How Your Friends Make It Easy to be Fit and Trim
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Five-a-Day & Cutting Down Serving Sizes
This is a diary of the healthy lifestyle goals that my son, Chris, and I are making together each month.
Since it takes 21 days to develop a new habit, making a new goal each month is an effective way to improve your health.
In November, my goal was to eat more than five fruits and vegetables a day. Chris’ goal was to cut down on his serving sizes because he felt like he was eating too much.
My Experience:
November was a busy and unhealthy month (i.e., Chris was busy and I was sick — all through the Thanksgiving holiday). So we felt like we were spinning our wheels.
I found it very easy to eat five fruits and vegetables a day. However, adding more wasn’t so easy. I have to really pay attention to purposely add more fruits or vegetables to each meal. It’s frustrating that where we live there are french fries and soda pop with everything, but healthy foods are hard to find. I know it’s not like that everywhere, but that’s what it’s like here in the Detroit area. I’ve decided to leave it at five-a-day on the fruits and vegetables.
Well, I could try it from a different angle: in December, I’ll try to make half of each plate fruits or vegetables. Let’s see if that’s an easier way to accomplish the consumption of more than five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. The modern guidelines are I’d like to make it “five-or-more-a-day.”
This simple switch will lead to the same feelings of satisfaction, but with 22% fewer calories.
Chris’ Experience
Chris has found that the life of an actor is not the glamorous life that people think it is. There are many crazy things about the actor’s life: the last-minute scheduling, the long hours of filming, the misery of enduring weather conditions when filming outdoors or in man-made storms. The bane of this existence often is being too busy to cook and eat, and missing a lot of sleep.
His meals do not happen at the times his body needs them; some of them do not happen at all. And then, being so hungry, he will eat what amounts to two or three or more meals at once! Often, it will be late at night when he gets the chance to eat, which is the worst time. It has been proven that those who eat dinner less than three hours before bedtime gain weight. And if there is not a twelve-hour fast between dinner and the next morning’s breakfast, the body gains weight.
November was busy, and Chris’ portions of food did not shrink the way he wanted them to. He hopes to get back on track and reinforce the new health habits he has formed over the past year.
However, during the month of December, Chris is touring Europe. His goal for the month is to sample the ales in London, the sangrias in Barcelona, the wines of Paris, and the beers of Berlin. And then he will come home for the holidays. 🙂 Have fun, Chris!
I hope our health diary is helpful to you in setting goals and being more conscious about your health. Come back every Monday for a new blog post or sign up for emails to deliver the posts directly to you! There is a health report every month. Please like, comment and share my posts. Thanks!
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