What Is A Healthy Diet?
Alan LeStourgeon

What is a healthy diet? It’s not about counting calories,
measuring portions or cutting carbs. You won’t really find a
healthy diet on the lite menu at your favorite restaurant and
you certainly won’t find it at the local fast food joint. A
healthy diet is all about what you eat rather than how much you
eat.

If you think the latest fad diet is your panacea to health, you
are in for a big surprise. Losing weight, staying healthy and
getting back into shape after many years of diet neglect is not
about fads or eating in some radical new way for six to twelve
weeks and then going back to the way you used to eat.

The best thing you can do to keep yourself healthy is to eat a
healthy diet…all the time, not just when you want to lose
weight. Eating healthy is a long-term lifestyle choice,
something you need to do for your entire lifetime.

But what is a healthy diet? Is it what we have been lead to
believe – milk for strong bones and teeth, protein in the form
of lean beef or chicken and maybe a “healthy” microwave dinner
if we are “on the go.” Unfortunately this diet is what is
identified as the Standard American Diet or the SAD.

And what’s so wrong with the SAD?

Well, has it made us a healthier people? Are we better off as a
nation because of it?

With all of the health studies, advanced health care, the war on
cancer dating back to the 70’s, and the most advanced technology
available on the planet we have to ask ourselves why do we still
need to spend $1.3 trillion a year on health care in the United
States. Why aren’t we getting any healthier?

Other pertinent questions about your health beg for answers such
as, why after more than 30 years since the “War On Cancer” was
declared, do we still have an increasing cancer rate. Yes, we
have many more people surviving cancer but the rate at which
people are getting cancer is increasing. We have come a long way
in taking care of sick people, but we haven’t made any progress
as a nation in preventing those people from getting sick.

Why do more than 15 million people in the United States have
diabetes? Why do we still have more heart problems today than we
did 30 years ago? Why is more than 50% of our population on some
kind of prescription drug?

We spend more per person on medical care than any other nation
in the world. Why is this happening in a country that seems to
be able to solve nearly any technological problem? Why can’t we
solve our medical problems? How would life be different for us
if we were to be a nation of healthy individuals?

The secret to a healthy diet and a healthy life is living food –
fresh vegetables, fruit, juices and green leafy salads. The
answer to a healthier you is summed up in three words,
breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Living a healthy life and having a healthy family is all about
eating a healthy diet, every day of our lives!

About the author:

Alan LeStourgeon along with his wife Jean run the web site www.ezHealthyDiet.com
where they explore what it means to eat a healthy diet, have a
healthy
home and live a healthier life.

Tags: Advanced Technology, Alan LeStourgeon, American Diet, Author, Cancer Rate, cancer;, Counting Calories, diabetes;, Diet Fads, Fad Diet, Fast Food, Favorite Restaurant, food;, Getting Back Into Shape, Health Studies, Jean, Latest Fad, Lean Beef, Lifestyle Choice, local fast food joint, Losing Weight, Microwave Dinner, microwave;, Neglect, On Cancer, Panacea, people surviving cancer, Pertinent Questions, SAD, Surviving Cancer, United States;, USD;, What Is A Healthy Diet, www.ezHealthyDiet.com —

There are so many ways to loose weight you might get a little confused and not know where to start. The first thing you should remember is to not get all caught up in the hype of the latest fad diet out there. While you may actually lose some weight with these diets, they are not the types of diets that you can sustain for any length of time and when you stop the likelihood you will put all the weight back on is strong.

The truth is there is no magic potion or pill that will do all the work for you. You have to be an active participant. And I do mean active. You can’t lose weight sitting on your backside in front of the TV and eating anything you want. To effectively lose the weight you want to lose you need to change things up and get regular exercise and eat healthier.

Start by making small changes first. Do not try to do it all at once. If you make small changes then you will not get too overwhelmed and the weight loss will be more effective in the long run. Be smart with the ways to loose weight.

One of the ways to lose weight is to wake up your metabolism. If you have tried to lose weight in the past and you were largely unsuccessful then you probably did not have your metabolism working for you. Wake it up by eating five or six small meals a day. By small, I mean 300 calories or under. Eat lots of lean protein and greens. Stay away from processed carbs and bread for at least the first two weeks then add them back in sparingly. Your waistline will thank you.

In the beginning of your weight loss, anything made with white flour and white sugar are your enemies. You will need to steer clear of anything made with these products. If you make it through the week then you can give yourself a little treat to reward yourself for being good. Just do not over do it. No sense in undoing the great week you just had.

Products made with the white products are referred to as simple carbs and are immediately converted to simple sugars in your body. The weight you have gained happened because of these simple sugars. If you do not burn these sugars off and use them as energy as soon as they are available then your insulin will convert them to fat and place them right around your middle. This is why you have the belly fat that you do.

Here is the old standby, drink a lot of water throughout your day. This will help cleanse your body of toxins and keep you hydrated. Just like with food the more you drink the better your body will work and the more weight you will lose. Try these ways to loose weight and see if they can work for you, too.

Tags: Atkins, Backside, Calories, Carbs, Eating Habits, Fad Diet, Flour, Greens, Healthy Diet, Hype, Latest Fad, Lean Protein, Length Of Time, Likelihood, Losing Weight, Magic Potion, Metabolism, Simple Sugars, Small Changes, Waistline, Ways To Loose Weight, Ways To Lose Weight, Weight Diets, White Sugar —

Food calorie counters can be thought of as a vital tool in the battle against obesity. Anybody who has ever tried to lose weight knows just how hard it can be, and anything you can use to help you shed some extra pounds is worth using.

To make things worse, it often seems as though you are being encouraged to keep your weight on forever. Food manufacturers are always looking to generate profits, but the way they do it is by selling junk food. Restaurants are serving larger portions, and often seem to be competing against one another for the title of “Unhealthiest Meal”. It used to be that a regular double cheeseburger was bad enough, but now you can get triple cheeseburgers (with each patty being a quarter-pound) loaded with bacon, chili, fried onion rings (yes, they put them on the burger) and three kinds of cheese for good measure!

No wonder it’s hard to lose weight. But food calorie counters give you a way of knowing what’s really going into your body. Sure, you may not kid yourself that eating a heart attack burger is healthy, but what about knowing the difference between a chicken breast and a grilled chicken sanwich? That could really make a difference over time.

The other great thing about food calories counters is that the actually help you to enjoy a wider variety of foods. Instead of following some strict diet plan, you can simply choose the foods that are better for you. This allows you to eat more, within reason, so you don’t ever have to feel hungry. This doesn’t mean you can eat all the junk food you want, but it does mean that you will be better informed so you can make better food choices.

No matter what the latest fad diets claim, the only way to lose weight is by storing fewer calories than you burn. In fact, every successful diet takes advantage of this fact; though they often try to disguise the facts under some sort of a gimmick. A good calorie counter puts the power back in your hands and gives you an instant assessment of the food you’re eating.

Some people want to know which food calorie counters are best; books or computer software? The answer is that neither one is automatically better than the other. It all comes down to this: you need to have a calorie counter with you whenever you eat. Therefore, it makes sense to have a book that you can carry with you, and a calorie counter for your computer for when you are at home. That way you will have all of your bases covered.
If at all possible, you should check food calorie counters to make sure they list the foods you are most likely to eat. It wouldn’t do much good to get a calorie guide that doesn’t list the right foods. That being said, there are a lot of counters that cover thousands and thousands of foods, so it should be pretty easy to find one that works well for you.

Tags: Calorie Counter, Calories, Cheeseburgers, Chicken Breast, Double Cheeseburger, Eating Habits, Fad Diets, Food Calorie Counters, Food Calories, food choices;, Food Manufacturers, Food Restaurants, Fried Onion Rings, Gimmick, Grilled Chicken, Healthy Diet, Junk food;, Kinds Of Cheese, Latest Fad, Losing Weight, Quarter Pound, Sanwich, Strict Diet Plan, Vital Tool —

Trying to get fit isn’t always easy. If it was, then there wouldn’t be nearly as many products on the market to help people get healthy. But let’s face it, getting fit can be a lot harder than it should be.

There may be any number of reasons for this. Maybe it’s because junk food is so easy to find. Maybe it’s a busy schedule that doesn’t give us enough time to eat right. Maybe it’s the stress of the modern world that causes the problem. Regardless of the the causes of your unhealthy eating habits, you can turn that around at any time by adopting healthy eating habits.

You don’t have to wait. You don’t have to spend a fortune on the latest fad diet. You can start right away by being mindful of the food you eat. Remember, everything you consume is going to have some effect on your body. The only question is if that effect is good or bad. Studies have shown that subjects who paid attention to what they ate, started to eat better. They weren’t even aware that they were making healthier choices. It was almost as if paying attention to the food they ate flipped a switch that caused them to start eating better. And you can do the same thing.

One of the benefits of trying to change your eating habits is that you can do it at the pace that’s best for you. Remember that you are in this for the long haul, so if you want to make a few small changes at a time, then that’s perfectly acceptable. You know what’s best for you. No matter how you go about it, it’s much better to make changes that are going to stick and see more steady results. Sure, you could make a lot of changes and be able to see some drastic results in short amount of time may seem fantastic, but if you find it too difficult and then go back to your old ways, then it’s not really worth it.

A good rule of thumb is to eat foods that are as close to their natural source as possible. For example, it’s better to eat corn on the cob, than it is to eat it ground up, deep fried, salted and flavored. That sounds logical, yet how many people choose to eat corn chips instead of fresh corn on a daily basis. And that’s only one example. If you could make this one little change, you would be adopting one of the best healthy eating habits.

Another good healthy eating habit is to make better choices at the grocery store. To do this, simply compare two similar foods that you like to eat, then choose the one that’s healthier. However, don’t do this only once, but rather every time you go shopping. Think of it as a contest and try to beat your previous record. Over time your diet will improve, and you will feel a whole lot better to boot!

Tags: Amount Of Time, Busy Schedule, Choices, Corn On The Cob, Drastic Results, Eating Habits, Face, Fad Diet, Fortune, Getting Fit, Healthy Diet, Healthy Eating Habits, Junk food;, Latest Fad, Long Haul, Natural Source, Pace, Paying Attention, Rule Of Thumb, Small Changes, Stress, Unhealthy Eating Habits —