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New Year, New Habits

Here are my easy ways to break bad eating habits and to also:

• Burn unwanted fat
• Boost your mood
• Lose weight AND keep it off!

By: Angie Weston

PART 1

Eat smaller size meals
A lot of people these days have bad eating habits; one of them is eating too much at one time. I myself have been guilty of doing this for many years due to lack of knowledge on correct portion size of meals. Not because I was greedy but because I didn't know an on one told me. I found out myself that the body doesn't need that much food for it to function healthily when I decided to fast for 2 weeks. We assume that our bodies need to eat all the food the restaurant serves us or what our Mamma feeds us at dinner on Sunday is the correct amount to eat. Maybe a sumo wrestler but definitely not for us who want a slim, sexy, hot body!

Over-sizing meals doesn't mean you have to be eating for Africa or to have 15 pork pies for lunch, it could be just simply eating extra bit of chicken you shouldn't have or one too many slices of cheesecake. Our eyes and stomach have become accustomed to large and super-sized meals that fool our bodies to think that's how much we need to eat. It is reported that our nation is getting fatter and fatter and studies show that 40% of people are already obese and if we continue to eat the way we are, in 40years 100% of people will be obese, and that means everyone! We have to renew our minds and get common knowledge on behind the foods we are eating and replace bad habits with good habits.

After all, we eat so we can live, NOT live so we can eat. Our bodies are very clever, when our stomach has enough food it sends message to the brain telling us to stop eating, it's our very own build in alarm system. But do we listen to it? No. we look at our full plate of food saying "just got to fit one more spoon full in my mouth". We have to start listening to our bodies, it's really that simple.

Here are some reasons why smaller is better:

Once you start to over eat (even if it's just a little) your stomach expands and it accommodates to that amount of food so that the next you eat is has already stretched and adjusted to the new larger size. If it's not fed the same amount of food the stomach thinks it's still hungry and will want more food until it's full. Haven't you ever wondered why sometimes when you eat you're not hungry but you could eat forever? That's because the stomach has been stretched from overeating. To shrink it back to the size it should be, you must control the size of each meal and to re-train your mind (and eyes too) to stop eating when you are full.

The body can only digest and break down a certain amount of food at one time, what the body doesn't use after it has broken it down will be stored as fat. A common mistake we make is thinking we can get away with eating as much as we want as long as it's fat free. Big mistake, trust me, I've tried it with chicken breaks, broccoli and egg whites and all I got was a swollen belly and serious gas. Too much of a good thing is not always good.

The other reason not to over eat is that it plays havoc on your digestive system. Too much food will take the body a lot longer to digest which will cause bloating and indigestion, it also leads to mood swings and will affect your emotions.

Over eating also causes constipation, be prepared to carry your food around your stomach for a couple of days when you eat too much, there's no getting away with it, and you will be bunged up. Broccoli is one of the best foods to help with digestion, it acts as a natural laxative and helps flush out what your body doesn't need.

I take LA Muscle Diet Cleanse every night to help get rid of any blocked foods and by morning my system is completely flushed out. I highly recommend this product, it works like magic!

I've solved this over sized meal problem recently by buying food scales and now I weigh all of my foods. I know exactly how much I need to eat and my stomach has become used to the sizes of my meals so I don't over eat and I don't under eat. Simple changes in your habits are all it takes to make a big difference and now I don't leave home without my food scales. Even when I travel they come with me along with my George Forman grill. It's true what they say about us ladies, we bring everything but the kitchen sink!

Don't forget the breakfast
The most important meal of the day as we all know is breakfast, but still so many of us skip this meal or have a coffee to go and wonder why they are so moody  and ready to faint by noon. The body is a very simple and a non complicated machine, if you don't feed it, it won't move anywhere. It really is as simple as that.

When you wake up from your sleep you are basically coming out of a fast, your body hasn't eaten for hours and is looking for its next meal. Just for the body to be able to move and for the brain to function properly it needs food. It is important you give your body, mind and the other vital organs enough food so they can function throughout the day.

Start your day with clean complex carbohydrates like: porridge, oats, wheat-a-bix, muesli, potatoes and my favourite- yam (similar to potatoes). Don't forget to add in your protein to help build muscles for that hard and sexy body. Stick to lean protein such as chicken or turkey breast, tuna (in spring water if canned) egg whites with 1 egg yolk and/or amino acids. To loose body fat it's important to keep your meals small and clean (meaning no fat). So ban all microwave meals, sugary cereals, canned meat and beans (which are full of chemicals, preservatives and hidden sugars) and stay away from all condiments.

Instead, exchange sugar for honey, heave fresh fruits on your cereal or muesli like banana, raisins, kiwi, mango and any berries. Fruits are great and they satisfy the sweet tooth and don't give you a high sugar rush which means no more mood swings. Another tip is to exchange bacon and sausage for turkey rashes which taste the same and are 99% fat free.

These clean foods will get your energy levels up, curb your appetite until your next meal, kick start your metabolism and will boost your mood because your body is fed and your mind is alert.

So don't be a silly sausage, fill up your tanks and get your mind and body ready for a good day!

Don't super-size your evening meal
Eating a large meal before sleeping is a big NO NO, especially if you're trying to loose fat and/or maintain your weight. We think if we go to sleep on a full belly it will help us to have a good night rest but it's totally the opposite. To get a good night sleep your body and mind must be totally relaxed and raiding your fridge just before you hit the pillow is just asking for trouble.

Here are some reasons:
After a busy day your body should be recuperating and resting at night, eating a large meal late will interfere with your body's own natural sleeping pattern and you will be tossing and turning reducing the right amount of sleep you should be having.

Not only will your sleep be affected but it does no favours to your digestive system which shouldn't be working overtime at night. Your body will still be trying to digest and process the huge amount of food from the night before so by the time you wake up you will feel sluggish, heavy and with an extended belly, that's fine if you want to look pregnant but not for those who want a flat, washboard stomach in the morning (and depending on what you ate you will be constipated too). Not a great start to the day!

Give your body enough time to process your meal, allow your food to be digested before you sleep so have dinner about 4-5 hours before you sleep (it takes the body about 5 hours to digest food).

My golden rule is to never eat after 6pm and I've stuck to it by training my body into the habit and now it's normal to me. The only time I might eat late is if I have a late photo shoot or competing at a competition and even then I won't eat after 8pm. I'm very strict with this habit, I used to pig out on KFC and Chinese in my bed while I was sleeping, and boy did I Pay for it in the morning! So I've learnt my lesson on this one already. It will take a bit of time for your body to adjust to a new routine but you will get used to it in no time. You can replace any old and bad habits with new and good ones.

Don't eat complex carbohydrates for your last meal; they are too heavy so stay away from potatoes, rice, pasta, oats, bread and all pastries late at night. Have these foods for breakfast and/or lunch so your body can use them for energy and will be burnt off by evening. Instead go for light and easy foods to digest like: salads, omelettes, vegetables (cook your own stir fry with olive oil). Mix in some lean protein into your salads and omelettes, go for fresh chicken or turkey breast, turkey rashers (for those bacon lovers), tuna and beef. Other good late night snacks are rice cakes (not the whole packet) all fruits and pop corn (in the microwave with no oil).

You can make a lot of great meals from these foods and your digestive system will love you for it. So give your body and mind what needs to have a good nights rest and you'll wake up light and fresh.

This is my other golden rule I stick to and don't break. I never eat complex carbohydrates after 3pm (no matter what) and this is the main reason on how I've managed to maintain my weight and it keeps me lean all year round.

The quickest way to get fat and put on weight is to eat big heavy meal before going to sleep. The only benefit you're going to get from this bad habit is a guaranteed larger waistline. Your metabolism is at it's lowest by the evening time and it will not burn off or use the food as fuel so it will be stored as unwanted calories (which will turn into fat if it's not burnt off within 24 hours) and for us ladies it will go straight to our thighs, Tums and bums.

So if you have to pad lock your fridge at night or wire your jaws together to stop yourself from over indulging then do so. Kick this habit to the curb and don't always play "Simon says"with your stomach, learn to say NO to it and it will eventually listen to you.

Try out these tips to get yourself a new lean (and if you're already lean, a leaner) bootylicious body and keep it too. Keep these tips to loose weight and keep it off. Use these habits as a new way of eating and living then you'll be hot like California!