I hope everyone is continuing to have a Happy and Healthy New
Year!
As we enter the second week of
January, some people start to struggle just a bit with their health and
wellness goals.
The first step to achieving a health goal is defining that
goal. It’s best to make your goals
simple, specific and achievable. If you
have a large goal like losing 100 pounds, I recommend that you break that up
into smaller more quickly attainable pieces.
Examples are to lose 10 pounds or no soda for 30 days. Once the smaller goal is achieved, you may
then set a second achievable goal.
My personal short term goal is to follow my Fitness Genes Fat Loss meal plan as exactly as possible for the next 6 weeks. I’m already on week 2 and I must say I feel
great! Before the holidays, I was eating less healthy
foods. Since I’ve revisited my meal plan
and I’m eating mostly whole and natural foods, I’ve immediately noticed an
improvement in my skin tone. Before I
was bloated and tired and now I feel just a bit better.
This week I completed a webinar on how to develop a meal
plan based on your Fitness Genes result.
The demonstrated macronutrient calculations are based on my genetic
results. However, the principal of
calculating macronutrients can be applied to any meal plan so it may be worth
checking out even if you do not have personalized recommendations from Fitness
Genes.
The most common concern about my meal plans involves
alcohol. There is no alcohol on the
weight loss plan. Unfortunately, nothing
will sabotage good intentions like a drink or two. This happens for several reasons. First, alcohol delivers calories without any
nutritional benefit. Each gram of alcohol has 7 calories which are
converted to sugar in the body. Alcohol
cannot be stored in the body so it must be metabolized immediately. While the liver is busy metabolizing alcohol
it cannot metabolize other nutrients making them more likely to be stored as
fat.
The second pitfall with alcohol consumption involves lowered
inhibitions. Your carefully planned food
choices may fall to the side when presented with a tempting high fat, high
calorie option. Additionally, alcohol consumption can cause
low blood sugar or hypoglycemia which will make it necessary for you to eat
more even if it’s not on your plan.
So, I strongly recommend abstaining from alcohol while you
are on a weight loss program. When you
have reached your goals, you can absolutely include moderate alcohol
consumption as part of a healthy lifestyle.
If you do chose to drink, make informed decisions. Here’s
a chart published by Cosmopolitan that summarizes the calorie content of common
drinks.
I encourage everyone to stay true to their wellness
goals. Here’s to your health!
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