Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Rules for Eating
 | The Offspring - Gone Away |
Now after I posted everything that I ate yesterday, I got to thinking that while it might be useful, it's not good for anything but examples. So now I'm going to look a little bit deeper into what rules I use for eating.
Like most people, I have my favorite foods that I don't want to give up. What you saw yesterday was my need for mexican food. Now here's the thing. Most foods that you like and eat right now, can be made healthier. Don't get me wrong, a lot of the times it will be slightly different from what you eat at your typical restaurant. Can I make a damn good pizza? Yes I can. Can I make a pizza that's dripping with grease like something from Pizza Hut? Nope.
That's the bad news. The good news is that once you start cutting out a lot of the saturated fat from your diet, you don't even miss it. To be perfectly honest, whenever I'm eating the way I should, anything with a ton of saturated fat makes me nauseous. One of my favorite things when I'm in my college fast food mode is Mucho Nachos from Taco Bueno. When I'm in 2000-2004, July-present mode, they feel like a brick in my stomach and don't taste all that good either. So take comfort in the fact that you won't miss the high fat versions of these foods.
That brings me to the myth that eating right means eating salad all the time. Bull...shit. I like salad. I eat it occasionally with a good organic asian sesame dressing that I like. When I do happen to eat it, though, it's often as a side or before the meal. Relax...eating right doesn't mean giving up what you love.
Some examples of what I eat on a regular basis are: chicken/steak fajitas, turkey burgers (or ground sirloin), shish kebabs, french toast & eggs, 3 egg omelets, orange beef stir-fry, pizza, etc. Now maybe you have much different taste in food than I do, but there are some general rules I follow that will help you out.
- Cut out full calorie sodas. This is the very first rule I put into place back in February 2000 when I started eating better. Now I haven't succeeded in completely cutting them out period, because of their convenience, especially at school. I do try to avoid a few things, though: aspartame, caffeine, high sodium. I've found a root beer I like that only has a couple problems.
- Unless you're baking, use light/low-fat versions of everything. Often times the taste isn't all that different, if at all, and you usually save in both calories and saturated fat. If you're cooking, you need to experiment with what works and what doesn't. Fat-free cheese, for example, has less moisture (due to less fat) than regular cheese, so you need to up the moisture to compensate.
- Realize you eat more meat than you should. The average person should eat 4-5 oz of meat at dinner. That's about the size of a deck of cards or the palm of your hand. Meat is good, I love it. I'm from the midwest, and everything is about meat and potatoes. Too much of a good thing, though...well you know the rest.
- Fruits and vegetables are good. I know not everyone is as into them as I am. I can eat practically any of them raw and love it. You can, however, combine them with meals you eat on a daily basis to enhance those meals. They give you so many vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that it's a bad choice to overlook them.
- Use only oils high in unsaturated fats. This means sticking with oils like olive, safflower, and sunflower. Avoid ones like palm, coconut, and butter where possible.
- Drink a lot of water. Water is necessary for helping you digest food and good for replacing the water you lose every day. Not only that, but often times people confuse the signal from their body that it's dehydrated with being hungry. Drink up.
Now I could type out a lot more about all of this, and maybe I will in the future. You have to take this stuff into your own hands, because no one else is going to do it for you. We live in a country where the media tells us we need to look a certain way (small and toned for girls, large and ripped for guys), yet bombards us from every direction with crap we shouldn't be eating. How many times have you seen a Nike ad with a bunch of super fit people taking themselves to the limit, just to be followed up by an ad from Sonic or McDonald's and then Nestle cookies just for good measure?
You don't have to go organic like I do, or even eat as healthily as I do. Just start to notice the little things that contribute to your weight gain. If you switch from one Coke a day all year long to Diet Coke or water, you won't have 15 pounds to work off. If you use mustard instead of mayo on your daily sandwich, you'll drop 5 pounds.
I'll answer any questions posted in the comments section. If you're really serious about getting in shape, I'd suggest talking with a nutritionist.
Labels: nutrition
