EAT FIT/NOT FAT

PART

IT TAKES THREE: RIGHT FOOD, RIGHT AMOUNT, RIGHT TIME

WRITER: LORI ESAREY

Eating the “right” food in the “wrong” amount is just as “wrong” as eating the “wrong” food. If you are striving to look and feel great, here’s the secret: You are what you eat. The right foods are necessary to live healthy, but it is equally important to understand that even the right food eaten in the wrong amount can result in unhealthy body fat and a feeling of fatigue and frustration. Understanding what your body needs is a matter of priority to achieve the results you want.

Diet simply implies deprivation. Several thousand “diets” exist with the majority focusing on calories and failing to provide you with knowledge of what your body needs to live, have energy, think clearly, and keep cells alive. Depriving yourself of necessary nutrients will lead to premature aging and death. Depending on your “diet,” you could be creating cell death while you are attempting to lose weight. Failing to eat enough food — independent of the “right food” factor — will surely leave you feeling tired, hungry, and looking unhealthy.

Let us start by getting rid of the old thinking that if you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight. Have you noticed this philosophy leaves you deprived, hungry, and for the amount of sacrifice, inconsistent with your weight loss? Or worse, as soon as you stop working out for any reason (family visiting, illness, job change, etc.), you pack on those pounds. I propose you simply stop focusing on the number of calories. Instead, start paying attention to the right amount of the right foods that will satisfy hunger and leave you feeling energized, refreshed, and alive. Focus on the kinds of calories you are consuming instead of how many. Eating too much broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, chicken, fish, and lean meats will not make you fat, but eating empty calorie junk will.

Be Aware

100-CALORIE SNACKS:

Read the label and ask yourself, “What kind of calories are these?” In reading the nutrition label, you will find sugar, preservatives, and limited — if any — nutrients.

CEREAL:

The average cereal provides limited nutrition. Read the label for the real ingredients and check out the serving size of 1/2 to 3/4 cup.

NUTS:

Although specific nuts and seeds can be very healthy, don’t eat too many. Know your serving sizes.

PEANUTS:

They are a high allergy risk and they are not nuts; they are beans.

GLUTEN-FREE:

It’s not necessarily better for you. If a food is packaged, then man made it, and as Jack LaLanne said, “If man made it, don’t eat it.”

TURKEY BURGERS:

They are often higher in fat than a regular burger because most turkey burgers are made from dark meat. You should avoid them in order to avoid unnecessary calories.

Better

If you must eat pre-packaged foods, choose ones that provide limited preservatives. Also, watch out for sodium content and stay away from “empty calories,” which are substances that fill the tummy and fail to nourish the body.

Add lots of lean meat to your salad. Protein is a natural appetite suppressant and will leave you feeling more satisfied.

Best

WHOLE FOODS are unprocessed and unrefined — or processed and refined as little as possible — before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as salt, carbohydrates, or fat.

Remember your CORE FOODS: lean meats and non-starchy vegetables. You should eat five-to-eight cups of vegetables per day.

Eat your two servings of FRUIT with a protein or healthy fat such as almonds, walnuts, and seeds.

LORI ESAREY, ARNP, CFT opened Total Nutrition and Therapeutics in 2007. Several years later, she started a second company, Vitality Wellness and Aesthetics. Her passion is empowering people of all ages to achieve optimal health. She earned two master’s degrees from the University of South Florida in nursing and nutritional and metabolic science. She is also board-certified in anti-aging and restorative medicine.