The Fuel of Sustained Leadership - Your Health

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.

10 Useful Tips for Taking Care of Your Health and Weight

One way a Leader can maximize their effectiveness is to make sure their health, energy, and weight are carefully maintained.

The following are a few wise tips: (Revised from: www.global-nutrition-inc.com)

1. Eat 4-6 small meals each day.  Spread your calories out evenly during the day to help keep your metabolism moving and your energy levels naturally high.  Try to target balancing each meal so that they contain roughly the same amount of calories.  Meal replacement and nutrition bars are an easy way to supplement up to 3 meals a day.

2. Balance each meal with protein, carbs and fat.  By providing reasonable amounts of these three essential nutrients at each meal, your body will have the fuel it needs to run at an optimum level.  Balancing the nutritional make-up of your meals also helps prevent the storage of body fat.
• Preferred sources of protein are: fish, lean meat, chicken, eggs, turkey, lean pork, protein powders.
• Preferred sources of carbohydrates are: fruit, vegetables, beans, whole grains.
• Preferred sources of fats are: olive oil, nuts, fish oils, canola oil.

3. Choose the right carbohydrates.  When choosing a meal, select complex carbohydrates that are “colorful” and high in fiber (like fruits, vegetables, beans and nuts).  Try to avoid highly processed carbohydrates like pasta, bagels, crackers, chips, soda and candy.  Highly processed carbs have little nutritional value and can easily be stored as body fat.  If it’s a carbohydrate and it comes in a bag or a box, you should be suspect.

4. Don’t forget completely about the fat. Despite all the hype, fat IS an important part of a diet and is necessary for fat loss.  One benefit is that fat digests slowly and thus makes you feel full so you eat less.  Fat also helps in the proper digestion of carbs and protein; without it your body just cannot process food efficiently.  The key is to select foods that are rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.  These include salmon, mackerel, almonds, walnuts, olive and canola oils.

5. Eat until you are no longer hungry, not until you are stuffed full.  A common mistake people make in their everyday eating habits is they just eat too much.  You do not need to be stuffed at every meal, or eat every bite . . . despite what your mom told you, it is ok to leave food on your plate.  Even better, don’t put so much on your plate in the first place.  Keep your portion sizes under control.  (** If you find yourself eating for no reason, or you just can’t stop, you are probably eating to fill a void in your life.  Taking time to evaluate the areas of your life that are making you unhappy will help.  More food is never answer, and overeating will always result in feeling worse.)

6. Don’t cut your calories too low.  Drastic calorie cutting usually result in failure.  If you are looking for lasting results, then your best bet is to aim for about 2/3 of your “normal” caloric, or food, intake.  Putting your body into starvation mode will ultimately derail your weight loss attempts because your body will fight back by holding onto your fat even more tightly!  Slow and steady always wins the weight loss war.

7. Give yourself one, and just one, splurge day per week.  If you are eating “well” 6 days a week, you deserve a splurge day.  Pick one day per week and save up all your cravings for that special day.  Make a chocolate dessert, or have some extra pasta with dinner.  Whatever it is, after 6 days of keeping your diet in order and keeping focused on your ultimate goal, you not only deserve a day of eating some of your favorite foods, but your body can also completely handle it. ?Remember, you cannot gain a significant amount of body fat in just one day.  It takes months, in most cases, years of poor eating to add true weight.  One splurge day a week is acceptable and even helpful; just make sure when the next day comes around, you get back in the saddle again and get ready for 6 more days of good clean eating.

8. Get your body moving with exercise.  You will not reach your fat loss goals without getting your body in motion.  Exercise helps you burn calories more efficiently, improves blood circulation to all parts of your body (including your brain), helps your skin stay young looking, and even improves bone strength.  Just 3 or 4 workouts per week is enough to get some truly life-changing benefits from exercise.  There are so many types of activities you can participate in.  There’s no excuse.  The more muscle your body has, the more calories it burns per day.

9. Drink plenty of water.  Drinking at least 8 glasses of water per day is essential for fat loss.  Water helps your digestion, helps you feel energized, gives you a feeling of fullness and keeps you looking young.  In addition, water acts as a natural appetite suppressant.  In fact, people on diets who do not increase their water intake will find themselves feeling “hungry” much more often than those who increase their water consumption.  One reason for this is that dieters are getting less water from their food, because they’re eating less food, so the body is craving fluid.  These cravings can be significantly curbed with increased water intake.

10. Supplement wisely.  The Journal of the American Medical Association recommends a multi vitamin/mineral complex for all healthy adults.  Also, a quality weight loss supplement may aid in your efforts and help you finally get rid of that unwanted fat.