Keeping a food and fitness journal, very important tool

          Keeping a food journal is a very effective way to keep track of the number of calories that you eat everyday. And whether you are trying to lose weight or simply maintain a healthier diet, a food diary can help you out.

 Ive been using MyFitnessPal, its an online journal that you can download an app on your phone. Its easy and convenient. You can scan any food that has a barcode on it. Its way to easy, there is no way to have an excuse not to journal your food. Download the app and follow me jhensle8, add me as a friend and you can see what I eat on a daily basis. www.myfitnesspal.com

No excuses its Sunday funday, start a new week off right. Swim suit season will be here in a flash. Here are five reasons that if you are serious in making a change a journal will help you in your journey.

1. Your Food Diary Will Show You What You Eat

This is one of the most underrated aspects of keeping a food journal You probably think that you know exactly what you eat everyday. You probably even think you could guess the number of calories that you take in through your meals. But the truth is that most people eat more than three times everyday and most of their extra calories probably come from eating between meals. Especially if you are trying to lose weight, keeping track of these calories is what's most important.

2. Your Food Journal Can Help You Lose Weight

By seeing exactly what you eat everyday, you can begin to cut certain types of food out of your diet. You might be surprised to see that some foods that you thought were healthy actually have the highest amount of calories according to your food journal. By taking this into account, you can cut these calories by finding healthy alternatives for your diet.

3. Your Food Diary Can Help You Plan Out Meals

At first, you should use your food diary to keep track of the meals that you eat. But over time, you can actually use your food diary to plan out basic meals and snacks in order to create a more balanced diet.

4. Your Food Diary Will Show You What You Need To Eat

Whether you're not getting enough vegetables into your diet or you're skipping lunch a little too often, your food diary serves as a record of everything that you do--and do not--eat. Knowing that you are deficient in certain food groups can be helpful and can help you plan out your diet a little better than ever before.

5. Your Food Diary Will Keep You on Track

You may not realize it right away, but over time, your food diary will actually make you want to eat healthier. Every time you write down a food that has a lot of calories in it, you'll want to avoid doing it in the future. Your food diary can actually help you to look at food in a whole new way. It's one of the best reasons you should want to start a food diary today. Your food diary will not help you enjoy new foods, but it will give you a reason to try to cut back on your calories.

 

 

Quick snack afternoon tip!!

Afternoon snack for less than a quarter that you can even find at a 7/11! Tip: Slightly unripe bananas have less sugar and more than twice the amount of resistant starch (the starch that doesn’t break down into sugar and therefore keeps you full longer). What’s your fav natural grab-n-go snack solution for under a dollar?

       Do you really know what makes an apple so special? Have you ever wondered why is it that we never hear an orange or a banana a day keeps the doctor away?

That is because apples have properties that no other fruits have and its benefits have been proven overtime.

    Of course you could always get the benefits of these properties individually with other fruits, but an apple combines everything and makes it simpler. It has been shown over and over that if it’s not simple, easy and fast, people won’t take care of their health.

9 Reasons

1-Apples contains Vitamin C. Vitamin C helps greatly your immune system. A lot of people who lack Vitamin C in their diet have poor healing, bruise easily and have bleeding gums.

2-Prevent Heart Diseases. The reason it can prevent both coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease is because apples are rich in flavonoid. Flavonoids are also known for their antioxidant effects.

3-Low in calories. A regular size apple has about 70-100 calories. Eating an apple when craving for candy or chocolate can make the desire disappear since an apple in itself contains sugar, but gives you only ¼ of the calories ; )

4-Prevent Cancers. Notice the plural. We all know that cancer comes in several forms and in different places. Apples target multiple cancers such as colon cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer in women.

5-Apples contain phenols, which have a double effect on cholesterol. It reduces bad cholesterol and increases good cholesterol. They prevent LDL cholesterol from turning into oxidized LDL, a very dangerous form of bad cholesterol which can be deadly.

6-Prevent tooth decay. Tooth decay is an infection that seriously damages the structure of your teeth, which is caused primarily because of bacteria. The juice of the apples has properties that can kill up to 80% of bacteria. So there you have it, an apple a day can also keep the dentist away!

7-Protects your brain from brain disease. This is something many people don’t know, and when you consider that your brain makes the person you are, it gives a whole new perspective. Apple has substances called phytonutrients, and these phytonutrients prevents neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinsonism.

8-Healthier Lungs. A research at the University of Nottingham Research shows that people who eat 5 apples or more per week has lower respiratory problems, including asthma, who knew?

9-They taste great! And not only that, they also come in many flavors and colors.

         Ive been really into Grapples latley. They are fuji aplles that are soaked in grape juice to give the apple more of a juicy sweet taste with all the benefits still! Or you can try a green apple, a red one, or a macintosh!

           On average, Americans consume around 20 pounds of apples a year, which comes to around 1 apple a week. Unfortunately, while an apple a week is better than nothing, it is nowhere close to being able to extract all the advantages apples have to offer. Eating apples is part of balanced and healthy diet than will increase your longevity.

Could you be getting too much vitamin A?

by Monica Reinagel, M.S., L.D./N.
Q. I eat a diet with lots of kale, broccoli, sweet potato, and spinach. All are great sources of vitamin A, but could I be getting too much? Is it OK that most of my vitamin A comes from plants?
A. First, we need to distinguish between pre-formed vitamin A (retinol) and pro-vitamin A (carotenoids) because the answer to your first question depends on which form you’re talking about! Pre-formed vitamin A is found in animal sources like fish oil, liver, and (to a lesser extent) milk and eggs. It is definitely possible to get too much of this form of vitamin A, especially if you’re taking a lot of dietary supplements.
See also: Can You Get Too Many Vitamins?
Pro-vitamin A, on the other hand, comes from plant sources, including the ones you mentioned. It’s perfectly fine to get all of your vitamin A as pro-vitamin A from plants. And because pro-vitamin A is converted to retinol only as needed, there’s no danger of getting too much vitamin A from plant sources.
However, consuming large quantities of carotenoids can cause temporary and harmless discoloration of the skin. As long as your skin and eyes aren’t taking on an orange hue, you’re probably fine!
Broccoli photo from Shutterstock

Intro to Nutrition

Hello, My name is Jamie. Thanks for stopping by! Im just a chick that has a  passion for food and nutrition. I majored in human nutrition and like to share my knowledge and love to learn from others.

I want to post about my daily finds, interesting facts, and awesome tips to whoever is interested. So lets do it.



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