Helpful Health Tips

After taking a nutrition course I wish I would have majored in Nutritional Consulting instead of Psychology. Maybe in the near future I will pursue my masters. This blog is also for many near and dear friends and family that are trying to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Here are just a few tips that I have learned and have become very beneficial to my life.

1. Eat within the first hour of waking up or the body goes into starvation mode. Your metabolism will slow down drastically.
   
2. Here is how your metabolism works: 8am-4pm 100% (this is the best time to get in most of your daily intake of food)
   4pm-7pm 50%
   7pm-10pm 25%
   10pm 0%
   
3. Never eat 4 hours before bed because the body burns from fat storage while sleeping. Burns more calories that way.
4. SIMPLE CARBS-Breads, white rice, pastries, all packaged foods, soda (or any carbonated drinks) Do not eat the following foods if you are trying to lose weight: ( potatoes/sweet potatoes, bananas, *carrots (don’t get baby carrots they are processed), corn, yams and peas, pomegranate, blueberry, grapes.
   • these foods process fast from 20-30 minutes. If you don’t work out, you store them as fat(go to the gym if you eat these foods. Don't let more than 2 hours pass or they will be stored in your fat storage)
   COMPLEX CARBS- fruits and veggies (try not to eat the fruits and veggies on the simple carbs list) , brown rice and Steal cut oats
   
5. GOOD SUGARS-Honey, natural state fruits, sugar in the raw(unprocessed sugar Cain)
   • GOOD FATS-Butter and olive oil
   • ESSENTIAL GOOD FATS-fish oil, coconut oil, flax seed, grape seed extract, frill (ALL IN MODERATION)
6. BENEFITS OF WATER-Drink 8-10 (8 oz glasses) a day. Our kidneys will not function properly without sufficient water, what happens is that the body recognizes the imbalance of water leaving the body (through urination) and the lack of water entering the body(through drinking). The body will see this imbalance as a threat to the system and it will begin to store water for protection of your body. If you don't drink enough water , you will end up with water retention problems (more lbs.), DRINK UP!!
7. EXERCISE-This raises the metabolism, increases circulation, helps relieve stress, burns calories, increases serotonin production, and increases growth hormone release.
8. PROTEIN: this is essential for growth, development and good health. Protein requires 4-5 hours to digest, so in order to keep the body from going into starvation mode it requires eating a protein every 4 hours, otherwise the body will plateau. Protein is a negative calorie food (meaning that it requires more calories to digest the protein than what is in it) as long as it is eaten with fiber based vegetables, you will lose weight.
9. If your looking at consuming a protein bar. Make sure it contains more protein than it does total carbs or else your eating a carb bar.
10. You Program your body to eat what it does throughout the day by what you eat in the morning for breakfast- (example- cereal and milk). Your body will crave dairy and sugar throughout the day. It was suggested to eat a protein packed breakfast. Here are a few ideas.
    1-Protein Drink (I like whey protein) w/1 cup of cottage cheese
    2-Egg white omelet
    3-a couple of boiled eggs
    4- 1 cup of cottage cheese w/2 slices of Melba toast
    5-Meat leftovers from last nights dinner and eggs
    These starches are the least processed: cracked wheat, Melba toast (unseasoned), Wasacrackers, Akmak Cracker, Rice Cake (unsalted), Zwieback, Flat Bread (low-fat). You can find these at almost any grocery store.
11. I am writing another early tip because I received a suggestion from my sister in law. She said," due to the exposure of the environment and the processed foods we eat (including the preservatives, artificial flavors and color, and unpurified water) we introduce radical into our bodies which disrupt the balance of electrical charges our cells have, creating a scene of havoc, which could potentially lead to vulnerabilities to disease. Cancer are common to be derived from radicals because the cells are unstable and are not able to perform their duties. " Thanks for that tip Leah!
    *It would be best to eat organically, but let's face it, it can be very expensive. Produce isn't to bad (neither are eggs), but meat is pricey. In order to make your meat organic you just boil it for 2-3 minutes and scoop out all the "stuff" that floats to the top. Those are all the chemicals. (This works for all meats except fish). Afterwards, cook it the way you want. Hope this helps!
    
12. Here are just a few Flour, Sugar, Bread crumbs (to coat foods like chicken) and Rice replacements that we use to cook with.
    1-Instead of White flour we use Spelt Flour. You can make (cookies, breads, pastas, cakes, pizza crust) anything with Spelt. It's lower in carbs, higher in protein, high fiber, and overall healthier.
    2-Instead of Sugar we use Sucranat (replaces brown sugar) and Raw Sugar Cain (replaces white sugar). Honey is also great and we use Maple Syrup Grade B or C.(REMEMBER SUGAR IN MODERATION. Sugar contained in raw fruits is the healthiest.)
    3-Bread Crumbs are high in carbs. Try unsweetened cereal flakes (Whole Wheat, Amaranth, etc.) You can crunch them up in a bag and add your own spices.
    4-Instead of White Rice we sometimes use Brown Rice, Barley, Buckwheat, Bulgar or Quinoa. (If it's hard for you lo stop eating white rice do a half and half recipe.
    
    * This might sound distasteful but this is how we make our mashed potatoes. It's just a healthy swap and you really don't notice any difference. We combine half the amount of potatoes we would normally use (Because they are high in carbs), and boil cauliflower (sometimes turnips. Turnips take longer to boil). We ad 1/4 cup of butter, Half and half (to moisten) or plain soy milk, grated mozzarella cheese, salt, and pepper. Depending on flavor I will sometimes add 1 Tbs of low fat cream cheese and 1/4 cup of low fat sour cream.
    
13. Sorry, I think I skipped a week. Thanksgiving was so busy. Hope you are all enjoying the holidays. Here is just an interesting tip to think about as you work out. Weight lifting to build muscle is very important. You can burn 30 to 50 calories more a day, even at rest! The more calories you burn at rest (24/7) the easier it is to create the body you desire. The other good news; if you add 5 pounds of muscle, you get to eat 250 more calories a day! After having Eliana, I have found that weight lifting combined with some cardio and healthy eating has helped me lose some of the baby weight. I'm still working on it. Also, contrary to popular belief...you will not bulk up if you weight lift. Muscle takes up less room on your body than fat does and muscle is what helps you burn the fat faster. :) Happy Holidays!