By Chris Hirales, BaySport Personal Trainer
As Americans everywhere get busier in their daily life and have less time to make smart food choices, most will turn to easy alternatives such as heavily processed foods loaded with sugar, fat and sodium. This can have a negative effect on our digestive system, lead to high blood pressure and lower energy levels among other health related issues. To combat this we need to clean up our diets and eat smarter.
So how do we clean up our diet? It’s about choosing the least processed, most nutrient dense foods. By focusing our attention on choosing foods that are high in fiber, low in fat and high in vitamins and minerals, we will be able to control blood sugar, stabilize energy levels and help the body to digest properly. In addition, a diet high in fiber will help lower cholesterol levels which improve heart health and the improved digestion helps prevent colon cancer. Generally experts recommend 32 grams of fiber a day.
Some simple tips for eating clean:
- Plan your meals for the week. Stay focused on smart, healthy food options that are loaded with nutrients. By planning your meals in advance you’ll be able to avoid eating out as often when getting off work late or picking up the kids from practice. We face obstacles on a daily basis so if we have something in place to keep us on track it usually makes things easier when we get home.
- Buy at local farmer’s markets. This way you can make sure you’re getting the freshest, least processed food possible. The added benefit is that you’ll also be supporting your local community and know that you’re fruits or veggies haven’t traveled across the country to get to you, which can sometimes mean a loss in nutrients depending on the length of time it takes to get to you.
- Keep it simple by avoiding packaged foods full of chemicals and ingredients you can’t even pronounce. While some packages of food may claim to be good for you by having “organic”, “low-fat”, “lite” or “reduced” they sometimes contain unhealthy ingredients. For the most part the fewer the ingredients on the label the better.
- When there is no other alternative than to grab something out to eat, have a plan. Again, it’s about making smart choices even when you’re in the airport on a business trip or at Disneyland with the kids. Always have a plan.
- Track what you eat. Stay accountable to you by tracking what you eat throughout the day. This not only keeps you motivated to eat healthy foods, it also helps to see where you might have slipped up and why you were sluggish or ate really good and were very energetic.
Eating clean is really just about common sense. By shopping on the outer aisles of a grocery store and opting for whole nutrient dense foods, we will maximize the good calories that have the essential vitamins and minerals our bodies crave and minimize the high, empty calories of processed food that have no nutritional value. While it’s ideal to eat clean all the time, no one is perfect. So eat clean 80 percent of the time and the other 20 percent have that little something you may have a craving for (Super Bowl party, a drink with friends, etc.). This will help prevent binging so you can get back on track.
About the author:
Chris has been a fitness and strength professional since 1997. He has worked with all populations from professional, collegiate and high school athlete’s to the physically handicapped and elderly. Most of his clients are normal everyday working people who seek to improve their general fitness and improve performance either at work and everyday duties around the house to weekend outdoor activities such as hiking.
Chris’ certifications are many but it is his passion, focus, commitment, leadership and experience that help him get the most out of his clients. Chris emphasizes functional training to align the body for excellent stability, balance, strength, and metabolic training for optimum performance. His main focus is to meet and exceed each client’s goals and to empower them to continue a healthy and fit lifestyle.
Chris also coaches youth football teams and enjoys weight training, football, basketball and all outdoors activities.
Reference:
Amanda Carlson-Phillips, MS, RD, CSSD
Vice-President, Nutrition and Research for Athletes’ Performance and Core Performance article available at http://www.coreperformance.com/knowledge/nutrition/how-to-eat-clean.html
