Weight loss

Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosphies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it's about feeling great, having more energy, and keeping yourself healthy as possible.
There is no doubt that healthy eating is an important part of your weight loss plan. Healthy eating begins with learning how to eat smart. It's not just what you eat, but how you eat. Your food choices can reduce your risk of illnesses such as: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, as well as defend against depression. Additionally, learning the habits of healthy eating can boost your energy, sharpen your memory, and stabilize your mood. Being overweight can also affect a person's joints, breathing, sleep, mood and energy levels. You can expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to creat and maintain a satisfying, healthy diet.

All persons who are obese or who are overweight with other risk factors should consider losing weight. When people eat more calories than they burn off, their bodies store the extra calories as fat. A couple of pounds of extra body fat are noT a health risk for most people. But, when people keep up a pattern of eating more calories than they burn, more and more fat builds up in their bodies. Eventually, the body gets to a point where the amount of the body fat can have a negative effect on a person's health. Overweight-related health problems include: coronary heart disease, high blood pressure (hypertension), stroke, diabetes (Type II), high blood cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia), metabolic syndrome, gallstones, cancer, sleep apnea, and osteoarthritis.

Each day, our bodies require nutrients derived from the major food groups, plus vitamins and minerals and coenzymes, and, of course, water. The majority of people eat too much fat and not enough fibre. For most people, a healthy diet is simple and easy to do. For a well-balanced diet, you need to look at these nutrients: water is essential to well-being and 6-8 glasses should be taken daily; bread, rice, cereal, pasta should be included in serves of one-two serves per day, plus a large serve of salad greens; protein foods, derived from meat, chicken, fish and vegetable protein.

Physical activity and good nutrition are key factors in leading a healthy lifestyle and reducing the risk of disease.