My old nutrition rants

[immax01]

Over a year ago i started a nutrition blog... Not sure why... I like to write and i like nutrition, tada! a blog... I made 2 posts and got bored of it. Here are the 2 posts... Maybe they'll be deemed useful by someone... if not, I'm prepared to be torn a new one for how wrong i am.

1. Its who you eat with.
When I'm at work on the weekdays I eat very well. Five days a week my diet is near perfect when I am responsible for my own meals. Come the weekend and come the brownies. You see, when I am in control of my diet, I plan my meals and I stick to eating healthy food, however, the weekend comes and I start to eat with my Fiancé, my parents and friends. Although I try to stick to my own preferred meals, It makes it much more difficult to resist temptation when others around you are eating junk food. I don't care who you are, when someone makes brownies or (insert your dirty craving here) its not always easy to "just say no". Listen folks, I'm not saying you have to abandon your friends and loved ones, I'm saying you have to be conscious of your surroundings. I used to eat anything and everything on the weekends but then i realized, its because of who I'm eating with that I'm eating unhealthy. Don't give into their ways, simply tell them you re not hungry when they offer you that 1500 calorie slice of pie, tell yourself this "nothing tastes as good as thin feels". It may sound cheesy but think about it, that pie will give you 15 mins of gratification, but your physique is with you day and night. Please treat yourself once in a while, I'm not saying a slice of pie will kill you, but its good to have the ability to resist temptation.

2. It's so easy!
Most of us have excuses for everything, and we either blame our misfortunes on others, or we pass it off as no big deal. e.g. You are out of shape so you blame it on your long hours at work, your stressful life, time for kids, time with your partner, "dieting" is too hard, fitness takes too long, etc. We all know the list goes on, well as long as you keep on making excuses for yourself then it will remain that 64.5% of the U.S. adult population is overweight. Let's talk about being fat.
It increases the risk of illness from about 30 illnesses, it lowers self esteem which lowers social interaction, which lowers your mood, which usually causes you to eat more junk food, which makes you fatter, which lowers your self esteem, you see where I'm going with this? Let me put this bluntly, none of your excuses are acceptable. Health and Fitness is far too easy to make excuses against it. That being said, lets begin your effortless transformation.

Easy Tip #1-Read the Nutritional Information on food labels.
This will be the absolute biggest contributor to your weight loss. The label is broken up into two parts, Nutritional facts, and Ingredients. Although the facts will give you a basic rundown of what you are consuming, the ingredients are the true test of whether or not that food is worth eating. When in the grocery store, rather than throw that bag of "low fat" pudding into your cart, turn the package around and read the ingredients, and you just might learn that "low fat" doesn't really mean it wont make you fat.

Easy Tip #2-What ingredients to avoid.
Continuing on from "Easy Tip#1" you must watch out for the following ingredients and avoid them at all costs.

1. High Fructose Corn Syrup- It's basically a bad sugar which will turn into fat.
2. Hydrogenated oil- AKA a trans fat, your body does not know how to digest this and it turns it into fat.
3. Enriched- If an ingredient is enriched, that means its natural nutrients were removed during its refining process so the company "enriched" it by adding a small amount of nutrients back into the product. Instead, look for whole-grain or whole-wheat.
4. White or refined sugar- Sugar is bad because it spikes your insulin level. When that happens, your insulin reacts to lower your blood sugar, and it turns the sugar into fat. If this happens too often, your insulin will drop, and your blood sugar will raise and you, my friend, just ate a nice serving of diabetes.

For now I will leave you with that. Take your first lesson and throw out any foods you have at home that have any of the above four in the ingredients, then, when you go grocery shopping, read the labels on everything! You may think some things are healthy when they advertise "low fat" or "no cholesterol" but by simply reading the nutritional information, you can be the judge of whether or not that food belongs in your fridge.

In before "too long did not read"

[PBateman2]

Good post. #1 is important. Those people I just call crap pushers. Especially people who know you are trying to achieve something or that you are healthy and push crap in your face. Right on. Know your surroundings.