What Is A Healthy Diet?
Alan LeStourgeon

What is a healthy diet? It’s not about counting calories,
measuring portions or cutting carbs. You won’t really find a
healthy diet on the lite menu at your favorite restaurant and
you certainly won’t find it at the local fast food joint. A
healthy diet is all about what you eat rather than how much you
eat.

If you think the latest fad diet is your panacea to health, you
are in for a big surprise. Losing weight, staying healthy and
getting back into shape after many years of diet neglect is not
about fads or eating in some radical new way for six to twelve
weeks and then going back to the way you used to eat.

The best thing you can do to keep yourself healthy is to eat a
healthy diet…all the time, not just when you want to lose
weight. Eating healthy is a long-term lifestyle choice,
something you need to do for your entire lifetime.

But what is a healthy diet? Is it what we have been lead to
believe – milk for strong bones and teeth, protein in the form
of lean beef or chicken and maybe a “healthy” microwave dinner
if we are “on the go.” Unfortunately this diet is what is
identified as the Standard American Diet or the SAD.

And what’s so wrong with the SAD?

Well, has it made us a healthier people? Are we better off as a
nation because of it?

With all of the health studies, advanced health care, the war on
cancer dating back to the 70’s, and the most advanced technology
available on the planet we have to ask ourselves why do we still
need to spend $1.3 trillion a year on health care in the United
States. Why aren’t we getting any healthier?

Other pertinent questions about your health beg for answers such
as, why after more than 30 years since the “War On Cancer” was
declared, do we still have an increasing cancer rate. Yes, we
have many more people surviving cancer but the rate at which
people are getting cancer is increasing. We have come a long way
in taking care of sick people, but we haven’t made any progress
as a nation in preventing those people from getting sick.

Why do more than 15 million people in the United States have
diabetes? Why do we still have more heart problems today than we
did 30 years ago? Why is more than 50% of our population on some
kind of prescription drug?

We spend more per person on medical care than any other nation
in the world. Why is this happening in a country that seems to
be able to solve nearly any technological problem? Why can’t we
solve our medical problems? How would life be different for us
if we were to be a nation of healthy individuals?

The secret to a healthy diet and a healthy life is living food –
fresh vegetables, fruit, juices and green leafy salads. The
answer to a healthier you is summed up in three words,
breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Living a healthy life and having a healthy family is all about
eating a healthy diet, every day of our lives!

About the author:

Alan LeStourgeon along with his wife Jean run the web site www.ezHealthyDiet.com
where they explore what it means to eat a healthy diet, have a
healthy
home and live a healthier life.

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When you looked in the mirror this morning did you groan with the protruding love handles? Were you blown away by the thunder thighs and balloon butt looking like it was out of air? Did the commode seat creak and shift around when you set down? If you answered yes to any of the above, perhaps you should read on about the weight loss zone diet.

Does the weight loss zone diet really work, or is it just another fad diet?

Without doubt, the zone diet is one of the most famous diets in the world, largely due to the celebrities who have vocally taken part in this diet. Cindy Crawford, Jennifer Aniston, Renee Zellweger, Charlie Sheen and Tiger Woods are just a few celebrities who have reportedly tried the zone diet.

What is noteworthy is that none of these celebrities were actually overweight! That proves that the zone diet is not solely about weight loss, but also about a healthy lifestyle.

So how does the zone diet work exactly? The main principle of the zone diet is that it states an intake of 40%/30%/30% ratios of carbohydrates, protein and fat. This translates into a low carbohydrate diet.

These type of diets, 40%/30%/30% have become somewhat dangerously fashionable in some circles. The weight loss zone diet however is not as restrictive or strict as many other more hardcore low carb (or carb free) diets. The Atkins diet is one example of a diet that is more restrictive than the zone diet

For all its success stories, the American Heart Foundation still does not approve of the zone diet. This is due to its high protein content and lack of essential nutrients which are vital to the human body. They are also concerned about the lack of information and research about long term effects of undertaking the zone diet for long periods of time or permanently.

Many nutritional experts are also skeptical of the zone diet due to lack of scientific research or fact backing up the claims.

Although the zone diet is a high protein diet, the developer of the diet later released a Soy Zone diet. This made the diet plan more suited to vegetarians, who were put off the regular zone diet by its high meat content. The Soy Protein diet simply uses a soy protein base for its meals rather than meat.

It is a common statistic that people who undertake fad diets gain their weight back again a short time later. Why is this so? Well the reason behind this fact is diets like the zone diet are simply unsustainable over long periods of time.

Your body can not live without the carbohydrates that are being taken away from it during the zone diet. Your body will continue to crave carbs until you finally give in. And when you give in, because your body is not used to all these high calorie carbohydrates, they cause you to put on more weight than before you began the diet!

The weight loss zone diet appears to work well for certain people. Its just a matter of striking a balance between following the diet to a T or deviating from it a little to include some more of the essential nutrients to keep your body healthy.

As with all diets you should contact your personal physician to determine if the diet could be detrimental to your health.

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There are so many ways to loose weight you might get a little confused and not know where to start. The first thing you should remember is to not get all caught up in the hype of the latest fad diet out there. While you may actually lose some weight with these diets, they are not the types of diets that you can sustain for any length of time and when you stop the likelihood you will put all the weight back on is strong.

The truth is there is no magic potion or pill that will do all the work for you. You have to be an active participant. And I do mean active. You can’t lose weight sitting on your backside in front of the TV and eating anything you want. To effectively lose the weight you want to lose you need to change things up and get regular exercise and eat healthier.

Start by making small changes first. Do not try to do it all at once. If you make small changes then you will not get too overwhelmed and the weight loss will be more effective in the long run. Be smart with the ways to loose weight.

One of the ways to lose weight is to wake up your metabolism. If you have tried to lose weight in the past and you were largely unsuccessful then you probably did not have your metabolism working for you. Wake it up by eating five or six small meals a day. By small, I mean 300 calories or under. Eat lots of lean protein and greens. Stay away from processed carbs and bread for at least the first two weeks then add them back in sparingly. Your waistline will thank you.

In the beginning of your weight loss, anything made with white flour and white sugar are your enemies. You will need to steer clear of anything made with these products. If you make it through the week then you can give yourself a little treat to reward yourself for being good. Just do not over do it. No sense in undoing the great week you just had.

Products made with the white products are referred to as simple carbs and are immediately converted to simple sugars in your body. The weight you have gained happened because of these simple sugars. If you do not burn these sugars off and use them as energy as soon as they are available then your insulin will convert them to fat and place them right around your middle. This is why you have the belly fat that you do.

Here is the old standby, drink a lot of water throughout your day. This will help cleanse your body of toxins and keep you hydrated. Just like with food the more you drink the better your body will work and the more weight you will lose. Try these ways to loose weight and see if they can work for you, too.

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There are a lot of juice recipes for weiight loss available today. It’s mostly just a matter of finding one that you find easy to make and you like the taste of it. This is a tried and true method for weight loss and if you go about it in the right way, you can have success too.

It’s really easy, when you are desperate to lose weight, to get caught up in one fad diet after another. Some of these fad diets may actually help you lose some weight, but you do have to ask yourself two very important questions before you decide to give it a try:

1. Is the weight loss solely the result of water weight loss? If so, you will most likely just gain back any weight you lose. What you really want to do is find diets that will help you lose unwanted body fat and not just lose pounds of water weight.

2. Is the diet something that you can reasonably expect to stay on for a lifetime? Now, this can be a little tricky because sometimes a short term diet can still be a good thing if you use it as a springboard to healthier habits and don’t expect it to be the answer to your weight loss prayers.

Juice recipes for weiight loss can actually be good for you for your lifetime. Alone, it won’t be enough to lose hundreds of pounds, for most people, but it can be a great addition to a healthy eating plan and a strong workout regimen.

Combining the benefits of a juicing diet with these other two components can really help you achieve all your weight loss goals.

Here is just one of many juice diet recipes. If you are really interested you can find many other recipes. To get the most out of your diet you may want to consider investing in a juicer so you can get the freshest juice possible:

This recipe makes 4 servings:

1 cup strawberries, sliced
1 1/2 orange juice
1 whole mango, peeled and cut
2 kiwi peeled and cut
1 to tablespoons of honey
1/2 seltzer

Mix the ingredients together (except the seltzer) on puree until smooth. Pour into a glass and stir in seltzer. Serve over ice if desired.

There are a few “tools” that will make this a little easier to accomplish. Of course one of the most important things is a good quality blender.

Next, having a juicer so you can have fresh juice to use in all your recipes would be nice. And don’t just get stuck on the idea of fruit juices, vegetable juice can work great too and it will also give you that much more variety.

This is just one of many recipes you can find, or create, that will help your weight loss goals along. Since many people don’t get enough fresh fruits and vegetables in their daily diet, this is an excellent way to introduce more healthy foods into your diet on a daily basis.

Look online, in your local library or book store, or even get creative and come up with your own recipes. There are almost unlimited options when looking for juice recipes for weiight loss. You can lose weight, eat more healthy and never get bored, how neat is that?

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