Body for Life

For about the last week I was reading sections of "Eating for Life". There was lots of good information in this book. From the beginning of the book to page 77 Bill (the author of Eating for Life and Body for life) it is an actual book and talks about how we can become more healthy and eat better. From page 80 to 338 there are 150 healthy recipes on what to make for meals. One of the chapters I found to be most helpful was chapter six. In this chapter Bill talks about the "Right Recipe". The four main ingredients that make up this recipe are: Right Foods, Right Amounts, Tight Combos, Right Times. For this post I will talk about the Right Foods.


As far as eating the right foods goes, most of us probably can guess what some of these foods are. These would be high quality, essential nutrient. One way you can figure out whether or not a food is high quality is comparing the nutrients to the amount of calories. There are six essential nutrients. These nutrients are: protein, Carbohydrates, essential fats, vitamins, minerals, and water.

Proteins are very important because they contain all nine essential amino acids like: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. These are so very important to get by eating your proteins because your body can't produce them by itself. Proteins are also the building blocks of muscle. As you are deciding on what to eat for dinner, remember to choose a variety of proteins each day. For example, you might want to try chicken, lobster, cottage cheese, lean beef, turkey, eggs, or fish. Variety is what keeps proteins good for you.

Carbohydrates, even though we are sometimes made to believe they are bad for us, are our main, and immediate, source of energy. Some carbs are bad for you but all are. Carbohydrates that come from good nourishing foods such as brown rice, oatmeal, potatoes, yams, pasta, barley, apples, berries, oranges, whole-grain breads, and pitas. As long as you get a good variety of healthy carbs, you will feel better and will be getting your needed source of energy.

You might think it sounds crazy to have essential fats. When I was reading Eating for Life I was confused on what this meant. Essential Fats are nourishing fats found in fish oils , healthy vegetable oils, and dark-green leafy vegetables. There have been studies done and it has been shown that 95% of all Americans are malnutrition in getting enough essential fats. This obviously shows that essential fats are not fats you would find in your candy bar.

Vitamins and minerals help regulate everything from your muscles to your mind. Vitamins are organic and are produced naturally in plants and animals. You literally can't live without them. Minerals, however, are inorganic and are not produced by plants or animals. They can be found in other sources though. Some of these sources would be calcium in milk, iron in red meat, and potassium in bananas.

Finally, did you know that 70% of the earth is made up of water, and well over 70% of water makes up your body. Water helps produce energy, detoxify our bodies, regulate body temperature, build new cells, and lubricate joints, along with thousands of other functions. We are always losing water(about 10 cups a day!) That is why we must replenish our thirst and drink water whenever we are thirsty or eating. If we don't get enough water our body can suffer quite a bit, until we get up to losses of seven percent which can be fatal! It's a scary thought so let's not even go there and just stay healthy.

If you don't get enough of each of these six basic nutrients you wont feel or look well. You also might get sick. Some of the common signs and symptoms you will see if you aren't getting the essential nutrients would be low energy, depression, insomnia, aches and pains, and constant cravings for "something". We need to be careful what we eat. It can really make all the difference.

Finding opportunities

I was thinking about how there are lots of other people that are willing to help us meet our goals. A good way for us to make our goals known is by sharing them openly with other people. In January I went to one of the programs set up by the church I attend. It introduces girls to the new year and helps them decide on goals they want to make and accomplish for the new year. This was the perfect opportunity for me to tell people what I was doing. I told one of the leaders that was helping run the activity that I wanted to have some space on a table for me to present this project I was working on. She said that would be great.

I then had to prepare my presentation. I had recently baked two delicious but healthy recipes. I made a separate collage of pictures and facts for each of the recipes. I then got out some of the ingredients that I used in a healthy salad dressing to display in my presentation. I also set up some things representing the exercises I had been doing.

At this activity there were other people who had also been working on goals and they set up something to share as well. Going to this program was great for me because I was able to share my project with those who were interested. Activities like this one are a great way to share your projects and goals with one another. It also gives you a chance to consider what your projects and goals are really about and what you are doing to accomplish them.

Did you know that every year the average American consumes 150 to 170 pounds of sugar. That is an amount so large I think it is disgusting! Imagine 30 to 34 five-pound bags of sugar lined up next to each other. That would be the amount of sugar you probably eat every year! Yesterday I decided it was time to get rid of some of my own candy. Things that I guessed I wouldn't want to eat anymore I threw away. When we eat candy and sugared sweets we are packing on extra empty calories. These calories have no nutrients and therefore are useless. A treat every once in a while is all right but, I decided it wasn't smart to have all of this useless sugar on hand. Self control is the key when it comes to sweets. For now on I am trying to limit myself to one or two treats a day. This can be really hard when we are at Grandma's house and she has just barely made fresh chocolate-chip cookies. However, I have heard that the longer you successfully restrain yourself from all of those goodies things get easier.

Good Luck!

For the last little while I got really busy with school, and it got me thinking. How we can afford to spend time to exercising when we have so many more things to do ? I came up with a sort of schedule for me to follow concerning my time spent exercising. Every day we are supposed to get at least one hour of exercise a day. I don't know about you, but right now my schedule is telling me no way is that going to happen. Some of you may be getting an hour of exercise a day. That is wonderful! For those of us that aren't though, there are some ways we can increase our daily amount of activity little by little. I decided to start our with 15 to 20 minutes a day.

Even though 15 minutes may not seem like it would do much it can be beneficial to your body. If the exercise you choose gets your heart rate up quickly, and you maintain that level for at least 15 minutes per workout you will exercise your heart. Your heart is a muscle. When you get your heart rate up you give your heart a work out. When you heart is exercised the rest of your body also benefits from that exercise.

Over the past couple of months I've noticed that in the mornings we (especially girls) tend to spend more time on getting ready than is necessary. We focus on getting every minute detail perfect. The truth is that throughout the day our hair and makeup (hopefully not for guys) slowly comes undone and wears off. Frankly, no one really notices the small imperfections in our daily complexion anyway. They are too worried about how they look. So if we can do a good enough job in the mornings we can get 15 extra minutes in for whatever we want. Before you take a shower try exercising for 15 minutes. I guarantee it will make a difference.

If you normally take a shower at night instead of in the morning you could either try switching up your schedule a bit. (Who knows, you might like a change!) Or you could exercise before you shower at night. It would be healthier for your sleeping habits if you were to wake up earlier and shower if you went to bed earlier. That will only be healthier if you go to bed earlier. Either way you get 15 minutes of exercise in. You just have to experiment and find what is best for you personally.

I am going to try to follow the new exercising schedule I have made for myself. I hope you can do likewise. The habits we make and follow now will stay with us for the rest of our lives. If we live healthy now it will be easier to do the same later. The chances of getting certain diseases and sicknesses will also be lowered. As I mentioned earlier in one of my posts there are always other ways you can sneak in more exercising time. For example, try walking to and from school or work instead of driving, carry in groceries from the car, and take the stairs instead of the elevator. I can guarantee that if you try to exercise more you will look and feel better.