Ingredient # 6 – Nutrition! Finally we’re going to talk about food!! An ancient Egyptian doctor once said, “Man eats too much. Thus he lives on only a quarter of what he consumes. The doctors however, live on the remaining three quarters! So true. Our doctors are living on our western diet obesity epidemic. Over 1/3 of the U.S. adults are considered obese. That doesn’t even take into account the ones in the overweight category.

Our bodies need to be nurished. When you give your body nutrient dense foods they will fuel your cells. Eating foods as close to the way God made them as possible such as whole fruits, vegetables and grains will give you energy and leave you with a feeling of satisfaction. When you eat processed, empty calorie foods, you’ll be left hungry and craving more because you’re not nurishing it.. Your body wants to be fed, but not only just to fill up your stomach, it wants to be nourished with whole, natural, live foods. When you put these types of foods in, your brain’s hunger mechanism automatically turns off. It KNOWS when your body has received what it needs and says “ENOUGH FOOD! YOU CAN STOP EATING NOW!”

If you need to lose weight, keep track of the calories your taking in. You need to eat at a deficit. When you eat less than your total daily energy expenditure, you will lose weight. If you don’t keep track, you’ll have a tendency to forget those few nuts, the cafe’ latte or that bite of cake you just didn’t want to go to waste…but ends up going to your “waist”.  Do you want to double your efforts? Add exercise.

There are many tools on-line that will help you track your calories. MyFitnessPal.com and Livestrong.com/Dailyplate are free and easy to use. Keep track for a few weeks to get an idea of how many calories you’re actually eating. You might be surprised and it may be just the information you need to start you on a plan to lose those extra pounds. It sure works for me.

The foods I’d highly recommend that you start decreasing are sugar, sodas, white flour, cakes, cookies, processed foods, fried foods and ice cream. Add in green leafy vegetables, high protein grains such as quinoa, beans, lentils and fresh fruits.

Eat smaller meals three hours apart. You’ll keep those hunger pangs away if you make sure you’re eating nutrient dense foods every three hours. And did I mention that my energy is through the roof eating this way? It’s true. Try it and see for yourself.

Compliance is what’s important. We’re not expected to be perfect 100% of the time. There will be those occasions to have a treat. But if you are compliant 85 to 90% of the time, then you can enjoy your treats with out any guilt. Who needs extra guilt these days? Go a ahead and have that treat. Only make sure you enjoy it on special occasions only!.