Small diet changes for a healthier you
College life can have a particularly damaging toll on students. Constant academic and social demands often deprive students of the three things they need most for success: sleep, exercise and proper nutrition. However, with a few small changes in your lifestyle, it's possible to better manage the stress that your studies can have on you, particularly where it comes to being properly nourished.
Keri Gans is a Registered Dietician in practice in Manhattan, NY, and the author of The Small Change Diet, published in March 2011. She is highly accredited in the field of Clinical Nutrition and also active on Twitter (@KeriGans), sharing tips to motivate her followers and readers to make subtle changes necessary to create a habit of healthy eating that will last them a lifetime.
"When must people take on too many changes at once, it can be overwhelming and they are more likely to fail," Gans recently told superkidsnutrition.com. "I have been seeing patients in my private practice for over 10 years, and the individuals who have been successful in reaching their health goals are those who have done it slowly. When a change becomes natural to them, they feel a huge sense of accomplishment, making it so much easier to move on to another."
Through her book and her presences online, Gans stresses that everyone is capable of making the changes in their lives necessary to be fitter, healthier and happier. With a few small changes, Fanshawe students can achieve the same results, too.
The science of weight management is rooted in the amount of calories a person consumes in a day compared to how much they burn off in energy. Managing those two factors will make all the difference in keeping one's weight under control.
With that in mind, here are three things to keep in mind if you want to be fit this school year.
Be Consistent
Depending on your schedule, it can be very difficult to establish regular meal times. Whether it's due to having classes in the evening or sleeping until noon, students may eat at unusual and infrequent times throughout the day, and the result is a metabolic nightmare.
Establishing and following regular meal times is an important and effective way to maintain your weight. Regulating your eating patterns will lower the number of calories you consume and maintain a stable blood-sugar level in your body throughout the day, keeping you from getting overly hungry and eating too much to compensate.
Reduce
Make no mistake, calorie intake is inevitable. Eating foods that are good for you is the best way to ensure you also get a lot of other good vitamins and minerals as well as those calories. Many snack foods that are high in sugar are also high in calories, but they offer little else.
For a few simple ways to reduce the number of calories you consume, consider cutting back on the amount of salad dressing you use, or how much milk and sugar you put in your coffee. Also, asking for less sauce on your subs is a great way to lessen your intake while bringing out the flavour of the other toppings.
Also consider decreasing the size of your portions when you eat. As you grow older, you won't need as many calories throughout the day as you did when you were a teenager. The less active you are, the fewer calories you need to maintain your stamina through the day.
Increase
If you already eat the daily recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, congratulations! If not, you probably know you should eat more, but may not know why. Fruit and vegetables provide your body with vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants, all crucial in ensuring your hunger is quelled without overloading in calories.
Antioxidants also appear naturally in tea, coffee, soy, chocolate, red wine and more. Antioxidants come in different forms, including vitamin C and vitamin E, and are helpful in preventing — you guessed it — the oxidation of cells in the human body.
They're beneficial because cells that oxidize in our bodies — that is, combine with oxygen — often develop an uneven number of electrons, which makes them dangerous: those cells then steal electrons from others, which is the sort of degeneration that can lead to cellular diseases like cancer. Eating red beans can save your life!
Keri Gans is a Registered Dietician in practice in Manhattan, NY, and the author of The Small Change Diet, published in March 2011. She is highly accredited in the field of Clinical Nutrition and also active on Twitter (@KeriGans), sharing tips to motivate her followers and readers to make subtle changes necessary to create a habit of healthy eating that will last them a lifetime.
"When must people take on too many changes at once, it can be overwhelming and they are more likely to fail," Gans recently told superkidsnutrition.com. "I have been seeing patients in my private practice for over 10 years, and the individuals who have been successful in reaching their health goals are those who have done it slowly. When a change becomes natural to them, they feel a huge sense of accomplishment, making it so much easier to move on to another."
Through her book and her presences online, Gans stresses that everyone is capable of making the changes in their lives necessary to be fitter, healthier and happier. With a few small changes, Fanshawe students can achieve the same results, too.
The science of weight management is rooted in the amount of calories a person consumes in a day compared to how much they burn off in energy. Managing those two factors will make all the difference in keeping one's weight under control.
With that in mind, here are three things to keep in mind if you want to be fit this school year.
Be Consistent
Depending on your schedule, it can be very difficult to establish regular meal times. Whether it's due to having classes in the evening or sleeping until noon, students may eat at unusual and infrequent times throughout the day, and the result is a metabolic nightmare.
Establishing and following regular meal times is an important and effective way to maintain your weight. Regulating your eating patterns will lower the number of calories you consume and maintain a stable blood-sugar level in your body throughout the day, keeping you from getting overly hungry and eating too much to compensate.
Reduce
Make no mistake, calorie intake is inevitable. Eating foods that are good for you is the best way to ensure you also get a lot of other good vitamins and minerals as well as those calories. Many snack foods that are high in sugar are also high in calories, but they offer little else.
For a few simple ways to reduce the number of calories you consume, consider cutting back on the amount of salad dressing you use, or how much milk and sugar you put in your coffee. Also, asking for less sauce on your subs is a great way to lessen your intake while bringing out the flavour of the other toppings.
Also consider decreasing the size of your portions when you eat. As you grow older, you won't need as many calories throughout the day as you did when you were a teenager. The less active you are, the fewer calories you need to maintain your stamina through the day.
Increase
If you already eat the daily recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, congratulations! If not, you probably know you should eat more, but may not know why. Fruit and vegetables provide your body with vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants, all crucial in ensuring your hunger is quelled without overloading in calories.
Antioxidants also appear naturally in tea, coffee, soy, chocolate, red wine and more. Antioxidants come in different forms, including vitamin C and vitamin E, and are helpful in preventing — you guessed it — the oxidation of cells in the human body.
They're beneficial because cells that oxidize in our bodies — that is, combine with oxygen — often develop an uneven number of electrons, which makes them dangerous: those cells then steal electrons from others, which is the sort of degeneration that can lead to cellular diseases like cancer. Eating red beans can save your life!
