A Tony Horton post from Facebook!!!

GiGi76

Good advice from my sister Kit: by Tony Horton on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 12:29pm.

So, this morning on my morning run I ran past the McDonalds in our town. Currently it is boarded up not because it's shutting down but because they are EXPANDING IT!! Good Lord, just what our little town needs, another opportunity for people to eat the wrong foods at twice the capacity!!

Recently I have been speaking with some P90X grads who feel super fit but are not completely satisfied with their weight loss. My first question to them was: "How closely did you follow the P90X nutrition plan?" They all answered something to the effect of: "Well, I eat pretty healthy already." or "Well, I just cut back on sugar and stuff."



If you want to live, eat and breathe healthier and cleaner...for life then you've got to get off the "90 day" mentality and BE healthy for LIFE. Yes, use BB programs to kick start you plan...and then....keep doing them or any combination of this level of intensity.

This week's TIME magazine featured an article entitled "The Organic Food Debate." Now, I am not insisting you buy all your food organic because I realize how much more expensive it is. (Although some foods are much healthier and help our planet in their organic form--please get the magazine and read that article) What I want to emphasize this week are some quotes from this article that pointed out some statistics that illustrate how unhealthy we Americans are:

■27% of Americans are considered obese (that is 20% above their ideal weight)In nine states the obesity rate tops 30%
■"We eat way to much meat --up to 220 lb per year for every man, woman and child and only 14% of Americans consume their daily recommend five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Our processed food is dense with salt and swimming in high fructose corn syrup, two flavors Americans can't resist."
■Currently food is manufactured in the US for every American to consume 3,800 calories per day--we only need 2,350 in a healthy diet
■A multicenter study released just two days after the obesity report showed that American girls as young as 7 are entering puberty at DOUBLE the rate they were in the late 1990s, perhaps as a result of the obesity epidemic but perhaps too as a result of the hormones in their environment---including their food.
Okay, so what should we do? We are busy, our kids are picky, at work there are no healthy options. Blah, blah, blah. Here are Kit's Top 5 simple tips for a healthier and happier you:

1.Shop and eat foods from the perimeter of the grocery story as much as possible. This is where the "whole foods" are placed. Whole foods such as fruits, veggies, whole grains, and healthy fats are best. Buy them, and find good healthy ways to cook them and make them taste good. Guess what? I've got you started. I have attached three of my favorite whole food recipes.
2.If something you are about to eat says fructose or high fructose corn syrup or sucralose....basically any ingredient that ends in "ose" please, do yourself a favor and dump it down the drain...promptly!! This stuff will kill you...literally. A study out of UCLA found that pancreatic cancer cells--when fed fructose "divided and proliferated." This stuff is in a lot of the stuff you eat--not just soft drinks, soda, Gatorade etc but bread, cookies crackers. READ LABELS and don't buy it if anything with "ose" is in it. (Here is another free tip...drink and give your kids nature's Gatorade: coconut water. It acts the same way, replenishes the ectrolytes without all the unnatural sugar. Another tip...get off sugar, it just makes you fat.
3.If you must buy processed/packaged foods--try to buy those that have 6 ingredients or less listed on the package...and if you can't pronounce the ingredient, don't buy it.
4.For one week write down everything you eat. I always thought this was stupid and a farce. Heck, I ate healthy and I am conscious about what I eat...how was this going to help me? I did this for the first time when I did the Jan. cleanse with Melissa Costello. Not only did I notice that I was consuming way too many carbs and way too much food in a day in general...it really made me think twice before I put that next morsel into my mouth. Do it this week. You will be surprised how much you are eating and you also might find that what you're eating really isn't clean and healthy.
5.Give up sugar and white anything...white flour, white rice, white potatoes. These are empty starches with NO nutritional value that just make you hungrier later...thus making you....yes, fat, tired and feeling like crud. My preference would be to have you go "brown." Brown rice, quinoa, brown rice pastas...no gluten in these, nothing to weigh you down and make you feel tired. I have found these to be yummy and a great replacement. My husband wrote on the my grocery list "buy real pasta." Yep, I bought it...and it was brown.

telcochik

Love Tony! Thanks!

edorice

Thanks for posting this. I'm going to save this in my email and send it to my hubby.

Ely82010

Interesting article, and I agree that in American people in general eat too many process foods. Porbably the result of our over hectic daily life, and the need to do many things at the same time and be perfect in everything that we do. However, I disagree with the section about zero nutritional value of potatoes. Refer to the article that I pasted below.


Given below are some nutrient facts, information and nutritional value of potatoes:

Mineral content: If you eat potatoes regularly, you ensure a good supply of water and ions in your body. This is because, potato is rich in potassium. The concentration being higher in the skin and just beneath it. So, eating the potato with its skin is always beneficial. Potato also contains calcium, iron, and phosphorus.
Vitamin content: Natural potatoes are known for the large amounts of Vitamin C present in them. Typically, 100 gm of potato will contain about 17 mg of Vitamin C. In addition to this, natural potato also contains Vitamin A, B and P.
Water content: Potato looks very big in size, but water accounts for about 70-80 percent of the weight of a potato. So the belief that you become fat by eating potatoes is a misconception. Of course if your potato servings contain large quantities of butter, or if you can't keep away from those high-in-fat-and-cholesterol French fries, you are bound to become overweight.
Starch content: Potato contains about 17% starch and it is one of the best natural sources of starch. Potato sprouting leads to conversion of starch into sugar and hence you should avoid eating sprouted potatoes.

GiGi76

Interesting article, and I agree that in American people in general eat too many process foods. Porbably the result of our over hectic daily life, and the need to do many things at the same time and be perfect in everything that we do. However, I disagree with the section about zero nutritional value of potatoes. Refer to the article that I pasted below.


Given below are some nutrient facts, information and nutritional value of potatoes:

Mineral content: If you eat potatoes regularly, you ensure a good supply of water and ions in your body. This is because, potato is rich in potassium. The concentration being higher in the skin and just beneath it. So, eating the potato with its skin is always beneficial. Potato also contains calcium, iron, and phosphorus.
Vitamin content: Natural potatoes are known for the large amounts of Vitamin C present in them. Typically, 100 gm of potato will contain about 17 mg of Vitamin C. In addition to this, natural potato also contains Vitamin A, B and P.
Water content: Potato looks very big in size, but water accounts for about 70-80 percent of the weight of a potato. So the belief that you become fat by eating potatoes is a misconception. Of course if your potato servings contain large quantities of butter, or if you can't keep away from those high-in-fat-and-cholesterol French fries, you are bound to become overweight.
Starch content: Potato contains about 17% starch and it is one of the best natural sources of starch. Potato sprouting leads to conversion of starch into sugar and hence you should avoid eating sprouted potatoes.

Yeah that was the only thing i didnt agree with too!!! Potatoes are good for you!!! Maybe he is saying we should eat red potatoes???

miqisha

Thanks for sharing

nikiswimr

Thanks for posting this, I love Tony and couldn't agree more! I even have my Vietnamese husband who believes everything is better with a little white rice eating brown rice now I will however continue to occasionally eat potatoes (just not the processed kind).