FIT Fridays: Three tips for a healthy diet

Hey FIT Fridays friends,
I recently ran into a friend I hadn't seen since May. At first, I didn't even know it was her -- the only thing I recognized was her hair. She had lost 50 pounds! In five months! I asked her secret (so I could share with you). She said it was really simple. She was tired of looking in the mirror every day and hating the person who looked back at her. She was tired of her kids asking her to play outside and being too tired to do it. She was tired of snapping at her kids when she knew, deep down, really she was mad at herself for letting her body become her enemy. She said she finally looked in the mirror one day and decided enough was enough. Food would not be her comforter any more.

I think many of us fall into that trap. We know what we're doing right and we know what we're doing wrong. Hating who we see in the mirror, we turn to food anyway, consoling ourselves with doughnut, chips, ice cream, convinced we just don't have what it takes to change.

Last week, I shared practical tips to get the most from your exercise routine. Exercise alone, though, doesn't  bring good health. Without healthy eating habits, our bodies lack the fuel they need to work efficiently. Even thin people can suffer from bad health because of poor nutrition, such people are "skinny fat people." Honestly, that's been me for most of my adult life. I can eat just about anything without gaining weight (or at least much slower than most people), but I still am at risk for major health problems. Whether you're thin or a little more curvy, what you eat matters!

Restrict Calories:
For those who want -- or need -- to lose weight for optimal health, restricting calories is a necessity. Exercise alone helps, but the weight loss is so slow, it's discouraging. When I want to lose weight, I watch every bite, every crumb, every drop that goes in. It's as they say: What goes in must come out... sometimes it goes out with our waistband. I track:

• every meal, 
• every snack, 
• every lick of a spoon, 
• every bite I nibble from my daughter's plate (those really do add up). 
• I track the calories in my multivitamin and in my calcium supplement. 
• I track how many glasses of water I drink each day. (Goal of 8 per day. Work up to it, starting at 4 glasses per day if you don't already drink water)

I aim for a total intake of 1,350 calories or less per day. Over the course of the week, it usually averages out to about that. Until I began restricting calories, I exercised with no weight loss results. Sure, the arm flab got a little less wiggly. My belly got more firm. But I still didn't feel the energy I had expected. Once the extra baggage started coming off, I realized how important calorie tracking is.

Watch fats and cholesterol:
Heart disease is a risk for women, not just men. High fat and/or cholesterol intake affects our heart health. As a skinny fat person who can eat just about anything, I tended to eat the yummy higher fat foods that taste oh so good. Fat and cholesterol tend to coexist in the same foods. Even if we eat a low cholesterol diet, our bodies manufacture it. Fatty foods may lead to greater cholesterol production than other foods. Too many calories can lead to cholesterol production.

Think of your blood vessels as a garden hose and cholesterol as glue. If you squeeze glue into a garden hose, eventually it clogs up so the water can't pass through. Your flowers would die from not getting water. The same is true for us. The cholesterol clogs our blood vessels restricting blood flow. Eventually we can die from it... and until then, we wilt. (That's a simplified version). Why would we do that to our bodies?

Choosing cholesterol free foods high in fiber and low in fat will help lower your cholesterol. Some "super-foods" such as such as fatty fish, walnuts, oatmeal, and oat bran, and foods fortified with plant sterols or stanols are especially beneficial. Read those labels, educate yourself and take action!

Add fiber:
In addition to the best known benefit of fiber (that's improved efficiency in the bathroom), it also helps fight diseases and improves weight management. Fiber improves the efficiency of the digestive system. It fights diseases, particularly heart disease, many types of cancer, diabetes, diverticular disease and gallstones and kidney stones. Fiber helps us feel satisfied more quickly and keeps us feeling full longer providing weight management. For those who want to lose weight, adding fiber rich foods will help tremendously. For more detailed information on the benefits of fiber, check out this article.

I know the complaint, but the side effects... Properly cooked, high fiber foods do not have quite the same effect as under-cooked high fiber foods. Make sure those beans are cooked through. Steam the broccoli, cauliflower and other veggies to ease the effects on the digestive system. Your body may talk back for a few days, but once it's used to having all that healthy food, these effects do decrease.

The internet is full of healthy food recipes, exercise suggestions, meal planning tips, calorie counters... We know what we need to do to live a healthy life. Like my friend, though, nothing changes until we decide we're really committed. Not half committed (like I've been much of my life), but fully committed. Willing to say NO to the desserts, the chips, the fried chicken. Willing to fill our plates with vegetables and whole grains. Willing to say, "I love that person in the mirror and want her to have a long, fulfilling life!"

No matter how many FIT Friday posts I write, just reading this won't change your life. You must choose -- I must choose -- to make the decisions that lead to excellent health. What do you think? Is this your day to look in the mirror and take a stand.

**As with all diet and exercise recommendations, please see a doctor if you have any concerns whatsoever about your health.**


Dear God,
Please speak life into the heart of each person who reads this post. Let them know you love them, just as they are... and that you want the very best for them. Help me live out what I speak through this page, getting healthier myself so I can serve you more. We adore you for creating us.
In Jesus' name I pray,
Amen