Go ahead... gorge yourself on salad!

In response to a dear friends question on eating healthily, I would like to make a few comments on nutrition. First off, I'm not the best example, nor am I an expert. I have however, been slowly making changes over the past couple months. Have I seen changes? Yes. Let me tell you what I am doing.

First off, my dad is a nutrition guru so I ask him questions a lot. I have learned that there is a lot of garbage in the media today telling us what foods are good for us. The world's opinion of "healthy for you" is really, really skewed. Be careful what you listen to. Your favorite Crunchy Frosty Chocolate Marshmallow Matey O's is not part of a balanced breakfast. Sorry.

Here is where I want to start: you know when you don't eat anything and are starving so when you get the chance you go straight to your cupboard or the store and you purchase the first sweet, sugary thing you see? Sounds familiar doesn't it? Yep. That is what your body is telling you to do. Your blood sugar is low so you need something to boost you or else you will drag and have no energy. If you're like me, I get shaky and weak if I don't have something to eat. You may get a headache or get super tired. Your body needs something. But, before you run and get a snickers or a bag of non-ruffled potato chips (I have "heard" they are healthier for you because there is less of the chip... they aren't ruffled. I don't know if I buy that. They're still p-chips) stop and think.

I know you're hungry, but you have to stop and take hold of your mind for just a second -- it's a war between your mind and stomach. Make your mind win. Stop and consider your options. You could go for the potato chips but how are you going to be feeling in an hour? Hungry and weak again. The potatoe chips have no nutritional value to them. All they are are carbs. (Carbs meaning sugar. Sugar=bad=fat. Remember that equation.) Again, you are going to be hungry and weak again. All those chips did for you was raise your blood sugar, but as we learned in 7th grade science, what happens when something comes up? It always has to come down and in most cases it is going to fall lower than it was because it now has been even longer since you had something nutritious to eat.

So! What should you have done? The trick is, balance. For every carb you eat, you have to eat more protein. Let me explain: if you eat carbs, sugar, when you are hungry, your blood sugar is going to go up. Okay. But how do you keep your blood sugar up? Eat a protein with the carb. For example: Piece of bread=carb + peanut butter = protein. Wa la! You are balanced. PB&J sandwich - a little less balanced because you have more carbs than protein. Jam and bread being the carbs and only peanut butter as your protein. But, at least you are getting a protein in there. Let's analyze a few of my eating habits. Breakfast: I got some Whey Protein powder (healthiest kind out there -- not fatty)that I mix with water (I don't drink milk anymore)usually consumed with some type of fruit and a piece of bread with peanut butter on it. I also enjoy applesauce and cottage cheese mixed together. Are you seeing the balance? Apple sauce being the sugary carb and cottage cheese the balancing protein. If you really like yogurt (sugary carb) throw in a handfull of almonds or walnuts. Those are the best nuts you can eat. Peanuts=worst. Cashews are better than peanuts. Carry a bag of nuts around in your bag with you during the day and munch on those instead of potato chips. Man -- what a difference it makes! Also, for breakfast I sometimes do a quick protein shake: water, protein powder, frozen fruit, tiny bit of favorite flavored yogurt, 2 TBS of Olive Oil (yes, olive oil. SOOO good for you. Great protein. Great source of good fat. Don't get the cheap veggie oil -- yuck. Bad veggie oil.)Throw in some spinach leaves and maybe even a handful of almonds and hit blend. YUMMY!! And oh my goodness it is soo good for you! (By the way, you can't even taste the spinach. It is just an amazing source of nutrients. You could even throw a raw egg or cottage cheese in there for extra protein. No the raw egg is not going to make you sick. I grew up on shakes with raw eggs in them and I'm here writing to you.)

Okay, now think about those breakfast foods compared to a bowl of your favorite Crunchy Frosty Chocolate Marshmallow Matey O's. (I won't use any specific names...) BAH! Could you be putting anything worse in your body? Especially for the most important meal of the day? NO! Yuck, all that is is pure sugar that you are putting into your pour body. Protect your body! All that sugar is going to do is lower your immune system and make you tired, sick, fat and more susceptible to getting sick. If you keep that habit of cereal up, you're going to notice it later on. Some of you may be super skinny right now and thinking that you can eat anything you want. Wrong. It is going to catch up with you. I promise. The readers digest version of why that happens is that your body (your high metabolism) gets so tired and burnt out on fighting all of that sugar that it slowly just stops. Then what happens to you? Your hips, thighs and the belly area start to pooch. Your face starts to look a little rounder, your arms don't quite fit your shirts and your stomach hangs out over your jeans. Ugh. That is no fun. No one wants that. It just doesn't feel good to feel like that. It doesn't make one happy.

So, there it is my friends. My two cents. I could go on and on about this but I'm going to stop. Start with that. Start just taking a second before you eat something and consider whether or not it is balanced. Is your blood sugar going to come up and down again? If so, throw in some protein. But don't think you can eat whatever sugar you want and just throw some protein in there with it to make it balanced. Ha! No. That cancels the whole thing out. You have to be willing to throw candy, pop, fast food and all the other junk out -- or at least minimize your intake of it. In this case it is quality vs quanitity. Go ahead, gorge yourself on a salad! Yum!

One last thing... when you combine this eating method to a good cardio and muscular workout... you are going to see changes.

If you have questions shoot me a comment. If you would like to hear more... let me know. I would love to write more on what you want to hear.