Author: Kimberly Roberto

I wanted to keep it simple this week so here are some basic tips for healthy eating.

• Keep this mantra in mind, “Eat to live, don’t live to eat.” And think of every meal as an investment in your future.

• Failing to plan is planning to fail.  Eating healthy takes time and preparation.

• Adopt the “Eat it anyway” philosophy (i.e. even if it doesn’t taste great, eat it anyway because it is healthy).  You will find you will start liking healthy foods and eventually even crave them.

• Start making the switch to Food by Nature and away from Food by Man (keep a journal)

• Don’t eat right before bed time or exercising

• Decrease food portions and cut out junk food.

• Utilize the “Rules for Better Fueling”

Let me know if you want more info on these

-Replacement Rule                                     -Addition Rule

-Dress Up Rule                         

-10 Point Reduction Rule

-Multiple Feedings Rule             

-Stay Full Rule

            -Vacation Meal Rule

• Replace your meat with natural, organic, hormone/antibiotic free meat
  • Grass-fed beef is available on the internet (frozen) (follow the US Wellness Meats link at http://www.maximizedlivingdrroberto.com,at Nature’s Corner Market, at  Publix (ground grass-fed beef) or through local farms. 
  • Natural chicken is available at just about every grocery store

• Replace refined/processed sugars with natural sweeteners like honey, pure maple syrup, agave nectar, or stevia.

• Replace margarine with butter and bad fats with good ones like olive, coconut, walnut, avocado

• Try to buy organic fruits and vegetables (refer to the pesticide guide at http://www.foodnews.org)

• Drink LOTS of water (slowly replace what you drink now with water)

• Shop around the perimeter of the store.  That is where the healthier foods are.  The center of the store is where all of the processed food is located.

• Start reading ingredient labels and avoid all of the following:

•  
  • MSG (Monosodium Glutamate)
  • Artificial Sweeteners (Splenda, Nutrasweet, Aspartame, etc)
  • Nitrites and/or Nitrates
  • Sulfites
  • Partially Hydrogenated Anything
  • White flour (when the label says things like enriched flour, wheat  flour, bleached flour, it is no good.  It needs to say whole grain……)
  • High Fructose Corn Syrup

• Eat out less often- much less! (If you do, substitute better choices)

• Buy a steamer…it is the easiest, healthiest way to prepare vegetables – lots of them!!!

For this post, I want to step away from the practical tips on nutrition and look more at the big picture.  Not only is nutrition important for health reasons, it is also about character, commitment, discipline, purpose, and love.  While that may sound a little overboard, hear me out.  Much of our nutritional decisions are made for us…mega marketing, a convenient restaurant on the way home, whatever attracts our attention on the grocery shelf, etc.  It is often mindless and robotic.    

For most people shopping and eating is based on taste, convenience and cost as opposed to quality.  It takes a much bigger commitment to shop, cook, and eat healthy foods.  But guess what, anything worthwhile in life usually takes commitment and discipline.  Look at anyone who has ever had success at anything.  Did it just “happen” or did it take hard work? 

Nutrition is no different.  One of the utmost forms of respect to yourself and to your body is to put good food (fuel) in it.  Trust me, there will be consequences of your food choices whether they be immediate or longer term, minimal or devastating.  To quote my husband, “Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, don’t care about your reasons or excuses.  They don’t care if you liked the soda or if you didn’t know that hydrogenated oils were bad or if you didn’t have time to cook.  They are indiscriminate and far reaching in their devastation.”

You must know someone who has been touched by these diseases, which by the way, are typically lifestyle related.  How has it affected not just that person but the people around them?  A perfect example is in my own family.  My father in law passed away at the age of 54 after years of poor diet, smoking, and lack of exercise.  He drank a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi with lunch and dinner every day, I never really saw him eat a vegetable, and he loved sweets.  As a result, he ended up with kidney failure, had to endure dialysis every day and eventually developed congestive heart failure and succumbed to the breakdown in his body.  Well, that meant that my husband no longer had a father in the picture, his mom lost her husband and my children don’t get an opportunity to know their grandfather.  It was truly devastating.  What if he would have been more diligent about his diet, would the outcome have been different?  I am confident the answer is a resounding “YES!”.  Would it have been worth the commitment and discipline to remain in this world a little longer, living to his full potential.  Again, the answer is “YES!” 

The point of all of this is to truly inspire, and not just motivate you.  Motivation can be short-lived, but inspiration makes lasting change and gets to your heart as well as your head.  If you don’t want to do it for yourself, do it for the people who love you, care about you, and count on you. 

We have literally seen dozens of people reverse diabetes, lower blood pressure, beat cancer, relieve depression, lose massive weight, etc by focusing on their health.  Nutrition being an essential component of this.  Hippocrates once wrote, “let food be thy medicine” and it is an undeniable truth that works!!!  People that refuse to accept a diagnosis as a final sentence and instead get committed can literally turn their lives around.  But why wait for this to happen?  It’s much easier when you are not really sick.  Do it NOW!     

Get started now!  We have been authorized to host a private movie screening for the movie FOODMATTERS.  It will be on Apr 17 at 7PM at Burnt Hickory Baptist Church.  Call 770.919.7171 or http://www.foodmatters.tv for more info or to rsvp.  Don’t miss it!