How to Be Healthy and Lose Weight

There are some basics to staying healthy, the biggest part is making sure you're eating right and staying active. While I don't claim to be a doctor, I have studied nutrition.

The most important thing to remember is my focus is health more than weight loss. I never advocate harmful foods with man made products that claim to be no-fat, low-fat, sugar-free, etc.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A healthy diet
• A sport or fun hobby
• An okay from a doctor to begin a diet and exercise regimen

1. Look in your cabinets, refrigerator and drawers. What's in there? Are there processed foods? High-calorie snacks or ready-to-go meals? If so you need a food overhaul. Your food choices may be making you fat. My suggestion to you is to throw out ALL of this junk and take a trip to your local farmers market or organic store.

2. Create a shopping list of good things to eat. The things you should get the most of are fruits and veggies. For proteins try to eat more beans, nuts and legumes vs. red meat and pork. If you do get animal products try to get fish or lean chicken.
   
   Whole grains are better than white and bleached products. Brown rice is better than white.
   
   Not all fats are created equal. You can have fat, but try to make it a good for you fat. Olive oil and vegetable oil are better for you than butter. If you must, choose butter over margarine. Margarine starts out as a vegetable fat, but man has hydrogenated it to create margarine. Margarine has trans fats, so it's actually worse for you than butter.
   
   Avocado is a good for you fat, so are many nuts. Remember don't overdo it! Too much fat is too much fat!
   
   Mushrooms are also a great and tasty addition to any diet.

3. Preparing your food. Most people lead busy lives and want their food asap, that's why they turn to prepared meals. Before you go to bed at night make a big salad for the next day that everyone can share. Don't go for Caesar salads! They have all greens and croutons and then a creamy (aka fatty) dressing. Do a garden salad or a "house" salad. They're more satisfying because they have tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers, egg, etc.
   
   Food Ideas:
   Simple sandwiches are an easy way to keep everyone happy and provide them with fresh, healthy food. Make a sandwich with wheat, rye or pumpernickel bread. Turkey with light mayo or mustard, lettuce & tomato is a delicious and healthy sandwich to make for yourself.
   
   Tuna fish is also a simple and delicious sandwich to make.
   
   Try a panini! Coat the pieces of your bread with olive oil. Fill with tomato, basil and some grilled (and marinated)chicken. Throw in a thin layer of mozzarella. Then put in a panini maker for a few seconds. A healthy and delicious meal.
   
   Grilled fish is easy and quick. Don't forget about your herbs. Grilled fish is delicious with lemon, thyme salt and pepper.
   
   Make an asian inspired stir-fry meal by cooking snow peas, carrots & sesame-ginger chicken. Want some rice? Cook up some brown rice with soy, sesame, vegetable oil and egg. Add other spices that you like. It's a quick, easy, delicious meal.
   
   Experiment with sauces. Mix up some delicious sauces and dressings. Let your food marinate overnight and simply grill, saute or bake in the oven.
   
   White wine can lend a delicious sweetness and wonderful aroma to foods.
   
   Don't forget about soups and stews. One amazing meal I've made involves cooking lentils over the stove and then in a separate giant pot cooking carrots, garlic, tomato sauce & paste, vegetable bullion, onion, peas and a huge variety of spices. Every time I make it there's no leftovers. Everyone goes for seconds. (and nobody misses the meat)
   
   Lemon-pepper chicken is an easy marinade and delicious to eat! Fill a zipper bag with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add your chicken and coat. Let marinate while your out. Pull out of the bag and grill with your favorite veggies and rice or a sweet potato.

4. Once you have your food down you can move over to the activity portion of your health and well being. There isn't any one thing that's for everyone. Try a little bit of everything to find out what you love. Hopefully you'll find at least 4-5 activities that you really love and can mix up throughout the week or seasons. I hate running and jogging, but I love walking and hiking. You may love snowboarding but hate skiing. It's all about trying new things. You may be surprised that you love doing your new activity. Hate sports? Try something fun that gives you a great workout like dancing. Riding a horse or even jet skis are a great way to get a workout.

5. Get a friend! Nothing keeps you on track like a friend. If one has a hard time, the other can support him or her. You're sharing one common goal, your health! It's a great thing to work towards.

6. Start a Journal! A journal helps you keep track of what you eat and when you eat it. You can track your calories and write your goals for the week. You can also put how you achieved your goals and how it made you feel to become 1 step closer to your goal. Make sure your goals are realistic and healthy. Most importantly Have Fun!

Tips & Warnings

• Why do I advocate organic and local? By buying local your supporting farmers in your area. Farmers usually choose no or fewer pesticides and chemicals on their crops. It also takes less fuel to transport your food from the field to the local market. Foods are fresher when they're local. If you can't get local, I'd suggest a organic food store.
• Hydrogenation or Partial-Hydrogenation: Taking a liquid fat and turning it into a solid fat. By doing this the chemical bonds break apart and do not re bond correctly and thus become hard for your body to break down. Hydrogenation essentially equals Trans Fats.
• For people with high blood pressure instead of sodium try potassium. You can get high levels of potassium in sea kelp. It tastes like salt, but it's better for you and may even lower high blood pressure if you use it as salt's replacement.
• Did you know unless it says "usda organic" it's not held up to any government standards of being organic?
• Is it really fat free or low fat? Maybe not. Turn over the package and read the ingredients. The definition of a fat is that it's a triglyceride so big companies can get away with saying it's low fat or no fat by putting diglycerides or monoglycerides in the food. You body still processes it like fat no matter what it is.
• It says no trans fat, so why do i see hydrogenated oils in the ingredients? The government has a measurement of how much trans fat is okay in a product. If you are lower than a certain percentage of trans fat you can put "no trans fat" on the label.
• There is no requirement to label things GMO at the grocery store. Genetically Mutated Organisms are bad, it would take an entire article for me to explain all the reasons why. I'll add a links at the end of this article that are relevant.
• There are some pretty unpleasant side effects from man-made sugars. Did you know that a recent study showed that people that use man-made sugars actually gain more weight than those that use the real stuff?
• Need an alternative to real sugar because of dietary restrictions or diabetes? Try all natural stevia leaf. It's a plant leaf that tastes sweet like sugar, but won't raise your blood sugar and doesn't have the awful side effects of "fake sugars".
• Did you know that splenda starts off as real sugar but becomes something harmful to you in the end process? Splenda becomes chlorine.

Resources

• Why Splenda is Harmful
• Why GMO's are Harmful
• Yummy Recipes for Healthy Eating
• Why Organic food is a Better Choice