food for thought... and your stomach.

Okay, so as promised, here is the first of hopefully many tips to help you get that perfect body for prom night.  So what is the deal with food that is considered "healthy" or not? Courtesy of my brimming knowledge (and food and nutrition class), I can give you some basic facts.  Avoid an overdose of saturated fat, absolutely NO TRANS FATS (if you happen to stumble upon some), and load up on those fruits and veggies.  Oh, and for those of you who have been blindly mislead into thinking no carb diets are the best thing ever, please think again.  THOSE ARE PROBABLY THE WORST DIETS YOU CAN THINK OF.  Besides starvation of course.  We, as growing teens, need complex carbs more specifically, because they take way longer to digest which = happy, full people for longer periods of time.  Also, complex carbs mean more fibre that helps clean out your intestinal tract, so you won't feel like all that food is bloating your stomach. 

As for meats and alternatives, go with extra lean as much as possible, or try turkey breast and chicken breast in place of ground beef.  You could even make this a fun event with the fam - try planning a menu for one week, with at least one rest day where you can order in, and see what fun meals you guys can come up with.

Speaking of which, take-out does not have to be unhealthy!!! Ever heard of Pizza Pizza?  Well they have this thing called multigrain crust, and hey, they kinda have a billion veggies to choose from, plus cheese that gives you protein (you don't need excesses of it) and yummy tomato sauce.  So guess what?? That pizza that I just described is all the food groups you need (add some meat or something if you want), and their dough has NO TRANS FATS, so no worries.

Basically, just remember to eat complex carbs, including whole grains, and veggies that are bright colours, like dark green and bright orange.  The same goes for fruits.  Pick things that remind you of a colourful rainbow.  And you don't need to cut out all saturated fat, because you kind of need some to keep your body happy.  Also, eat frequent small meals instead of huge prolonged meals.  Or else you might just find yourself gorging and fitting as much food as you can in your mouth in five minutes.  Your body needs at least 20 minutes to half an hour to know it is full, so just calm down with the munchies.  And there is this wonderful thing called metabolism.  It tends to work faster when you eat smaller meals at frequent intervals.  Just keep things in moderation and you should have a rockin' bod in no time.

mmm, so much food.

xo, melissa