10 Tips to Cleaning Up Your Diet

As a personal trainer and fitness instructor, I’ve seen countless people improve their lives with exercise. It’s why I do what I do. But as important as I believe exercise is, it’s not the only piece of the puzzle. Eating is just as important as exercise, if not more. I’m asked about nutrition all the time, and often feel like a broken record. I’ve summed up my recommendations in ten simple tips that I believe are achievable.

Tip #1: Limit your Calories
The secret to weight loss is simple; energy in vs. energy out. If you use more calories than you consume, your body will begin to utilize the energy stored in your body (fat). It’s not rocket science…eat less and move more.

Tip #2: Eat Often
Somewhere along the way we were told eating just once or twice daily was a noble thing. By allowing our bodies to starve from time to time, we might somehow shrink down to our ideal size. The truth is we force our bodies to metabolize food more slowly when we go without. When we eat less food more often, however, our bodies use the energy more efficiently instead of storing it as fat.

Tip #3: Substitute White Rice and White Flour with brown rice and whole wheats
Carbohydrates are our number one source of energy and the source of the majority of our caloric intake. Simple carbohydrates, like white flour, quickly turn to sugar and eventually fat. This also creates dramatic rises and falls in our energy levels. Complex carbohydrates, however, offer consistent and sustainable energy, adds fiber to our diets, and makes us feel full.

Tip #4: Get 35 Grams of Fiber per day
The average person gets only 10 grams of fiber daily. Fiber helps keep your system cleaned out and lowers cholesterol. Fiber can be found in beans/lentils, fruits with the skin, green veggies, and whole grains.

Tip #5: Limit FRIED FOODS
Culturally we’ve grown to adopt immersing our meats in oil as a common way to cook. NO MORE!!! Baking, grilling or boiling are healthier ways to cook. You might have to be creative to make it taste as good, but it’s worth it.

Tip #6: Limit Eating Out; Cook your own Food
Even when we think we’ve made a healthy choice by ordering a seemingly healthy menu option, we don’t know what is being used to make our food taste the way it does. Restaurants create irresistible flavors by using secret ingredients, many of which, we don’t need. You need to be in total control of what you eat. The best way to be sure of the food you eat is to prepare it yourself.

Tip #7: Don’t Drink your calories
Let your calories come from food. It’s amazing the amount of calories, sugar, and sodium that comes from drinks that don’t even satisfy our hunger. Consider your caloric intake like money; spend it wisely.

Tip #8: Plan Ahead
Most times we make bad food choices not because we want to, but because we have limited resources. We don’t have enough time to cook, so we use the drive through; we forgot to bring fruit to work, so we hit up the vending machine. We don’t mean to, it just happens. Be proactive and plan ahead; eating right is hard enough.

Tip #9: Drink Water
You’ve heard it a million times, but probably not enough. Our bodies need water like we need air. We’ve grown accustomed to getting our water from sodas and teas. Lets learn to fall in love with real water again. Don’t just drink water when you don’t want to pay for a fountain drink, or when it’s hot outside and you’re thirsty. Keep a little bottle of water with you everywhere you go, and sip continuously.

Tip #10: Relax, you’ll get the hang of it.
Name one person you know that died from eating one piece of cheesecake. Cheesecake doesn’t kill people, but years of eating cheesecake, and donuts, and fried catfish, and pecan pie, and soda does. Lets face it, if we don’t allow ourselves to indulge in those guilty pleasures from time to time, we’ll give up. Eating healthy is a lifestyle and is never mastered over night. Give yourself room to adjust, and it will soon come naturally.