by Robyn at Worldclass Fitness Centre
Hello again, the last thing we spoke about was the cleansing factor of water
and that it contains no calories. We have basically discussed what foods are
healthy for breakfast, lunch and as snacks. Today for the last section on
Nutritional Eating we are going to talk about general cooking for evening
meals, what to eat and how to prepare it in the least fattening way. First
of all, it is actually better if you eat your main meal earlier in the day
but what with modern day living and work I know that this is virtually
impossible for the most of us. However, do try to eat your evening meal as
early as possible. It gives you more time to burn off the energy before you
collapse into bed after another day.
Generally, if we are eating in a balanced way we would take for our main
meal of the day a balanced amount of protein, carbohydrates and as little
fat as possible with plenty of fresh vegetables, and if possible fruit
thereafter. I generally stick to white meat, chicken, turkey or fish as this
is lighter than red meat and contains less fat. To ensure our daily vitamin
and mineral supply is taken in, we should eat at least two vegetables every
night. Carrots, pumpkin, peas, and corn are all vegetables with high
nutritional value, if cooked correctly. In other words, not boiled to death
in loads of water which all goes down the drain. If you can steam them, this
is the best method of ensuring the least vitamin loss. Vegetables such as
cauliflower, broccoli, courgette, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, and mushrooms
are all free vegetables, “eat as much as you like” in other words. But don’t
smother them in sauce. When you eat make sure that you taste what your
vegetables should taste like. What is the point in eating a lovely healthy
portion of green crispy broccoli if you’ve poured a rich creamy cheese sauce
over it? Again, the taste is wonderful, but compare the length of time it
takes to eat, in comparison with the amount of time and energy spent in
working it off!
With our protein serving, grilling and steaming is the most healthy way of
preparing it. If you cook your food in this manner you can at least allow
yourself a sweet little desert or something extra as a treat, because your
fish, or chicken (skin free please!) contains little or no fat. Cutting down
on fat intake should be done slowly and intelligently so that you don’t feel
as if all of a sudden you are on a diet and missing out. Every time you eat,
just try to discipline yourself and take either one potato less than normal,
or no sauce (for a change) and slowly you will realise that it’s not that
difficult if you just cut down on those fattening things one by one. A good
meal should be a plate two thirds full of the free vegetables and the rest
with your protein and high carbohydrates. Namely pasta, rice or potato. Not
only is this healthy, but the fibre provided in the free vegetables is
roughage that we need for healthy digestion. There are many people nowadays
writing about nutrition, what to eat and how, everyone knows it better but
the only rule I try to live by is, that “Natural is Best”. The more a food
tastes like it’s natural state, the healthier & better it is for you. Don’t
go and eat your protein raw though now huh?
Try and use spices and garlic for taste and if you’re not into garlic you’d
better try and start liking it because it is a natural healer, containing
natural antibiotics against common colds and infections and is known as an
excellent blood purifier.
Many believe that dairy products, cheese, milk & yoghurt, contain too much
fat to be healthy. It’s true, one should be careful about the fat content in
dairy products, but I do confess to believing in milk, yoghurt and cheese as
being healthy and an alternate source of protein. What you can do is to
control everything before you buy it and make sure that what you buy is “low
fat” milk, yoghurt or cheese and just make sure that you keep your portions
moderate. In restaurants, if they don’t have low fat yoghurt, stick to the
yoghurt for desert anyway as it’s better than those 3 scoops of ice-cream
covered in chocolate sauce & nuts.
I hope I have encouraged some of you to slightly reform your eating habits
or to at least think about what you are eating, but remember if you have
been really good and cutting down a lot on the bad things you eat, treat
yourself now & then to something that you really like. Whether it be
chocolate, cake or whatever. Reward yourself for your effort. Don’t make
your eating plan a rigid regime, just try to eat more sensibly.
I have only one more comment to make on the subject of nutrition, health &
fitness, and that is if you seriously want to lose weight you are going to
have to cut down on the alcohol intake. Not only does too much drinking
impair your thought, but it is mostly sugar, loaded in calories and the
nutritional value is virtually nothing. We also know how we feel the next
morning after too many and it definitely demotivates your training. So get
on the dance floor and move your body, instead of hanging around on the side
line with another drink in hand.
Ciao, until next week, my friends...
