I decided earlier that tomorrow (Wednesday, November 7) I'm going to do everything I can to eat totally healthy. I've always noticed my eating habits weren't the best and there's room for improvement, but lately I've been trying to become fit and tone my body and a major way to help myself do that would be to eat well along with my usual exercises. So, here are the things I'm going to start working towards to achieve a healthier body and mind.
*A major helper I'm going to be using throughout my new eating habits will be
Fooducate, a free iPhone app where you scan the bar-codes of foods you want to eat and it will grade it for you with it's grading system, tell you how many calories per serving it has, and tell you the positives and negatives about the product. It's one of my favorite apps I have and I highly recommend you check it out!
Drink Only Water!
I was never a fan of any type of sodas, or caffeine drinks in general. No Pepsi, no Mountain Dew, no coffee. I just never liked the way the fizz nips your tongue and always thought that if anything they would make you thirstier! However, I do have a major sugary drink addiction to make up for it: sugar sweetened iced tea mix. This is a drink I usually have about 4 cups of a day, and I rarely drink anything else. Fooducate gives it a grade of C-, saying that there's 4.5 teaspoons of sugars per serving and contains controversial artificial colors. Because of this, I've decided to cut it out of my diet entirely and only drink water.
Minimize Amounts of Butter and Salt!
While a lot of people have a sweet-tooth, I've always seem to have had a salt-tooth. Most of my cravings are usually for something salty, like french fries or potato chips. Also, I come from a house that loves their butter, and puts great amount of it in most family meals. Butter is pretty much spreadable fat in a container and isn't healthy at all!
Protein is Important!
Proteins are full of good chemicals like amino acids to keep your body up and running. The food pyramid says to get 2-3 servings of protein a day, whether it's from meat, beans, nuts, or eggs. Also, protein is very important if you're trying to lose weight because it's great at building muscle and burning fat!
Have Free Days!
Free days are going to be really important to me achieving the goal of eating healthier by giving me something to look forward to at the end of the week. Every Saturday (I figured this would be the day it'd be hardest to stick to a healthy schedule) I'll be allowed to eat any food I want as long as I strictly stick to my routine throughout the rest of the week. I think it'll be easier to eat healthier if I'm able to look forward to a free day instead of just a healthier me in a few months.
This is something that won't be easy. Junk food is everywhere, but I believe if you stick to the basics and listen to what you're taught that it's entirely possible to be healthy and enjoy what you're eating!
