You Know How a Metaphor Works~

The rest of the plan must involve food.  You know what you weight, thus how many calories you need to consume.  You know your heart rate and target heart rate for resting and working out.  You know your body mass index so you know what you need to gain, lose or maintain.  You have set one or multiple goals and have a plan for how you are going achieve them.  You are on the calendar!  Now, you must eat.

If I can just cram one more thought in here before I continue: Hormones, sleep, stress, age, activity level, physical ability and fitness, mental attitude, depression, ambition, motivation, and inspiration all affect your ability to gain, loose and maintain weight.  If you will give food and exercise a try, you may be able to reduce your stress, which will improve your sleep.  Allowing yourself to eat nourishing foods will improve digestion, which will help balance hormones.  Any activity will increase your physical ability which will boost your metabolism, thus fire your ambitions and motivation because you will feel and eventually see the fruits of your labor.  The human body is comprised of 10 systems working together; nourish all 10 systems and your body will heal itself.

You don't expect your car to perform at its best with clogged fuel injectors, low oil and no gas, right?  We can all understand that the engine of a car needs to be maintained or it will break down, hang out in the garage, watch TV with the boys and stain the cement floor.  The next step varies: a, trade in the car; b, keep piling kitty litter over the stains, ignore the car and hop the bus to work; c, call a mechanic to fix the car.  I could go into how costly but worthwhile it is to fix the ol' beast, but this isn't really about the car...  its a metaphor for your body.  If you are eating foods that clog your arteries, running low on fuel and without ...  well, you know how a metaphor works.

The good news is, you have already started looking at your diet.  (What, you're on day three of your diet analysis? ;)  The next step is easy.  Add foods that fill in the gaps.  Low on servings of veggies?  Add veggies.  Low on Fruit?  Add fruit.  High on protein?  Make your serving size a little smaller.  Instead of taking things away, at this point I just encourage you to add the pieces you are missing.  Do some field tests on recipes and foods that you think you may like and foods you know you do like.  I love carrots and hummus instead of chips and dip now, but I had to find that crunchy-salty replacement for myself.  You do to!

Fat and sugar are the greater of all of the evils in your diet.  Oils, butter, cheese, (Dairy), table sugar, honey, fruit juice, processed foods, ice cream, animal fats, bread, crackers, peanut butter, jelly, creamy salad dressing, mayonnaise, anything fried, anything from the bakery, anything from Chili's.  Start by being aware of how many of these foods you eat.  When you add nourishing foods to your diet, thus meeting your body's nutrient needs, you will feel less 'hungry' and more satisfied.  The result is turning to fatty, sugary, heavy foods less often.  Adding foods to your diet is much more likely to help you stop eating than taking foods away.

Real food... vitamins... water... and, as always, remember to wash your hands.

Anna~