8 Ways To Healthier Eating

by Beverly Mazza

1.      Don’t Drink Your Calories!

Cut out the sodas, sweet teas, and all other high calorie beverage. Drink lots and lots of water! If you do not want water at every meal try other varieties of tea such as unsweetened ice tea, green tea, herbal fruit tea, etc. If you want sweeter beverages try flavoring your tea with natural fruit juices. Don’t switch to artificial sweeteners such as splenda, equal, etc.

2.      Swap Your Meats!

Try eating less red meat such as pork and beef and eating more lean meats such as turkey, chicken, and fish. Instead of pork bacon try turkey bacon. Try swapping ground beef for ground turkey or ground chicken (ground chicken is my favorite). 

3.      Make Some Meals Meatless!

Not all of your meals need meat in them. Try a whole grain such as brown rice, quinoa, or whole-wheat pasta with vegetables. You can get creative with the types of vegetables and the way you cook them.  You can still get protein by eating nuts, beans, humus, seeds, spinach etc.

4.      Eat Less Butter!

Butter can make a healthy meal unhealthy pretty fast. Try swapping your butter for olive oil when cooking. If you add butter to your veggies such as a baked potato get creative try adding salsa or olive oil and your favorite seasonings.

5.      Make Your Grains Whole Grains!

If you are going to eat grains make them count! Make sandwiches with whole wheat bread or even better whole grain. Switch white rice for brown rice or one of my favorites mix brown rice and quinoa. The less processed food the better! White bread, pasta, and rice are more processed than the whole grains and whole-wheat versions of the same product.

6.      Eat Less Processed Foods!

When it comes to snacking do not open the most convenient thing and eat it. Try eating fruits and vegetables. If you are craving something sweet eat apples or bananas with natural peanut butter. If you want something salty try humus with bell peppers or carrot sticks. Get creative with your snacks and switch to “real foods” i.e. it came from the ground not a factory.

7.      Less Salt!

In almost all of the food we eat we are getting salt. Restaurants are the worst about over-salting foods. Most people get the recommended intake of salt from the food they eat without adding salt to their meals. When cooking get creative and try other seasonings or use fruit juices for flavor. Less salt does not mean less flavor but less salt does mean less bloating and water retention. 

8.      Let Yourself Splurge Sometimes!

 If you are used to drinking many sodas a day and quit cold turkey chances are you will end up downing a 2-liter of coke. Make your changes slowly and keep them consistent. Every once in awhile let old habits slip in. Make it an occasional treat not an every day habit. Your treats should be healthier verses of old treats such as frozen yogurt instead of ice cream or dark chocolate and fruit instead of candy bars. For any diet to work you have to be able to stick to it, not feel hungry, and enjoy the food you eat! 

Are you or someone you know in need of help? Do you need someone to listen to your struggles with weight loss? Visit www.homefront.fitness and talk to Christian. 

HDL and LDL Cholesterol: What is the Difference?

by Erica Bossert

What happens when you hear the word, “cholesterol”? Do you immediately think to yourself, “that’s the thing that my doctor says I should watch”, or do you think, “Hmm… isn’t that what’s in egg yolks”? You may have even heard that cholesterol is linked to heart disease and that you need to keep it a certain level or you will increase your risk of developing heart disease. The fact of the matter is that cholesterol is in deed correlated to heart disease. However, did you know that not all cholesterol is bad for you? The big difference between the two types of cholesterol that we are going to discuss is that you want your HDL cholesterol to be higher and your LDL to be lower. So HDL = good, LDL = bad.

So the remaining question may be, “why is LDL bad for you and HDL good for you though they are both cholesterol”? To answer your question, LDL stands for “low density lipoprotein”.  In other words, LDL is cholesterol containing an outer covering consisting of a lipid combined with protein. The reason why LDL is considered damaging to your health is that it creates plaques in your arteries, which disrupts the blood flow to the heart, thus increasing your risk of a heart attack or stroke (WebMD). One other thing you may not know about LDL is that it increases with age, no matter what your diet is like. Therefore, as you get older, it is essential that you continue to limit saturated fats and increase the amount of healthy fats, such as omega-3 and the fats found in coconut oil, in your diet as well as exercise regularly.

Now that you know a little more about why LDL is considered “bad cholesterol”, we are going to discuss why HDL is will improve your health. HDL stands for “high density lipoprotein”, meaning it is denser in the middle than LDL. This lipoprotein not only helps to remove LDL from your blood, it also reduces your risk of heart disease with higher levels (WebMD). Here is an analogy to explain more about how LDL and HDL affect you: If you pour leftover grease high in saturated fats down your sink, it can clog the pipes and cause other damages. LDL does the same thing to your arteries; LDL can clog up your arteries and cause many other damages (e.g. heart disease, stroke). However, a pipe-snake or even a running stream of hot water (which I learned from my maintenance guy) can come to the rescue and unclog the pipes, flushing out the grease, and preventing further damages. HDL works just the same in flushing out LDL from your blood to lower your risk of developing the diseases discussed.

Although this is a simple snippet of how cholesterol works, what you hopefully took out of this is that cholesterol is needed, but not all cholesterol works the same. Prevention of heart disease is much less costly than intervention, so including regular exercise and a healthy diet will help to raise your HDL levels and lower your LDL levels. The best preventative medicine for heart-related issues is to take care of your heart now.

Are you in need of help? Do you need someone to listen to your struggles with weight loss? Visit www.homefront.fitness and talk to Christian. 

Eating​ ​Better​ ​Means Feeling​ ​Better

by Colie Bossert

I never had to worry about what I ate growing up because I would burn it off with whatever sport I was playing at the time. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized that certain foods did not work with my body anymore. I know I have discussed how I completed the Whole 30 and how amazing I felt when I was finished. What I did not talk about is what cutting out certain foods did for me emotionally.

     

Let’s get one thing straight here: pasta is AMAZING. I love spaghetti, and I could literally sit down and munch on a block of cheese. Also, I am very aware of how disgusting that is…however, before my twenties, I could get away with it.  About a year ago, I noticed my stomach was always upset. I assumed it had to be certain foods I was eating, but I loved every bit of it too much that I did not want to take the time to discover exactly what it was that was causing the bloating. Then, the Whole 30 came into my life. If any of you know the rules, you’d know that you have to cut out sugar, grains, gluten, alcohol, etc. I spent thirty days dining on vegetables and protein (that is acceptable within the diet). Cutting out all of the sugar did not make me the nicest person, but my stomach did not hurt once the entire thirty days! I was completely marveled, but then again, I was saddened by the fact that my favorite foods hurt my body.  

     

The day after I ended my challenge, my boyfriend decided we should celebrate! He made me dinner, and when I say made, I mean he created everything he could from scratch. Boy, oh boy, was that the most delicious meal I had ever eaten. Then, after I finished the meal, I was couch ridden...The meal was spectacular, but my stomach did not care to agree with me. Then, I knew it had to be one of two things: pasta or cheese.

    
 I have been off of the diet since the end of October, and I can tell you that I do NOT consume nearly as much pasta and cheese as I used to. I discovered that it took me about two weeks to stop craving pasta or cheese, and once I got over the hump, I realized that I did not miss those particular foods; it did not feel like I was sacrificing anymore. Now, I am smiling more, my clothes fit better, and I am standing taller (partially because I am not hunched over in pain). All it took was a little will power and determination, but I can promise you, it was all worth it. 



Are you in need of help? Do you need someone to listen to your struggles with weight loss? Visit www.homefront.fitness and talk to Christian. 

Good Fats That Create Weight Loss

by Erica Bossert

If you have struggled with your weight, cardiovascular health, and/or cholesterol levels, you may be familiar with the word “fat” in its many negative connotations. Fat is typically associated with heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and many other health complications. However, we are going to discuss how dietary fat can actually help you to burn body fat, decrease inflammation, improve your heart health, and lower bad cholesterol, or LDL. You can find these healthy fats in avocados, olive oil, and coconut oil. First, we are going to bust the myth that eating foods high in fat are what make you fat.

When talking about the basics of macronutrients, you may have heard somewhere along the line that fats are higher in calories than protein and carbohydrates, which is absolutely a fact. If you have tried any diet being sold by the media and endorsed by celebrities, you have likely been told that it is all about calories-in and calories-out and that low-fat, low-calorie foods will help you achieve your weight loss goals. Though reducing caloric intake does help to burn more stored energy, what the media rarely makes an effort to tell us is that not all calories are created equal. For example, a low-fat yogurt at 190 calories per serving will not have nearly the same health benefits as an avocado that contains about 230 calories. One avocado has about 18.6 grams of fat, but works to lower LDL cholesterol, increase satiety, can decrease inflammation in joints, and helps you to lower body fat (Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter, 2015).  Can you find a low-fat yogurt that does all of that?

When it comes to cooking oils, the healthiest choices are coconut and olive oils. Coconut oil and olive oil contain similar health benefits, such as their ability to lower LDL and improve heart health. Coconut oil, however, appears to be different. There has been a controversy over whether or not coconut oil is healthy for your diet due to its high percentage of saturated fat, which has been associated with obesity and cardiovascular disease for many years. However, these saturated fats are used to cook a typical Western diet that consists of double-decker burgers, French fries, and fried chicken, which is also linked to obesity and other related diseases. Coconut oil, on the other hand, is different from the saturated fats used for the fryers in that it consists of medium chain triglycerides (MCT). To put this in simpler terms, coconut oil is more readily metabolized and is not stored as fat when consumed in moderation, ultimately aiding in fat loss (Hughes, 2009).

The fats from avocados, coconut oil, and olive oil all have properties that support heart-health and weight loss, both of which are not characteristically associated with fat in general. Fat does not always make you fat, as shown in diets including these healthy fats. Replacing unhealthy fats used for cooking with coconut oil or olive oil, or simply including more of these healthy fats discussed into your diet can improve your overall health in ways that fad diets could never do for you. 

Are you in need of help? Do you need someone to listen to your struggles with weight loss? Visit www.homefront.fitness and talk to Christian.