Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Portions

Notice in my previous post that I'm big on portions. It's because, in our advanced society we've advanced from sensible portions to mega portions and now more than half of America is either overweight or morbidly obese.

Now, I'm not ragging on everyone here. I know some Americans have thyroid problems that make it almost impossible to shed weight, but the majority of fat people are fat because they consume so many processed carbs. Not all carbs are bad, just the ones that your body digests so fast that it can't use them all and is forced to store the excess as fat. I'm talking about white potatoes, white rice, white sugar, all that stuff that's much cheaper than their more fiber-rich counterparts-namely sweet potatoes and brown rice. Steel-cut oats for rolled, whole wheat bread for white. This is a twofold problem-

One: Your body digests the carbs so fast that you get hungry sooner and eat more of the same stuff.

Two: Your body digests the carbs so fast that it can't use them all and stores the excess as fat and therefore when you eat more of the same it's forced to keep storing the excess and you end up obese.

These two problems can be solved by some simple substitutions as I sort of laid out in my first paragraph...

Whole wheat bread for white
Brown rice for white
Steel-cut oats for rolled

Of course, cutting the amounts of these at the same time as you also substitute them will also go a long way to helping you lose weight, plus you get the added benefit of more fiber in your diet, which your intestines will thank you for.

Adding more whole fibers to your diet will result in a feeling of fullness for longer, resulting in not eating as much or as much between meals, which will result in your body starting to shed all that excess fat that it stored. No, it won't drop off like a stone hitting the bottom of a pool of water, but it will happen.

Back to portion sizes. We've been brought up to believe that more is better, but our bodies know different. If you fill it with sensible portions of the right kinds of food, you'll get full on less. You eat more of the other stuff simply because it doesn't fill you up like whole grains and fresh vegetables. You'll also feel and look better.

Last but not least-water, lots of it. Though not so much that you drown yourself. It's a proven fact that if you drink too much water it can be fatal. But substitute water for most of the soda that you consume instead and your body will think you've had a brain transplant-to a more sensible brain, that is.

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