Training For Life

As determined as you may be to start eating healthier, it’s going to be tough to do if your pantry is overflowing with unhealthy temptations. Dieting is hard enough. Make it easier on yourself by keeping the good food convenient and the bad food out of sight and out of mind. The very first thing you should always do when starting a new diet or exercise regime—whatever it may be?

Give that pantry a makeover!

You’ve no doubt heard of all those trendy detoxifying diets, right? Well you might be better off just detoxifying your pantry. I think that would be a lot easier.

Here’s how to do it in 5 easy steps:

Step 1: Replace anything white with its darker alternative. This includes white flour, white rice, white bread, white pasta. Instead buy whole grain bread and whole grain pasta. Both have come a long way as far as taste and texture go.If you tried them out back in the ‘90s and haven’t given them another chance since then, you might be pleasantly surprised. Buy brown rice and whole wheat flour. Also banned from the pantry: pretzels, tortillas, and any other snacks made of white flour. Why? Because white flour and everything made of it breaks down into glucose in the body, messing up your blood sugar levels and making you gain weight. Whole grains feature more complex sugars that keep you fuller longer.

Step 2: Take a closer look at whatever oils you’re cooking with. If it’s olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, or safflower oil, you’re in the clear—these are mono-unsaturated fatty acids that are heart-healthy and reduce inflammation while targeting belly fat. If, though, you are using corn oil, blended vegetable oil, or shortening—or perhaps you are actually still using butter—you are increasing your risk of high cholesterol and cancer, and you may be hampering with your natural immune function.

Step 3: If it came individually wrapped in colorful plastic packaging, you should seriously considering tossing it. In general, the more processed a food is, the less nutrients it offers you—and the more toxic chemical additives it features. Cookies, crackers, chips, candy, luncheon meat, gravy mix, frozen dinners—these are all classic examples of overly processed, unhealthy food options. When it comes to any food, remember this: the less time spent between the farmer’s fields and your dinner table, the better.

Step 4: Cut out all the sugar. That means all of it. This is one case where just trading white for brown won’t help you—those all natural cane sugars are no less likely to cause diabetes, obesity, and tooth decay then the traditional white table sugars. Remember that sugar has many disguises—it may be called “dextrose” or , “dextran”, or  “sucrose”, or  “fructose.” It can hide out as “galactose”, or a s “glucose”, or as  “lactose”.  Maybe even “maltodextrin.”

Step 5: No fake food. Take a good look at those frozen ‘blueberry” waffles—chances are there is not a real blueberry to be had in there. Just “artificially flavored blueberry bits.” Why eat artificially flavored blueberry bits when there are plenty of real fresh blueberries out there at the grocery store?

A pantry makeover doesn’t have to be too difficult or expensive. If you are willing to put the time into reading labels, and into planning out a grocery list before you go shopping—and sticking with it!—you should do fine.