The Secret to Healthy Eating While Maintaining a Busy Schedule

The Secret to Eating Healthy While Maintaining a Busy Schedule

Healthy eating is nowhere near as complicated as people make it seem.  We are often told that in order to eat healthily we have to watch our calories, where we eat, how we eat, how much we eat and the source of the foods we eat among other things.  While all these factors play a role in healthy eating, there are some simple guidelines that can allow you to eat food that will not pack on the extra pounds, while maintaining such simple rules that you can eat just about anywhere, even when you are on the go.

The Three Categories of Food

Essentially all foods can be separated into three categories.  Category One foods are those that you absolutely must avoid if you want to lose weight and maintain a healthy body.  Category Two foods are those that you should only consume if you truly love them and even then, you should limit the amount you consume.  Category Three foods are those that are tough to abuse because they will often fill you up way before you consume too much of them.

The foods in Category One are all those foods that consist of, or convert to, sugar, while a few contain the worst kinds of fats.  Most people don’t realize that white rice, white pasta, and white bread all turn into pure sugar in your stomach, so these three items and all their siblings must be cut out completely.  However, they can simply be replaced by Category Two cousins: brown rice, wheat pasta, and whole-wheat bread.

Another set of Category One foods is liquids that are essentially pure sugar, some you may have even thought of as healthy.  Soda, fruit juice and milk all turn to sugar as they hit your digestive tract.  This is where you may want to stop me and ask why something as “natural” as fruit juice and milk might be so bad for you.  If you think about it, fruit juice and milk are not natural at all.

The History Behind It

Our ancestors never consumed milk past the age of two or three, and they certainly would never have taken an orange or apple, squeezed the juice out of it and then thrown the rest of the apple away!  They would only have consumed the entire fruit with all its goodness, including fiber.  By drinking the juice from fruit, drinking milk, or consuming soda, you are putting pure sugar into your body in a form that takes up very little space – leaving you hungry for more.

The next batch of Category One foods is those that include high levels of the wrong kinds of fats.  These include any food that is fried; butter, egg yolk and ice cream.  These are foods that have high levels of the worst kinds of fats and some also contain of high levels of sugar and must be cut out.  Once you have cut out Category One foods, you are left with Category Two foods that you can enjoy on a limited basis and Category Three foods, which are very difficult to abuse.

For the most part, protein products such as chicken, beef, fish and egg whites are hard to abuse.  The trick is to consume the healthiest and leanest type of these proteins.  For example, if you have a choice between a very lean filet mignon and a rib eye steak that is very fatty, choose the filet.  Some Category Two foods you can consume on a limited basis include potatoes, cheese and alcohol.  While these three must not be consumed in large quantities, you can enjoy them on a limited basis without sacrificing your overall health or weight.  Of course, there are other Category Three foods such as vegetables, and even vegetable juice, that you can consume in high volumes without any problems.

If you are running errands or take working lunches, it’s absolutely possible to order healthy foods from most  restaurants, even fast food restaurants.  The key is to make sure the appropriate adjustments to the food on the menu.  For example, if you are at a place where they serve sandwiches, ask for the sandwich to be made on wheat bread and scooped out, which will eliminate 80% of the unwanted calories.  Additionally, you could ask for a lean meat such as turkey, remembering to hold the mayonnaise or other dressings.  To add flavor you can enjoy olive oil and vinegar with salt and pepper.  Using this formula even hamburgers can be healthy, as long as they are served on a wheat bun that is scooped out and you are not adding mayonnaise and any other dressings.

The Secret to a Healthy Salad

Believe it or not, salads are often the unhealthiest things people eat when trying to lose weight or eat healthily on the run.  They fail to realize that salad dressing — even the fat-free kind — is essentially pure sugar.  A salad with croutons, cheese, and salad dressing will often pack on the pounds more than a hamburger or sandwich ordered in the right manner.

More importantly, after consuming the Category One salad dressing and croutons and the Category Two cheese on top of your salad, you will quickly be hungry for more food, while a balanced sandwich can keep you satisfied for hours.  But there are very healthy ways of eating a salad. Try ordering your favorite salad with plenty of protein on top, such as tofu, chicken, fish, or steak. Remember, to hold the dressing and instead put a little bit of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper on top.

Using these simple principles of different food categories you can walk into just about any restaurant and order food from the menu, without sacrificing health or packing on extra pounds.  Learn to completely avoid Category One foods and limit yourself only to the Category Two foods you love.  Don’t worry too much about Category Three foods, because it’s hard to consume too much of them without getting full.