Practical Thoughts - 3 Simple Rules

Practical Thoughts - We CAN control our health, just by practicing 3 simple rules.

When I talked with a few people this past week about healthy eating their responses on the subject were.. ....

 .."you're dealing with years of family
tradition, that's just how we always prepared meals".. ~ Here's a great article: ~
Breaking Some Family Traditions is a VERY good thing ~

"My body can't do without eating meat,
especially since I play football"...

We tend to make things harder than what they actually are and eating healthy is one of them. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services updated the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (January 2011), to tell us what we should be eating. Do we really need to wait for someone else to tell us what we should be eating? Do you want a healthier life? Do you want to live longer, or more importantly achieve a better quality of life?

Start Today and continue to progress into a healthier way of eating and living.

STOP EATING TOO MUCH - That does not mean "stop" eating, it means eat smaller portions. Most families practice the general rule of 3 meals a day (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner). Having 3 -5 small healthy meals a day can prevent you from over eating during meals. Whether or not this eating pattern increases your metabolism is still up for debate.

 However.. To improve your metabolic efficiency you only need to alter what you eat and what you do a little bit to experience a difference in how you look and feel.

The best way to jump-start your metabolism is to exercise. Exercise will reduce body fat and increase lean muscle mass (Very Important as we Age since most of our lean muscle mass turns into body fat). By increasing lean muscle mass, metabolism will increase and aid in the weight-loss process. Muscle tissue uses more calories than fat tissue because it has a higher metabolic rate. Aerobic exercise, like walking, swimming or cycling, has the added bonus of speeding up your metabolism for 4 to 8 hours after you stop exercising. Additional calories will be burned off long after you stop exercising.  (Reference Link)

Tip - Eat Breakfast! Avoid eating late at night because your metabolism naturally slows down in the afternoon and evening, so eat a hearty breakfast.When lean people overeat their metabolism speeds up and when obese people diet their metabolism slows down. The key is a balance of exercise and diet.

 EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES - Before you jump up on the next "Dr. Oz", ask yourself  "Have you had your daily fix of fruits and vegetables". If not, don't waste your time on the latest health find.Consistency of the basic health principle is key. I can't tell you how many times I have heard people telling me about the latest "healthy mango" or "artichoke juice" to find out that they aren't practicing eating fruits/vegetables daily. Only one in four Americans are currently getting the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables a day. (Eating Well  June 2011).

Tip - Get the REAL food source and not from a vitamin (Broccoli vitamin?) I do promote taking vitamins just remember vitamins are supplements for what you are not getting enough of naturally - like Vitamin D.


STOP EATING JUNK - Start by reading the food labels. If you have a favorite junk food that's hard to give up (but keep working on it) then remember the first step - eat a smaller portion.

Be patience and keep healthy - You are well worth it!

1 Corinthians 6:19-20