Living Healthy is a Breeze

Eat as soon as you get up in the morning. Everybody knows this, but when you are in a hurry it can be tough. I can't tell you how many friends I have that get to about 11 o'clock in the morning and say "I'm starving!". This is the worst condition you could be in at that time of day. You have just lost the best opportunity you have all day to jack up your metabolism and burn more calories.

Eating a healthy breakfast is like cheating and most people don't do it! And the other thing about eating breakfast is you can "get away with" eating your worst meal of the day in the morning so you don't even have be too concerned about breaking your diet or adhering to your specific list of foods. Just get your metabolism going and the rest of the day your body will be burning calories at a higher level.

Get a blender and use it every day! This is my favorite tip about eating. There are so many benefits to having a blender.

This could almost be a lens on it's own. I will do another lens on all the variations of fruits, supplements and organic combinations you can make with a blender depending on what you are trying to accomplish. You can blend things that are really good for you, but, don't necessarily taste great on their own. By far the best thing I eat every day that I could not eat on it's own is Amazing Grass. Go here to get some for your kitchen



They have lots of different products, but this is my favorite. I throw some fruit, honey, organic peanut butter and rice milk into a blender, add some ice and in about 5 minutes my metabolism is set up for the day and my immune system is in high gear.

My kids use the blender to make smoothies for snacks (with no encouragement from me-on their own!). These smoothies are MUCH better than the store bought ones which are full of sugar.

Owning a blender is the most efficient and easiest way to eat healthy and you can buy a good one for $20.

Eating a healthy breakfast, a healthy lunch and a healthy dinner every day is not going to hurt you, don't get me wrong. It's just that if you eat a healthy meal 5 times a day you'll be better off. I'm not sure where we got the habit of eating three meals a day, but, it makes losing weight and being healthy a lot harder. Not everyone agrees on this, but I have experimented with both and I must say it's pretty clear to me which approach works better, and here's why; The main reasons to eat smaller meals more frequently are portion/calorie control and metabolism. As I said, get right out of the gate with a healthy breakfast first thing and have a healthy dinner at night. But instead of one healthy lunch, break the day up into around 10 a.m., around 1p.m. and around 3p.m. You'll eat less per sitting, you'll digest your food better and your metabolism will be operating at a more consistent and efficient level, thereby burning calories you would not otherwise burn. I am sure there is a more scientific explanation, but just try it for a month and surprise me with an e-mail if it doesn't help a lot. I am not a licensed nutritionist but this guy is and his book is great:

Go try Mike Geary's Fat Burning Kitchen Book here:

I talk to a lot of people that are struggling trying to find the best way to lose weight. They spend time and money looking for the next best weight loss system, but never think to master some of these seemingly simple and obvious habits that cost nothing. One of the simplest and easiest ways to lose weight is simply chewing your food. I don't mean like mom used to tell us. I mean literally taking the time to chew EVERY BITE 20 TO 30 TIMES before swallowing.

This is kind of like exercise in that it takes time for this to become a habit. We run around in a rush and everything is hurried so how do we stop/pause to chew? Well, I don't know, but, you really need to figure out how because this is the first step in the digestion process. The concept is so sound. You chew until your food literally dissolves in your mouth, you eat more slowly which helps digestion and absorption of nutrients, you eat less because you get full more quickly and you actually get to taste and enjoy what you are eating.

When you chew thoroughly you take full advantage of your mouth and saliva to begin digestion. Without this, when you swallow big chunks of food, you over tax your deeper digestive systems-your stomach and internal organs, which can cause all kinds of bigger problems such as acid reflux, blockages and the like. When you don't chew, your body does not fully benefit from the nutrients in your food and the best part of your diet is completely wasted. Those nutrients are not digested into your bloodstream and your immune system is jeopardized.

Now I'm not charging you, so making you a guarantee is somewhat risk free on my part, but I GUARANTEE that if you just do this and nothing else you will not only lose weight but you will have fewer issues related to digestion and since you are actually absorbing the nutrients in your food, you will be healthier. Try this one for a month too. You'll be licking yourself that you hadn't thought of it sooner

This one is another huge reason why most people don't stick with their weight loss plans or their fitness memberships. Diets that work take time. The best fitness plans don't even begin to show results for at least a month. Period, end of story. Assuming you are starting a new routine or modifying your eating habits significantly, you need to make sure your expectations are realistic. Don't look in a mirror or step on a scale for at least a month from when you start. If you really can't do without a mirror, then take a picture of yourself in your bodysuit before you start, then look at it while looking in the mirror a month later.

Don't step on a scale for a month because even if you lose weight soon, it will just be water weight and it will return before you start to lose real pounds. This kind of self-imposed discouragement shuts down progress for most people. Stay off the scale-the longer the better.

So many people get discouraged early on because their expectations are unrealistic. We all expect results immediately and that is simply not the way this fitness workout thing works. The upside is that when you finally turn this stuff into a lifestyle, after about a month it's not work anymore. It no longer becomes a challenge, it is now a normal part of your daily routine. The next thing you know, if you skip a day you'll have withdrawals.

This is also a pretty well known concept, but the application of it is often misunderstood. A lot of people "binge drink" water. They get thirsty and guzzle water. If you are thirsty then you are already dehydrated. Most people are also not very well informed about the different types and quality levels of water. If you don't filter water before you drink it you are short changing yourself. This is also another lens all on it's own and I will put together a comprehensive lens on just water soon too.

It's a great idea to carry a glass/bottle of water with you all day and sip from it constantly. Eight glasses of water a day is like the three meals a day logic. It was a decent foundation that;s time has come and gone. Everyone is a different size, has a different activity level, a different metabolism and lives in different climates. Clearly the amount of water you need to drink every day is circumstantial. It is, however, one of the best healthy tips out there.

No other liquid is a substitute for water. Not sports drinks, not juice, nothing. The benefits of being hydrated are enormous and most people are not properly hydrated most of the time. It is another lifestyle modification that will improve your health and vitality and it is frighteningly simple.

Yet another area of mixed opinions in the health and fitness world. Now I'm not saying that some people can't get away with eating late. If you are working out regularly, eating the right foods and sleeping well, then it truly does become calories in and calories out. Not so much when you eat. But how many of us are actually knocking the cover off the ball in all those other areas?

The last bit of advice here involves the late night snack. Don't do it. Eat your last meal of the day at least 3 hours before you go to sleep. The rationale here is that your body does not process food as efficiently while you sleep as it does while you are awake. Again, there are schools of thought that suggest you can eat certain things before you go to sleep if you do certain other things during the day, etc...

That may be true, but in the spirit of simplicity why complicate things or have to modify additional behavior when you can simply eat dinner at a reasonable hour and be done with it?

Try this. Tonight let's say you are going to bed at 10 p.m. Finish eating at 6:30 and don't eat again before you get to bed. If you are used to eating late you will be hungry when you go to bed. That's good! See how you feel in the morning. Chances are you will feel lighter and leaner. In one night! And let's face it, how we "feel" is as encouraging as how we look.