If you want to lose weight, we
all know that eating a healthy diet should be your first
priority. Sure, exercise is important, but diet is king when it
comes to lifelong weight management. I hope this article gives
you some simple, yet effective ways for you to make healthy
changes in the way you eat on a daily basis.
1. Make sure to eat at least
some healthy fats in most of your meals. Eating enough healthy
fats is very important for maintaining proper fat burning and
muscle building hormone levels in your body. Adequate healthy
fats in your diet also helps in keeping your appetite under
control.
The healthiest sources of dietary
fats are raw nuts, seeds, egg yolks (from organic free range
eggs), avocados, extra virgin olive oil (highest antioxidant
content of olive oils), coconut oil (a great source of healthy
saturated fats in the form of medium chain triglycerides), and
grass-fed meats (a great source of the healthy fat, conjugated
linoleic acid, which can help burn body fat and build muscle).
Try this tip -- eat a handful of
raw nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds are great healthy choices) 3
times a day about 30 minutes prior to meals. This can help to
quell your appetite and give your body some protein, fiber, and
healthy fats so that you eat less calories overall at your meals
and get more nutrition at the same time due to the high nutrient
density of most nuts.
2. Try to eat a high quality
protein source with each meal and snack that you eat. Quality
proteins from grass-fed meats, grass-fed raw dairy, and even
from plant sources such as nuts and beans provides good appetite
suppression so you can control your calorie intake easier.
Getting ample quality proteins
also helps you to build lean muscle (if you're working out hard
regularly) so that your metabolism can run at a higher rate from
the increased lean muscle on your body.
Eating sufficient protein at most
of your meals also aids your body in controlling blood sugar and
insulin levels by helping to slow the breakdown of ingested
carbohydrates.
3. Although I do not fully agree
with extremely low-carb diets, I do believe that one of the main
reasons that so many individuals struggle to lose weight for
most of their lives is due to eating excessive processed
carbohydrates such as refined grain-based starches and refined
sugars on a daily basis.
The natural sugars in whole
fruits and berries are ok because the fiber in fruits helps to
slow the blood sugar response in your body. Just make sure to
avoid fruit juices, which are mostly sugar and have the fiber
removed in processing the juice.
In my experience as a nutrition
specialist, when people start to minimize their grain
consumption (from cereals, bagels, breads, pasta, etc), they
start to lose body fat much easier. What I usually recommend is
for people to minimize eating grains and focus their
carbohydrate intake on fruits and vegetables solely. This
simple step alone usually helps people to start managing their
weight more easily.
Try to implement these 3 tips for
eating a smarter, healthier diet and I'm willing to bet that
you'll start to see a leaner body and more energy in no time.
By
Mike Geary
