Survival of the Modern Man - Nutrition Basics

Several years ago, when I was in my early 30's, I had a job as a meter reader. The job required me to walk....ALOT. On average, I was doing around 5-7 miles a day. I embraced this a something positive....that I could lose weight doing this. at the time, I was at my heaviest lifetime weight of 230 lbs, which is not good for a guy who stands at 5'10". After being on the job for six months and not losing any weight, I went to a sports nutritionist. She asked me to write down EVERYTHING that I ate for 2 weeks and come back and see her. She told me it was important that I be honest if I really wanted to get to the bottom of why I wasn't losing any weight. I returned 2 weeks later with list in hand. The Dr. looked at it and immediately said, "you don't know how to eat!" How can this be? I'm 230 lbs...how can I not know how to eat? She told me that I don't know how to eat properly and went on to explain how the glycemic index works, and showed me the things that I need to cut out of my diet and replace it with a lower glycemic choice and how I should eat 4-5 small meals a day and the importance of breakfast. I was astounded, but took the doctors advice and changed everything. I immediately started dropping lbs. Withing 4 months, I lost 80 lbs and never felt better in my life. The truth was, me, like many other Americans, didn't realize that the things I was putting into my body was not cohesive to losing weight. We're taught from an early age to eat meat and potatoes, eat 3 times a day, low fat this and low fat that. It's not really the fat that gets us into trouble. That was just a diet trend in the late 70's and early 80's. Then, the trend became carb this and carb that which is true to some extent....but our bodies need low glycemic carbs and protein to operate at peak efficiency. If your body doesn't know how to use the fuel you're giving it, it just stores it....which means it turns it into fat.

Lets look at some nutrition basics and see what we can replace the bad things that we're used to eating and what to replace them with.

There are 4 basic things to purge from your every day diet. We've been conditioned to eat these things from childhood, so they don't seem to be bad for you and your health.....but they are.

Sugar - Ah sugar....who doesn't like sugar? If you say that you don't, then you're being less than honest. Sugar is in just about everything that we consume on a daily basis. Why? Because we like it! If it tastes better, we'll want more of it. Think of the "soda pop revolution". I can remember, as a kid, as I'm sure that you can, we would have soda on special occasions. A picnic, with pizza, or on a holiday. Now, it has become an everyday part of our life. How many people do you know drink soda on a regular basis? In fact, I can remember when I was in my early 20's, just how much soda I used to drink. I don't think that I ever drank anything but soda.....and of course beer. First and foremost, purge the sugar. If you need something to put in your coffee in the morning, go with corn fructose. It has the lowest possible glycemic impact on your body. Splenda, Sweet & Low, and other artificial sweeteners are just chemicals....and who knows what the long term effects of those are. Also, anything that comes already prepared should be steered clear of....especially if it has a cartoon character on the box. Go with real, whole foods from the produce department. Also, there are products that will say "NO SUGAR" on the box, but they substitute with high-fructose corn syrup or other additive that is just as bad for you.

Potatoes, rice and corn - As much as you like these things, they need to be purged as well. When we eat these foods, our bodies look at it and say " hey, I don't know how to use this, so I'm going to store it" which turns into fat. If there's one thing that I love, it's good old potatoes....mashed, baked, boiled, fried....I could eat them everyday with every meal. Substitute with sweet potatoes. These are low glycemic, and you can eat them everyday and not gain a bit of flab.

I love sushi. and with sushi comes rice. You may ask " why do asian people eat so much rice and they aren't fat?" That's because they tend to eat a lot less than your average American. Sugar is not prevalent in that society, and they tend to consume lean protein as well. Our body doesn't recognise rice as something we can utilize, so it doesn't get burned, it gets stored. Use wheat bulger in place of rice. It has a lot of the same feel and consistency as rice and I've actually made sushi with it.

I can safely say that corn on the cob at a cookout is one of my favorite things. This also needs to be avoided. Anything with corn as an ingredient period needs to be purged. Unfortunately, I don't know of any alternative to corn that isn't high glycemic as well. The body can't utilize it or burn it, so it stores it for later.

After my epiphany about the bad things I was eating, it was hard for me to eat anything away from the house. I had a hard time eating out anywhere because I didn't know how much high-fructose corn syrup or sugar might be lurking in a salad dressing or how much sodium was in a dish. One of the best ways to get on the right track with eating "clean" is to prepared large amounts of it ahead of time. It's good to have left overs for lunch or a few dinners later in the week. This might take some time, but if you're serious about making positive changes, then you need to change what you're conditioned to. If you need to grab something quick away from the house, chicken strips at Checkers are ok....just don't get the fries or the soda with it.

I hope this hub has been informative for you, please feel free to let me know what you think.