dressing.

Another really good option is those spray dressings. They have tons of flavor and they actually do a great job of dousing all the parts of your salad and a very low cost of calories. Wishbone sells a few different types including ranch (which is 2 calories per spray) and isn't that hard to get taste on every single morsel of your salad.

That's all for now!

The Health Guru

So what are you eating?

We all know the big things that help us loose weight, but there are smaller things that people don't quite realize.

First off, every diet on the western hemisphere is trying to tell you to watch your CALORIES. Although that can seem like a great way to watch your weight you should BEWARE of the fat content as well. Something like a Klondike bar can seem okay when it is only 250 calories but the 17 grams of fat will do you in before you even know what hit you. What you really want to watch is the fat to protein content, as well as the fat content itself. Certain things are high in fat but they are even higher in protein and that protein is what the body should be living on. Take for example, red meat. Although once in a while a big piece of steak isn't bad for you, the amount of fat that tends to be carried on one of those slices is enough to cover your daily intake of fat. There are red meats out there that have a much more normal amount.

If you think about it, Calories are easier to burn off.Calories are something our body burns off all day every day. On the other hand, you have to work out at least 30 minutes before your body starts burning fat at all. If something is low in fat, it will also be low in calories, so that is also a plus.

Things like protein bars or peanut butter are also high in fat, but it is a good kind of fat, and normally the amount of protein in those foods will help even out the amount of fat that is going into your body (as long as everything is in moderation- no protein bar or peanut butter diets please). Your body needs protein. It helps the body stay fuller longer and maintain energy for twice the amount of time as carbohydrates, sugars, or fats.

It is expected that EVERY PERSON get about 50-55% of carbohydrates, 20-25% of protein and 25-30% of fat in their daily diet. Carbs are NOT JUST BREAD AND PASTA, that also includes fruit and any sort of sugar substance. Look at the amount of carbs in your cup of juice! You can be blown away.

Carbohydrates feed your body immediate energy but the energy is quickly gone and the food itself just sits in your body and stored as fat, which again, becomes harder to burn. They are on the other hand necessary for our body to feel full. Nothing will get your stomach more bloated than a loaf of bread.

To help the kind of carbohydrates that are going into your body try WHOLE WHEAT and fresh fruit. Here is another misconception: people tend to get things like 9 grain or wheat bread. These types of bread tend to have SOME wheat in it but can also consist of plenty of things that aren't good for you. If you aren't a big fan of whole wheat you can also look for breads with a lot of fiber. Fiber not only helps your body's digestion but it can also keep you feeling full for a longer amount of time.

Anything that can make you feel fuller with less food content is an immediate plus. When trying to loose weight your are forcing your stomach to get smaller. If you aren't filling your stomach with the small amount of RIGHT things you can leave yourself feeling constantly hungry and that is NOT my suggestion in this blog. After I lost the weight I now eat a 1/4 of what I used to eat. I can't tell you the last time I finished a meal at a restaurant, and that is something to be proud of.

There are a few little tricks that I will end to this blog with to help your body go through such a large transition and sticking to the results.

- try eating an apple before every meal. It is fat free, low in calories and high in fiber. That fiber will fill you before you eat and therefore you will eat less during the meal and still be completely satisfied (people have also said drink and 8oz glass of water before every meal but that doesn't work for me. I like the crunch of eating...but again, everyone is different)

- You are SUPPOSED TO EAT 5 smaller meals a day. Snack on things like turkey meat (high in protein low in fat), low fat string cheese, whole wheat pita bread and hummus, carrots (veggies of any kind as long as they are fresh or boiled not drenched in sauces and bad things for you) and the works. I am a huge carrot and celery eater. I love the crunch of my food and it makes me feel fuller even if I haven't eaten that much. It also allows me to eat a lot to get full when I get into those munching moods without adding many calories and NO FAT to my afternoon.

-When going to a restaurant immediately split your meal in half on your plate. Eat the half and leave the rest. Pretty soon you wont be able to even think about the other half. If you are struggling still to leave the rest ask for a box as soon as you get dinner and before you start eating put the other half in a box and put the box out of sight. That will help your body see the food on the plate as the only food you have. As children, many people were told to finish their plate, and in today's food society of massive plates it is helping our society down the road to extreme obesity.

-Also for restaurants: If ordering a salad or anything with a sauce on it get the sauce on the side. Stay away from anything caramelized or covered in cheese. Get things like turkey or chicken which you know will be high in protein but not high in fat. Try to stay away from anything breaded as well. Restaurants have the deep fryer in their kitchen and trust me they will use it. Stay away from ordering fries or onion rings. You can make them at home, and you can make them healthier than ordering from the store. In a later blog I will put up some yummy at home comfort food recipes that will give you the food you want without the fat you don't. Get the fruit sides or steamed veggies. If you don't want that, ask for no side at all.

-When craving carbohydrates remember that there are plenty of tasty things that don't include Glutton. Glutton bloats your stomach and sticks to your intestines. Try potatoes or rice (Jasmine Rice being my personal favorite) instead.

That is all for today. More to come!

The Health Guru

Vitamins, Vitamins Everywhere!

Vitamins are NECESSARY to keep your body healthy. Everybody needs to take at least some vitamins.

Here is the catch:
- not everyone needs the same vitamins
-and NO multi-vitamin will give you everything you need in the right dose

All vitamins can be found at a health food store near you. Make sure they are all natural and are what you truly need. If you want more than I suggest below, you can always research it, or go to your local health store and ask. They are there to help you, so let them.

To start of light, flax seed is always a great helper. It is a dose of nutrition that has a little bit of everything to help you fight disease, heart problems and keep you generally healthier. There is a similar vitamin out there called Omega-3 which comes from fish. If you are taking flax seed you don't need Omega-3 and if you are taking Omega you don't need flax. They are very similar and do more or less the same things for you body. I am personally a much bigger fan of flax seed. Omega-3 always gives me that "fishy" aftertaste and since it has the same benefits as flax seed (and arguably flax seed as even more) I would rather stay way from the "fish."

Another good thing to take when trying to maintain and healthy weight is green tea. IT MUST BE ALL NATURAL GREEN TEA. There are a lot of scams out there that say they are green tea pills that help you "dramatically cut weight" and they are actually filled with tons of other unhealthy things to help your body drain quickly. Green tea is a natural caffeine which boosts a persons metabolism. If you drink a lot of green tea in daily life, you may not need to take the pill form, but the pill form is 100% natural and tends to give you more green tea than you could drink in a day.

There are many other vitamins to take. I personally take calcium magnesium zinc (for migranes), Vitamin B (helps with nails, skin and hair), Vitamin D (aids in the absorption of calcium, helping to form and maintain strong bones), Vitamin C (which helps to keep you from getting sick) as well as the two mentioned above. For my body these are the perfect antidote to help me stay in the best health possible.

Vitamins on top of all the extra added benefits also help your weight fluctuate less. Before I started taking vitamins I could gain or loose up to 4 pounds in a day. Vitamins help your body rid of the things it doesn't need and store the things it does.

Check it out!

The Health Guru

The number 1 Rule!

Rule number 1 that everyone should abide by:

Drop foods that are obviously unhealthy. Fast food, too much red meat, sodas, energy drinks, grease, excessive breading, etc. There are plenty of things in our diet that we eat knowing we shouldn't.

The first thing out of my diet was sodas and fast food. Although there are days that all I crave is In N Out and a coke, you want to get to the point with your body that 95% of the time, that isn't what you are eating, or what you want to be eating.

"Healthy" food can become just as addicting the "bad" food. Everything is okay in moderation, but what helps create a more successful ability to moderate is to cut out foods that you know you're body doesn't need but craves far too often.

More to come!

The Health Guru