The soda aisle at my local grocery store.
Everything's on sale.
This might seem basic, but I want to write about it because I believe that it's really difficult.
Stop buying soda.
And make drinking it something that you absolutely only do on occasion.
At the risk of oversimplifying the science, which I am going to do anyway, here's the deal. Your liver is essentially responsible for two jobs. First, it regulates your blood sugar and metabolism. When it's doing its job well, you are processing energy efficiently and your body is not creating extra fat. Second, it removes poisons from your system so that you don't get sick from them.
When you consume something really sugary, like soda, your liver works overtime in order to process the sugar. A series of chemical reactions happens in your body that make it nearly impossible for your liver to regulate your metabolism. This can lead to all sorts of illness, as you've probably heard.
When you consume chemicals, like the ones in diet soda, your liver understands those chemicals to be poison. Even if the other food choices you've made are good ones, your liver's ability to work effectively as a metabolism regulator is compensated due to the fact that it is now making its primary function to get poison out of your body. As such, even though diet soda doesn't have calories in it, drinking it can completely undermine your attempts to balance your blood sugar (and your attempts to lose weight, if that is your goal).
If you really must have caffeine, drink coffee or tea instead. Sweeten it yourself instead of letting a barista do it, and be conservative. For you caffeine addicts out there, here's a recipe for making your own low-sugar cafe mocha.
You may have seen this video floating around the interwebs over the past several months. It's well-presented, throughly researched, and interesting to watch, but if you don't have 9 minutes and 19 seconds to watch it, skip it and I'll get to the point below.
Can you limit your sitting and sleeping to just 23 1/2 hours each day?
We're not talking hard-core workouts here, we're just talking about moving your body 30 minutes a day. There are ridiculous health benefits to simply walking 30 minutes each day. In the spirit of keeping yourself out of the hospital and being able to fully enjoy the time you have on this planet, you owe it to yourself to get moving.
Try a couple of these suggestions.
1) Increase the walking time in your commute
Most of us do not have the option to walk to work, but if you do, try it. If you drive to work, try parking further away from your workplace. If you take the subway or the bus, get off a few stops early so that you can walk the rest of the way.
2) Take the stairs
Skip the elevator or the escalator and take the stairs instead.
3) Get a walking buddy
Make a daily date with a friend to take a 20-30 minute walk together. It's a great way get your exercise in while you catch up on the gossip (or, for some of you, on the most recent info about the Diablo 3 release.)
4) Get a dog.
Dog owners are much more likely to get 30 minutes of walking in each day. If you have a dog and someone else walks it, try to find time to shoulder some of the responsibility.
5) Turn your social dates into walking dates
If you're already a pretty social person, and you spend a good amount of time meeting friends for coffee or other social events, turn those dates into a time to walk. Be up front and ask your friends if they would mind walking with you for 20 minutes before you meet for coffee.
6) Spend time around your friends who get more physical activity
Lifestyle choices are infectious, so if you want to get more exercise, spend time around your friends who are active. Tell them that you want to be active, too, and ask them to include you in their plans.
7) Join a gym and create a plan to go that works for your schedule.
Just because some sweaty guy is grunting in the corner doesn't mean that you have to. Again, what we're going for here is 30 minutes of any activity, and walking counts. So making a plan to walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes is still better than not walking at all. The key here is making sure that it is convenient, that it will fit into your schedule, and that you will go. Know thyself and thy habits.
8) Go back to an exercise you used to enjoy
As Joseph Campbell said, "Follow your bliss." If there's a physical activity that you know you like to do, GO DO IT. You can do it now, and you can find a way to do it that is non-threatening and easy. If you used to like it, you probably still do. Did you used to enjoy taking dance classes? Tai-Chi? Riding your bike? Soccer? Playing Frisbee? Fencing? Running? Try going back to it. Being happy in your choices is not a small thing. (Some would say that it is everything!)
9) Make a playlist that you love
Get geeky with your ipod and make a playlist for yourself that you adore. Use it as a walking soundtrack. Or, find a podcast that knocks your socks off. The 30 minutes will be over before you know it.
10) Have more sex
A personal favorite, and full of lots more (ahem) benefits than just the exercise. If you're currently without a partner, treat yourself to a new toy and let the calorie-burning commence!
Everyone agrees that we should be eating plenty of vegetables, and that most of us do not get enough. Here are five simple suggestions for eating more veggies. Pick one that you think might work for you, try it for a week or two, and see what happens.
1) Make 2 veggies instead of 1
Most of us who cook make one vegetable to accompany our meal. An easy way to add veggies to your diet is to make two instead. One approach is to make two separate vegetable dishes, each with different seasonings and different tastes. Another approach is to add a second vegetable to the dish you are already preparing. (For Example: If you are making sauteed broccoli, put in the amount of broccoli that you were planning to make, and then add cauliflower.)
2) Join a CSA or get vegetables delivered to your home/work
Joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is an excellent way to get a variety of fresh vegetables every week. You get whatever veggies the farmer harvests that week, which means there are lots of opportunities to try new vegetables. In urban areas, it is also possible to get weekly veggies delivered to your door. An example in NYC is Urban Organic and its Boston equivalent isBoston Organics. If you have a fridge full of fresh produce, you're bound to eat more.
Single? Get it delivered to your workplace, and split it with a coworker.
3) Get experimental with salad
Many of us get tired with salad because we make it the same every time. If you try some creative and funky salads, you'll have a lot more fun eating them. Epicurious has some fun ones, and my favorite food writer, Mark Bittman, has created this list of 101 salads.
4) Roast a huge pile of veggies
Roast them in the oven with olive oil and some spices. You can easily do this while you are watching TV or lounging around your house. The majority of the work is really in chopping, and then you can do whatever you want while they roast. When they're done, eat what you want, and then put the rest in the fridge for snacking throughout the week.
5) Just add bacon
If you're an omnivore, I'm pretty sure that you'd eat more veggies if they were cooked with bacon. The key to this being a healthful choice is choosing really high quality bacon, so that you are getting the right proportion of omega-3 to omega-6 fats. A pig raised on a pasture, eating food pigs are supposed to eat, will provide you with the kind of fat you need to stay healthy. A pig raised in a pig factory that's been fed industrial corn and pumped with antibiotics will give you lots of things you don't need--unhealthy fat and an immune system that is resistant to antibiotics if you need them. Check out my favorite bacon-veggie recipe here.
