Shopping for High Energy Food - photo by D. Hennessey

It is only during the last 13 years that I have really began to understand how my body works. I have learned that my body like yours is a complex system designed to process food into it useful components as rapidly as possible so we can move and think effectively. I have learned items we consume that have little or no benefit in terms of nutrition waste the body’s digestive system and simply put an unnecessary strain or stress on the system. In fact, I have read that the digestive process when it is overused helps us all age quicker! So we all (me included) need to be smart about how we eat when we want to eat for high energy.

Over the years I have collected and adopted ideas that I have found in many books on healthy eating habits. Some of these books I noted in my article Two P’s for Healthy Eating. I have summarized some of the best tips below. When you have time read them over. You may find eating for energy can be broken down to some core guidelines:

Number One
Eat High Quality Foods in Balanced amounts

Make sure you eat the highest quality foods you can and learn to make the habit to push away from the table before you over eat. Two great ways to be conscious of how much you eat is to chew longer and eat in silence when possible.  You may find when you eat high quality foods in balanced proportions your body can work at its peak to create high energy.

Number Two
Choose the Freshest Foods you can

Fresh food is what our body wants naturally to produce energy. When it is possible go to the market and buy fresh fruits and vegetables. If you eat any kind of meats choose to go to a butcher or fish shop so you can find the freshest food possible. A good choice is to eat locally grown food whenever possible. If you have no time to go to the market check out home delivery companies that can bring fresh foods to your doorstep. Remember in the off season flash frozen fruits and vegetables are a better choice than canned due to the typical addition of salt in the canning process.

Number Three
Choose Organic when possible

To get food that is as free as possible of unneeded chemicals and additives that can affect your body negatively choose to buy organic food. If you wonder how valid the organic label is it is important to note that many countries now have national standards to decide if a food can be labeled certified organic or not. Take the time to learn the certification symbols that show a product has been third party certified as organic. If you want to learn more about what makes a product organic, the different organic labels and how to buy organic food inexpensively these ideas and more you can find out about in the e-book how to buy organic food inexpensively.

Number Four
Protein at Every Meal

High levels of mental and physical fitness benefit from stable blood sugar. If you check the recommendations of most public health organizations you will see they recommend you eat a small portion of slow burning protein at every meal. Why? because due to the complex chemical make up of proteins they are digested slowly and enter your blood stream slowly helping keep your blood sugar level stable. This is in contrast to the quick spike in blood sugar levels that occurs when you digest simple carbohydrates since they are digested rapidly.

Number Five
Eat a Variety of Foods

It is a simple truth that all the nutrients you need cannot come from all the same foods. I mention this since I have read many adults buy the same foods again and again when they go shopping. To get all the cancer and illness fighting substances we need to buy and eat a variety of all the types of foods. To help you create a real variety you can use a technique I developed back in 1999 and is still successful today. It is called “follow the colors of the rainbow” to choose your foods when you shop. If you would like a copy of the article where I explain how this rainbow technique works and the science behind it you can get a copy when you subscribe to my posting updates (the form is on the top right of this page). The article is one of the bonuses I offer new subscribers.

Number Six
Foods to Reduce or Simply Avoid

Highly processed foods like white wheat flour and white sugar offer very little nutritional value to your body. They essential become stomach filler and often fat when too much of them are consumed. Excess white salt as you most likely already know is also a substance you can reduce in your diet. Add to your avoid list man made fats like transfats from hydrogenated oils and you are well on your way to eating for increased energy.

Number Seven
A Powerful Exercise

Grab a note pad and pen and write down for each of the next seven days the quantity of all you eat and exactly what it is. This exercise is one of the most powerful ways to find out if the quality and quantity of food you are eating is helping you Eat for Energy or not.

Bonus:

For extra help I have developed one learning tool that can help you recognize you are eating a balanced meal in five seconds or less. It is included in a electronic work book I wrote inexpensively priced and titled Simplify Healthy Eating Habits. Read more about How to Simplify Healthy Eating Habits the book here. The tips and action steps in this book are useful whether you live alone or have a family. They also help you adopt into your life more easily dieting plans you are using.

Your friend on the journey,

David

Hello again,

To reduce stress and increase our success and wellness it is a well known fact that we need to eat healthy. But whose opinion do you trust? I went to the popular search engine ‘Google’ and keyed in the words ‘Healthy Eating Opinions’. The result right now is over ten million opinions! I know this is by no means perfect research on how many opinions are available but go along with me on this for a minute – imagine there are over ten million opinions on what is healthy eating on ‘Google’ alone. In fact, you and I both know there are probably as many opinions of what healthy eating is as there are people on the planet who want to voice their opinion.

Now what is your personal opinion of what makes up healthy eating? Please leave comment after reading this article.

Personally, I have developed my opinion from reading countless numbers of scientific journal articles from sources like The Lancet. I went to journals like The Lancet because I found references in books on dieting and healthy eating and I wanted to check the source.

Indeed, when I have read healthy eating books and books on foods I am always curious as to the accuracy of what is being said. You may have read some of the many books I have read which has included The South Beach Diet, Dr. Atkin’s Diet Revolution, Fit for Life, Beyond the 120 Year Diet, The Food Connection, The Power of Superfoods, Eat Right 4 Your Type… and the list goes on and on. And as you know the list of new books grows each day. Now I don’t necessarily agree with any of the opinions in these books but they all make for interesting reading.

Now to the Two Ps of Healthy Eating as promised in the title of this posting

This is a quick and simple suggestion that I have read about in many, many books and it simply makes sense to follow it to help provide you with healthy eating options at the end of each day.

One

Plan the foods you are going to eat in the week ahead by making a list and use this to make your grocery list – always make sure you make your list before you go to the store

Two

Prepare foods in bulk in advance whenever possible for the week ahead or even the day ahead. For example, a big pot of soup can be made and refrigerated or even frozen to give you easy access to a high amount of nourishing vegetables at each evening meal. Note: another way to have extra food prepared and not have to simply spend time cooking every day is to double cook what you are preparing for a present meal (like for example, rice) and store it in the fridge to save you time the next evening.

Simple ideas, you bet and if you like the idea of simple healthy eating tips you may be interested in an inexpensive eBook I wrote that includes meal planning tips, how to know if you are eating a balanced meal in five seconds or less and how to make shopping for healthy foods fun for all the family. This book is not a diet book but a guide book on how to make it easier for you to apply healthy eating habits. Follow the link to Simplfy Healthy Eating Habits  to learn more.

In closing, I do recommend if you are interested in healthy eating to get a copy of Prescription for Nutritional Healing since it is one of the resources you will find in many health food stores used by the health food store staff. It is one of the books I used after going to nutritional courses to help me remember what minerals and vitamins are in which foods. Its current edition is over 800 pages and still inexpensive.

I also recommend you get a copy of Your Body’s Many Cries for Water. Of course, it is not a book on food but an invaluable book on water that helps you understand the importance of water and how it relates to living a healthy, successful, low stress life.

Your friend on the journey, David