The 6th truth about Kasia. Healthy eating for a lifetime (1)

Hello again!

Thank you so much for all visits so far. Hope to meet you again and again. And I hope you like what your read here:)

Today I am going to write more about the enigmatic healthy eating habits. Enigmatic, beacuse not all of us exactly know what it is, how to start and what are the rules. 

Basically, healthy eating is all about 5-a-day raw, fresh, cooked, steamed fruits and vegetables, avoiding higly processed food, fatty & salty fast food, drinking plenty of water, saying no to sweetened sodas and juices and skipping delicious sweets...

Sounds hard, complicated? Let me explain you, that it doesn't have to be hard to introduce healthy eating habits into your life.

Let's start with basics.

Nutrition for life

You are what you eat. No excuses. What you eat and drink affects your body. Junk, fatty, salty food makes you fat, slower your metabolism, makes you sleepy with no energy. This is true. And you already know it.

Your body's needs vary at different stages of your life and the way you live- that's the reason why your nutritional needs are different too. Why is it so important? Because to grow properly and function normally, you need a complete range of nutrients, including carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fibre, and water. Don't forget about vitamins and minerals! 

Simple rule- eating well makes you feel well, which improves your mood and increases your positive energy.

To mantain a healthy weight, you need to balance the energy you take in from food you eat with energy you expand in the course of your daily life. Easy. In short- don't overeat. When you overeat, excess food intake is stored in the body as FAT.  To be honest, there is a lot of people dealing with underweight. This situation is also unhealthy and  in longer period of time leads to serious health problems. However I am going to focus on overweight and obesity, because I have experience and relevant knowledge to write about. 

The healthy eating pyramid

Above picture explains very clearly how the right way of eating should look like.

Leading healthy lifestyle means being active- sport should become your best friend. For fun, for strong body, for nice form of socialising, for catching some fresh air and sun whenever possible... Many, many reasons for someone who is looking for reasons, not excuses. Controlling your weight is ESSENTIAL in maintaining  the right body weight, let's do every Monday in the morning before breakfast. You can notice any changes, modify your portion size, frequency of eating during a day, and find the best food for yourself. But what is most important- you are able to avoid weight gain! Tah dah:)

This is the first part of that topic. Soon will comment all the food groups and importance of each one. Hope you're with me. Step by step will reach there, don't worry.

In the meantime think of difference between hunger, appetite and craving. Which one happens to you most often? Are you able to recognise them?

HUNGER- this is a physiological response by which the body alerts the breain that nourishment is needed. You may experience stomach discomfort.

APPETITE- this is an instinctive physical desire to eat that occurs when you are hungry. It can be stimulated by outside influences (smell, taste, looking at food).

CRAVING- this is a psychological state affected by outside influences, such as smell of food, and by emotions, habits, moods, and imagination, rather then by hunger. Read more about emotional eating.

Sleep well and try to make the RIGHT choices everytime. Say NO to not exsisitng needs, say YES to healthy eating habits.

Nite,

Kasia