Here are some healthy eating and cooking tips. Incorporate these into your daily routine to clean up your diet and start getting the results you want!
- Cook with liquids not fat. Eliminate butter and margarine from your food preparation. Substitute them with chicken or vegetable stock, dry sherry, red or white wine, fruit juice, vinegar, soy sauce, extra virgin olive oil, or a combination of these.
- Eat before you get too hungry. Eat small meals/snacks about every three (3) hours.
- Drink water. Keep a large water bottle with you at all times and drink from it regularly. Try to drink half of your body weight (or ideal body weight) in ounces of water daily.
- Drink a large glass of water immediately upon waking in the morning.
- Do not skip meals or eat off schedule.
- Eat a healthy, high fiber breakfast.
- Avoid sodas and limit sugary beverages (such as juices and Gatorade).
- Avoid or limit alcohol consumption.
- Plan ahead. Prepare your food the night before.
- When cooking poultry, beef, or fish stick to grilling, baking, or poaching. Avoid frying.
- At restaurants order a fruit plate or salad before your meal instead of eating the bread and butter.
- Order all sauces and dressings on the side of your dish.
- Most restaurant meals are too big. Eat half there and take the other half home for later or lunch the next day.
- Take time to chew your food. Eat slowly and allow your body time to recognize whether or not it is still hungry.
- Avoid processed, pre-packaged foods. They contain unhealthy preservatives and trans-fats.
- Choose fresh, whole, natural foods whenever possible.
- Make sure you’re really getting whole grains. Include grains that are in their whole form, such as whole grain brown rice, millet, quinoa, and barley.
- When choosing bread or cereal be aware that the words stone-ground, multi-grain, 100% wheat, or bran, don’t necessarily mean that a product is whole grain. Look for the new Whole Grain Stamp from the Whole Grains Council. If there is no stamp look for the words “whole grain” or “100% whole wheat,” and check the ingredients to make sure each grain listed is specified as whole grain.
- Eyeball it. Get out a measuring cup or a food scale and practice measuring some of your favorite foods onto a plate, so that you can see how much (or how little) a ½ cup or 3-ounce serving is.
- Eat organic and local whenever possible. Organically grown foods do not use hormones or harmful pesticides and fertilizers. Local foods support local economies and are fresher.
Some Portion Size Guidelines
- Fist or baseball – a serving of vegetables or fruit.
- A rounded handful – about ½ cup cooked or raw veggies or cut fruit, a piece of fruit, or ½ cup of cooked rice or pasta
- Deck of cards/palm of your open hand – a serving of meat, fish or poultry. For example, one chicken breast, ¼ pound hamburger patty or a fillet of fish.
- Golf ball or large egg – ¼ cup of dried fruit or nuts
- Computer mouse – a small baked potato
- Compact disc – one serving of pancake or small waffle
- Ping pong ball – one tablespoon of peanut butter/almond butter
- A pair of dice – a 1 oz. serving of cheese
- Check book – approximately a 3 oz. serving of fish, poultry, or beef
10. Baseball – one cup salad greens
11. Scoop of ice cream – ½ cup cooked broccoli
12. 1/2 cup serving – about 6 asparagus spears; 7 or 8 carrot sticks
or 1 ear of corn on the cob
Enjoy!
Sweat Life Fitness, Inc.
Haile Plantation Village Center
352-692-4926
www.sweatlifefitness.com
