Do you know how to use the five a day rule for healthy eating?
Zaak OConan

The five a day rule is one of the most important rules to healthy eating. The five a day rule refers to the government’s recommendation that everyone eat at least five servings a day of fruits and vegetables. At first blush, five a day seems like a reasonable goal, but most people fail to eat sufficient amounts of these important foods.

It is important to remember the many advantages of fruits and vegetables when applying the five a day rule to your own diet. For one thing, fruits and vegetables taste great, contain fewer calories than many other foods and are full of many important vitamins and minerals. In addition, fruits and vegetables are colorful and beautiful, making them great garnishes and salad toppings.

In addition, fruits and vegetables are easy to prepare, even for the busiest individual. In most cases, fresh fruits require no preparation at all, other than a quick wash and perhaps peeling.

The five a day recommendation equates to roughly two cups of fruit and two and a half cups of vegetables every day, based on the average 2,000 calorie diet. This is not a difficult goal to reach, but it is important to keep the five a day goal in mind when grocery shopping, cooking and planning meals.

One great way to get started toward a five a day lifestyle is with a delicious serving of 100% fruit juice every morning. Apple juice, grapefruit juice and orange juice are all excellent choices for both taste and nutrition.

Fruits and vegetables can also be used as garnishes for other foods. Who doesn’t enjoy a sliced strawberry or banana with their morning cereal? And fruits and vegetables make great snacks as well. Whether you keep a couple of apples at your desk or a selection of carrot and celery sticks in the fridge, having fruits and vegetables readily at hand is a big part of the battle.

Of course variety is extremely important when making any change to your diet, and many dietary changes fail due to boredom. Constantly trying new varieties of fruits and vegetables is a great way to keep yourself interested in your new healthier way of eating. If you’ve never had kiwi fruit or asparagus, for instance, why not give it a try?

Combining attractive colors, shapes and sizes of fruits is another way to provide attractive and interesting meals for yourself and your family. Combining white grapes, red peppers and pineapple chunks can provide a delicious and attractive salad.

It is important to provide constant variety when implementing the five a day plan, particularly if you are cooking for a family. Try making some interesting new dishes, such as veggie pizza, made with fresh vegetables and whole wheat pizza crust, a fresh vegetable wrap, vegetable stir fry or pasta with fresh vegetables.

For those who think they are too busy to incorporate five servings of fruits and vegetables a day into their diet, there is help available. The many ready to eat, prepackaged salad kits on the market make it easier than ever to create a healthy salad on the go. Just keep a bottle of your favorite low fat or nonfat salad dressing on hand and you can enjoy a healthy salad anywhere and anytime.

Even fast food restaurants have made it easier than every to eat healthy, with every major chain now offering at least a few healthy menu items. In addition, most grocery chains offer fresh salad bars where you can create your own healthy lunch even if you’re pressed for time.

When creating your five a day healthy lifestyle, remember that fruits and vegetables make great snacks. An apple, orange or banana provides both great taste and excellent nutrition. In addition, the natural sugars contained in fruits do not provide the sugar high/sugar crash scenario all parents are familiar with.

Topping meals and salads with additional fruits and vegetables is a great way to enhance your new five a day lifestyle. Strips of green and red peppers, broccoli florets, sliced carrots and cucumbers are all great additions to pasta and potato salads. And of course carrots, spinach, apple slices, orange slices, nectarines, pineapples and raisins are all great additions to any salad.

In addition, adding fresh fruits to foods you already eat is a great way to make such foods part of your new lifestyle. Adding berries, bananas or oranges to cereal and yogurt is a great way to make sure you meet your five a day goal every day.
About the Author

Zaak O’Conan discovers and presents useful information on how to enhance and/or repair your life, body and relationships. You’ll find his other articles on eating better and other ways how to improve your life at http://your-health-center.com

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Diet To Lose Belly Fat – Tips For Doing So

Are you looking for a diet to lose belly fat? Belly fat is often one of the hardest places to lose fat. What will it take to get the weight off? To be successful a combination of dieting and exercise and a lifetime commitment to health.

It is common knowledge, to lose weight you must cut back on food intake. Not only cutting back your calories but eating certain foods that are high in protein will assist you in losing weight.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So, dont fill up on coffee; make your meal nutritious and high protein. If your asking, What difference does it make if I eat foods high in protein?

Protein rich foods will help satisfy your appetite. Protein is essential to building healthy cells. Some examples of foods high in protein is yogurt, chicken and eggs. Also, try to shave some of the fat off your diet. Opt for fat free yogurt, egg whites instead of whole eggs and remove the skin from chicken.

Eating small meals at regular intervals will help you lose weight. It will also keep your blood sugar level on a more level basis. Eating several small meals a day will decrease your appetite and aide in decreasing the size of your stomach.

Never skip meals thinking you are saving calories or you will just eat more the next meal. This will cause your appetite to increase. And more than likely increase your cravings for sweets as well. Remember, keep your goal in mind. That is to lose belly fat.

Eating before going to bed is a bad habit that you need to break. The body is not in to fat burning mode close to bed time. Bedtime is when the body takes time to recuperate from the days activity; it is when your metabolism is burning the slowest.

You will be doing yourself a great favor by cutting soda out of your diet. Regular soda is loaded with sugar.

There you have it, a few pointers on how to win your battle against the bulge. Now remember, you cant give up, because its not going to be easy and there are going to be rough times ahead.

Just have a good support system and a positive attitude and you will come out on top and have accomplished your goals and you will be looking good.

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Fast weight loss seems to be all the rage these days but the question is can you do it? Losing weight is definitely a challenge for you to undertake because you are probably doing it against your will, habits that have been built over several years, and against your genes. Thus what will it take for you to lose weight? Although you may think that you can do not do it because of the above reasons you need to realize that fine you can. There are several tips that can help you develop an honest weight loss strategy that will work for you.

1. Attitude:
The first thing you need to do is develop an I can do it attitude. Without this sensibility you might as well throw in the towel now. You need to work hard at building and maintaining that attitude and do not give up. Instead you need to try and relax and set your mind to doing it. Try visualizing yourself once you have reached your goal. Think about how good you will feel and how healthy you will be.

2. Support system:
The next thing that you need is a good support system or a team if you will. This will give you even more motivation if you have a good support system of family and friends who will stand behind you the whole way. There will also be less risk of you giving up if you have a strong backing of support. You power even want to consider joining others that have the same goal in mind as you. There are even good forums on the internet today that can offer you support along your way. These forums help administer you with strength and determination to move you forward.

3. Tackle and tools:
This is a very influential step as it will help you stay focused from beginning to end. You need to be aware of how you are going to achieve your weight loss goal and with what.

Also you will need to supply yourself with the right foods and supplements that will aide you along the way. You need to be sure that you have uncondensed of the things you will need to reach your golden goal.

4. Timetable:
You will need to besides set a schedule and an overall time goal. Your weight loss goal will take time and cannot be achieved over night.

You need to make a goal that is both ideal and realistic to you and mark it on a calendar somewhere that you will see it every day. This will help your mind stay focused and visualize the finish line.

5. Merry:
The most important thing for you to remember is to have fun. You need to remember that you are doing this for yourself and possibly your health. An example of that would be playing active games, with your family and friends. Having fun while doing it will make it seem like less of a engagement.

These are just some of the tips to a successful weight loss strategy. You need to remember to keep your goal in mind and you will be well on your way to your weight loss goals.

24 Hour Fitness
http://www.www.24-hr-fitness.com

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