You CANT let your mouth dictate what you eat. To be healthy you need to eat close to the following amounts of MACRO nutrients. The vitamins and minerals are MICRO nutrients. Most Americans are clueless about the Macro nutrients, so we will start there....
You don't get anywhere CLOSE to these numbers on the aptly abbreviated SAD Diet ( Standard American Diet). Chances are you go over on protein, and carbs and fat, and cholesterol and ( not mentioned ) sugar, and WAY under on fiber.
Here are a few helpful hints. A chicken breast has about 39g protein. You just need one of those a day, coupled with an egg (6g) and 3 servings of green veggies ( most green veggies have between 6g and 10g protein) and 2 fruits ( most fruit has about 3g protein). A "serving" of veggie is a CUP, a FULL measured CUP. I know it doesn't seem like a lot of food, but if you eat all those fruits and veggies, I doubt you will be hungry. If you are, eat more of ANY veggie or fruit until you are not hungry.
People are taught from infancy to let how they FEEL dictate what they eat. Yes, you like a banana, but you FEEL like eating a donut. Yes you like a baked potato, but you FEEL like eating pasta. Yes you like some green veggies, but you FEEL like eating pizza.
I cant say this plainly enough,
YOUR TONGUE AND MOOD ARE NOT QUALIFIED TO MAKE LIFE AND DEATH DECISIONS.
What you eat, 90% of the time determines your quality of life, and length of life. Shall I say it again?
WHAT YOU EAT 90% OF THE TIME, DETERMINES YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE!!!!!!
It just takes some focusing on eating for what you will be doing in the next 4 hours to determine what your body should be having. Just an average day for you, then you need some lean protein, veggies and fruit, or a sandwich WITH veggies and fruit, or a SMALL serving of pasta with a good whole food sauce, and a side salad, and some fruit. If you are walking 10 miles, doing a hard workout, ( hard workout is at least 90 minutes of you giving it 85% of sheer determination - NOT a walk around the mall) or some physically demanding work... then you will need a little more protein and a LITTLE more COMPLEX ( something that was GROWN) carbohydrates...potato, beans, rice, sweat potato. A little being ONE extra cup serving of a complex carb.
I know you may not like this idea. I know you may think,
"I cant live like that"
... but the simple truth is, if you don't, YOU COULD DIE from NOT LEARNING to think like that.
I get it, it seems hard, I know, I lived it and OVERCAME IT. The truth is, IT IS WORTH the effort. YOU are worth the effort. You think it is hard learning to eat correctly? Try living in a diabetic body where your feet just got amputated because of circulatory issues and endless pain and burning in your hands from diabetic neuropathy. I assure you the 2nd scenario is MUCH harder than relearning how to think about food, and right now you have a choice!!! If you don't change, this and any number of very unpleasant scenarios could be your future.
When you see this.... ( this is one I STILL struggle with from time to time)
DONT think....mmmmm - you need to think HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE AND STROKE.
When you see this...
And when you see this .....
You need to think type 2 diabetes, blindness, shots, amputation.
Think I am being harsh? Take a look at the top 7 causes of death last year.....
- Heart disease: 611,105
- Cancer: 584,881
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 149,205
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 130,557
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 128,978
- Alzheimer's disease: 84,767
- Diabetes: 75,578
Over 75 THOUSAND people died from diabetes. In 2010 only 69k people died from it. It has increased DRAMATICALLY. Some of it was Type 1 - the kind a person is born with from a faulty pancreas. Type 2 is LARGELY PREVENTABLE. Type 2 is because of how you ate, or you got really old and your pancreas wore out. As a HUGE part of this statistic is in CHILDREN and people under 30, we can rule out old age, and just put it down to the SAD ( Standard American Diet).
The SAD isnt just high end fast food and restaurant foods. All those convenience foods you buy in boxes - those TV dinners, those frozen Entrees - THOSE are killing you too. HUGE amounts of sugar, salt and fat, almost no nutrition.
You want more stats. check this out http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/statsreport14/national-diabetes-report-web.pdf
I know, you want me to talk about a happy medium, where you can ( literally) have your cake and eat it too. The fact is SOME people can literally have a single food treat once a week and live a pretty healthy life. But be honest, CAN YOU REALLY limit it to once a week? I think most of us do once a week, and it creeps to twice a week, and then all Holiday time frame, and then daily after that - because your body CRAVES that junk. We are hard wired to LOVE high taste, high sugar, high salt foods because at one point we were like animals, and needed to LOVE occasional high calorie things, because famine happened often. Now in the US there is no famine and we HAVE to retrain our way of thinking so that we primarily eat what we NEED, not what we crave.
We have no choice, CHANGE how we think about food and how we choose each meal, of be felled by a number of VERY preventable diseases.
If you want help, I do FREE meal plans, and exercise plans - just message me here
PS..... HOPE......
The bottom line is - how you THINK you feel about foods you need to eat WAY less of, in 3 month will be TOTALLY different, because your body only CRAVES what it has eaten in the past 3 months. Sooo if you cant stand the idea of giving up your Saturday morning donut, it will only be sad for you for a few weeks, and then you just wont care anymore.....case a point - it has been 1197 DAYS since I ate chocolate. Do I remember it with MUCH love? YES!!! Do I care I no longer eat it, NOT AT ALL. :) Did I EVER think I could live without it, No, not even a little...but I did - because if I didn't I would absolutely be a diabetic by now if I hadn't stopped. :) If you, or someone you know is in a position where you HAVE to stop eating certain things, or if you KNOW you need to - message me...I am happy to walk you through how I did it, and actually STUCK to it :)
The bottom line is - how you THINK you feel about foods you need to eat WAY less of, in 3 month will be TOTALLY different, because your body only CRAVES what it has eaten in the past 3 months. Sooo if you cant stand the idea of giving up your Saturday morning donut, it will only be sad for you for a few weeks, and then you just wont care anymore.....case a point - it has been 1197 DAYS since I ate chocolate. Do I remember it with MUCH love? YES!!! Do I care I no longer eat it, NOT AT ALL. :) Did I EVER think I could live without it, No, not even a little...but I did - because if I didn't I would absolutely be a diabetic by now if I hadn't stopped. :) If you, or someone you know is in a position where you HAVE to stop eating certain things, or if you KNOW you need to - message me...I am happy to walk you through how I did it, and actually STUCK to it :)
