The temptation at the beginning of every year is to try and change all of your habits at once. That’s a recipe for failure. Take it easy, make just a few healthy changes, like drinking more water and getting up and moving at least 10 minutes a day. Even 10 minutes can seem like a long time when you haven’t been doing anything. That’s the first step, and every step adds up.
TODAY: CUT BACK ON HOW MUCH YOU EAT AND GET MOVING.
Okay, here’s a question you probably haven’t been asked lately. What color is your pee? The reason I ask is that it’s the best indicator of how much water you need to drink. If you have light yellow pee you are drinking enough water. The darker the color of yellow, the more water you need. That’s a caution indicator as well.
So why is it yellow? Your kidneys do a couple of things that show up in your pee. They keep the salt content of the blood constant, and they filter waste out of your blood. So pee is water, salt, ammonia cell waste converted by the liver to urea and pigments from bilirubin, the waste from blood, is degraded to urobilins. Salt, water, and urea are all colorless, but urobilins are yellow. If you get dehydrated, your urine will contain less water and be darker yellow.
Now you know why I nag about drinking your water. If the stuff is concentrated it’s hard on your kidneys and bad for you.
TODAY: SEE HOW LIGHT YELLOW YOU CAN MAKE YOUR PEE.
In the United States, clean water is readily available yet people insist on carrying bottles with them everywhere. The trend to drinking bottled water is just a few years old. I remember when I first heard of Perrier. Then I tasted it and wondered what all the fuss was about. Others decided that they didn’t need fizzy bad tasting water in a bottle, but maybe nice clean spring water would be good. And so it came to be. We started paying the same for plain water as we used to pay for a soda, or even a beer! It’s nuts. It also contributes to massive ecological damage in the form of tons of waste.
When I was a kid I remember getting thirsty when out and about with friends, (Yes actually outside playing, talking directly to them without text messages or online chat.) we’d head to a hose on the side of the house and get a cold swig (when was the last time you heard that word) of water. Amazingly, we actually thrived on it.
Dad always kept a water bottle in the refrigerator. Mom always told him to pour it in a glass before drinking. It never happened.
So in our quest for eight glasses a day, there is no need to spend big bucks on bottles. Just turn on a tap. If you want to use a filtered container that’s great too. Of course they’re too hard to drink out of, so you’ll have to use a glass.
TODAY: DRINK TAP WATER.
As we add fruits and veggies to our diet to meet the five (or more) a day goal, let’s look at lunch.
- Salad bar? Stack on the dark green leaves and other vegetables instead of so many of the extras like eggs, bacon and cheese.(keep the dressing ON THE SIDE)
- Add frozen veggies to any pasta. (Even the canned stuff.) You get more good stuff and more flavor too.
- Skip the fries and add a vegetable. Most all restaurants will do that. (Even the fast food places offer a value size salad.)
- SMACK! Have a V8!
- Have fresh fruit for desert.
TODAY: LOOK FOR WAYS TO ADD MORE FRUITS AND VEGGIES TO YOUR LUNCH.
Eat your vegetables! I’ve never had to be told more than once. I’ve always like veggies, but I couldn’t be a vegetarian. (Have you ever seen an overweight vegetarian?) Three servings used to be the norm. Now the USDA says eat five. That’s a good thing. Though you may think it’s a lot, it’s easy to do. I’ll give you some suggestions over the next few days.
Let’s start with breakfast.
- Add fruit to your cereal, oatmeal, waffles or pancakes.
- Punch up you eggs with fresh sliced veggies or some frozen spinach.
- Top whole grain toast with raisins and cinnamon.
- Create your own yogurt flavors with plain yogurt and different of fresh fruit.
- Wrap a banana in a whole wheat flour tortilla with some peanut butter for a quick grab and go meal.
- Don’t forget the juice!
Lunch tomorrow.
TODAY: START ADDING MORE FRUIT AND VEGGIES TO YOU DIET.
I’ve mentioned having two $1 double cheeseburgers and a $1 side salad from McDonald’s as a quick low cost, low carb meal. It’s quite a value, they add lettuce instead of buns and put them in a container. Years ago when the Atkins diet was first on the scene I ordered the burgers without a bun and they actually did them with all the condiments and wrapped them in paper like a regular burger.
The other day I tried Burger King to see what the same money would buy. They have Whopper Juniors for $1 but no inexpensive salad. But since the Whopper comes with lettuce and tomato I decided to order three without the buns. Well instead of the 4 patties at McDonald’s I only had three. Though they put all the salad stuff in a container it was a bit smaller in total size.
Though the char grilled flavor of the meat was a nice change, but the $3 meal at Burger King was far less filling. Because we sometimes need a quick meal on the go, the challenge will continue to other fast food establishments.
TODAY: TRY A DIFFERENT LOW COST, LOW CARB, LO CALORIE MEAL PLACE.
You always hear the advice to eat more fiber. I’ve touted Fiber One cereal as a great snack. Fiber is added to things like bread, cereal and other whole grain foods, which actually have fiber naturally. (Hence the WHOLE grain name.) You can also get more fiber by leaving the skin on fruit, eating the potato peel and by taking diet supplements. But what does it do? Well, to be frank, it cleans you out. When you digest food, some of it gets stuck or lingers in your colon. As a result you have some nasty things going on in there. Fiber acts like a magnet or a broom and takes away the… crap… that doesn’t want to move out. The fiber also absorbs water that can moisten things up and break up hard stuff. (okay… crap) So eat more fiber. It will both fill you up and empty you out.
TODAY: ADD SOME FIBER TO YOUR DAILY DIET.
Daily Nag, Exercise, Food Choices | Diet Nag | 
January 3, 2019 6:32 am | 
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