Healthy eating tips

Healthy eating is very important when planning to shred few pounds and stay healthy. Workout won’t be effective if diet have not been monitored carefully. Thus, balancing our calories intake with physical activities is crucial. Sometime people tend to ignore healthy eating due to busy schedule and on-the-go food such as fast food is always an option to fill up their tummy. No matter how busy you are, try to improve your food intake. You need to stay fit to be able to complete your tasks. Plus, we actually have more time than we think. Below are the healthy eating tips:

1. Watch your portion. Do not eat more than needed. It is advisable to have reasonable portion sizes of food to stay healthy and to avoid overeating. When eating outside, be aware of the portion size because in average, the size is more than for a person in the restaurants (Guay, 2011). Thus, we are encourage to watch our food portion based on recommended daily servings. Everyone daily servings are varies by age, gender and other factor such us women who is pregnant or breast feed their child. You may refer to links provided below:
• DASH diet: Guide to recommended servings
• Recommended daily servings
2. Watch your calories intake. Calories needed for everyone is depending on their lifestyle or job. Some occupational such as labour require energy to perform their tasks, thus they need to slightly more than the recommended daily calories. Recommended calories intake for both men and women average age of 19 – 29 who having inactive lifestyle such as office workers are 2,440 kcal and 2,000 kcal respectively (All about calories. 2010). Excess calories that is unnecessary to our body need to burn it by being active physically such as workout (All about calories, 2010). Therefore, it is important to balance the calories intake as it should be aligned with physical activities and obesity is one of the result if failed to balance our energy in and out (Guay, 2011).
3. Never skip your meal. People tend to skip breakfast as they are rush and does not have much time to eat. Skipping meals contributes to weigh gain as brain respond differently to food as the need has been not satisfied and may lead to binge eating (Molnar, 2011). Body muscle will burn as energy and more fats will be kept when we are hungry as our body want to keep more fat as energy (Fischer, 2011). Previously, if I skipped one of my meal, I get easily tempted to eat more than I should as I am hungry. Thus, weight get increased as a result from skipping meals and binge eating.
4. Stay hydrated. We need to stay hydrated as we need sufficient amount of water to help burning calories process faster and efficiently (Fischer, 2011). Hence, when we are dehydrated, it will slow down the burning calories process and we can gain weight as the calories cannot be burnt efficiently.
5. No late night snacking. Student often ‘snacking’ at late night to stay awake and focus on their study or to complete their assignment. Weight increase as a result of ‘empty calories’ food intake as the food are high in calories and no nutrient (Caiola, 2011). A study found that, body mass index increase for individual who ate dinner after 8 p.m. (Caiola, 2011). Thus, unhealthy eating habit occur from late night ‘snacking’ and sleeping deprivation.

For more tips on healthy eating, you may refer to links provided below:

10 tips to healthy eating

5 tips: Healthy meals for busy families

Healthy eating tips when you’re on the road

Healthy eating on a budget

Healthy living tips

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References:

All about calories (2010). http://www.milo.com.my/youngandfit/fuze_calories.htm

Caiola, S. (2011, May 12). Students’ late night eating may cause weight gain. The Daily

Northwestern. http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/campus/students-late-night-eating-may-cause-weight-gain-1.2562388

Fischer, K. (2011, May 13). Eating right to lose weight. Bonney Lake-SumnerPatch.

http://bonneylake-sumner.patch.com/articles/eating-right-to-lose-weight-3

Guay, M. (2011, May 2). Local dietician explains FDA’s new dietary guidelines. PostStar.com.

http://poststar.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/article_62ab2be0-74c6-11e0-9b1f-001cc4c03286.html

Molnar, L. (2011, May 16). Why skipping breakfast makes you fat. DailyGossip.

http://www.dailygossip.org/why-skipping-breakfast-makes-you-fat-1019

Let your body rest

Never ever stay awake just to get your work done. Hence, it is important to manage our time properly to avoid sleeping deprivation. Adequate sleeping is vital to everyone as we need to rest our body to allow penetration of the nutrition we’ve obtained from our meals and workout in order to obtain the result (Cogswell, 2011). Below are the explanations of how many hours of sleep we should have and the reason why we should sleep adequately.

“How many hours of sleep we should have”

It is important to have sufficient amount of sleeping hours but sleeping more doesn’t mean it is good as it is associated with health problems such as weight gain (Morgenthaler, n.d.). Different age group has different required amount of sleeping hours. Table 1 shows the recommended amount of sleeping hours according to different age group:

Age group	Amount of sleeping hours (hours)
Infants	14 – 15
Toodlers	12 – 14
School-age children	10 – 11
Adults	7 - 9

Table 1: Recommended amount of sleeping hours according to different age group (Morgenthaler, n.d.).

Apart from age, there are few factors that requires you to sleep more such as pregnancy, aging and lack of sleep due to sleeping disturbance (Morgenthaler, n.d.). I usually sleep longer when I am sick to boost up the recovery process. Plus, it is advisable to rest when we are sick and hence, we can’t study too as study requires our brain to work.

“Why should we sleep adequately? What is the consequences?”

We need to sleep adequately as our body need energy to work the next day and to avoid health problem (Mukerjee, 2011). When we sleep, our immune system produces proteins called cytokines (Morgenthaler, n.d.). According to Morgenthaler (n.d) in regard with cytokines, “These substances increase in the presence of an infection, inflammation and stress. Increased cytokines are necessary in fighting infection and regulating deeper sleep. In addition, other infection-fighting cells are reduced during periods of sleep deprivation”.  Hence, if we do not have sufficient amount of sleeping hours, the chances of getting sick is higher as sleeping deprivation cause hormone imbalance.

Apart from that, people who are having sleeping deprivation respond poorly as they are unable to grasp new knowledge or tasks into their brain due to lack of focus ability (Tarkan, 2011). Therefore, it is advisable to have enough sleep in order to be able to focus on the knowledge or tasks that will be given each day.

There is another thing that you should know, if you do not get enough sleep, you will gain more as sleep and weight has inverse relation (Mukerjee, 2011). Meaning to say, if you have sufficient amount of sleeping hour, the risk of your weight will gain is low. However, sleeping more than recommended sleeping hours doesn’t mean it is good as this will cause your weight to gain as well.

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References:

Cogswell, V. (2011). Why sleep matter: How to get restful sleep to reach your nutrition and

fitness goals faster. Retrieved from http://braintree.patch.com/articles/why-sleep-matters

Morgenthaler, T. (n.d.). Lack of sleep: Can it make you sick?. Retrieved from

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/lack-of-sleep/AN02065

Morgenthaler, T. (n.d.). How many hours of sleep are enough?. Retrieved from

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/how-many-hours-of-sleep-are-enough/AN01487

Mukerjee, A. (2011, April 14). Lose sleep and you gain weight. Hindustan Times. Retrieved from

http://www.hindustantimes.com/

Tarkan, L. (2011, April 15). Is cutting back on sleep a form of torture? BNET. Retrieved from

http://www.bnet.com/

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Keep yourself hydrated

Never ever keep yourself dehydrated because no matter how hard you’ve worked to reach your goal such as to clear up the zits on your face, to slim down or want to make your hair grow longer and healthier, if you’re unable to keep yourself hydrated, none of the methods will work effectively. Drinking sufficient amount of plain water is the golden rule of keeping yourself healthy.

“Why should I drink water?'”

Our body weight contain 60-70% of water and our body need water to function properly such as it help with metabolism, burn calories and other part of body. Our body unable to function properly if we’re lack of water as it will cause fat deposits, bloating, constipation and etc (Chuey 2011). According to Wan (2011), “It’s the best natural source for instant hydration. The skin rehydrates to flush out unwanted toxins in your body and keeps your skin’s moisture balance intact especially when you’re out in the sun or in an air-conditioned room”. I keep myself hydrated the whole day and I’ve noticed my skin problem recovering right now and I feel healthier as well. Therefore, it is important to keep yourself hydrated the whole day by drinking plain water.

“How much water should I consume daily?”

Our body fluid will loss through breathing, sweating and body. Therefore, it is recommended to drink at least 8 cups/ 2 litre of plain water daily (Chuey 2011). It is also recommended that to drink water based on our calories intake as everyone intake are varies (Greenleigh 2011). Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. It is better to keep yourself hydrated whole day. As for myself, apart from drinking 2 litre of plain water daily, I also drink plain water before and after meals around 2 – 3 cups, 12 oz of plain water after workout, 10oz of plain water after consuming caffeine and few cups of plain water after taking salty and sweet foods to replenish and to flush out the unwanted toxin in my body. Remember, drinks such as soda, sweet, caffeinated not alcohol beverages doesn’t count in the recommended 8 cups of fluids we should take daily.

“How to know if I am shortage of fluids in my body?”

Some would answer this: ‘When you’re thirsty meaning you’re lack of water at that moment’. Our brain take time to know when we’re thirsty and by the time we feel thirsty, maybe we’re already thirsty 30 minutes or more before our brain to recognise it. To know whether our body has enough fluids, we can tell it by the colour of our urine. When we produce lesser than 6 - 6 1/2 cups of urine and the colour of urine is a strong yellow, meaning our body is lack of water (Nelson 2011).

“How to know if I have enough water in my body?”

Firstly, you won’t feel too thirsty the whole day as you keep yourself hydrated. Secondly, you produce approximately 6 – 6 1/2 cups of urine with slightly yellow urine (Nelson 2011). Some people claim our urine should be clear which indicated we have enough fluid in our body but actually its wrong. The colour of our urine should be slightly yellow colour and not clear.

“The taste of plain water is boring. I don’t like it!”

Drinking plain water only can be boring sometime. If you’re the type of person who is hard to drink plain water, try to put a few drops of lemon or lime juice into plain water to give a little bit of taste. There are few recipe to make your drink interesting which you can obtain it here: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-13/health/29413402_1_black-tea-water-cucumber

“What is your advice?”

Make sure you fill up 2 litre of plain water in your water bottle and make sure you manage to finish it. These 2 litre of plain water doesn’t count as the water that you need to bring to the gym or workout at home. Fill up another water bottle approximately 1 litre for you to bring to the gym or do workout at home. However, the amount of water that you need to drink is depending on the intensity of your workout. Don’t forget to bring a bottle of plain water with you around to keep yourself hydrated. You will notice the different once you give your body enough fluids.

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References:

Chuey, P. (2011, April 11). Water has vital role. The Vancouver Sun.

http://www.vancouversun.com/

Greenleigh, A. (2011, April 2011). How much water should you be drinking? The Salt Lake Tribune.

http://www.sltrib.com/

Nelson, J. (2011, April 13). Eat, drink, pee: Basic life functions we screw up. MSNBC.COM.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/

Wan, S. (2011, April 15). Top 10 Face Food. MSN Life & Style. http://lifestyle.malaysia.msn.com/

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