Many Americans are striving to live healthy lifestyles these days. Some have goals of weight loss, some want to improve their energy levels, and others want to prolong life or avoid the onset of prevalent nutrition related diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer or stroke.
Those individuals, who have set goals directed toward improving health, may realize that improved health means enhanced quality of life. Improved health is a result of a change in nutrition habits, increased physical activity, and health promoting lifestyle decisions.
What can you do to alter your nutritional habits? It depends. Do you eat breakfast? If you don't, that's a good start. Choose to eat a bowl of cereal each morning. Opt for a high fiber, whole grain cereal, and eat it with low-fat milk, enriched rice milk or soymilk. Kashi produces a number of cereals that are high fiber, and consist of whole grains which provide sufficient amounts of the B vitamins and healthy carbohydrates your body needs to perform up to par, without crashing before lunch.
You may also benefit from a piece of fruit in the morning, and perhaps some low-fat yogurt, especially if you are a woman. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It reduces the amount of calories you need to consume at lunch, and helps regulate your metabolism. It helps you eat at a more consistent rate throughout the day, and decreases the likelihood that you will over-eat at lunch or dinner because you skipped a meal, and are at a calorie deficit.
Once lunch rolls around, you may want to choose a medium calorie meal, such as a bowl of soup and a sandwich, or a salad and sandwich. Try to include a serving of vegetables (1 cup cooked veggies or 2 cups raw leafy greens). Most Americans do not consume the recommended 2 ½ cups of vegetables per day. Veggies provide fiber and valuable vitamins and minerals. They help fill you up and can lower cholesterol levels. Some veggies can boost your metabolism and protect against intestinal cancer, lung cancer and other types of cancer. Veggies also help protect against heart disease, by lowering cholesterol levels, and may help lower glucose levels in blood, preventing the onset of diabetes in those who are overweight or obese.
Dinner is the meal that is consumed most by Americans. Many Americans choose to eat out for dinner. Eating out can take a toll on our waistlines. Many foods you may purchase from fast food vendors consist of high fat items that will certainly provide more fat than your body needs to function optimally. If you do choose to eat out, you should consider choosing meals that include plenty of veggies. Avoid the popular hamburger and fries. They do not offer much nutritionally. You may think they offer valuable protein and carbohydrate, but don't fool yourself. You are probably eating plenty of protein each day, and easily meeting your requirements, and there is an excessive amount of fat in such a meal.
Look at it this way. To maintain weight, you should balance energy (calories) in with energy out. To lose weight, you should expend more calories than you consume, each day. Weight loss is a matter of choosing nutritionally dense foods, such as lean meats, low-fat dairy products, fruits and veggies.
Innovate. Try eating new, nutritious foods, and avoid your normal dietary habits. You may find that you are feeling more energetic. Your increase in energy may enable you to get the recommended 30 min of moderate intensity exercise 5 days a week. Soon you'll notice that the weight is coming off. Success may result because you made some simple changes to your nutritional habits.
