Train Your Body to Be Skinny Through Simple Healthy Habits

NO DIETS. Diets deprive your body of something it needs. Eliminating one complete food group from your diet for the rest of your life is unhealthy. Diets usually suggest doing so for a certain amount of time, but what happens is the body is then lacking the nutrients from that specific food group or item and ends up hoarding it when deprivation is over. The answer is everything in moderation. Fats (specifically saturated fats), sugars (specifically high fructose corn syrup), preservatives, sodium and cholesterol; these need to be kept in check. People who are a healthy weight educate themselves on what is toxic or bad for their bodies and they moderate the intake of those things. Each specific item mentioned above is listed on every nutrition fact grid. Healthy people read nutrition labels on the foods they eat. Educate yourself about how many "bad" foods you personally want to allow yourself daily. Don't be fanatical, but once you start to notice how much fat or sugar you're actually taking in and come up with an amount that is acceptable, you'll start to look for it on the nutrition facts label and naturally begin to select foods based on an educated choice and not an emotional or impulsive craving. People who are healthy see a difference in their energy, mood and general well being when they choose fresh vegetables and fruits over fatty meats, fried starchy items and preserved foods. The "bad" foods start to seem un-appealing compared to a crisp apple or salad.

ATTENTION TO CALORIES. Healthy weight people do pay attention to calories. They don't necessarily count each and every calorie, but they do a quick check before they consume something. It is a fact that you have to be burning more calories than you are taking in to be maintaining or losing weight. You can't eat 3,000 calories for breakfast and lunch and only get out of a chair to use the bathroom all day. You will gain weight. Check with a health professional about how many calories you should be taking in each day based on your activity level, height and weight and then try to stay well under that. At first, you may need to write the calories down that you eat for a week or two to get used to tallying it up. If you continue to pay attention, it will become a habit to monitor it during the day. You will see extraordinary results.

GRAZING. Every two or three hours, get a healthy snack. Healthy snacks include those with little sugar, little fat and a good amount of protein. A snack is not a full sized meal. A yogurt, string cheese and crackers, fruit, raw vegetables and nuts are good snacking options. Snacking between meals keeps your metabolism awake and moving. It also keeps you from over eating because you're never really starving.

SMALLER PORTIONS. Grazing and smaller portions together create a wonderful thing called a smaller appetite. They can actually change how much food your body takes in before it says it's full. When eating, try to see your body as a machine. There is only so much it needs, the rest you're eating just because you want to. When you go to the restaurant and order, the common mentality is, "more for my money", when it should be, "I'm paying to get full". If the entrée alone without the soup and dessert would fill you up, just get that- even if it is only a dollar more for the soup and dessert. Another great tip is slow down when you eat. Not only will you enjoy the food so much more, you will notice that your body has time to start to say, "no more". Otherwise, you've eaten so quickly it doesn't register until you're over-the-top full. Following this rule will significantly decrease the amount of food you eat; you'll realize you were eating so much more than your body really needed.

MOVEMENT AND EXERCISE. Take the parking stall 50 feet from the store and walk in. Go for a brisk walk around the block in the mornings before work. If you have a dog or kids, take them to the park to throw a ball. There are many ways to get exercise in spare time during the day. Healthy people don't sit still for long. You don't need to be at the gym for three hours a day to be healthy, whatever you can spare time for is better than nothing but if you have little spare time, you may need to make some time. Keep in mind the longer you can keep a high heart rate, the better. The point is to get your heart pumping and keep it pumping. Moderate exercise, of any kind, burns calories and fat.