Issue No.588
Living
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30 May - 5 June 2002 Issue No.588 Living |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
HEALTHY CHOICES
There is no word I dislike more than DIET. I say that not as someone who dreads the so-called "healthy" eating plans that are popularly assumed to be the keys to slim waistlines and strong bodies, but rather, as an Apex certified nutrition consultant.
"Diet" conjures up images of a solitary lettuce leaf, a piece of crusty brown toast, and a serving of boiled chicken; an eating plan meant to fill a rumbling stomach. To all you self-labelled "failed dieters", the first thing I have to tell you as a nutritionist, is that this menu will inevitably lead even the most stringent of dieters to the nearest and biggest chocolate anything!
You want to lose body fat, get healthy and strong? Step one is to rid that word from your vocabulary. Replace it, instead, with "healthy choices". Next, push the lettuce leaf to the side of your plate, add the rest of the salad, along with pasta in tomato sauce and a serving of grilled chicken.
I know. You all thought pasta was a "bad food". Too fattening, right? In reality, it is not the pasta that is the problem, but rather, how much you eat and what you eat it with.
There are two types of carbohydrates: complex and simple. Pasta, bread, rice, and potatoes are all complex carbohydrates (carbs). All carbs act as sources of energy that the body can utilise, but complex carbs are essential to any healthy lifestyle as the energy they provide is released through the body at a slow pace. Given their bulk quality, they also fill you up. Depriving yourself of complex carbs, is a sure ticket to feeling tired, hungry, and low, all day. If you just need a pick-me-up, go for a simple carb like a piece of fruit or glass of juice. The energy in these is released into the body much faster, quickly alleviating the drained feeling in the middle of a tedious day at work.
Some of you may crave chocolate, and others salty foods. And some of you, of course, may crave both. You are not alone. Cravings are common, and temptation is normal. The thing to remember is that what counts is the quantity and balance. Too much of anything is not a good thing, and at the end of the day, if you are consuming more calories than you are putting out [energy expenditure], it makes no difference where those extra calories come from. Whether they are from chocolate cake, too much fruit, or even boxes and boxes of sugar-free gum, the extra calories will be turned into fat.
The nutritional and caloric needs of each person will vary, of course, and for bodybuilders, consumption is much, much higher. But for the men and women who work out several days a week and want to slim down (drop their percentage body fat), there is definitely one key to getting on fat-loss track: NEVER drop your intake below 20 calories per kilogramme of body weight per day. You may lose some fat doing this, but you will lose a lot more muscle -- the one thing that you want, at the very least, to maintain since muscle helps you burn more calories when at rest.
One of the most common habit I hear clients talk about, is their quest to starve all day and just have a mini meal at night. This is one of the biggest pitfalls to losing that fat. In most cases, starving all day leads to overeating at night -- and not so healthy choices. Also, by not eating for a long period of time, you expose your digestive system to acids produced by the stomach, so when you come to eat, your digestive system is taken by surprise, your digestive juices are not enough, and the food sits undigested in your stomach, leaving you feeling bloated and uncomfortable. Alternatively, the food can pass through the system partly digested, which can cause problems such as constipation or diarrhea. Eating fat will not make you fat. This nutrient is vital for survival as it helps transport nutrients through the body, supports the Central Nervous System (CNS), and protects your internal organs. If you don't eat fat, your body's built-in defense system will be alerted, and will hold onto everything it can. Be healthy: obtain approx. 25 percent of your daily calorie intake from fat.
The answer?
Simple. Eat 4-6 times a day, preferably within two hours of waking up, and then every three to four hours throughout the day. Give yourself at least one and a half hours between your last meal and bedtime.
"Four to six meals!" you probably gasp.
A meal may be a pot of yogurt and a banana, or even just an apple. The point, is that you are keeping your metabolism moving and the digestive system working. By eating this many times, you are also keeping starvation at bay; critical to making sensible healthy choices at your next meal.
Another habit that feeds the negative DIET cycle is not giving eating the time and space it deserves. Many of us watch TV or read while eating, or worse still, eat on the go. Instead, take the time to focus on what you are doing, sit up straight, and block out everything except the taste of each bite and the texture of the food. Eating is said to be one of the greatest pleasures of life: Enjoy it, and make every healthy choice bite be worth its while. Once you're done, relax for a while before getting back to your frenzied errand-driven lifestyle. Oxygen helps in digestion. If you start moving around too quickly, oxygen is sent to other muscles, leaving the stomach and gut lacking in oxygen. That, in turn, hinders digestion.
Eating, some of you dread to be reminded, is something you have to do everyday for the rest of your life. Incorporate the foods you like into your life, and discover ways to serve them to make them a healthy choice.
Remember: There is no such thing as a bad food. Everything in moderation, just focus on how much and how often. Deprivation, I must add, is self demoralising -- the ticket, essentially, to having a "fat day" almost everyday.
... I am off for a treat now... a pot of yogurt with a sliced banana, a handful of crunchy corn flakes crumbled on top, smothered in one dessert spoon of maple syrup. Mmmmmmmmm. Anyone care to join me?
* The writer is an APEX-certified nutrition consultant, an AFAA-certified personal trainer, and a group fitness instructor. She is also education coordinator for Egypt Gold's Gym and co-director of the International Sports Science Association (ISSA) Egypt office.
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