Talking with a Colleague of mine, the subject of Superfoods and healthy eating became the topic of discussion. Interesting time too as I am coaching two people towards their weight loss goals. Which is a story in and of itself as these two people are at complete different understanding of healthy and "doing well" on the program means.
That made me realize how much most people don't really know. And the one's that do...well it's okay to hear it again.
Today I want to recap some basic general guidlines for eating to be lean. Taking into consideration that the food quality today is a bit crappy compared to that of yesteryear.
VERY GENERAL EATING GUIDELINES:
There are 4 Food Categories:
1. Proteins
2. Carbs (carbohydrates)
3. Fats
4. Greens
There are both Good Carbs (complex carbs) and Bad Carbs (simple carbs).
Good: Whole Grain stuff
Bad: "Enriched" crap you get at the store
There are good fats and bad fats.
Good: Avocados, Raw Nuts
Bad: Saturated processed Crap fat
Carbs are your energy sources. Yes, they need to be consumed so that your body can run efficiently. Think gas for your car.
However, you don't need to be "topping off your tank" every couple of miles: that means you don't need carbs for EVERY meal.
For weight loss, you need to do the following: eat your carbs as early in the day as possible. I personally try to cut mine off by noon or early afternoon.
ALWAYS eat a carb WITH a PROTEIN. Never eat a carb alone.
That one little change in habit will help you tremendously.
Try this for a week and see what happens! Get back to me with your results!
Stay tuned for some Fat talk....
Awesome information. I will take it to heart. I just returned from a long trip to Spain and was surprised that I really did not see any overweight people. They are not light eaters either. I wonder which is more important eating behavior vs food quality. Does food quality drive eating behavior or does the eating behavior drive us to eat crap?
ReplyDeleteIt's fantastic that you actually got to see another culture and the way they eat.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the question of behavior vs. quality I really think that the two are so interdependent.
From a "health" standpoint, definately quality of food is the winner. This logic comes from the view of food on a chemical level, and how it affects us; ie: Sugar.
From an aesthetic "skinny" standpoint... behavior wins out. This is evidenced by both the aneroxic and the Sumo wrestler (who are BTW quite healthy). Sumo wrestlers eat very clean but they eat heavy clean/healthy food before bed, and therefore sleep on full tummies. Hence the weight gain. But they don't eat crap food. Yet they would be considered obese.
In this example behavior is the deciding factor.
It is an interesting relationship that our culture needs to explore more.