Women’s Health Tips

in college life by Margo Smith — February 8, 2007 at 6:41 pm | 0 comments

Healthy Eating and Dieting Tips

Are you eating right? A diet is a short-term solution to a long-term problem. In order to effectively lose weight and keep it off, your whole diet needs to change. It simply does not work to merely go on a “diet.” There are myriad weight loss programs, but few that most folks can actually live with forever. You cannot live on fish for the rest of your life, nor can you eat only vegetables. Sure, a diet of grapefruit and only grapefruit will help you lose weight because you’ll get so tired of eating it that you will eat less, but you miss out on proteins, vitamins and nutrients that your body needs to function properly. If you are simply trying to lose a few pounds before a trip or party, so be it, but those pounds will come right back as soon as your extreme diet ends.
The best way to lose those unwanted pounds is to find a program that is similar to your current eating habits with just a few minor changes. It is the same principal as weight training: you cannot go to the gym and immediately lift 100 pound weights when you have never lifted before. And if you try you will regret it.

Eating a Rainbow

Did you know that the mnemonic device for remembering the color order of the rainbow can help you eat more healthfully too? ROYGBIV may help you remember the sequence of a rainbow as well as how to get all the necessary nutrients into your diet. One helpful hint is to eat a “rainbow.” This means that you try to get fruits, vegetables and legumes of every color in your weekly diet. It is important to make correct food choices daily, but what really matters is your weekly meal habit. You do not need to eat green and orange and red and purple and brown and yellow foods each and every day, but you should consume this range of colors in your fresh fruits and vegetables every week to maintain optimal health. Here are the break-downs for the categories:

ROYGBIV…and W for Food Groups!

• Red foods are things like apples, red potatoes, red beans, watermelon, tomatoes and rhubarb.
• Orange selections include: apricots, pineapple, tangerines, yams, papaya, carrots and corn.
• Yellow foods are included in the group above.
• Green items to eat should be made up of lettuces, broccoli, cucumbers, peas, celery and avocados.
• BIV stands for the blue and purple foods such as plums, eggplant, purple grapes and blueberries.
• There is one more category for the food color test: White and Brown. Items in this section ar mushrooms, onions, brown pears, jicama and cauliflower.

Make a Diet Change for the Better

Changing your eating habits is a process of continuous improvement. Start with a small change and keep adding better and better habits as you get used to the first set. Don’t try to go too fast. You are trying to change your lifestyle here, not fit into last year’s bathing suit just for the summer. Find a plan that has a little room for deviation as well, because it is better to incorporate a piece of chocolate cake into your diet than it is to cheat on your new diet. In other words, give yourself some breathing room.

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Tags: Diet health weight loss women