Fiercely Fueled: 8 Ways To Better Feed Your Body
In today’s world, food is becoming more processed and packaged and too often we reach for what is quick, easy, and cheap. We lose touch with our body and how we’re fueling it. If you don’t take care of your body and your health, the quality of your living goes down. It is of the upmost importance for me to always love my body; to take care of it and feel like it supports me in every activity I want to do. Not treat it poorly and have it end up holding me back. You were given just one amazing, beautiful, functional, unique body (You can’t trade it in and get a new one!). So treat it well and in turn it will serve you well. Here are my top eight tips when it comes to fueling that awesome body of yours:
Eat breakfast
Eating breakfast helps to jump start metabolism, gives you more energy to start your day, improves brain concentration/productivity, helps to even out blood sugar and can even fight cravings. It’s important to eat slower-burning carbs, so getting some protein, whole grains, and fruit/veggies in your breakfast is ideal. My favorites are a smoothie with protein powder, oatmeal with fresh fruit, or the easiest; rice crackers with nut butter and fruit on it. So even if it’s small amount, just eat something in the morning!
Eat the rainbow
No, I don’t mean Skittles. Introducing more fruits and vegetables into your diet may be one of the most beneficial things you can do. Fruits and Veggies contain important nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and plant chemicals. They are also low in calorie so you’re able to eat far MORE food and as a bonus it has a positive impact on your body. The USDA's Dietary Guidelines recommend adults eat anywhere from 5 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables per day! (Want to know how much a serving is? Check this out: https://www.cookinglight.com/healthy-living/healthy-habits/how-much-serving-fruits-vegetables?)
Minimize SUGAR
Consuming too much sugar is linked to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic inflammation, and it’s obviously not great for teeth and keeping cavities at bay either! The number one place lots of sugar may be sneaking into your diet is through beverages. Studies are showing sugary drinks are the largest source of calories and added sugar in the U.S. diet (How much sugar are in these drinks you may ask? Well a teaspoon is 4.2 grams of sugar. Now, add 7 to 10 teaspoons full of sugar to a 12-ounce glass of water and there you go) with pretty much no other nutrient value. Basically your sugary drinks taste delicious but do nothing for your body and may even be hurting your health. Doesn’t mean you have to cut all sugar out at once but it’s smart to slowly start cutting back (check out my live on how to kick the sugar habit for more info: https://www.facebook.com/fiercelybe/videos/1272745802889106/)
Slow down!
It takes about 20 minutes for your body to signal when you are full. So when you eat too fast, you tend to over eat. Give yourself the 20-Minute Meal challenge, try and take the full 20 minutes to eat your meal (this means you’ll have to chew more which also helps to further break down the food to digest and absorb more nutrients better). Also as a bonus, oxygen helps the body to digest so when you slow down you give yourself more time to BREATHE!
Check ingredient labels/eat organic
Although it’s easiest to just walk around the store and just throw the cheapest option into the cart, have you ever stopped to look at the ingredients? When I first started to do this I was blown away with the amount of things in food I had no clue what it even was! Many foods are highly processed or have chemicals and pesticides used on them. Something may look amazing and taste delicious but the quality of food that you’re putting in your body could be extremely low and causing problems you wouldn’t even expect. Your food choices could be increasing your risk of “obesity, infertility, cancer, digestive problems, autism, brain fog, skin conditions, gluten sensitivity, allergies, fatigue, anxiety and more” (https://secretingredientsmovie.com/ this short film opened my eyes to being more aware of what I was putting in my body)
Cook/prep more
Eating out all the time means you have very little control over what goes in your body. Of course you can choose where you eat and what you order but many times you have no idea the quality of the ingredients or even what exactly is put into the food. By cooking your own food and prepping for the week, you can make more conscious choices that are much healthier, way cheaper, and if you prep right, much easier!
Drink more water
Drinking more water is my answer to everything. You have a headache? Drink more water. Cravings? More water. It’s good for your joints, muscles, organs, skin (everything in your body really, I mean come on, our bodies are made up of 60% water!). Our digestive system depends on water to flush everything through your body and prevent digestive problems. Many times we also reach for food when in fact we’re just thirsty! As a general rule of thumb you should be drinking half your weight in ounces of water (more if you exercise heavily).
Quit calorie counting and focus on what you GET to have!
The diet mentality never works. Maybe for awhile you’ll go on a diet, you’ll cut out all of your favorite foods and work out like a fiend, but then inevitably the militant exercise routine and food schedules start to crumble and you’re right back where you started (sound relatable? I know I’ve been there), it isn’t sustainable. So the best thing to do is instead of calorie counting and depriving yourself, focus on the mindset of what you GET to have. Shift your mindset to being creative with your food choices, thinking about what awesome things you could make vs what you don’t get to have (if you’re interested more in this, check out my 14 Day Cleanse).
Let me know in the comments if you find any of these tips helpful or read something that resonated with you! It’s never too late to make shifts in your life to work on becoming a happier, healthier you.