Today is Health and Fitness Day at LifeTweak.
One of the most important things that needs your attention is what you eat and how you do it. Good eating habits are so necessary to be at your best and today we’ll look at 7 really simple techniques that you can use to improve your eating habits. Continuous practice of these habits will lead to a more energetic, fulfilling and healthy life.
Good eating habits are so necessary for you to be at your best: Your days will become more energetic, fulfilling and happy.
Avoid eating junk. Look at your food and assess whether you are taking care of your body or ruining it.
Have watery food, like fresh salads. Drink more water. It is known to flush toxins from your body.
Don’t eat too much or too less. Stick to moderate proportions.
Eat slowly. Chew your food. Eating works like the way pills do: The more you feel it’s going to work, the more it is going to work. Always take your time and feel every bit of food that you eat. Follow it to your stomach. This would take just a few minutes of your time. Don’t tell me you’re that busy! ;)
Stick to your eating schedule. At times when I’m upto something that’s really important, I skip my meals thinking that missing it once or twice will not be a problem. But trust me, it is going to disturb your biological cycle and my advice is: never do this!
Avoid distractions while eating. I had this annoying habit of watching TV or gaping at my computer screen while eating. I thought I was being practical: I didn’t want to waste time. But soon I realized how bad it is for my body and I dumped my distractions completely. Now I feel calm and uncluttered while eating.
Avoid smoking and alcohol intake before or after food. Many smokers feel the need to smoke after meals at home, work or a restaurant. Nicotine stops hunger pains and makes your blood sugar level go up. And about alcohol, studies indicate that some of the ingested alcohol is trapped by food in the stomach causing a delay in absorption. My advice: Smoke and drink at a later time and see your appetite grow. It is much healthier that way.
Make a list of your eating habits and review them honestly. It’s good to know how well your eating is. If you come up with some more tips for better eating habits, which I’m sure you will, please share them with us in the comments section.
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Your content is being copied here:
http://uncommonbody.blogspot.com/2008/01/7-easy-tips-for-better-eating-habits.html
Yes John, I saw that it’s been copied there. And I have no idea how to let him know that he shouldn’t be doing this (he has no contact form and his blog doesn’t allow comments). He’s violated the creative commons license…but I think I can forgive him once :) :)
If you need to, you can contact Blogger directly since he’s hosting there: http://www.google.com/blogger_dmca.html
It says they respond to copyright violations, you should be able to have Blogger investigate the case.
Anyway, as for the article I think a couple of great habits to get into are:
- Gradually using acceptable substitutes.
I used to drink Dr. Pepper in my early teen years. Once I learned the ill effects of caffeine and the acids, I then switched to Sprite for several years. Eventually, I phased that out with milk/water/juice and now drink mostly milk and water.
Same thing goes with foods. I used to eat a lot of red meat. Loved steak, burgers, anything that could almost walk off my plate was perfect for me.
Then I slowly started eating more chicken and turkey, until I ended up not having red meat. Now I’m moving to more low-mercury fish (Salmon and Tilapia primarily) and eating less chicken and turkey.
If you had told my younger self that a decade and a half later I wouldn’t drink soda or eat red meat, I’d have called you crazy. Now, I’d just say it’s par for the course.
For desserts, I love chocolate… Now instead of having a bar or half-bar, I just have a few squares. Another thing I might do is put some fat-free organic chocolate sauce on a sliced banana. The banana fiber helps digest the sugars more slowly, and the fat-free helps make sure I’m not having cholesterol artery-clogging fats bring me to an early heart attack.
- Another habit which is good to get into is not eating for 2 hours before going to bed. When we eat closer to bedtime, our body shuts down but leaves the undigested food in our stomach. Then the bacteria come out to play and feast on this rotting food all night long in our bellies… we wake up hungry, and the excretions from bacteria can be a significant cause of really bad smelling farts.
- Eat out less often. When we are learning to eat healthier, eating at home makes a big difference so we have greater control over our diets and what we take in.
- For 1 week, measure out a serving size for everything you eat. Having a bottled drink? Read the label and see if it’s 1 serving or two. Having steak? Find out how many ounces are in a serving, and then notice that your steak on the table is probably anywhere from 3-4 servings. Having pasta for dinner? Take out the measuring cup and calculate servings.
Once I started seeing how much fat, sugars, etc, were in a service size, I started eating a LOT healthier. I also found that it took less quantity of food to fill me up as I started understanding how a serving size of one food might leave me unfulfilled and another might really fill me up.
Chris,
Thanks for sharing your ideas here. I think the points you mentioned here are fantastic. Clear and to the point…It’s a post on it’s own ;) It’s good to know that a lot us of really care about what we eat and how :)
Cheers! :)
And thanks for the blogger copyright act link :) But let’s forgive the violator this time :)
Always glad to be of service. :)
Manu, great tips overall. I think the best investment we can make is in our selves and in our health. =)