More Rules?! Just a few more….
This article wraps up our series on some of the best food rules you can follow to achieve optimum health. If you haven’t read earlier articles, visit our website to find them. Incorporate as many of these rules into your daily life as you can. You’ll eat better, feel better, look better and be healthier!
- Stop eating before you’re full. When you slow down and really taste your food, savoring each bite and enjoying the moment, you might find you are fuller faster.
- Determine if you really want those extra bites. While having a meal, take a break for a few minutes – drink some water, use the restroom, just sit – but try to determine if you are still hungry. If so, eat up! If not, be finished.
- Eat when you are hungry, not bored. Many of us look for food when we need something to do, or have something we don’t want to do. Some advocates even profess that we are often thirsty, not hungry. Try to evaluate if you really want to eat. And, if you’ve eaten a full meal within 4 hours, chances are you aren’t experiencing real hunger.
- Have a glass of wine with dinner. Yay! Health officials, aware of the ill effects of alcoholism, usually hesitate to recommend this rule. However, studies show a glass of wine for women and no more than two for men, can have a protective role against heart disease. So, toast yourself, but don’t overdo it. And, of course, don’t drink alcohol if you can’t control it.
- “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.” Many of us do the opposite, possibly even skipping breakfast and then eating a h-u-g-e dinner. While the timing of our calories is controversial, studies have proven eating a good breakfast – heck, eating breakfast at all – jumpstarts our daily metabolism. And, if you feel like a sack after eating a huge dinner, reversing your big meal could certainly help.
- Don’t eat late at night. Nighttime is when your body needs to regenerate and heal itself, not digest food.
- Eat all the junk food you want…as long as you cook it yourself. Pollan stresses there is nothing wrong with eating occasional sweets or fried foods, but the food industry has made these treats cheap and easily available, and we are eating them every day. In the past, making French fries at home required washing, peeling, slicing and then frying – a lot of work! So, they were a treat rather than a staple of our diet. Follow this rule to enjoy some of your treats at home for a healthier option.
Full Circle Vitality Group can help you follow the rules! Give us a call if you’d like to enlist our services!
To Your Vitality!
