Do you clean up the dishes after a meal and eat the last bits of the lasagna rather than throw it away or finish your child’s plate rather than letting it go to waste and throw it out. You really need to take a look at what you’re doing to your overall health and how you’re sabotaging your efforts to lose weight. Your stomach isn’t a waste basket and you shouldn’t treat it that way by consuming food rather than trashing it. If you hate waste, don’t throw away the left over food. Store it as a snack for another day or use the leftover in a soup or other dish the next day.
Exactly what’s in that latest purchase?
Whether you’re eating a candy bar or a health bar, do you know what you’re consuming? Start reading labels to make sure you’re not eating garbage, even if the bar says “healthy” in its name. Is the first ingredient sugar or some other sugar pseudonym? Sometimes, in order to put sugar further down on the list (a trick by many fake health bars) the ingredients are broken down by the type of sugar with perhaps 8 percent of the flavor coming from honey, 10 percent from dextrose, 9 percent from high fructose corn syrup and 13 percent from sucrose. While oats or nuts may be the first ingredient listed, if you add the percent of the other ingredients (or just note their presence and order) you’ll find almost half the bar is sugar. Are there any nutrients listed on the label?
If it’s processed, it’s probably garbage.
You’re probably aware that a diet of beef jerky and soda isn’t good for you, but are you aware of other offending foods? Anything that’s highly processed normally doesn’t contain the nutrition necessary for good health. Not only that, foods that are easy to make like pizza, microwave meals and lunch meat, they also often contain high amounts of preservatives, plus lack the nutrition necessary for a healthy diet. Hot dogs, for instance, are often made from scraps and waste from processing other meat products.
Eat healthier, eat whole foods.
Sure, creating a meal with fresh fruits and vegetables, plus an adequate source of protein can take some time. But if you’re dedicated to healthier eating, you can do several things to make that decision and follow through easier. Getting make ahead menus that are ready to pop in the oven or heat for supper that night is just one of those.
- Create meals on the weekend for the entire week. In some cases, you can triple the recipe and have meals for more than one week. One client I have doubles one or two of the recipes each week and freezes half for later. She’s accumulated a week worth of meals for her busy time.
- What you eat at dinner should be healthy, just like other meals, but so should your snacks. Create a collection of healthy snacks ahead for the week.
- Don’t succumb to the urge to cleaning your children’s plates. It’s just a habit and probably one you saw your mother do. You don’t have to be a lifelong member of the plate cleaner’s club.
- Cut extra calories and get healthier in the process. Drink water with meals and between meals for fewer calories and better hydration. If you drink it before a meal, it helps curb your appetite.