I hope everyone had a great holiday season and your new year is starting off with passion and purpose! As most of you know, it’s resolution time…again. It’s no surprise that 2011’s number one resolution is to lose weight. This year I would like to help everyone with some simple tips that will not only help you lose weight but even more importantly, eat healthier!
One way to guarantee weight loss is to remove processed foods from your diet. This will also reduce your risk from a whole of diseases as well. This may sound like a very simple task, and many of you may be saying “I don’t eat a lot of processed foods now”. Well many “acceptable” foods you and your family eat now are processed, you will be very surprised. So here are my tips to remove ALL processed foods from your diet.
- Seek true satisfaction. Enjoy genuine flavors, rather than fat, sugar, and salt added to mask the metallic taste of chemical additives.
- Read labels wisely. You can find food with “real” ingredients in the supermarket if you read labels carefully.
- Relish what’s on your plate. Devote time solely to enjoying the pleasures of eating.
- Wean yourself off excess salt, fat, and sugar. You can also cook with smaller amounts of these ingredients by using natural substitutes like strong spices.
- Give your palate time to change. You’ll gradually lose your taste for excessively sweet and salty foods.
- Go for high-quality foods. Look for products that contain the least amount of processed ingredients.
- Treat yourself well by not skipping meals. Try eating three meals a day at fairly regular times, plus a mid-afternoon snack.
One thing to remember when trying to eat healthy foods, REAL food is alive and DIES! Sounds odd but all real food is vibrant with life when fresh. Over time it wilts, spoils, sours, etc… That is because it was once alive. Real food will not last forever in a can, bag, box, or vacuumed sealed. Strive to add more real food in your diet while removing fake food. Do this and watch your weight go down and your health go up! Be well in 2011!
I find that shopping the perimeter of the store is the best way to find “real food” being both the freshest and healthiest. Our bodies crave nutrition and when we eat food that is based on empty calories our body does not register that it has been fed and continues to feel hungry. If you want to lose weight feed your body whole foods in their natural state and you will be amazed at your body’s response.
Kristen, as always, very wise words. That’s exactly what we teach our patients. If a person just did that ONE thing, weight would be lost and just as important, the person would be healthier. Thanks for the comment!
Learn to cook. By cooking your own food, you can leave processed foods behind, creating more healthful, less expensive and better-tasting food that requires less energy, water and land per calorie and reduces our carbon footprint. Cooking your own food is good for you and the planet!