10 Best Nutrition Tips

Maintaining your weight in a healthy range requires moderation, taking in the right amounts of food and drink and burning calories through physical activity. You may know this as calorie balance. If you burn the equal amount of calories that you consume, your weight will remain the same. Most of the excess calories you consume get stored in your body as fat. The focus on calorie balance helps to determine how much effort you’ll need to work off the calories and/or reduce the calorie intake. An extra 100 or so calories a day could make you gain up to 10 pounds in a year. That weekly outing to the buffet restaurant…fuggedaboutit! For weight loss you’ll need to consume fewer calories than you burn each day. Create a calorie deficit by cutting back on the calories you consume, exercise more or do both. Side note so that you know I’m not assuming everyone wants to shed the pounds: To gain weight, eat more, take in more calories than your body uses. Keep your exercises up so that your body benefits from the physical activity and remains healthy.

Tip #2 - Start With a Healthy Breakfast

Dieting makes you so hungry. Starving until lunchtime is a recipe for disaster. Benefit from these nutrition tips and start your day with a breakfast of complex carbohydrates and some protein. Complex carbohydrates take a longer time for the body to digest and provide energy for the body without causing insulin spikes that can result in your body storing fats. Just like the school kids, you will perform better….

Tip #3 – Eat at Intervals Throughout the Day

Hunger strikes when you go too long between meals. Your metabolism slows. You become lethargic. When you eat every 2 to 3 hours that extreme hunger will be abated and you will have consistent energy coming from the food you consume throughout the day. Your metabolism is raised and your body is more efficient in burning fats. As a bonafide foodie I really like the idea of eating all day!

Tip #4 – Eating the Right Foods

A healthful diet is a plant-based, complex carbohydrates diet with a small amount of animal protein, which provides all of the calories, vitamins and minerals that the body needs for optimal performance. (Aside from green M&M's, your food should be colorful and encompass all the colors of the rainbow!) You want to consume the right foods to support your active and healthy lifestyle. Think about it, a pumping good workout session can burn 250 and upwards 400 calories in 30-45 minutes. Nutrition tips alert: Why ruin the results with a double cheeseburger and fries?

Tip #5 – Develop Sound Eating Habits

Eat a variety of plant-based (whole grains, fruits and vegetables) foods daily. For vegetable-hating foodies (Is there such a person?) new tastes can be acquired by creative seasoning, pureeing the veggies, adding to sauces or casseroles, or chopping finely into your recipes. Roasted vegetables can compliment any meal… yumm! Avoid greasy foods with saturated fat. Eat healthy (monounsaturated) fats from olive oil, canola oil, avocados, nuts and seeds. Reduce the amount of salt and sugar in your diet. Sodas and sweetened drinks contain way too much sugar. You knew that nutrition tip already, right??

Tip #6 – Drink More Water

Prevent dehydration by drinking 8-10 glasses of water daily. Having water before a meal can actually help you feel more full or satisfied so that you don’t overeat. Drinking low sodium soups and eating fruits and veggies with high water content such as cantaloupe, strawberries, cucumbers, and tomatoes also helps with hydration. Include tea such as green, black or white tea into your diet. Besides having the anti-oxidants crucial to your body in fighting against serious diseases such as heart disease and cancer, it takes away the boredom of drinking plain water. I enjoy a mix of black and green tea sweetened with a natural non- caloric herb called Stevia.

Tip #7 – You Can Have Your Favorites

Just monitor your favorite foods you love. Remember your nutrition tips: Control you calories … be mindful of the portions and don’t eat them every day. A good mind-set for approaching calorie control is to think about how often you are eating the beloved food and how that may result in jeopardizing your diet (goal). Decide how the calories fit into your calorie-burning budget. Some of my clients who are Weight-Watchers use a similar technique. My favorite is “chocolate anything” so if it’s there and very tempting I’ll have it in a smaller portion earlier in the day rather than in the evening.

Tip #8 – Consume more fiber

Because fiber is digested more slowly, you tend to feel full and satisfied. Fiber helps the digestive system work more efficiently in getting rid of waste. Your source of fiber is from fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. When you are eating fruits or vegetable products such as apples and potatoes, leave the skin on. By peeling away the skin, you will be losing the benefits of the nutrients and fiber. Did you know that breakfast cereal was invented to cure the digestive issues of the rich and meat heavey American diet? Too bad we end up today with Fruit Loops and Captain Crunch. I don't think that is what Dr. Kellogg had in mind!

Tip #9 - Read All About It

Heads up food lovers, read your food and nutrition labels carefully! Be sure that you understand and can pronounce those multi-syllable words. Take a closer look at the total fat calories as well as the sodium and sugar content.

Tip #10 - Be Creative

We love eating food, we should also enjoy looking at it. Presentation is key in our overall enjoyment of the meal. Make the meals more attractive with variety in color and different textures. Try using restaurant techniques in garnishing your plate with vegetable or fruit decorations.

Well, I certainly enjoyed putting these nutrition tips together for you. Remember, balancing a healthful diet and physical fitness is the best combination for managing your weight and promoting overall health and fitness. Keep in mind, Divas, that these nutrition tips are geared to healthy women who already have a healthy eating or nutrition plan in place. If you are just starting out see your nutritionist or your family doctor before you begin any dieting plan.