Post-Exercise Nutrition Tips for better metabolism and insulin control

You know that exercise increases metabolism, and that an "energy bar" is a good post-workout snack, right? Yes, it's a metabolism-booster, but NO, energy bars might undo some of the good work you just did!



Do you know how exercise regulates insulin? And do you know which are the best post-workout snacks? Read this article and learn what 2 recent studies determined about exercise, insulin control, and post-exercise nutrition:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Post-Workout-Nutrition---Retain-Exercise-Benefits-and-Regulate-Insulin-by-Reducing-Carb-Intake&id=1880683

Those "energy bars" might actually zap your energy if they make your metabolism and blood glucose levels come crashing back down.
For better post-workout nutrition:
* Read your nutrition labels of your foods
* Avoid eating immediately after you exercise unless you are hypoglycemic or feeling famished.
* Get out of the habit of snacking in response to exercise. Instead of "rewarding yourself" with food, try healthier rewards like >extra time in the jacuzzi; >getting a massage; >5 minutes of "you time" with your favorite music and candlelight; or >buying a new workout outfit.
* Unless you are bodybuilding or training for an endurance event, you do not need to follow exercise with food. Learn about your nutrition needs and how your metabolism responds to exercise.

Portion Out-of-Control: how restaurants make us fat

Americans are being overfed. The typical consumer may be offered twice the amount of calories that their body needs. So, we have been adding calories and gaining weight whenever we eat out.

This interview with Tanya Zuckerbrot describes some of this phenomenon:



What are some answers? How do we avoid gaining weight when we eat out?
Here are some tips:
*Make food choices based on portion size offered
*Ask for a leftover bag immediately when you order, or ask the wait-staff to automatically put 1/2 your meal into a leftover package (if you know you are ordering a large dish)
*Avoid drinking alcohol at the start of your meal. This will cause you to lose sense of satiety and overeat.
*Drink water as soon as you sit down if you are famished.
*Never order appetizers.
*If you must order one, split a dessert.
*Order the most vegetable-laden dish on the menu. Let the fiber fill you up.
*Avoid excess white bread. Ask the waiter Not to bring you rolls, for example.

In this overly-consuming society, we need to understand what we are eating. And we need to know our own bodies' caloric needs. Tune in and stop gaining weight!

Food Labels: Nutrition Facts not so factual

Does your healthy rely on the nutrition information posted on your food's labels? ABC News just aired a video after they did an independent study and found that the Nutrition Facts on many food labels were inaccurate, and NOT Factual.

You should be able to rely on "facts", but...


Why rely on numbers and labels? Just as they suggest at the end of the video, Try NOT to rely on packaged foods for your nutrition!

I am going to get more bold than that:

The health of most Americans will continue to decline if we do not become more dependent on fresh foods and consume fewer packaged foods.

Could you possibly be getting as much nutrition from your packaged, processed foods, that sit on the shelves for months (or years), as from the food in the Produce section, or better yet, from foods grown fresh in your own garden?!

Of course, we can't dump packaged foods overnight. So, how do we make the transition from packaged foods to fresh foods?

First, we must learn about nutrition. If you do not understand why an apple naturally has greater nutritional value than an apple-flavored Fruit Roller, or bottled apple juice, then you need Nutrition 101.

In order to eat nutritious foods, you need to understand that foods are most nutritious in their natural, raw, fresh forms. When a food becomes prepared, processed, packaged, and transformed, it is not the same food! Cherry-flavored anything will not offer the same nutrition (fiber, vitamins, etc.) as a ripe bing cherry fresh-picked from a tree and devoured within hours of picking.

Interesting to note about the foods sampled in their study: they showed examples of foods that are made by companies famous for killing Americans with unhealthy processing, packaging, and preservatives.
...If you eat alot of foods from Kraft (AKA Kraft'd), ConAgra (famous for their genetic modification of major food sources like corn), and Keebler (did ya ever meet a healthy elf?),
then your body is probably extemely nutritionally-deficient.

Avoid packaged foods, educate yourself, and Go Fresh!