Exercise is Key

It is possible to eat great amounts of food, feel full and still lose weight. You just need to pick the right kinds of food to eat. A study at Pennsylvania University compared the weight loss of two types of dieters.

One group followed a diet that consisted mainly of food with high levels of water and fibre (essentially fruit and veg) while the other group went on a calorie-controlled diet. The group eating a high fibre diet lost more weight.

Filling up on vegetables and fruit is one of the best kept dieting secrets. As they are fat free you can easily eat as many as you like without feeling guilty. The three top vegetables in terms of health and nutritional benefits are kale, swiss chard and greens. These contain more vitamins and nutrients than any other vegetables.

The optimum diet consists of fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds and lean protein. The fruit and veg will allow you to lose weight but you need lean protein to step up the metabolism.

Good examples of lean protein are: fish (especially salmon and fresh sardines), chicken and turkey, lean red meat and eggs.

The ideal amount of protein you should have for each meal is 30grammes. Your body needs to be able to digest the protein you put in, too much protein becomes toxic in the body, so if you add greens and salads to the protein the enzymes in the greens help to digest the proteins.

Some foods cause your body to store fat, i.e. foods that are high in sugar. Others force your metabolism to burn more stored fat for energy, like lean protein.

But before starting any new diet change, you need to clean out or detox your body, eliminate the build up of toxins.

A simple morning drink to help rid yourself of these toxins and to help with digestion is to squeeze 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon, (or lemon concentrate if you don’t have it), into a glass of water and mix with a pinch of cayenne pepper. Continue to drink 8 glasses of water throughout the day.

Let’s start by examining the foundation of the Food Pyramid, the food group commonly referred to as grains and breads. The Pyramid advises that the average healthy person should be eating six to eleven servings of grains, breads and other starches, like pasta, every day. Furthermore, the Pyramid advises that only about half of these grains and breads need to be made from whole grains. However, as your personal trainer will tell you, modern food science has shown that only whole grains offer the body essential nutrients that it needs, and in this time of highly processed foods, eating carbohydrates six to ten times a day could be disastrous in terms of weight loss.

Moving one section up the Food Pyramid you will find the food group known as fruits and vegetables, which is the group that forms the foundation of any healthy diet, not grains and breads. Many food and diet specialists will tell you that fruits and vegetables can and should be eaten at every meal and be part of every snack, even when you’re striving for weight loss. In fact, most people can eat as many as they want without gaining weight. Also, the Food Pyramid does not point out the fact that starchy vegetables, like potatoes should actually be included in the bread and grains group.

The Food Pyramid is misleading in similar ways with regards to fats, proteins and dairy. Although the Pyramid may have been helpful in past years as a tool for helping very young children categorize different types of food, it is completely outdated and incorrect in most cases.

A Rich Colourful Diet

To start, vegetables and fruits in any diet are a great idea, especially if you plan on using them for snacks and in-between meals. Most vegetables carry what is called “Negative Calories”, meaning it takes more calories to chew and swallow the food than what is contained in the morsel you’ve eaten. Celery is a prime example of a negative calorie food.

Listed below are the five colour choices for fruits and vegetables:

REDS: Red vegetables and fruits such as cranberries, tomatoes, watermelon and beets contain lycopenes, have been considered a great prevention from some types of cancers.

GREENS: Green fruits and vegetables, such as spinach, broccoli and kiwi contain lutein and indoles which are great antioxidants.

PURPLE: Purple Fruits and vegetables like eggplant, purple cabbage and berries contain phenolics which are known to be estrogenic and increase endoprhins.

ORANGE: Orange fruits and vegetables such as oranges, carrots, mango or squash contain great amounts of flavanoids are great antioxidants as well as containing a good quantity of nutrients and vitamins.

BROWN: Brown fruits and vegetables like pears, onions, mushrooms and potatoes contain alllyl sulfides help reduce the risk of most cancers and aid in great blood circulation. More vegetables in this category are: Garlic, Leeks, Chives, Welsh Onions and Shallots