More thoughts..

Here are some more of my personal thoughts on healthy eating. Take it if you will. :)

1. I do not believe in restrictions; I believe in limitations. Completely restricting yourself from things, especially in the beginning, is pretty unrealistic in my opinion. Come January and all of the sudden you decide to cut sugar out of your diet cold turkey is a lot harder than you may realize. So don't restrict yourself from it, limit yourself from it.

2. If it's not in front of you, you can't eat it! You are in control of what goes into your mouth, so don't buy garbage food to begin with!

3. Be moderate when it comes to eating out. When you do eat out, choose the healthiest thing on the menu that sounds good to YOU. Grilled vs. fried, steamed veggies vs. fries, and avoid getting dessert as much as possible.

4. (again, this is MY personal opinion) Why would you ever completely devoid yourself of desserts!?!? They are a simple pleasure that make life more enjoyable, so once a week, let yourself eat the dang cookie!!!! I promise that you will be more successful & happier if you MODERATELY allow yourself to eat sweets. Say no to every 4 out of 5 desserts and you will be fine. In my opinion. :)

5. Moderation in all things is another key to success! And to a healthy, well balanced life.

I would replace "skinny" with "healthy" or "beautiful"

6. Take a multivitamin everyday. Even the healthiest people don't meet all of the nutritional requirements through only food, so take one everyday. If you're a girl, I reccomend taking a prenatal vitamin in place of a multi. It's great for your hair, skin and nails and I've found they don't make me feel as sick as multi's do.

7. When you do decide to have a dessert, remember a couple of things; 1. be moderate (do you see a pattern here?) and 2. make sure it's something good! Don't blow your dessert on something stupid like candy canes or a mediocre cupcake or something... make sure it's something delicious that YOU love!

8. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT start a "fad" diet cause guess what? They don't work!!!! Believe me, I've tried a good number of fad diets and I've never had long term success on any of them! If you feel like you really do need a diet for extra support and some guidance, join Weight Watchers. It is incredible and I have been successful everytime I've done it. So has my mom! For those of you who know my mom, you know that she is TINY and she did it with Weight Watchers and she's kept it off for almost 2 years now!! I'm a big advocate of WWers :)

9. Read the book Intuitive Eating!

10. If you've already eaten and you think you're feeling hungry again, drink a FULL glass of water before you eat again. More than half of the time you are actually just thirsty and not hungry.

11. Keep a supply of gum on handy at all times! If youre mouth is busy you are less likely to eat out of bordem. I suggest always having the dessert flavored gum by Extra to help ease your sweet tooth!

12. Lastly, make good choices. We all have a general knowledge of what it means to eat healthy, so take that knowledge and apply it to your life!

Remember, these are all my personal thoughts I've developed over the years. And this is information I've learned through my college health classes and my own personal research and such. Hope it helps though!

xoxo,
Alliecat