Good Nutrition for Your Wedding Shape-Up
A nutritious diet is one of the single most important keys to creating your long-term health and it is the cornerstone of your wedding workout program. The old adage, “You are what you eat,” is truly the bottom line. Foods that you consume provide your body with all of its nutrients — the building blocks for your physical repair and growth — and all of its fuel — the energy supply for your activities.
Food, Nutrition, and Appearance
The connection between what you eat and your body's composition (ratio of fat to nonfat weight), appearance, and health is direct. Overeating foods, particularly those that are high in processed sugar and animal fat, leads to excess amounts of stored fuel on your body in the form of fat. When humans lived in nature, stored fat provided a source of protection from famine and ensured survival. In the United States today, however, food is abundant and people move much less. Therefore, we need less fuel to get us through our daily activities and we certainly don't need to carry spare fuel around.
Selecting Foods
To manage your weight and optimize your health effectively, you must keep in mind two important points about the foods that you select. First, seek out nutrient rich foods, those that contain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, and other nutrients. Second, choose foods that are low in energy as measured in calories, while still high in nutrition. For example, a processed cookie that is high in sugar and fat (energy) is low in vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients. In contrast, organic nuts or olive oil would also be high in fat but also very high in essential nutrients that are particularly beneficial to your health. Similarly, broccoli would be low in fat and high in nutrients. So these choices would all be good for you.
In a society of instant gratification, you are bombarded every day with the next big diet craze. Don't even think about reaching for diet pills or drastically cutting out certain food groups from your diet. These fad diet tricks might produce results initially, but those results don't last, and they don't encourage healthy eating habits. Don't think diet, think nutrition!
When you alter your eating habits to include more plant-based foods and fewer meats and processed foods, you take a powerful step toward improving your health. The best sources of nutrients are minimally processed whole foods, particularly whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and other plant-based foods. These foods are also lowest in concentrations of energy, or in other words, fat.
