Eat Real Food

Ah the New Year is upon us & so many will be embarking on new health regimens & the latest fad crash diets. Hoaxy companies like Isagenix, Advocare, & SlimFast (etc) will be trying to sell you on their diets, shakes & meal replacement bars promising fast ways to get "healthy" & lose weight.

If you take a moment to read the ingredients you will see they all contain tons of sugar, rancid/ inflammation inducing oils like canola, trans fats (hydrogenated oils), & a load of synthetic vitamins. Synthetic vitamins are not bioavailable to the body - meaning the body cannot use these vitamins so they get tossed out with the "trash" - in your urine. You know the best (& most delicious) way to get your vitamins? Fruits & veggies! (Gasp) You may lose weight initially, but this is because these products are scary low in calories & all you are doing is STARVING yourself. 
Does that sound healthy? & isn't that the ultimate goal? Health? Somehow along the way we confused getting thin with being healthy. So we punish ourselves by going on highly processed, low cal diets in an attempt to "get healthy" but really it's just to get thin. The ironic thing is when you do this, all you end up with is a sluggish metabolism, inflamed body, a hangry attitude & more body fat. The 2nd you start eating normal again, you gain all the weight back- & usually a little extra. 
I want to let you ladies (& men) in on a little secret. If you eat real food you never have to worry about your weight. It takes care of itself! Trust me, your body wants to be healthy & fit just as bad as you want it to be. & when you provide your body with the correct tools (i.e. Real food) to nourish it & let it do its thing, it rewards you - with a healthy body! It's the wildest thing, I know.  

Restriction is also not the key- I've found that if I restrict myself too much I end up clearing out the whole pantry because I feel so deprived. You want pizza? Eat pizza! The key here is INGREDIENTS. Become an ingredient investigator. Make your own pizza crust or look for crust mix that only has a handful of ingredients you recognize & probably have in your pantry (Simple Mills makes a bomb ass pizza mix). Nasty processed pizza with dough conditioners & hydrogenated oils is so OUT, real food pizza is so in. All I'm trying to say here is eat real food and you'll never have to diet a day in your life.