Starting the New Year Right-Part 2

I hope you all enjoyed my first part to my fitness & wellness series about quitting smoking. I got some good feedback on it from other bloggers and that made me feel good and thank you. Because lets face it, I could be blogging about something else here that someone likes to read besides fitness. Some may not find posts of that sort very interesting. But I am posting to try and get you not only enthused about a fitness & wellness program but to get you excited about it. So that you will come to enjoy fitness as a part of your life. For the rest of your life. To make life long changes to carry with you through out your life. I'm not a doctor. But I would like to share with the world what works for me that could also work for you. Am I a strict health nut? No. But it is very important to keep your body healthy. I look at it like God gave us our bodies to take care of. Not to indulge in over eating, smoking, abusing alcohol, getting tattoos or doing anything that would harm your body. God gave me a body to take care of to the best of my ability.
So the first part was on smoking. But what really should have been the first part in the series, I would like to mention just very quickly is your faith. I didn't write about that because so many of us have different faiths and that's all right. But what I'm saying is, that no matter what your faith is, you should follow that faith the way that you are suppose to. You ask how that is connected to my fitness & wellness series? It is connected to fitness and wellness in my opinion. See, where I'm going with this is that you have to work from within first, than work your way out.
So, what is the second part your wondering? Well it isn't going to be every ones favorite topic. It starts in your...KITCHEN. Yes, it's the food that you eat. If you are serious about a fitness & wellness program, it starts with the foods in your kitchen and what you buy and eat. I know. I know. I can hear you all sighing all the way over here on Peek-A-Boo Street. And I'm sure this is nothing you haven't heard before. But this is what has worked for me.
You should have three meals a day and never skip a meal under any circumstance because your body needs fuel. NEVER starve yourself! Your meals, food and snacks should be low fat. And not just your version of what you think is low fat. That's where I made my mistake. Search on the Internet to find out how many grams a fat a day you personally are allowed to reach or maintain the proper weight for you. That is the number you should stick to every day. And how do you find out where you can find those fat grams? You got it. In those lovely food labels. You must read those labels. If your allowed to have 40 grams of fat a day, then you read the back panel of a box of donuts and it says 12 grams a fat in one! You might want to reach for an apple instead. Not because you want to deprive yourself of that doughnut, but because your body NEEDS those vitamins from that apple. You cannot get those vitamins from that doughnut. Your body will not benefit anything by eating that doughnut. But your body will benefit from eating that apple. Sure you can have that doughnut but then when you are eating din-din, well you might have to stick with just a salad. It's better to get full on healthy food then fat foods because your just loading your body up with fat and with no nutrition what so ever, which your body needs to stay healthy.
Just one example. Regular tostitos have 7 grams of fat in 12 chips. The baked tostitos has 3 grams of fat in 14 chips. And the baked taste great! So it is real important to stay within how many grams of fat you are allowed each day.
If you are going to snack in between meals, they have to be healthy snacks. Fruits and vegetables. I should strive to eat so much fruit and vegetables a day. When I want a snack, I think, ok did I have my apple today? Did I have my palmfull of carrots today? So by the end of the day, there will be no room for doughnuts because I made sure that I had eaten what I was suppose to for my body.
Same with water. Have a jug of water in the fridge that holds the same amount of 8 water bottles. You have to make yourself drink that through out the day before you go to bed. So again, by the end of the day, you will see that you had no time to pick up your favorite can of pop because you were busy drinking all of that water that your body just loves and needs. Adam's Ale I've heard it being called before. =) You have to put yourself in a mind frame of what will benefit your body.
If you don't like fish or broccoli. To bad. Eat it anyway. It is to good for your body to pass it up. Your little body will thank you for taking care of it.
Now for dinner meals. I am not a vegetarian. I believe God gave us meat to eat. And you get so much protein from it. Meat is fine in moderation. And the meat that you do eat should always be lean. You should strive to eat fish twice a week. Maybe a lean chicken breast. Oh go ahead, maybe a lean steak every now and then. Chicken stir-frys. Low fat soup & salad with no fat dressing, and on and on. You should bake or grill your meat. Never deep fry. I try to use fresh veggies to go along with my dinner first. But I will also use can and frozen. Lately I have gone to can because my veggies will get freezer burned. But I will add some of my favorite seasonings to it. I might add a small dollop of that low fat Promise butter. But will not add more when I'm at the table. And never do I add salt to any of my food. I don't like the taste of salt. And the salt I do have at home is that 30% less sodium salt.
Pretty much with breakfast and lunch meal. I will look for low fat foods so I don't go over my fat gram limit a day.
These are just some of the foods that I will eat for breakfast. I will eat low fat cold cereal with no fat milk. Or apple cinnamon oatmeal. Regular oatmeal with raisins and some cinnamon. Orange. Eggs with toast. I will only allow myself to have eggs once a week because of the cholesterol factor. Juice. O.j. with calcium added.
For lunch is pretty much the same way. I look for low fat foods on the food labels.
Make sure your cheese it low fat. Your sour cream. Your miracle whip. Your milk. Your butter. Etc. Make little changes though at a time. If you do it all at once you won't stick to it. If I had no children in the home than I would grab for the non fat cheese and all that. They don't like that so I grab for the low fat.
I could go on and on but I think you grasp the idea of that saying, you are what you eat. And it starts in your kitchen.