Balanced Eats: A Few Tips from an Average Girl

"You are so healthy". "You eat so well". "You are so thin". 

You obviously don't know me as well as you thought. I am a junkie for junk food. I will throw down a quarter pounder with cheese like it's my job. I will house some Taco Bell at 3 am with the best of 'em. I heart the Golden Arches. What I don't do is make this a habit or a part of my lifestyle.

Here are a few things that I do to stay healthy and happy. Obviously, these are things that work for me and each individual is different but these are easy and adaptable. If you have a health problem, use your head and contact your Doc before ever taking advice from this blog or any other blog. 

Let's get started. These small changes can be implemented in increments leading to a fairly easy, fresh, flavorful lifestyle. And if you know my beau, you know that I love food, wine and flavor!

• Incorporate fruits and vegetables where ever you can. Add sliced fruit to your cereal, add an extra scoop of pico and lettuce to your taco. Make fruit your snack. Have a salad before dinner.
• For crying out loud...Don't give up carbs! It's ludicrous. It's like driving a car without wheels. You need them. Make smarter carb choices and you will feel better and look better. And FYI, Robert Atkins, the dim-whit came up with that diet concept, is DEAD. Take note.
• Eat very limited amounts of white sugar and white flour. Read the labels. It's in everything. Substitute honey or raw sugar for refined sugar and get whole wheat flour or oat flour or some other flour that suits your tastes. Google "types of flour" and you will be floored at the number of substitutions that you can make.
• Cook from scratch to avoid modified and altered ingredients such as modified corn starch, high fructose corn syrup, monosodium glutamate (MSG), partially hydrogenated oils; the list goes on. If you don't know how to cook, now's the time to learn. Read the label and try to duplicate it as best you can.
• Drink water. It sounds basic, but it's major. It will make a serious change in your life. Your eyes will be whiter, your skin will be clearer and younger looking and it will fend off bad breath. Take your body weight, divide it in half. Drink that many ounces of water a day.
• Walk more. Find ways to add 20-60 minutes of walking to your day. Walk to get your coffee, take the second half of your lunch hour and walk around outside. The fresh air is good for you. I lost 20 lbs. four years ago by making these small changes and walking an hour a day. Make time.

Love your body and cheers to a healthier, happier you.

With sugar,
Cyn