Eating Healthy
It is getting to be summertime and that means it is time to put
away the sweaters and heavy pants and bring out the lighter weight
and more revealing clothes of summer. My husband and I decided to
take our summer clothes out of storage and to bag up the winter
clothes. We both found that we had put on weight over the winter. We
have started walking as the weather is improving, but we have been
eating many of our meals in restaurants lately. We decided we needed
to start eating healthy or we would be buying all new clothes for
the summer months.
My husband and I both enjoy all types of foods so eating healthy
is not an issue, we had just gotten out of the habit of making good
choices. It seems during the winter months we spend more time doing
activities that involve eating. One advantage of eating healthy as
summer approaches is the wide variety of choices of fresh fruits and
vegetables. We also tend to grill more in the warmer weather.
Grilled meats, poultry and fish are much more flavorful and lower in
fat. We found that we were both able to start losing weight by
eating healthy salad greens with low fat vinaigrette dressing and a
serving portion of grilled protein. For us the key to eating healthy
is to have a variety of foods. It is so easy to get stuck in a
pattern of preparing the same menus over and over again. I have been
purchasing different fruits and vegetables than we ordinarily eat.
This is a way of discovering new foods while adding variety to your
meals. Most produce departments have serving suggestions and recipes
for the exotic fruits and vegetables.
One protein choice that we enjoy is mushrooms. The use of
mushrooms adds so many flavors to a meal that you do not miss the
higher calorie meat protein. On days when we do eat in restaurants
we have found that eating healthy is still possible. Most
restaurants offer healthy choices on their menus. Many restaurants
are now placing the nutritional content of the food on the menus.
This is good because some choices may seem like you are eating
healthy, but the way the food is prepared or sauces that are added
may add a great deal of fat and calories. I will ask that sauces and
dressings be served on the side so I can control how many calories I
am adding to my meal.
Eating healthy is not only a choice; it is a way of life. By
making healthier choices in what we eat it seems like a healthy
activity level just follows along. The combination of eating healthy
and exercising is a sure way of losing weight.
