Now I’m not saying I follow these “rules” 100% every single day. I try to always just have them in the back of my mind knowing that if I do live by these rules I will feel my best. Yes I splurge on spoonfuls of peanut butter and salted caramel soy ice cream but that makes eating healthy all the better. If you eat healthy 80% of the time you won’t ever have to feel guilty about little splurges that keep you sane!
1) Easy on the fats - I personally do not like to include a lot of fats in my diet. Sometimes fat makes me feel groggy, tired and heavy. Also, fats are very sneaky about the amount of calories you could consume from them. Its very easy to reach into a bag of almonds and accidentally eat 500 more calories than you wanted to. There are about 200 calories in ¼ cup nuts (small hand full). Reach in the bag twice and you’re eating 500 calories for one snack. I’m not recommending cutting out fat completely. Just limiting the amount of fat you eat (avocado, nuts, oil, coconut) will over all save you calories. Try limiting your fat intake to a spoonful of peanut butter a week. Or splurge with your friends and get an avocado sushi roll. Just focus on eating plant based starches and don’t worry about counting gram for gram the amount of fat you’re eating!
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2) Oil free as much as possible - It would be literally impossible to avoid oil completely. You wouldn’t be able to eat out anywhere and would have to avoid a lot of natural packaged foods that contain oil in them. Cutting out oil while cooking will save you so many calories and fat. There is no real health benefit of oils even though people tell you there are. Its just added fat that you really do not need in your diet. Instead of using oil to sauté vegetable just use water! It works just the same and it so much healthier for you. Also, Instead of using oil in recipes try using unsweetened apple sauce for a substitute in baking. This substitute works amazing in brownies, cookies, muffins, breads and many other baked goods. Trust me I’ve tried it!
3) rinse you’re beans - There is 480 mg of sodium in a ½ cup of black beans. The daily recommended value of sodium ( based on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans) is 1,500 mg per day. One half cup of black beans would already be taking up 1/3 of your DRV in one meal! By draining and rinsing your beans/ peas/ other canned goods you can reduce the sodium to about 100 mg per ½ cup. I eat a lot of beans, almost at every meal. This tip really helps to keep my sodium levels down!
4) Understanding calorie density - By understanding this concept I have learned that I can eat way more with out all of the calories from oil, meat and cheese. Calorie density is the measure of how many calories are in a given weight of food. foods high in calorie density are foods that have high calories with a low weight of food. Foods low in calorie density have fewer calories with the same weight of food as the high calorie dense foods. So consuming foods in low calorie density allow you to eat more with fewer calories. Below is a calorie density scale showing that you could eat a pound of vegetable and it would only be around 100 calories whereas if you ate a pound of nuts you’d be up to about 3,000 calories. This concept is so important when eating a high carb low fat lifestyle. This goes to show that you really can eat a lot more on this lifestyle and not have to go hungry and feel guilty after eating high fat high calorie foods.
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5) Eat your carbs - You’re brain and muscles literally need carbs to function. Carbs are a source of energy that when eaten your body turns into glucose which fuels the cells of your brain and muscles. Low carb diets make me crazy. By going on a low carb diet you are putting your body into a state called ketosis. Ketosis is when your body does not have any carbs to burn so it goes to your fat instead. Now you might think that sounds like a good idea if you’re trying to lose weight. But what every low fat diet promoter doesn’t tell you is how crappy you will feel not eating any carbs. You’re body will be getting essentially no fiber so you will become constipated. You will feel exhausted all the time because you will be getting no glucose (sugar) that your body craves from carbs. And most likely after 3 days of this diet you will go crazy and binge on pizza and bread and high carb foods because your body is screaming at you to eat carbs! Just eat your rice and beans and be happy.
Source:My top 5 healthy rules to live by
via Tumblr My top 5 healthy rules to live by