Our personal trainers in Irvine, CA, focus on making healthy lifestyle changes. Learning to eat right, exercising regularly, and getting adequate sleep are three things that will make a difference in your life and help you live strong. Many of the habits, big or small, decide your future health. If you enjoy walking and take a walk regularly, you’ll have an improved chance of living longer and healthier. There’s a reason certain foods are part of a healthy diet. They keep you healthier.
Eating healthy isn’t dieting.
When you diet, you deprive yourself, count calories, and stick with a regimented menu. Diets always end. When they end, you go back to the old habits of high-calorie junk food. If you lose weight, you regain it. Eating healthy provides your body with the nutrients it requires for peak performance. It’s often lower in calories since it contains filling, less fattening foods. You can make some small changes to start, like switching out white processed rice with brown rice.
Watch out for empty calories.
What are empty calories? They’re foods that just supply calories with no other nutrients. Some, like food high in sugar, can also cause damage to your body if you eat it too frequently. Sugar is addictive and triggers the opioid receptors, causing your body to react as it does to drugs. Your tastebuds become desensitized to sugar, so you have to eat more to get the sweet taste. Sugar also affects your health in other ways besides weight gain. It can cause heart and kidney issues, increase your risk for diabetes, and damage collagen. That can make your veins weaker and cause wrinkles.
You can make eating healthier easy by following a few simple rules.
Plan your meals so you use ingredients that are closest to their natural state. It’s often referred to as eating whole foods. Start your meal with a big salad containing many vegetables and fruits. When your plate is full it should be a rainbow of colors. Phytonutrients give the plants their color and offer benefits for the animals or people that eat them. Each color does something beneficial but different. Eating colorful fruits and vegetables benefits your entire body. Many of the nutrients are destroyed or removed through processing. Many processed foods are missing those nutrients and contain chemicals or sugar. The more you eat, the more you want, and the more weight you gain.
- Stay hydrated. Even mild dehydration can cause health issues, such as dementia-like symptoms, decreased kidney functioning, hypertension, kidney stones, UTIs, and intestinal failure.
- Make sure you have adequate fiber in your diet. Fiber is a prebiotic that can boost beneficial microbes. High-fiber foods also fill you up and keep you full longer. You’ll also stay regular when you eat more fiber.
- Before you exercise and after you’ve finished, eating a snack that contains carbs and proteins can help boost recovery and build muscle tissue.
- Besides a healthy diet, a healthy lifestyle includes exercising regularly, getting adequate sleep, and avoiding nicotine, illegal drugs, and excess alcohol consumption. Our trainers can help you with diet and exercise programs.
For more information, contact us today at Next Level Fitness