Fit Bride: 4 Food Rules To Help You Eat Your Way Skinny
4 FOOD RULES TO HELP YOU EAT YOUR WAY SKINNY
That dress fitting is daunting you right now, so how to do prepare to get slim and HEALTHY before your final fitting and walk down the aisle? You may be surprised to learn that no matter how much you have been exercising, the biggest factor to your get-skinny-success lies in your grocery cart.
1. DON’T COUNT CALORIES, COUNT INGREDIENTS:
Calorie is such an abused word today. Its nothing more than a pound of feathers/pound of lead comparison. Consuming 2000 calories in a day may sound like a standard health rule of thumb we were all raised on, but no one elaborated on “calories of WHAT.” The calories of diet soda and a frozen “healthy” entree achieve far different outcomes in your body than the calories of produce, nuts and lean meat. Ignore the calorie count on a label and instead focus simply on the ingredient list. Look for the FEWEST ingredients possible, and follow the rule: if you can’t pronounce it, your body can’t understand it. The over-processed chemical saturated foods you consume will slow your metabolism, increase insulin resistance, alter your mood, and increase the inflammatory response triggered to ward off foreign invaders within your body. The best foods of all have NO BARCODE.
2. EAT YOUR COLORS –Colorful whole foods provide a vast array of nutrition. We are bombarded with the concept that “carbs are bad.” However carbs are vital to your health, in the right form. Complex carbohydrates are those that resist immediate breakdown and are converted into sugar over time, giving us sustainable energy–things like sweet potatoes. Refined carbohydrates are those that have been stripped of other nutrients and have had their structure altered so they enter the bloodstream like an injection of sugar. This injection triggers the release of insulin which converts sugar into stored fat rather than energy, starving the brain of needed fuel. The easiest guide to a good “complex carb” vs. a bad “refined carb” is COLOR, and color rich foods also provide the highest sources of balanced nutrition in the form of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and cooperative enzymes utilized in aiding digestion which maximize the benefit to your body.
3. FAKE FOODS LIE
Our body is designed with this beautiful self-regulating process within our digestive system. As we digest whole foods, the journey through our intestines to our colon is one constant nutrient-gathering process. Whole foods will sustain us and at the end of that journey & encourage our body to release a hormone signaling to our brain that we are full. Thus allowing us greater gaps between meals and not cause us to give in to cravings. Fake foods however, since they are devoid of nutrition and heavily refined and processed, are digested instead very quickly at the top of our intestine, thus never making it to the bottom and signaling that important hormone. This is why we can eat such a huge meal and then 30 minutes later be craving another snack.
4. DON’T LET SWEETS SABOTAGE
Move over fat; the real super villain is sugar. The average American is taking in 400 calories a day from added sugars! Sugar is not a food group. It is naturally occurring in whole foods like fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts. The vast majority of sugar in the American diet is ADDED, especially in the deadly form of fructose. Fructose leads to FAT! Stresses the Liver: “When we eat fructose, it goes to the liver. If liver glycogen is low, such as after a run, the fructose will be used to replenish it. However, most people aren’t consuming fructose after a long workout and their livers are already full of glycogen. When this happens, the liver turns the fructose into fat. Some of the fat gets shipped out, but part of it remains in the liver. The fat can build up over time and ultimately lead to health issues like fatty liver disease, high cholesterol and triglycerides, and can contribute to Leptin Resistance (and then weight gain, cravings, sleep trouble, etc). Sugar of course creates a powerful addictive response in the brain, doesn’t fill you up and instead encourages you to eat more.
So as you make changes to prepare for your debut in the most expensive dress you will ever wear, consider making a few simple changes, using the food rules above to make smarter WHOLE FOOD choices. Shop the periphery of the grocery store- the middle aisle are full of nothing but sabotaging fake products!
By Kateri Reyes
Photo from Mountain Heart Cares