Apple a day and other weight loss information
Today I would like to share some information regarding weight loss tips and other information about living healthy.
The old adage of "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" is a pretty good saying. It turns out that if the apple is a granny smith apple it actually works. Granny smith apples are those green apples that are hard, tasty, and actually contain elements that eliminate sugar urges, aid in digestion, and provide nutrients and fiber that are really good for you. This is generally one of the things I eat for breakfast or as a snack during the day. In the mornings, when I'm not going to fix me a big breakfast I often slice up an apple and eat it with a handful of fresh walnuts. It's filling, satisfying and I've come to really like them (I always have 4 or 5 in my fruit bowl).
On my "life-plan for eating healthy" I generally cook about 90% of all the meals we eat. I've been cooking everything with fresh ingredients so I've had to learn a lot about cooking the special dishes I always liked. I recently cooked yellow saffron rice and found out that fresh saffron is actually made from a flower. The spice looks like little red thread but when mixed with hot water creates a yellow mixture that you mix with the water you use to cook the rice. It was pretty cool and resulted in a very tasteful saffron rice dish.
This is an example of what a wonderful journey this is to learn how to eat healthy by using fresh ingredients. If I want to learn how to prepare a new dish, I just go to the web and find a recipe that uses only natural ingredients. The information is easy to find and I'm learning how to be a real cook.
Once we committed to our life-plan, we committed to being healthy for life. This doesn't mean giving up all the foods you like but it does mean understanding what you are putting in your body and how your body reacts to different foods. Once you understand how well you can eat it just makes a lot of sense to eat what it good for you. I'm not an expert but I can share with you what works and something you can try without any investment in fake foods, joining a club, or popping pills.
Before this plan, I thought calorie counting was the way to go because so many nutritionists were saying it. Yes, there is probably an optimum calorie count level for your age, but a calorie is not a calorie for all foods. If you eat 100 calories of eggs versus 100 calories of sweet cereal, your body will not ingest them the same way. The eggs will digest into valuable protein and fat that your body needs while the cereal will digest into harmful sugar that produces fat cells. With just a little research and reading you can find the foods that you like and are good for you and eliminate all the foods that are making you unhealthy.
Before this plan, I had indigestion almost all of the time and swallowed pills to get rid of it. Since starting this plan it's gone and I have not eaten anything that has given me indigestion. I read somewhere that indigestion is just your body telling you what not to eat.
Before this plan, I ate way too much at each meal and was always the "finisher" for whatever was left over at the end of each meal. This made me feel bloated, sleepy, and generally miserable after a big meal. This occurs because you have caused your "full feeling" signal to be turned off. I've now cut down my portions and my full feeling signal is working effectively to stop me from being the over-eating finisher (we now keep left-overs).
Before this plan, I had no energy and just taking out the trash to the curb made me start sweating. I also had daily aches and pains of unexplained origin. I would wake up one morning with a pain in my thigh, or a pain in my shoulder, or pains in my back and couldn't explain any activity that may have caused it. Maybe it was my body telling me "hey fatso you're carrying too much weight for you body structure". On this plan, I sleep well, wake refreshed, and the mystery body pains are gone.
The kick-start that got me on my plan was that at my last check-up my doctor told me that I was "pre-diabetic" and for my health's sake, I need to think about losing some weight. That's when I started to investigate and found the "Cruise-Control" program. It made sense and I cross-referenced the plan concepts with WEB-MD and the Mayo Clinic. We resolved to do it and I'm on my way to achieving a goal of losing 75 lbs. in the first year (35 down in the first four (4) months and only 40 to go) and I still have eight (8) months to do it and feel confident that I can. I look forward to buying clothes that fit and are not size XXL.
Until my next post, thank you for reading and I'll talk to you on my next post (be well).