How To Avoid Sugar

Sugar. That sweetness that can be lightly dashed  heavily dumped into your everyday meals and beverages. Now I myself have looked into not eating sugar for a period of time and from what I've read it sounds awful yet rewarding. I read that the first couple days you are in a bad mood, usually with headaches or something. But, it it worth it when you feel awesome and healthy and more lively then before.  Sugar is like a drug. It is sweet and relieving at the moment, but it can become a dietary crutch when you feel sad or are just in the mood for something on the sweet side. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying all sugar is bad! Some sugar is good, like the kind in fruit. Processed sugar is what is going to slowly devour your body, unless you limit yourself. Now if you are in the mood for something sweet, which I am alot, one of the first things I'll reach for is candy or sugary cereal. Which may be all sweet when I eat it but afterwards I feel bloated and my stomach is packed full of sweet processed chemicals. So lets look at a couple of examples of how you can eat the healthy sugar, instead of processed.
Water.  Water is your best friend when it comes to avoiding sugar instead of consuming processed soda or sugary juice, drink water. It helps you to be less bloated is good for your whole body and had 0 calories.
Tea. Now this is a tough one. I love drinking coffee, but the problem with it is that 99% of coffee drinks contain sugary syrup or tons of normal sugar, so why not substitute it with tea. I find that using honey in tea instead of sugar taste delicious and its more healthy than majority of sweeteners.
Fruit. When you are wanting something sweet, why not eat some of nature's candy, fruit. There's literally a million options and they are available in most grocery stores.
Chocolate. Chocolate, or the best known food to mankind is not usually good for you when you buy it at Walmart in a Hershey's bar, loaded with processed sugar. Instead try dark chocolate or try to find chocolate with less sugar in it, because although it may seem harmless the calories will add up over time.
Substituting, processed sugar with natural sweets will not only help you lose weight, be healthier, and more fit. It will let you continue to eat sweet stuff as much as you want as long as its a healthy sugar in fruit. So it's not like a crazy diet where you can only eat sugar free food, you just have to decide to eat food with natural sugar and your body will be thanking you sooner or later.

Here is a video I found about healthy snacks when trying to lose some weight.

Food, Food, Food

Food is THE single most important thing in living a healthy and happy life. The food we put in our bodies effects us in every way. Eating good foods will help you to feel energized and happy but more often than not when you eat fatty, junk foods your body feels tired and lathargic. Your body uses the food to eat to function so you want to make sure you are feeding it good things so it will function the best that it can. When trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle food is the number one key. Your physique is determined 80% by how you eat.As you most like know there are good foods and bad foods. Today I'm going to try to help you distinguish between these foods and common misconceptions.

Calories. Oh these lovely little things that everyone seems to rave about. Let me set you straight. Calories do matter but it's not always about the number but about what your eating. For example, you have a 100 calorie cookie and 100 calories worth of grapes. Which is better? The grapes of course. So  don't just focus on eating a certain number but focus on what is going into your body and what makes up those calories. Also if you are trying to lose weight please, please, please do not try to eat less than 1200 calories. You need food to function and if you don't get enough food your body goes into starvation mode.

Carbs. Carbs seem to be the weak point in people's diet. People assume that all carbs are bad. They are lots of carbs that are bad for you but there are carbs that are very good. These carbs include fruits and veggies. There are so many different fruits and veggies that you won't get bored because there are so many options to choose from. Another carb is bread and pasta. If you do eat bread and pasta eat whole wheat because the regular white stuff is nothing but processes junk and your body doesn't know how to process these chemicals properly. So be smart in choosing what you eat.
If you are trying to lose weight portions are extremely important. You do not want to over eat. Also they're are certain types of food that will help you in weight loss and muscle gain. By eating clean and not eat processed foods your already making a huge stride toward your weight loss goal. If you are looking to build muscle protein is essential. By eating more proteins and leafy greens it helps your body with fueling and building these muscles.

 I hope this helped and if you are looking for fun recipies to try you can look on the diet section of the blog for recipies to come!
- Naomi