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The most common measurement for determining success on a diet is amount of weight lost, but is this the most important measurement? Let’s take a look at it this way. What is your primary reason for wanting to go on a diet? Is it to look better, be healthier and feel better, or is it to weigh less? Being healthier, fitter and happier all involve losing weight but it is not necessarily the most motivating factor for maintaining confidence in a diet.
There are other ways you can measure success on a diet that may help you stay motivated beyond a mere number. One of the most satisfying signs of weight loss is being able to go down a size in clothes. Being able to fit into clothes from the past or new items in a smaller size can be an exhilarating experience for a dieter. It’s not uncommon to find people who have just lost a lot of weight constantly trying on clothes and looking how good they look in the mirror. After all, one of the more important reasons people choose to lose weight is to look good. Even going down one dress or pant size can be a powerful motivator to keep going.
Dieters looking to gain muscle and get stronger often measure their success by strength and body fat. In fact, body fat measurement is an important measurement for doctors, as the amount of body fat is an important factor for health. The reason that weight is used more often than body fat percentage is that weight is much easier to measure. There are some scales that claim to measure body fat, but they are really just performing a calculation based on your height and weight and don’t account for people who have abnormal amounts of muscle mass. If you’re eating right and exercising during your weight loss process, you may be losing fat but gaining muscle which can be misleading when looking at a scale. A simple tape measure to record your waist and hip measurements can be helpful as well as measuring how your clothes fit.
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Weight loss can be a very interesting topic of conversation. If you have ever been on a diet and discussed the process with others, you know that the discussion can go on for hours and even get intense at times. The reason we are obsessed with talking about dieting is the same reason that people love to talk about food in general. Eating, and therefore being on a diet, is a big part of life, and it is therefore completely natural to have extensive discussions about it whenever the subject comes up.
Connecting with other people who are dieting can be an invaluable asset in helping your weight loss journey. People who can give each other mutual support are far more likely to be successful on a diet for a number of reasons. For one, you can learn tips and tricks from other dieters that you probably wouldn’t have ever thought of on your own. You can also share your obsession with calories, exercise and eating with people who will know exactly what you are going through. Communication and support amongst other dieters will help keep you motivated and provide powerful support for your weight loss journey.
Communicating about a diet doesn’t just have to take place in person either. The Gen-V community diet forum is a great place to discuss the DNA diet with others who are going through the same process you are. Online communities allow you to communicate with a wide variety of people that you wouldn’t normally be able to meet because of such great distances. There is no reason to not take advantage of every avenue of communication you can when you are on a diet. The more support and communication you have with other dieters the more likely it is that you will successfully lose weight.
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Everybody seems to have their own secret on what kind of food it takes to lose weight, and almost every food at one time or another has been associated with greater weight loss success. The reason for this phenomenon stems from the fact that nutrition is a complicated process that is simply not universal. A food that may be good for one person to eat and lose weight may not be great for another. A DNA diet attempts to solve this problem by developing a customized meal plan that caters to a person’s unique genetic code.
What ends up working for an individual on a diet will depend on how their body handles the three main macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein and fat. Diets in the past have tried to come up with a one size fits all solution that tells everyone the exact proportions of macronutrients to eat in order to stay healthy. Modern research is showing that this is not the correct approach, as people have unique genetic codes that effect how cells metabolize certain macronutrients. What’s going to work for one person is no necessarily going to work for another because of this.
So when your friends or family tell you that avoiding carbs all together is the solution for you, or that eating nothing but fruit smoothies is the only thing that will work, keep in mind that you have a unique genetic code that will give you a unique solution to weight loss. Genovive’s DNA diet is a great way to discover how your genes help dictate the foods that will help you lose the most weight. Their all-natural home delivered meal program will give you just the right foods that are optimized for weight loss and will have you feeling great as well.
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Snacking is often unfairly associated with unhealthy food: candy bars, chips, soda, cookies and other high fat high sugar items. People, therefore, often associate any kind of snacking with uncontrollable weight gain. The problem here is not with snacking itself, but what people are eating while they are snacking. Eating snacks can actually have a lot of benefits for successfully losing weight. This is because satiating hunger is one of the most important aspects of being able to stick to a diet plan. Someone who is constantly hungry is probably going to have a hard time sticking to their plan, and being able to satiate their hunger while still eating healthy will be an invaluable component to their success.
Here's a list of some foods that can make great snacks. They are typically high in protein, low in fat and low in sugar. This type of nutrient balance will allow a dieter to keep themselves from getting hungry while also not greatly increasing their calorie intake.
Almonds – a handful of almonds will provide a good dose of protein and healthy fats. They are also very filling.
Cottage Cheese – very high in protein, this is a great snack when paired with vegetables, fruits or even on a light cracker. Cottage cheese is great at filling you up because it is high protein but low calorie.
Greek Yogurt – this yogurt has lots of protein and tastes great by itself or even better when mixed with fruit or as a substitute for mayonnaise in many dishes.
Peanut Butter – while typically containing a good amount of fat, peanut butter has lots of monounsaturated fats that are actually healthy for the heart. They also contain a lot of protein. Look for natural peanut butter as it's not loaded with chemicals and extra sugar.
Hummus – this is a spread typically made in the Mediterranean and can be created with all sorts of different flavors from garlic to sun dried tomato. Hummus is great for dipping vegetables for pita bread.
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Fish should probably be considered a miracle food when it comes to dieting. There is simply no better choice when it comes to getting essential omega 3 acids while at the same time loading up on lots of protein. Many people, however, find that they don't like the way fish tastes, or they find the texture unappealing. Luckily there is enough variety among fish species and cooking methods to cater to many different pallets. If you've tried fish before and didn't like, consider trying a different species or in a different presentation. Fish is enjoyed around the world and can be developed for almost everyone's taste. Below is a list of fish and/or presentations that you may find appealing.
Nigiri Sushi – this is typically a raw piece of fish placed on top a tiny cube of sticky rice and wasabi. Many people may find the idea of eating raw fish unappetizing, but don't mock it before you try it. Many people have been converted to eating sushi as soon as they try it for the first time. What's not to like. The texture and flavor are intense and buttery. Crowd favorites include salmon, yellow-tail and tuna.
Cioppino – okay, this dish is cheating a little because there is more than just fish here. Cioppino typically includes shrimp, scallops and muscles along with fish and perhaps other seafood items. This delicious low calorie tomato based soup is a great way to introduce seafood to those who may be turned off by fishy flavors.
Grilled Salmon with Lemon – salmon is one of the most popular fishes for cooking for a reason, it tastes great and goes well on the grill next to the burgers. Salmon has a rich buttery flavor that goes extremely well with the citrus flavors of lemon or lime. Cook it until it flakes easily with a fork. You can cook this fish in the oven as well for wonderful results.
Baked Tilapia – this fish is abundant and pretty inexpensive. It has a mild flavor and rich texture for those who may be weary about trying fish. Tilapia is very versatile and can used in tons of different recipes. A favorite application is to bake it in lemon juice and dill, you can then eat it by itself or use it to make delicious tacos with salsa and corn tortillas. Tilapia goes great with a variety of vegetables and sides like couscous or brown rice.
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High calorie food can be very delicious, which presents a significant obstacle to people when they are trying to lose weight. The reason that high calorie dense foods taste good is for evolutionary reasons. Back before mass and automated agriculture, food was far more scarce than it is today. The body benefited most when it ate high calorie meals just in case the food supply was low in the near future. By eating high calorie meals the body could sustain itself and store some extra energy for times when that food was not available. Thus humans developed the trait of finding high calorie meal options very enticing and delectable.
In modern times, however, this creates a problem. The feast and famine conditions of earlier days have all but vanished in the western world. Food is available everywhere and in great abundance and variety. There's tons of healthy food out there to choose from, but guess what, we are still programmed to crave foods that are very dense in calories because our genetics have not caught up with our technology. Huge mega corporations have sprung up in the past 50 years that do nothing but sell high fat, high sugar and high calorie food. It's no wonder they are so successful either. Despite the fact that eating this food to excess has caused a terrible problem of endemic obesity, people still eat it because it tastes great and they can't help but crave it constantly.
Solving this problem is not very easy on a wide scale. Individually, we can learn to substitute delicious high calorie foods with delicious low calorie ones. If we select our food wisely, we can still enjoy very satisfying and yummy meals without packing in a lot of calories. We can do this on our own by selecting healthy fruits, vegetables and meats from the store and making great healthy and fresh meals. We can also let chefs do that kind of work for us by getting home delivered meals designed by culinary and health experts.
DNA Diets like GenoVive can ship meals directly to your home that are full of nutritional value, filling, and very tasty. This way you can enjoy great food that satisfies hunger and helps you lose weight at the same time without having to go through all the work yourself.
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Scientific involvement with weight loss issues stems back to the early 50's when scientists Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA. Their discovery paved the way for other scientists to study the effects genes have on development and physiology, and within the past decade, have led to great discoveries about how genes affect the body when it comes to nutrition intake. This specific field of study, Nutrigenetics, is finding out the ways that genes effect how the body processes certain nutrients. By taking the information found through nutrigenetics and applying it to weight loss, DNA diet companies like Genovive are developing comprehensive diet and exercise plans that are proving to be an effective way for people to lose weight.
DNA diets focus on the two most important aspects of successful weight loss: nutrition intake and exercise. The first step of a DNA diet is to analyze the client’s genetic code through a take at home test kit. Typically someone will swab in the inside of their mouth and send in the sample to a lab. The lab will analyze the DNA and then they will develop a proper nutrition balance for the customer. This balance between carbohydrates, protein and fat will probably be different than what you might find in ordinary one size fits all diets. This is because the guiding principle behind nutrigenetics is that people's body's react differently to nutrition intake. A good macronutrient balance for one person may not work as well for another.
DNA diets also develop personal exercise plans as part of their comprehensive weight loss solution. Personalized exercise plans are more effective for losing weight the same way customized nutrition plans are because not all of us are suited for the same type and intensity of exercise at the same time. A custom exercise plan can be catered to people who are very experienced with athletics as well as those who haven't walked further than their car in years. These exercise plans benefit both the heart and muscles which allows for maximum weight loss.
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A common perception amongst the public is that exercises that benefit weight loss are limited to cardiovascular workouts. This type of exercise is very important as it helps strengthen the heart muscles and increases energy burn, but it is not the only important component to losing weight. Strength resistance exercises have the benefit of burning calories while being done, but they also increase the general metabolic rate when at rest. The reason for this is that muscle burns calories just to maintain themselves, so for every extra amount of muscle you have on your body you are burning an increased amount of calories even at rest..
There are a lot of good ways to build muscle whether or not you have access to a gym. Lifting free weights is arguably the best way to gain muscle mass. The reason for this comes from the nature of the lifts themselves. In order to lift a free weight you have to not only lift the mass of the object itself, but use various other muscles to keep the object balanced. This naturally works out many auxiliary muscles surrounding the primary muscles that would not get worked on a fixed weight machine. The more muscles worked the better the effects will be. Some people are intimidated by free weights often because they don't know how to use them or because of the type of people that use them. There are lots of simple exercises you can do with barbells that don't require the use of the big bench presses and squat bars. For someone who’s not experienced with weights, the GenoVive exercise program lets you start with small dumbbells and work your way up as you progress.
If you go to a gym, using the fixed weight machines is still a good choice for gaining muscle mass. You can mimic many of the free lifts on machines by targeting all of the key areas: chest, arms, shoulders, upper back, lower back, upper legs and lower legs. This will require quite a few machines, but once you get a routine down you can get through them pretty easily. And of course, don't forget sit ups. They aren't just good for getting a six pack. The stomach has a large group of muscles that are essential for building if you want to gain muscle mass and lose weight faster.
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Below are some thoughts to help keep you “in the moment” as you journey toward healthy eating and physical and emotional fitness. If you find yourself in a difficult situation or frame of mind, choose the thought that addresses your stumbling block. By keeping a “just for today” mindset, you will be better equipped to focus on what is right in front of you rather than dwelling on that little lapse last week, or the party you have to attend next week. Feel free to add your own “just for today’s” to this list:
Do you have some “just for today” thoughts that you’d like to share? Please visit us at the GenoVive Forum. Your thoughts may serve as an inspiration to others. Your “just for today” contributions to the GenoVive Forum will be included in a featured article we are preparing for the coming months. Your contribution can include your name or remain anonymous as you prefer.
Some of us experience a peculiar sadness around the holidays. This may be due to painful memories associated with past holidays or fearful expectations of what this season may bring. There are those of us who have endured these unwanted mood swings without a clear understanding of what is causing them. Regardless of the triggers for feeling blue around the holiday season, these feelings can ignite a desire to return to unhealthy eating habits.
When I first met Terry, a single mom, she was overwhelmed with the thought of facing another holiday season. “The same thing happens every year,” she explained. “I start thinking about my childhood and these images keep popping into my head of my mother drinking and my father leaving. I know that I am not my parents, but it’s all I can think about. I’m torn between dread and hope, and then I vow that things will be different this year. I resolve that I’ll get through the season with a smile, and I go out and buy all sorts of holiday foods and decorations. But the decorations never make it out of their boxes and as I get more and more entrenched in memories, I end up eating all the food myself. I go through the motions of the holidays for my children, but my heart isn’t in it.”
What Terry needed was a plan to help her intervene on those memories of powerless times and focus her attention squarely on the present where she could have power. A good way to spook the ghosts of the past to withdraw from your focus, even for a short time, is to live in the moment. I encouraged Terry to make a calendar for the holiday season – one that included the things her children wanted to do as well as the things that she had never gotten to do as a child. She soon filled the calendar with fun dates – caroling, a visit to Santa, shopping, and a tree-trimming party. Terry invited several friends over, pulled out all those unused decorations, and turned her home into a happy, festive place.
As for her eating plan, Terry worked out her meals with the help of her holiday calendar to bring the foods she liked the most from her plan into those special memory making moments. More importantly, Terry learned that the love and companionship of good friends tastes far better than any holiday goodie ever could.
If you have a story for beating the holiday blues or you have a challenge you would like us to address during the coming weeks, please share it with us in the GenoVive Forum.
Eating healthy when you don’t have the time to plan out your meals can be a frustrating situation when you are trying to lose weight. People who are constantly on the go and find themselves needing to eat ready-made items out of convenience stores or from fast food restaurants may feel overwhelmed with unhealthy processed products. There are many different ways for people on the go to avoid eating like this, even if they are not readily apparent. One way is to use your time off on the weekend to cook and save lots of meals by freezing or refrigerating them. You can then bring them to work and not only eat well, but save lots of money. This idea may be limited for lots of people if they don't have ready access to refrigeration or cooking appliances like microwaves or ovens.
If you can't bring food from home, try to go to restaurants that offer nutritional information on their website or in their menus. Sadly, it is mostly chains that offer this information, and most of the time they only offer it through a website, which means you may not have access to it while you are choosing what to eat. Planning ahead a little can save you the headache and guilt of choosing an item that does not stick to your weight loss plan. Grocery stores can be a great place to find fresh and healthy deli sandwiches or precooked healthy entrees. Once you get used to the nutritional content of a lot of items, you can fairly accurately estimate the nutrition content at restaurants that do not offer than info.
The best and most comprehensive option of all can be signing up for a full meal plan through a DNA diet company like GenoVive. With this option you get all of your meals delivered to your home that you can take with you wherever you go. You do not have to research or stress about whether what you are eating is healthy, and you can be sure that you are getting the right portion sizes to help you lose weight. Your meals will have the correct amount and source of macronutrients that is customized for your metabolism according to your DNA. GenoVive’s all natural meals are shelf stable and convenient with BPA free microwave safe packaging. Not only that, but the plans also come with snacks and supplements which help you stay healthy and satiated throughout the day.
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It can be tempting to use cold temperatures and storms as an excuse to not exercise. We might say things like “it’s too cold” or “there’s too much snow” as a way to get out of exercises we wouldn’t want to do even if it was warm. There are plenty of exercises to do during winter even if you don’t have a gym membership. It’s important to remember that the only real barrier to exercising is your own will to do so, and that no amount of bad weather will be able to stop you if you really want and need to exercise.
There are plenty of healthy outdoor activities for people during winter no matter where they live. In warm weather states like Arizona and Florida, the temperatures don’t get very cold during winter and many of the activities like running, walking and soccer can be played just as comfortably during winter as in summer. For cold weather states, activities like skiing, snowboarding, ice skating and cross country skiing are great ways to get outside and lose weight even in the coldest months.
If for some reason you can’t or don’t want to get outdoors to exercise, there are still lots of things you can do inside the home to maintain cardio and muscle strength. Aerobics DVD’s are all over the place and can give you a good 30 minute cardio workout at any time you want in the comfort of your own home. Exercises like push-ups, sit-ups and wall squats among others can help you maintain your muscular strength. And thankfully, most of the exercises in the Genovive custom exercise program you can do in your own home.
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Most of us know that setting goals are useful way to get focused and accomplish our objectives. Dieting is no different, but setting a single goal for losing weight isn’t necessarily effective. This is because losing weight is a complicated process that involves a lot of different factors that are hard to lump into a single goal. For dieters, setting lots of smaller short term goals is a far more effective way of staying on track and becoming successful.
A good way to start is by going one day at a time. For example, if you are starting off on your GenoVive home delivered meal program, your daily goal would be to stick to the meals and not go over your calorie limits. Once you are comfortable reaching the daily goals, you can set longer term weekly or monthly goals, which will provide powerful motivation for continuing your diet through the long haul. And once you reach your final weight loss goal, you can set weight maintenance goals to ensure that all of your hard work is permanent.
Keeping track of goals visually can be a powerful motivator. This can be accomplished several ways. Many people use a calendar and mark the days they successfully stuck to their goals with a sticker or some kind of marking. Once a long uninterrupted chain of dates has been set up, there is a powerful motivation to not break the streak. Goals can also be tracked by journaling, which can help you keep yourself accountable. You can also share your goals with the GenoVive team and other Gen-V members on our Gen-V community.
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GenoVive is said to be "ahead of their time" on the following video. The weight loss results show the success for the people who were testing the DNA weight loss product. The simplicity of the program that is customized for you using natural healthy food based on your DNA. Follow the link to the video that was put together by a local news station in the city where GenoVive is located. Yahoo news picked up the story and now many people are on the program.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/health-15749655/company-plans-out-diet-for-you-by-looking-at-your-genes-27141751.html
One of the most commonly asked questions by new dieters is whether or not drinking alcohol will affect their ability to lose weight. The short answer is yes, but with many different caveats. Alcohol does contain calories; in fact it contains 7 calories per gram, second only to fat. But alcohol is not absorbed and used in the body the same way that the other macro nutrients are. Alcohol consumption has almost no effect on satiating hunger, essentially making them empty calories. Alcohol calories also have very little nutritional value, and can cause a wide variety of health problems when consumed heavily.
Many studies have shown that moderate alcohol consumption (1 oz for women and 2 oz for men) can be beneficial to health. Consumption, especially of red wine, at this level has shown to reduce the risk of heart disease. Drinking more than this amount quickly destroys any positive benefits that alcohol has however, and can lead to tons of health complications, the least of which is excessive weight gain. Being on a diet doesn’t mean that you have to abstain from alcohol completely. The key is to drink in strict moderation.
Alcohol also has the indirect effect of causing weight gain. When people drink alcohol, their inhibitions and judgment are lowered. What may have seemed like a bad eating choice while sober may be very appealing and even irresistible to someone who is inebriated. It’s also harder to keep track of what you are eating in situations where alcohol is being drunk: like at parties, bars or other social gatherings. You may have had the will power to avoid that rich piece of chocolate cake while sober, but with a little liquor you might go for it every time. A once in a while cheat drink night and meal might not hurt a diet too much, but regular consumption of alcohol is something to watch if you’re serious about losing weight. That’s why GenoVive recommends limiting alcohol to one night per week or your “free day” when starting your new weight loss program.
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We all have had experiences in life that have left us feeling unfulfilled and wishing things were different or that the events had turned out differently. Most of us would have little difficulty generating a list several pages long of the events in our life in which we were left craving for more. More love, more attention, more recognition, more acceptance, and more food, to name just a few.
While there is no harm in wanting more from life, the people in your life, or even more to eat, it is not always possible to get what we want when we want it. When things do not turn out the way that we had hoped they would or we find ourselves thinking that "life does not treat us right" or "its not fair" it can be easy to lose sight of what value or success we have enjoyed in life.
The holidays can be a time for celebrating the gifts that we have in life and the accomplishments we have enjoyed. For some of us the holiday season will involve social and emotional demands that create a stress that casts a shadow over the social experiences that we had intended to enjoy. There will be times when the shadows are generated by the lack of fulfillment of some expectation you had planned on. For others, the holidays can trigger a flood of uncomfortable emotions that remind us of disappointments or injuries in the past that leave us feeling like the Grinch wanting to CANCEL the holidays.
The whirlwind of emotions, both uncomfortable and pleasing, coupled with the temptations to eat that some of us have when faced with stress can contribute to the challenges that you may experience with staying on your diet and making other positive and healthy changes.
You can try and cancel Christmas or Thanksgiving or some other emotionally charged event or situation that we all must learn to cope with without overeating, or you can develop more tools for making the most out of life and celebrate the blessings that you have enjoyed and the ones that will be available if you can see through the disguise the blessing or reason for thanksgiving is wearing.
In the next three articles you will be introduced to a formula for identifying and cultivating a spirit of gratitude.
Please let us know about what you are grateful for as well as the challenges that you experience during the holidays in the Genovive Forum.
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You’ve been on your eating plan and you’re losing weight. The pounds are coming off, the clothes sizes are going down, and people are starting to notice and comment on your weight loss. You find yourself with mixed emotions. You feel pleased that people are noticing the changes in you, as well you should, but you are also a bit fearful. What if the diet doesn’t work? What if you go right back to where you were before? What if? What if? What if?
Has this ever happened to you? Dwelling on questions about an uncertain future? We all think about our futures to some extent because none of us can live in the moment every waking minute. However, stop and take a moment to examine if your futuristic questioning and fear-based responses are reasonable or are you experiencing automatic negative thoughts that make you doubt yourself?
Who we are today is the sum total of our past experiences, but that does not mean that we cannot change. So many of us are victims of our own bad habits or painful life experiences, but we can rise above of those habits or become survivors of the experiences that may have darkened our image of ourselves or our abilities. We do not have to settle for the person we were or the person others perceived us to be. Although we cannot rewrite history, we can move forward and write a new story for our lives.
You may have heard the saying, "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift." If we stop dwelling on the past and the "what ifs" of the future, and channel that energy into who we are today, then life would seem, and could be, different. Instead of questioning, we will be doing. And by putting all that energy toward every today we live, we will stop questioning tomorrow because we are succeeding, every day. The past is the past. We can learn from it or we can repeat it. It is what we do with today that counts. Focus on the here and now rather than looking over your shoulder.
Worrying takes a great deal of mental energy and robs us of that gift of life. The full quote being referenced often reads: "The clock is running. Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present." Your weight loss and change in body form can generate unexpected compliments. Consider them a "present", not a prophecy of an impending failure.
If you have problems dwelling on past mistakes, or your weight loss is generating emotions or reactions that you don’t know how to handle, tell us about it in the Genovive Forum. If you have a specific problem related to this topic or any of our other articles, let us know.
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Nobody is perfect. Every once in a while, no matter how hard we try to stick to a diet, we cheat. This can happen for several reasons. Maybe there is a delicious dessert at a restaurant we just can’t resist, or we’re so busy one particular day we don’t have time to make the right decision. Whatever it is that causes us to cheat, it’s important to remember that a single slip is not a sign a failure. A lot of important lessons can be learned when we cheat on a diet, and it certainly isn’t a sign that we will end up failing in the long run.
The biggest danger that comes from cheating on a diet is the loss of confidence in will power. Dieting is a cumulative effort, and losing weight is not something that can be destroyed by a single inconsistent act or mistake. Dieting requires long term consistency, but it is not like a chain link fence or a rope. If there are small pieces missing, or gaps in the chain, it does not mean complete failure. Dieting is more akin to walking. For example, if you were walking somewhere and trip or stumble you wouldn’t just give up walking, you’d pick yourself up and keep going. The same goes for dieting.
Cheating can actually be a great learning experience. After you cheat on your diet, instead of feeling down on yourself, carefully examine what it was that caused you to cheat. Were you in a situation where avoiding bad food was impossible? Did you eat out of boredom or just because others were? Whatever the cause of your cheating is, learning the reasoning behind your mistake can help you avoid it in the future. And with a home delivered meal plan from GenoVive, avoiding cheating becomes even easier than ever.
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All living organisms essentially follow a DNA-based diet. In the wild, animals must adapt to their environment or they don’t live to reproduce, the concept of "survival of the fittest" and natural selection for the individuals whose genetic makeup is a good fit for their particular environment. Those animals whose genetic makeup best allows them to make use of the foods available in their environment have a health and survival advantage over animals who are impaired in some aspect of processing the food that’s readily available to them.
Humans differ because our diets are not driven by simple availability. Our diets are affected by flavor, customs, our social interactions, and lately the amount of time we have available to plan, purchase, prepare, and yes, even consume our foods. The reasons we select what we eat on a daily basis are endless.
Each human has a unique body chemistry that is determined by our genes. In the last decade scientists decoded the human genome and gave us the ability to study and look at our individual DNA. Our bodies have always worked this way, we just found the tools to look at our DNA and start the process of learning all of its relationships.
Identifying an individual’s specific set of gene variants that are known to be associated with various aspects of weight management helps us choose the foods that are the best source of fuel for our bodies. Learn what foods work best with your DNA with GenoVive and start your journey to lasting weight loss success.
Click here to order your Weight Management DNA Test and Customized Meal Program.
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Super-size, jumbo, extra-large, 2 for one, king size, XXL: these phrases are everywhere, and they are a dangerous sign of how out of control our food portions have become. It’s hard to go anywhere that serves food anymore without being inundated with the concept that more is better, but for anyone that is overweight or obese, more certainly doesn’t feel better. The only way to escape the profusion of gigantic food portions is to find alternatives outside the fast food and restaurant world.
Home delivered meal programs like the one offered by Genovive provide tasty meal options but in portion sizes that are actually reasonable and healthy. Some people are surprised at first at how little proper portion sizes can be, but they quickly realize how much less food it takes to actually feel satiated when they are eating all natural healthy foods with the proper macro nutrient balance. Feeling really full should not be the goal when eating a meal, as it is a sign that we have had too much to eat, not the right amount.
Over eating doesn’t feel good. Bloating and discomfort in the stomach area has become the norm for a lot of people who over eat, but it is not a natural or desirable feeling. Overcoming the habit of eating to excessive fullness can be difficult, but it is definitely not impossible. It requires a willingness to accept that we don’t necessarily need to eat as much food as we may emotionally desire. It also requires knowledge of what proper portion sizing and calorie intake is. As mentioned earlier, Genovive’s home delivered meal program is great for learning about proper eating.
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Why do runners seem to love running? The reasoning can seem inexplicable to people who don’t run, but to runners the answer is clear; it gets them high. Many of us have gotten overweight because we try to use food for the same effect, and while food does release chemicals into the brain that make us feel good, over eating for pleasure has disastrous effects. A great way to lose weight is to try substituting out the unhealthy activities we partake in to get pleasure.
The initial barrier to exercising can be quite steep, which is helped with Genovive’s custom exercise plans. Once you’re over the hump, exercise can become an addictive activity that will have you feeling great while also doing great things for your body. This is because increased levels of exercise produce endorphins that reduce levels of pain and act as sedatives. Exercise has been said to increase health benefits across the board, both mentally and physically.
Running isn’t the only activity that produces positive mental conditions. Any exercise that raises the heart rate for an extended period of time can help alleviate depression and make your body and mind feel wonderful. This does not just come from the released endorphins, but from the satisfaction of working hard and knowing that you are improving your body. Every time you choose to exercise instead of sitting in front of the couch with a sleeve of cookies, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you’re on the right path to weight loss.
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If someone feels like they have no real reason to lose weight, they probably won’t. Motivation is the single most important factor when it comes to successfully following a diet. Motivation can come from a variety of places: from within, from family, or from friends and other loved ones. Dieting with the help of home delivered meals doesn’t have to be as difficult as on normal diets, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be rough patches that require strong motivation to work through.
Dieting shouldn’t be about going it alone, but about involving your loved ones in the process of bettering your life. It can’t be overstated how powerful loving encouragement can be to someone undertaking the sometimes daunting task of losing weight. This is why it’s important to let your loved ones know that you are trying to lose weight so that they have the opportunity to give you encouragement. Remember to update them on your progress and any problems you may be having so they can help you.
Even with loving encouragement, successful dieting depends on a strong will to succeed, and that comes from within. In order to have the will and motivation to lose weight, you need a reason for getting healthy. This reason can range from wanting to live a longer life with loved ones, to becoming more attractive or even following along with a loved one who wants to become healthy. Motivation is all around us, we merely need to find it and use it as fuel for diet success.
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In scientific terms, a calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. In the dietary world, the calorie represented on nutrition labels is really a kilocalorie, meaning it has enough energy to raise 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius. These scientific principles don’t have a lot of meaning for someone reading a nutrition label. When we think about a calorie we should merely think of it as a unit of energy, and not worry about the details involved in calculating specific calorie measurements.
Calories come from the three macro nutrient sources: protein, carbohydrates and fat. Fat contains the most calories per gram while carbohydrates contain the least. This is why most diets encourage very little consumption of fat, because it adds a lot of calories to food without adding a lot of substantive weight. Alcohol also contains calories, which is why people can gain quite a bit of weight from excessive alcohol consumption. Calories from different sources are also metabolized by the body in different ways, which is why a DNA diet creates customized macronutrient balances in their home delivered meals for more effective weight loss.
All calories are not created equal when it comes to dieting. For example, there is the same amount of calories in a candy bar as there is in a few apples, but most people are aware that the apples are a much healthier choice than the candy. This is because the apple contains calories that are much more useful to the body, calories that are loaded with fiber and nutrients that help maintain the body and satiate hunger. A few apples will also be much more filling than a candy bar even though they have the same calories.
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Many of us rarely eat at the dining room table any more. With all the entertainment distractions in our lives, from great television to the internet, why should we take time out our day to focus on our meals when we can be entertained while eating at the same time? The answer to this question is not clear on the surface but becomes obvious when we examine our behavior during times when we are distracted by things like television and other visual stimuli.
What happens when we eat while being distracted is that we lose focus on the food in order to pay attention to entertainment. Despite most people believing they are great multi-taskers, most of us can’t focus very strongly on more than one thing at a time. When we watch TV while eating a meal, we stop paying attention to how much we are consuming and whether or not we are full. We also don’t pay as close attention to how things taste or whether or not we are actually enjoying the flavors. These conditions result in a tendency to overeat on foods that are unhealthy and may not even be tasty.
A good way to avoid overeating due to distractions is to eat meals at a proper table away from televisions and computers. Doing so will keep your mind focused on the meal so that you will be able to pay better attention to how the food tastes and whether or not your body is telling you if you are full. Eating at the table is also a good opportunity to communicate with family members and loved ones. Eating together without distractions can lead to better relationships and a happier home life, not to mention better tasting and healthier meals, and even weight loss.
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There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good meal, but when we start using the enjoyment of eating in place of other pleasurable activities, things can get out of hand. The way we look at food often has a very strong correlation to whether or not we are overweight. People who view food as fuel and only eat enough to satiate their hunger are typically a normal weight, while people who eat compulsively as a form of pleasure tend to over consume and become overweight. Over eating this way can be caused by depression or even just being bored.
Filling in emotional gaps or boredom with food is a recipe for weight gain. People who do this end up developing an addiction to over eating that is very similar to a drug addict’s addiction to narcotics. Pleasure receptors in our bodies end up getting cross wired with the consumption of excess amounts of food. People with this addiction end up feeling like the only way they can get pleasure is if they over eat. But the reality behind the addiction is a lot of negative emotion and bad health, leading to a drastic reduction in the amount of pleasure received overall.
A DNA diet with home delivered meals is a great first step to overcoming this kind of destructive behavior. A customized diet plan can help instill positive eating habits and exercise routines that help lay down the ground work for permanent health when it comes to eating. Emotionally, however, the problem may still be lying dormant. People who eat because they are bored should look into joining clubs or developing hobbies to make a more productive use of their leisure time. People who eat because they are depressed, however, need a more professional solution that may involve therapists or counselors.
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Losing weight does not have to be a complicated process requiring intense knowledge of nutrition and fitness. Getting fit and thin can be as simple as following a diet plan that encourages all natural meals and a customized fitness plan. Many people think that, in order to lose weight, they will have to be limited to salad and rice cakes in their diet, and that they will have to exercise constantly at an exhausting rate. This is not the truth, eating on a diet can be delicious and satisfying, and working out can be fun and much easier than you think.
Eating well does not mean eating boring and flavorless meals. One of the great secrets about eating healthy foods is that they contain nutrients that make food very pleasing to the palate. The body naturally craves foods that benefit us biologically, but somehow we have been tricked over the years to avoid these foods. DNA diets like Genovive have developed meals and snacks that have helped solve this problem.
Losing weight depends on the dieter eating well, but eating well does not have a single meaning. Many people refer to eating well as overeating, but this should not be the case, as overeating can cause biological problems outside of just gaining weight. A more apt description for eating well should be consuming foods that are high in natural ingredients, vitamins and minerals. Eating well should be about eating just the right amount of food to fuel your metabolism so that you have enough energy throughout the day. So it’s important to make sure you are getting enough calories while you lose weight – fueling your body’s calorie burning furnaces – for more consistent results.
Your GenoVive Customized Meal Program contains the right amount of calories for you to eat each day to help you reach your weight loss goals efficiently while enjoying delicious all natural foods. Now that’s really eating well.
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Tackling a diet alone may not be the best approach to losing weight. There is no shame in getting help from others when it comes to increasing our health and keeping on track in our diet plans. Will power is a wonderful thing to possess while on a diet, but sometimes it is not enough to be able to stick to your plan. Outside help can reinforce healthy habits and make it easier to recognize when we might be going off track. Diet plans that include meals are an especially effective way to keep on a positive track.
When you are on a home delivered meal plan you don’t have to go through a lot of mental calculations to figure out if you are staying on track in your diet. You simply eat the delicious meals and snacks contained within the meal plan and you know that you are sticking to a routine that will result in you losing weight. It’s very difficult to maintain this same kind of control if a specific plan is not in place. Many restaurants and fast food establishments offer nutritional information on their packaging and menus, but many don’t. It is not advisable to rely on restaurants for health and nutritional information.
Meal plans don’t have to be boring or bland either. The home delivered meals that come with Genovive are full of flavor and very filling. They make it easy to stick to your diet without becoming frustrated with boring and flavorless meal options. Sticking to a diet is all about developing a habit. With a home delivered meal plan it can be much easier to keep that habit because your healthy meals are always there ready to go on the road or wherever you may need them.
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There are some foods that you can eat straight from the grocery store that provide some of the same health effects that supplements do; these foods are often known as super foods. Super foods contain high amounts of nutrients, vitamins and minerals that allow for a healthy body and may assist you in losing weight. These items are not expensive luxury foods, but things you can find nearly every day in most supermarkets. These super foods include beans, broccoli, oranges, spinach and yogurt.
Blueberries in particular are known as an Antioxidant super food. Packed with antioxidants and phytoflavinoids, blueberries are high in potassium and vitamin C, making them a wonderful choice for people looking to add beneficial vitamins to their diet. When selecting berries, note that the darker they are, the more anti-oxidants they have. A half a cup a day is a good amount to see positive effects, and frozen berries can be just as good as the fresh ones. Be sure to include lots of other fruits and vegetables in your diet as well and follow the daily guidelines of your GenoVive Customized Meal Program. Remember too that, in general, the more color they have, the more antioxidants.
There are several other groups of super foods to look out for as well. Items that are high in fiber can have wonderful effects on dieting. Fiber makes you feel full for longer and can lower blood sugar levels. You can find fiber in a variety of foods like whole grains, beans, fruit and vegetables.
Omega 3’s are also something to look out for. These fatty acids can be found in cold water fish, preferably wild, like salmon, herring, sardines and mackerel. They can also be found fortified eggs, flax seed and walnuts. Omega 3’s are said to be good for the heart because they help lower cholesterol. Accessibility and taste can be factors that prevent many people from getting enough fish in their diet. That’s why GenoVive includes a high quality food sourced (from calamari) Omega3 supplement along with each monthly supply of the Customized Meal Program.
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The holiday season is fast approaching. As we contemplate and plan for the days ahead, we think about family and friends, caring and sharing, and the table of plenty that awaits us at many family and social gatherings. All that wonderful, once-a-year food that might threaten to derail our new eating habits and the dreams for a new a healthier "me" that we are looking for.
When we become more worried about food than we are happy about the special days ahead, we could begin a cycle of stressful thinking that may be hard to overcome when we are immersed in the holiday festivities. Some of us fear that we will slip from our path and fall back on old habits and indulge ourselves to the point where the seasonal joy turns into regret. Knowing that the average person gains weight over the holiday season (New England Journal of Medicine, 2000), we wonder if we will become part of that statistical pattern, self-sabotaging all our hard work over the past weeks and months. We wonder, too, if our family and friends will understand our reluctance to partake of all the goodies that all too often become the "center piece" of a holiday event.
This is the time to have faith, both in yourself and your loved ones and in the plan that GenoVive has designed for you. Temptation has been around every corner, and you have managed to resist it. Although this time of year may include some formidable enticements to wander from your plan, a true test of your resolve, you can do it. The mistakes of the past can be a learning opportunity as you now understand the benefits of healthy eating. This can also be a time to develop new traditions for yourself - ones that incorporate your new habits and outlook.
As for your family, give them the opportunity to support your decision not to overindulge on holiday food. Ask that they respect your choices and not try to push food on you. Once they see that you are maintaining your resolve around your new eating habits, it will be easier for them to support your decisions. It may be beneficial if not wise to have the conversations with them prior to the events so no one feels trapped in the moment.
If you have a special question or problem regarding food during the holidays, please post it in the GenoVive Forum. We also want to hear from you who have developed successful strategies for remaining on plan during the holidays.
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Denise is a woman in her mid-thirties. She is well-educated, has a good job, a wonderful husband and child, and an underdeveloped view of love. Denise equates love with food, because that is how she was raised. She has always been a "big girl," and comes from a family of people who cook or eat to show their love. When she was a child, she was told, "Eat this and I’ll know you love me." Her father would say to her mother, "Show me some love – make those brownies for dessert." What may have been playful or well-meaning talk actually imprinted on Denise’s young mind as an undeniable truth. It’s easy to see why Denise came to think of food as love. It was used as reward, as punishment (negative reinforcement), and as affirmation.
Now that Denise has a family of her own, she is beginning to see that food is, after all, fuel for the body, not a display of love or affection. Food doesn’t love you back. It just is. It may give us pleasure and help us to connect to others. It might nourish us and the craft of cooking may provide us with a way to express ourselves. But it should never be a substitute for the direct and honest expression of emotions that might need to be relayed, whether they are love, hate, happiness, sadness, or anger. Love what you eat – do not eat to feel or show love. Food is just food.
Some of these things have occurred to Denise as she has recently begun to address her need for healthy eating and weight loss. She is exploring ways of changing her relationship with food and wonders how her changing attitude toward food will be received by her family and friends. She is experimenting with new ways of expressing her emotional needs for love and support or the expression of the same to others. She has been encouraged to introduce her change in thinking to the most trustworthy family members first without telling them what she thinks they might be doing wrong. She was encouraged to begin with a brief list of the unhealthy ways that she has used food and follow up with a brief introduction of how she would like to relate with food.
Once Denise has shared her new perspective with her family, she will find that it is possible to change lifelong habits. What she will come to understand is that she is advocating for her own life and health, and that the decisions that she makes concerning food will come from within, not from acquired habits. Denise loves her family, but she can love them just as well without serving up or eating the massive amounts of food that have kept her from being the person she has always wanted to be.
We all, at one time or another, use food as comfort, love, camouflage, and it is featured in a host of other roles. Through these blogs and a series of future articles, we will help to clarify the reasons we eat as well as methods to equip ourselves for facing these challenges without overeating. If you have a particular question or challenge you would like help with, please leave a comment below or post it on the Genovive Forum and we will respond the forum or you may see your issue or question used as a focal point for one of my blog articles.
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If you have ever been on a diet than you are probably used to looking closely at the fat content of the things you eat. You pay close attention because you have been told over and over again that fat is bad for you and will cause you to gain a lot of weight. The truth is not quite that simple. While fat has more calories per gram than both protein and carbohydrates, fat contains some essential components that the body needs.
The important thing to pay attention to when looking at food labels is not always the total grams of fat, but whether the fat contains saturated or trans fats. This is because these types of fats can have adverse health effects. Trans fats in particular are unhealthy because they raise the levels of LDL cholesterol, which can lead to coronary heart disease.
Many places in the U.S. have already banned the presence of trans fats in restaurants and fast food establishments, but trans fat can still be contained in items at the grocery store, so it is important to pay attention to food labels.
The balance of fat in relation to carbohydrates and protein is also an important thing to pay attention to. Fat should typically be the smallest source of calories in your diet, but this depends on the type of gene profile you have. A good way to determine how much fat to eat is to join a DNA diet program that will analyze your DNA and determine your proper macronutrient balance. Genovive can analyze your genetic code and provide you with just the right balance of macronutrients to help you stay healthy and lose weight. Your Customized Meal Program will contain the right types of fats (like Olive Oil and Omega-3s) and the right percentage of fats to help you achieve healthy weight loss.
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Reducing calorie intake is important to losing weight, but it is not the only important thing. A major component of losing weight and staying healthy is eating the right kind of foods, foods that are free from artificial chemicals and are as close to nature as possible. Below is a list of each macronutrient group and the way that our DNA diet makes it so each group contains the healthiest possible ingredients that will be effective for weight loss.
Carbohydrates – sources for carbohydrates feature whole grains that are high in fiber and have a low glycemic index. Foods with a low glycemic index break down less quickly during digestion and do not spike blood sugar levels the same way high glycemic index foods do. This is good for making people feel more satiated. High fiber is great for digestion and also helps people feel fuller without increasing the amount of calories consumed.
Protein – sources of protein come from lean hormone and antibiotic free meats, poultry and fish. Lean meats are a good source of protein because their reduced fat levels mean a decrease in calories consumed altogether. Protein sources are free from artificial chemicals not only because they can have adverse health effects, but because all natural meats free of chemicals have a much better taste.
Fat – sources of fat are rich in monounsaturated fat, such as olive oil and Omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3s are essential for metabolic functioning and can provide a wide variety of health benefits. Omega 3s are primarily found in fish but there are various other sources. Olive oil has a great flavor profile and can be used in a wide variety of recipes.
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Sandy was doing well on her diet until her mother became ill. When it became apparent that her mother would not survive her illness, Sandy found herself turning to food again and again to compensate for her loss. Her mother soon passed away and in the ensuing days, all Sandy could think about was the temptation to eat in ways that were unhealthy for her. Sandy’s initial reaction, overeating to try and change her reality is a common coping strategy for those who have been thrust into the grieving process. She became so focused on food that she was able to temporarily minimize the tremendous loss she had just suffered.
Once Sandy became aware that all the extra food was not helping her to cope with her mother’s death, she became angry - with herself over her loss of self-control, with her mother for leaving her, and with food, for making her feel so miserable. Her feelings were misplaced, though. Anger that a loved one has left you is commonly experienced in the grieving process. It is easy to try and numb those feelings with extra food as Sandy did, because anger at a person who is died is a helpless feeling and one that many of us find to be "unacceptable."
Sandy, in trying to find a way to cope with her feelings, bypassed the bargaining behaviors and started to use coping mechanisms to allay her grief without self-harm associated with eating more food than she needed to be healthy. She started a journal, noting her feelings each day, and began to meditate, focusing on visualization techniques. She decided to dedicate herself to her renewed diet commitment as a tribute to her mother’s memory.
Fortunately for Sandy her family and loved ones rallied to her side when she let them know that she was in trouble with her diet and needed support to return to her commitment to health. She continued to experience mood fluctuations: short-tempered one day and weepy the next, but the support she allowed others to render, coupled with the sense of order and structure that her diet and exercise plan provided, helped her to avoid prolonged periods of depressed moods. Sandy was able to accept all the help she needed and continue her grief recovery toward acceptance in part because she had stopped trying to fill the hole created by her mother’s death with excess food.
Sandy came to accept the loss of her mother as a turning point in her life. She began to take ownership for her life and her actions and was able to move forward with the changes she wanted for herself. Once Sandy was able to separate the two relationships, she found it easy to remain on her diet and nurture the positive memories of the time she had with her mom.
You are encouraged to submit the life challenges you have or are facing that have or might currently be threatening your dieting success in the Genovive Forum so we can share your success with other or respond to the questions you present. We are here.
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Mankind has been journaling since the Ice Age to communicate the stories of life or so some scientists believe. While you and I might never know what motivated them to relate their experiences on cave walls, we can be sure that they went to great pains to do so.
The stories of life now fill the libraries of the world with countless tales about what the authors found important or meaningful to communicate. Like the drawing of the cave people, most of us will never know what inspired the words that were selected for publication.
The words that you choose to share in your daily journal entries may be inspired by emotional distress, a longing for change, or a celebration of what is good about life. Regardless of the content or the motivation for your notes to yourself the potential for reward is endless. You will experience catharsis, gain insight into what makes you tick, identify the patterns of self-defeating behaviors so you can change them, and begin to develop a more positive mind set, as I have, whether you were looking for one or not.
Some 40 years ago I journaled to rid myself of pent up emotion that might have caused great harm to my relationships if I spoke it before I wrote it. My thinking would repeatedly become as gray as my surroundings or as negative as my outlook on life. I enjoyed many benefits from journal writing and had far fewer apologies to make because of my learned habit of writing what I was thinking about before I talked about it or acted on it. I returned to daily journaling a few years ago when some family health problems were threatening my emotional security.
My return to journaling was like rediscovering an old friend that I had learned to use instead of my quick wit and, at times, biting cynicism, which I brandished like a sword. The practice of journaling was familiar to me so I took to it like a duck to water but it quickly lost its value. After several weeks I was about to abandon the time of reflection because it lacked the power to promote insight and relief that it did in days gone by.
Fortunately I was reminded that my journaling, in the past, was usually shared with those I cared for or trusted and I had been limiting the benefit by failing to share it with others. When I included that missing piece by sharing my journal reflections with my spouse the benefits began to flow.
The second ten minutes introduced at the conclusion of the September 21, 2001 post entitled Making Time To Journal is intended to help you optimize the benefit that you derive from the writing process. Your selection of the person to entrust with your journal thoughts is important but not nearly as important as the format for that disclosure. Make it clear from the outset that you are not necessarily looking for input from the other person in the form of advice or direction. If your trusted recipient chooses to share personal experience, strength, or hope, that is a plus but not required. Make an effort to keep the dialogue at 20 minutes tops.
Alright you caught me. I told you it was going to be ten minutes of writing and ten minutes of sharing your reflections with another but that would deprive the other person of opportunity to benefit as well from the process.
So what you are looking at is 30 minutes of every day to examine your life, a day at a time, that could return on your investment many times over. It will certainly be less time consuming than what we spend when we are lamenting over an extra piece of cake or weight increase.
Future articles will introduce alternate journaling strategies. If you have any questions or would like to reflect on your experience with journaling please post your thought on the Genovive Forum or leave a comment below. We would love to hear from you.
PS. The time you spend posting your thoughts on the Forum does not count toward your thirty minutes of self-care. 
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When people are focused on weight loss, they often create a list of good foods and bad foods in their mind. They view sticking to a diet as successfully avoiding the bad foods by eating only the good ones. But whether something is a good food or a bad food is under a lot of debate among nutrition professionals and the public. This is because what is good or bad for one person is not necessarily good or bad for another. An effective way for anyone to figure out what foods are best for healthy living and weight loss is to analyze their genetic makeup, which is exactly what DNA diets do.
GenoVive recognizes that different people require different macronutrient balances. This way, there is really no need to wonder if the foods you are eating are good or bad because dieticians and food scientists trained in nutrigenomics have already done it for you. The home delivered meals in GenoVive’s DNA diet will also be delicious because they use all natural ingredients.
There are some types of foods that everyone should try and avoid. These are the foods that are heavily treated by chemicals such as pesticides, hormones and preservatives that can be harmful to the body. The general rule for food is the further away from Mother Nature it is the worse it gets for you. This is especially important on a diet because you want to stay healthy while you are losing weight. Home delivered meal programs that are free from artificial chemicals can make it easier to stay healthy while losing weight, because the research and selection process has been completed.
Knowing what’s in your DNA will make it easier to select the foods that work best for you.
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Technology is a great thing and the advances in food science have created some very beneficial outcomes such as higher crop yield, pest-free foods, and an alternative to pesticides. But while food scientists continue to innovate in production, functionality, and formulation, it is consumers’ perceptions that matter most. Let government and industry debate the merits of the latest technology. It is still consumers who ultimately win the argument. Natural food choices are always the best choice, but sometimes modified foods are the only option.
Hormones
Take hormones, for example. For years, producers have primarily used substances such as bovine growth hormone and bovine and pork somatropin to increase milk supply, provide leaner meat, prevent animal disease, and thereby increase supplies and profits. From a health standpoint, producers can achieve lower fat content, which can lessen consumers’ cardiovascular risks.
However, there is concern that residual hormone content can be found in trace amounts in meats, milks and cheeses, and some studies indicate that may lead to increased risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers. Armed with that kind of information, consumers start to perceive that that the risk of added hormones is not worth the benefits, a sentiment that cannot be reversed even if evidence of risk were refuted.
As a result, more and more companies, including such well-known names as Kroger Foods, Stonyfield Farms, Publix, HP Hood, Organic Valley and Safeway Dairy Group, have shifted to hormone-free dairy production, more as a response to consumer concerns than any new findings that these hormones are harmful.
Irradiation
Another modification technology, irradiation, preserves food by exposing it to radiation and killing micro-organisms and other pathogens. At lower doses, it may also delay the ripening of fruits and the maturity of vegetables. Irradiation is used in low, medium or high dosage levels depending on the intended purpose and is set by the Codex Alimentus guidelines.
As with many other food modification methods, the FDA regulates irradiation and actually mandates it for certain foods, though critics say this may just be a way to hide poor quality in certain fresh foods. The most common applications are grains, fruits, vegetables and meats such as beef, lamb and pork. The FDA requires any irradiated food to carry a Radura symbol, which resembles a flower enclosed within a circle. Unfortunately, most consumers are not familiar with it, and oftentimes the symbol is difficult to find.
In contrast, several European countries have laws against irradiating food, which leaves American consumers to wonder what Europeans are aware of that the Americans are not, especially when they have few alternates because such a large percentage of food is irradiated.
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You have probably been hearing more and more lately about the importance of protein and why you should be eating more of it. The reason for this is simple; protein is the most abundant molecule in the body second to water. Protein is a part of every cell and organ and it is essential for growing and maintaining the body. Eating enough protein is important for improving muscle mass, which is great for losing weight. Muscle tissue contains the fat burning furnaces that keep our metabolism going, so it’s important to eat enough protein to maintain and build muscle. Now that we know this, what are some good ways to get more protein in our diets?
An issue that some people have is that many great sources of protein also come with a lot of fat. For example, hamburgers and steak contain loads of protein but their fat content is much too high for people looking to keep their calorie intake low. If you like beef, look for leaner cuts of beef behind the meat counter or ask the butcher to trim it for you. You should also ask the butcher if the meat is hormone and antibiotic free, which is just one of the benefits of the foods used in GenoVive’s Customized Meal Program.
If you’re looking for sources of protein that are naturally lower in fat, there are many options to choose from. One example is lentils. Lentils have 18 grams of protein per cup and they are great for making soups. Fat free yogurt can also be a good protein option, especially Greek style yogurt which has about 20 grams per cup (depending on the variety). And if you’re on the go, you can take one of GenoVive’s Protein Plus bars with you for the taste of your favorite dessert: chocolate chip, peanut butter cookie, or double chocolate brownie.
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Dieting is an area people tend to get confused; they either don’t understand the concept or they jump on the treadmill of yo-yo dieting. Fad diets that eliminate one type of nutrient (low fat/low carb) or focus exclusively on a special food (grapefruit diet) fail to take into consideration the balance of nutritional needs of your body. They may provide a short term loss, but they usually plateau well before your ultimate goal. You will also likely gain the weight back and sometimes you’ll gain more than you lost.
Diet vs. Dieting
While following a fad diet (i.e. dieting) is not a good way to lose weight, changing our eating habits (i.e. healthy eating) is an important part of a healthy weight loss plan. You need to change your lifestyle and that includes what, how much and when you eat and drink.
Fats and Proteins
Fat and protein still have a bad rap today. Many diets look only at the calories they provide. Both fats and proteins have more calories per gram than carbohydrates. That is an undeniable fact. But they also contain vital amino acids, proteins and other building blocks that your body cannot grow without. Your body does not break the fat and protein down for energy unless there is more building blocks than it needs. So the caloric content of fat and protein is not the most important fact to consider.
Carbs
The pendulum of dieting has begun to swing back in the anti-carb direction. There is ample evidence to show that carbohydrates, while having less calories per gram, are often a major culprit in weight gain. Excessive carbohydrates will go directly to fat storage but that doesn’t mean that it is healthy to eliminate all carbs. You also need to learn the difference between simple and complex carbs and how they affect your body.
It’s About Balance
Often people will say “If less is good, none is better.” While this may be true for toxic waste and bowling on TV, it isn’t true for any of the food components. You also need to keep in mind that not all fats (nor all carbohydrates for that matter) are good for you. Some will affect your health negatively and are best to be avoided. Just don’t fall into the trap of eliminating all fat/protein/carbohydrate from your diet. Your body needs all of them at the right balance.
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Humans and animals have been eating fruit long before the invention of modern agriculture brought about the food culture we have today. In fact, plants evolved over millions of years to bear edible fruit so that animals would distribute their seeds when they ate it. This symbiotic relationship has great value for both animals and plants. Animals get to sustain themselves and plants get the benefit of having their seeds spread over a much wider area than they would ever be able to on their own.
Thankfully, fruits are not only delicious but healthy too. If you have a sweet tooth and you haven’t been able to think of a good solution to satisfy it, then consider adding more fruit to your diet. Fruits are full of natural sugars, vitamins and fiber. When choosing what type of fruit to eat, it’s best to keep your individual metabolic needs in mind. For example, if your Weight Management Genetic Profile report indicates a Carbohydrate Optimized program for you, then select fruits with a low to moderate amount of carbohydrates such as: strawberries, blueberries, apples, nectarines, papaya, peaches, cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon.
Selecting new fruits to try can be fun. Visit a farmers market and discover the various treats that local farmers are selling. You may be surprised to find out what kind of fruit is being grown right next door to you. Incorporating local fruit into your weight loss plan is not only a great way to help you successfully lose weight, but it also helps the local community. Buying fruit you are not really familiar with will also give you lots of ideas for new dishes you can cook at home.
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There are probably as many ways to journal as there are diets to promote weight loss and healthy eating. The revolutionary Genovive approach to weight loss matches your body’s needs to the food you eat. The model you use for monitoring your emotional well being through journaling should also be tailored to your life experiences and the demands on your time.
The model proposed herein will not impose a "one size fits all" template for you to use even if there really was a best approach. There is no "right" approach. The right approach will be the one that you can remain committed to and that will generate emotional relief and awareness. Journaling will be an effective tool for emotional release and self-awareness if it follows the course of your life.
The first step in developing a personalized journal is to examine your daily routine and identify the best time of day for you to spend 10 minutes examining the emotional or situational events of your life, and another 10 minutes per day either reflecting on what you have written or sharing your discoveries with a trusted friend or confidant.
Once you have selected the two 10 minute blocks of time that you will set aside for your self care, we will start with a simple prompt: What situation or event has had the greatest emotional impact on you during the past 24 hours? You do not have to write about every incident in your day and you do not need to provide every detail regarding the situation that occurred or the people involved.
Spend 10 minutes every 24 hours to describe the event that has emotionally impacted you the most. It does not need to be particularly dramatic or traumatic. You will know which event or circumstance to write about when you ask yourself the question. What event or set of circumstances impacted me emotionally in a comfortable or uncomfortable way during the past 24 hours? Do not think hard about what you want to say and there are no points off for spelling or grammar!
Once you have written for 10 minutes you are finished. You are free to share it with someone if you like but it is not required yet. It might actually be better if you spend the first week just writing for 10 minutes every day so you learn how to get comfortable with the free writing and the discipline of taking a little quite time for yourself every day.
I know that you thinking, "I know what he is up to, it starts with 10 minutes and he will want more and more before we are done." You’re right; I will be looking for more, another 10 minutes a day to reflect on or share your discoveries. Do not worry about the time investment though, because in a matter of weeks you will begin to have much more time available to you. Your journaling will help you to avoid problems that might ordinarily have cost you hours of regret and disappointment. For sure it will be 20 minutes a day where you will not be eating or doing things you might want to overeat about later.
Subsequent articles will provide additional elements for designing a personal model for effective journaling. If you have questions or reactions, please post them on the Genovive Forum.
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Different people eat for different reasons. In some cultures, people eat for any reason. In my large Italian family, we eat to celebrate success and commiserate over failure. We eat to rejoice new life and grieve death. We eat because we’re happy or because we’re sad. We eat and we eat and we eat on any given occasion. We eat to express our emotions. When my family comes together, we eat to express our happiness, sadness, or a range of other emotions.
But this is not always the way things are in every family. In other households I have witnessed big meals that are made so people do not have to engage in conversation. Or even worse, when conversations are started at the dinner table, they can become elevated arguments or a tirade by the alpha family member and younger family members will keep their heads down in their plates so as not to engage in the discourse.
In still other families, a meal everyday could be an unexpected treat, so when food is available, they tend to gorge themselves on what is available in that moment, regardless of whether they are hungry or not, because the individuals do not know when the next meal is coming.
Above are three different examples of why people may eat and none of those reasons were about an individual being hungry. Again, let me ask you, why do you eat?
Eating either to express or suppress emotions can be an unhealthy, even dangerous, practice. When we eat to stuff our feelings, we give little thought to what we are putting in our bodies because the center of our thinking is to make hurt or anger or fear go away. We’re not paying attention to the quality of what goes into our mouths, only the quantity, because we believe that eating will take our minds off our problems. We do not want to dismiss those times when food really did help. When my children were sick, they always got a ‘special meal’ to soothe them, or a dish of ice cream to help them get over a fifth grade crush. But we need to be certain that we are not using food as a substitute for our feelings or honest communication.
The next time you want to reach for the potato chips, think about why you want to eat. Is your hunger physical or emotional? If you are actually hungry for food, why not get a healthy snack that will nourish your body rather than adding empty, fat-filled calories.
If you recognize that you are eating as a substitute for an unwanted emotion, reach for the phone instead. Call your mother or your daughter or your best friend. Let them know you need to express some feelings that are eating away at you and ask for their help. Eating does not have to be a crutch to help you through a bad night. It can be a healthy, happy experience, all the more so if you trust in your friends and/or family to be a vital part of your support system.
If you do not have those supportive resources available to you please feel free to post your concerns or challenges on the GenoVive Forum.
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Dietary Minerals are the compounds that are required for the body to complete its many processes effectively. Most of these dietary minerals come from the food we eat but since a lot of us lack the complete dietary spectrum many supplements are available to take. If you take a look at this list you can find a basic list of dietary minerals that contribute to weight loss!
- Chlorides, such as common salt are a major factor in the production of digestive juices, and are vital to nerve and cell function.
- Calcium is well known to be necessary for strong bones and teeth but it’s also essential in blood clotting, nervous and hormone functions
- Iron is principally used to transport oxygen around the body in the blood and is also essential for cell growth.
- Iodine is only needed in small amounts but is vital in the processes regulating body temperature, growth and metabolism.
- Magnesium forms a large part of the bones but is present throughout the body helping muscles to work, aiding the immune system, allowing nerve function and helping control the heart rhythm.
- Copper is essential for building blood vessels, tendons and cartilage, it is needed for bones and it is important in processing iron.
- Zinc is also used in many chemical reactions in the body, it is necessary for growth and a healthy immune system, and it is largely responsible for our sense of smell and taste.
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Thermogenesis in a nutshell is the scientific term for heat production. When we eat our body temperature rises and produces an increase in the rate of our metabolic activity which really means it speed sup our metabolism. Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fat all produce a different and unique effect of thermogenesis and thus a ratio of the three that produces the most heat means your body will burn more calories off as heat. Carbohydrates and proteins create the greatest effect on thermogenesis and the greatest metabolic reactions.
When we eat protein up to one-fifth of its energy is wasted as heat. Carbohydrate consumption also causes thermogenesis; between 10 and 15 % is used up from heat production. If you ate a meal composed of mainly protein and carbohydrates you would have a combined “energy loss” of around 15 percent! If you ate 100 calories from protein and carbohydrates around 15 calories would be lost through heat.
On the other hand, fat produces a very small thermic effect, as little as 3 percent of its energy is lost through heat production. If you ate 100 calories as fat only 3 calories will be burned off as heat. This is another benefit to eating low fat style when trying to lose weight.
The 60 – 20 – 20 ratio helps produce a high rate of thermogenesis if this ratio is roughly applied to every meal. The 60 – 20 – 20 ratio is also a simple and easy one to remember. It does not have to be strict and accurate as long as it is around those figures, for example if it went to 58 – 24 – 18 for carbohydrates, protein and fats respectively then this would still be fine. To help achieve this macronutrient ratio in a much more practical manner then use the following idea:
Make sure each meal contains about two-thirds as a carbohydrate source and one-third as a protein source. The fat amount will automatically fill in somewhere between 15 – 25 percent which will still be fine.
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Let me introduce you to Anne, who has struggled with her weight for many years. She is married to a great guy, Joe, who adores her. He also happens to be as thin as he was in college, can eat anything he wants, whenever he wants, and never gains weight. Needless to say, he does not understand what his wife goes through to try to lose weight. Joe compounds the problem by constantly bringing home ”sweets for his sweet” to let Anne know how much he loves her just the way she is. He munches on junk food all evening and urges Anne to take “just a little bite.” What he’s really doing is sabotaging her success without really knowing it. He has heard from her many times that she does not want him restricting his eating because of “her problem.” It is possible that Joe is feeling uncomfortable eating junk food in front of her and thinks that the solution to his discomfort is going to be found in helping Anne eat in moderation the way he does.
Anne is not just trying to lose weight so that she’ll be more attractive to Joe. Her primary goal is to get healthy and restructure her eating habits so that she will stay that way. What she really needs is Joe’s unconditional support but has probably not communicated what that “unconditional support” is.
Being a supportive partner is not an easy task. Joe obviously doesn’t know how to do that, so it is up to Anne to let him know how he can best give her the emotional help she needs. Anne knows that she is loved, but what she also needs Joe to do is to respect her decisions and her choices regarding her diet. The first thing Joe needed to learn from Anne was to stop bringing home all those tempting goodies. Eventually Anne will learn how to manage her eating, but for now, out of sight, out of mind was what she needed to feel secure. He would learn, with her guidance, how to help Anne to celebrate her weight loss milestones with non-food celebrations, and be kind when she is struggling through a plateau stage.
Joe did not understand that that Anne wanted to feel proud of herself and that his pride in her was a beginning but not enough to fulfill her desire for self confidence. Once Joe is able to take food out of the equation, he will find countless ways to express his love for his wife while helping her to achieve her goals. She did not need food rewards but she did need his support only she did not know how to relate her needs.
If the story of this couple sounds familiar, it may be similar to what is going on in your household too. Many of us have loving partners who want to be supportive; they just may not be supporting us in the healthiest way, such as bringing us unhealthy snacks. Note that Joe was trying to find a way to tell Anne that he loves who she is. Also, it is clear that Anne knows exactly what she needs from Joe to be supported at this time, yet she was not communicating her needs to him. Trying to change lifelong habits is not easy and does not happen overnight. Being self-sufficient can limit our success. Having an open and honest dialogue with those who support you not only increases your chance of success, but it also honors your relationship in two ways. First, being honest about your needs takes away possible assumptions and mixed messages. This allows you to receive the support you need and your partner can feel their best for being able to support you. Also, open communication builds trust in each other and the relationship. Remember, your partner and friends want to help; sometimes they just don’t know how. Be honest and even blunt if need be. When you do not speak your mind, you are expecting others to read yours and that is not fair to anyone, maybe even a little self-sabotaging. Kick off your journey to a healthy new you the right way! Talk to your partner and friends today about helping you stay successful.
My clinical practice with couples and families has taught me a great many lessons about the ways that romantic and familiar partnerships can support an individual’s plan for weight loss and healthy eating. If you would like to hear more about those lessons please present your questions or specific issues through the GenoVive Forum.
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If find yourself eating when the clock suggests that you should not be hungry yet, perhaps you are eating to change the way you feel. While we may not be aware of what emotional issue or challenge gave rise to the hunger thought, we should not dismiss the idea that we could be eating to change the way that we feel and not because we are hungry.
We will be exploring the challenges associated with the habit of eating to alter moods in future articles in our blog category entitled, What’s Eating You? For now it is important to begin introducing tools for replacing “comfort foods” with success strategies that “create comfort” because we feel successful. The first step in developing the ability to interrupt and change unhealthy habits is to understand what is triggering or motivating them in the first place.
Many of us live in such a fast-paced life style that unfortunately, we do not find the time to question what we are feeling until we step from the scale feeling miserable. The first tool that we will be introducing into your success kit is journaling.
Journaling can be a great form of emotional release that can clear our thinking and reveal strategies for change that had not been obvious to us. Some of us make it a practice to journal on a daily basis to keep track of the way that we respond to the emotional challenges that life brings.
When we monitor the way that we cope with distress through journaling, we begin to see patterns in the behaviors of others that we need to address or avoid, as well as coping strategies we are using that have become ineffective.
When we do the same things over and over again, expecting that the results are going to be different, we generally find that something inside of us needs to change. If we wait for others to change or for situations to resolve themselves in order for us to feel better, it can be a long and painful journey that results in many painful moments on the bathroom scale.
Subsequent articles will follow that will model the components for effective journaling. If you have questions or reactions post them on the GenoVive Forum.
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In the history of the evolution of humans there were two factors that affected us: feast and famine. Our ancestors were either eating to their heart’s content or starving to death. Thus our bodies developed into a way that allowed us to store as much fat as possible during the feast times that would hold us over for the inevitable starving times. This is how we as a species survived and prospered. We also developed enzymes and peptides that told us when to eat and when not to eat.
There are a few huge factors that will determine if we lose weight easily or with great difficulty: genetics, race, ethnicity, and age. Almost 70% of a person’s body mass is determined strictly through genetics and the rest, 30%, is determined by the environment around us. For example, having obese parents nearly doubles the chances that their children will become obese at some point in their lives. There are about 400 genes responsible for weight determination. Genes contribute to obesity by affecting appetite, our sense of fullness, metabolism, food cravings, body-fat distribution, and the tendency to use eating as a way to cope with stress.. Being genetically predisposed to weight gain does not automatically mean that you will become obese. Research suggests that for some people, genes account for just 25% of the predisposition to be overweight, while for others the genetic influence is as high as 70% to 80%. Your eating habits and level of physical exercise are major factors in the amount of weight you gain.
Studies have shown that a peptide called Leptin may play a pivotal role in obesity. We all have a “set point” with regard to weight. Our bodies like to maintain weight in a specific range. Leptin is part of that set point mechanism. If you reduce your body weight by 10%, leptin is reduced by as much as 53%. This turns on NPY in the hypothalamus, which increases your desire to eat. If you increase your body weight by 10%, leptin increases by 300%, shutting down your desire to eat. Postmenopausal women have less leptin than premenopausal women and more NPY, making them want to eat more. Some heavy-set people have high levels of leptin, but have developed an insensitivity to it so their desire to eat continues unabated.
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Meat and dairy foods play a pivotal role in popular western diets. Most diets consistently recommend you drink at least two glasses of milk per day and consume a good portion of red meats, which will ultimately lead to healthy bones and lean muscle mass. Unfortunately, many people are unaware of the chemicals and hormones that reside in the food they eat. Both beef and milk contain high levels of chemicals you definitely want to avoid.
The true and ugly fact of beef and milk production in the United States is that most large producers use harmful growth hormones to promote maximum production. The use of these hormones has been under constant attack and surveillance from many government officials because of the harm the cause not only to the animals but also to the people who eat them. Even with the intense scrutiny from a large and growing number of consumers and scientists, the USDA and even the FDA have given consent for the use of six different growth hormones for beef production and an additional one for milk production.
Controversy also surrounds the fact that there are no labeling requirements in the U.S. for growth hormones in food. A recent study making a strong environmental case for the controversial cattle injections, has added a new twist to the debate. The growth hormone debate is centered on four main issues: who benefits from these growth hormones; animal health and welfare; food safety and environmental concerns.
Conventional — These come without specialty designations. The cattle might have been fed corn and other grains on an industrial feedlot, even if it started out on grass. Grain is used in the place of grass as it is quicker and cheaper, and translates into a faster turnaround and higher profits. However, grains are tough on the digestive system of cows and make them vulnerable to sickness. The cows then require antibiotics. They are also routinely given growth hormones.
USDA Certified Organic – The cattle is raised on grass or grain-based feed that does not contain animal by-products. These animals are not given antibiotics (unless required by a veterinarian, and then the animal loses organic status) or growth hormones. To address animal welfare concerns, cattle are raised in conditions “which allow for exercise, freedom of movement, and reduction of stress appropriate to the species” and “access to pasture”.
Grass Fed or Pasture Finished – These cattle are raised only on grass or hay, no grain. Studies indicate that grass-fed beef contains higher levels of Omega-3 essential fatty acids than conventional beef.
No Hormones/No Antibiotics — The USDA allows this label for growers who provide documentation, but they do not check up on the claims. “Hormone free” and “antibiotic free” are not USDA approved descriptions but are used to describe meat and poultry that were not given or raised with hormones or antibiotics.
The diets consumed by our ancestors were higher in whole grains and also meats, but our bodies were not designed to effectively and efficiently metabolize the substances contained in growth hormones and antibiotics. So make the extra effort to actively seek out clean sources of lean protein from hormone free and antibiotic free meats.
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The popularity of dieting has caused a lot of food companies to jump on the diet bandwagon without actually providing healthy food. You can see this reality all over the grocery store. Labels like reduced fat, fat free and all natural appear to be healthy options for losing weight, but their appearance can be deceiving. Fat is not the only component in a diet that can cause someone to gain weight, and all natural is not a regulated term. This means that some companies can and will slap it on their labels even if the ingredients in their products are not natural.
The fat free craze of the 1990’s was a good example of this phenomenon. Companies would release snack foods with the label fat free on them, and while this was true, the snacks were loaded with sugar, high fructose corn syrup and salt in order to boost the flavor profile. Large amount of fats in the diet are not healthy, but neither are high amounts of sugar and sodium. These choices appeared to be healthy for people looking to lose weight, but often customers would find that they would gain weight while mostly staying away from fat in these foods. They didn’t realize that processed sweeteners can have equally as disastrous effect on weight gain as fats do.
These packaged and processed foods also contain a high amount of chemicals that may be unhealthy for the body. The only way to find these chemicals is to look closely at the ingredients on the box. Companies are not required to list things like growth hormones, antibiotics, preservatives, artificial coloring/dyes, nitrates and sulfites anywhere but the fine print ingredient list. This can make these chemicals easy to miss. Some foods like protein bars and frozen dinners claiming to be healthy can be loaded with chemicals like these. It is important to be discerning when doing your grocery shopping by looking closely at the ingredient list of every food product you buy.
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Exercise has enormous benefits for losing weight. Diet is very important, but when combined with proper exercise; your body can turn into a fat burning machine. Proper exercise contains two proper components, cardiovascular training and strength resistance training. When combined, you will lose weight while gaining strength and endurance. The more fit you get the more inclined you will be to keep exercising. This will provide an upward spiral to getting in shape and reaching your ideal weight.
Cardiovascular exercise is important for strengthening the heart and burning calories. There are tons of different options for this type of training. You can jog outside or use equipment in your home or gym such as treadmills and elliptical machines. You can play active sports like basketball, soccer or certain types of martial arts. You can follow workout videos in the privacy of your home. You can also join aerobic or dance classes. These have the benefit of building certain muscles while also getting an aerobic workout. You should choose the option that you are most interested in so that you can stick with it in the long run.
Strength resistance exercises help build muscles, which increase metabolic activity. Basically, the more muscle you have the more calories your body will have to burn to maintain those muscles. This has obvious benefits for weight loss. There are plenty of different options available for strength resistance training. You can go the traditional route by lifting free weights in a gym or at home; but be careful, make sure you know the proper technique from a trainer or knowledgeable partner before attempting to lift. You can also use weight machines which don’t require a spotter but offer less overall benefits. You can even use resistance machines that you often find advertised on television. Anything that helps increase muscle mass will ultimately be beneficial in the weight loss process.
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While some unhealthy foods are disguised as products that are supposed to be healthy, very many healthy foods are under the disguise of great flavor and satisfaction. A great myth has been perpetrated in American culture that unhealthy foods taste good and healthy ones don’t. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, healthy foods often taste much better than their unhealthy counterparts because they are loaded with things that the body craves. The key to finding great tasting healthy food is knowing where to look.
Fresh fruits and vegetables are very well known for being healthy, but many people don’t look at these foods beyond their raw, sometimes unappealing state. When they are prepared properly you may even forget that you are eating fruits and vegetables because of the wonderful flavors and textures. For example, you can get frappe drinks full of fruit that contain vitamin C, Lycopene, antioxidants and Resveratrol, the beneficial component of red wine. Vegetables can be roasted or grilled to bring out their delicious flavors and textures. They can be mixed with whole grain pastas to mimic full and hearty pasta you might get at a restaurant.
Meat and other sources of protein can be more ambiguous sources of healthy food. When it comes to meat, eating healthy means buying products that are free from antibiotics and hormones. Natural grass fed beef is the healthiest kind of beef, but it is also the most delicious. Fish is a delicious source of good fats and proteins. The omega 3 fatty acids contained within fish are said to help reduce inflammation in the body and may also be responsible lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. Roasted or grilled fish with fresh vegetables is an immensely satisfying and delicious meal full of all the compounds and nutrients the body needs to stay healthy and fit.
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Please consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program. The information provided in this blog is not intended to prevent, diagnose or treat any medical condition and should not replace the advice of your physician.
DISCLAIMER
Please consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program. The information provided by GenoVive and contained in this website is not intended to prevent, diagnose or treat any medical condition and should not replace the advice of your physician. If you experience pain or physical difficulties while eating a reduced calorie diet or during exercise, please stop and contact your physician immediately. Admin.
