by Jennifer Cole 

When anyone thinks or sees the word ‘diet’, you either flip the page or groan and roll your eyes. I don’t blame you because I do it to! All these years and thousands of diets later there still has yet to be one universal diet to satisfy all of us. We’re a tough bunch to satisfy, correct? Well I’d like to talk about an actual diet, I hate to even use that word, where you don’t have to follow some regimented eating plan, go to some crazy extreme by only eating foods that are one color, or go exercise 4 hours a day. We like to call it ‘The Dermathol No Nonsense Diet’. 

I know we’ve all heard the saying ‘Everything in moderation’. Well when your craving an ENTIRE strawberry covered cheesecake, common sense tells you that eating the whole thing probably isn’t the brightest idea you’ve had. Now eating a slice of that cheesecake? That’s a much better idea! You’re not only giving your body what your craving but you also just saved yourself all those extra calories. Not to mention all the bloating and guilt!  Common sense will tell you that going to your local fried chicken restaurant or hamburger franchise is just wrong. If you want to truly succeed at a healthy lifestyle than you need to just accept that those types of establishments are complete sabotage on your body. Even when your grocery shopping, try your hardest to stay on the outside of the store. The healthy foods like fresh produce, unprocessed meats and the dairy are usually around the perimeter of the store. All of the processed, junk food and treats loaded with sugar are more than likely in the middle aisles. Have you ever noticed just the sodium content alone on a can of vegetables? Around 960 mg. That’s insane. When the veggies are thrown in a can, all those nutrients that are so beneficial to your body are sucked out and replaced with long words that no one can pronounce.  

Now a days you will see the words ‘No Trans Fat’ on a lot of labels. While this is terrific, you still need to be aware of the other types of fat and which of them are good and which aren’t. Yes, I did say good. On a 1600-calorie diet, you should have about 50 grams of fat in your diet a day. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are the ones you can breathe a sigh of relief over when you see them on your labels. Just remember, Poly and Mono! Those are the good guys! They are both considered Essential Fatty Acids and are essential to your overall health. Just the benefits to your heart, metabolism and immune system alone are reasons to make sure your diet includes some of these fats. Not to mention they increase your metabolic rate and increase fat burn off (see, they help you lose fat!!) which means, weight loss.

We’re always faced with fried foods, whether we’re out to eat or at the grocery store. Did you know that they now market ‘deep fried Oreos’? What will they think of next? To me, fried foods equal high cholesterol. How many of us have that on our million and one things to worry about list?  Some of us don’t really know what cholesterol is. Simply put, cholesterol is like wax. Too much cholesterol in your blood can obviously lead to trouble. Deposits of cholesterol, called plaque, will narrow your arteries and soon enough will slow or totally block the blood flow. In other words, when your sitting down at a restaurant looking at the menu under ‘side dishes’ and your eyes are glazing over at the words ‘French fries’, you need to take control and use that common sense we’re all born with. When you’re trying to get your weight under control and working on changing your lifestyle, you need to make smart choices. Bottom line.

This is the message we are trying to get across. We don’t want you to starve yourself or miss out on enjoying all the great food in life. If you use your head, you can completely change your way of thinking about food and in the process you’ll notice that those pants are actually starting to feel a bit big on you! We’re not telling you to go out and run 5 miles twice a day or to join some pricey workout club. There are so many activities that you can participate in during the coarse of a typical day. Say you have children, small or big it doesn’t matter. You show me a kid or an adult for that matter that won’t start dancing around when they hear a favorite tune blasting on the radio. Move the couch over to the wall (there’s some exercise right there!) and turn the radio all the way up, grab your kids, your spouse, heck grab your dog and dance away! Were you aware that any type of cardio that gets your heart pumping could mean your body will treat calories differently for the rest of the day?

Yes, I’m going to bring up the water issue. I’m always hearing about drinking 8 glasses of water a day. Personally, I thought drinking so much water would make me swell up like a balloon. Fluid retention anyone? Little did I know I was completely off base with that assumption. Water actually helps your body metabolize stored fat and is a NATURAL appetite suppressant. Who knew?! When your body is given less water than it needs, it takes the shortage as a threat to survival and will start to retain EVERY last drop. This water shows itself in swollen hands, feet, or legs. Turns out that water is the best treatment for fluid retention. When you give your body plenty of water than it knows to release the water its been storing. 

If you can have a healthier lifestyle without having the feeling of giving up your favorite foods or exercising day and night, wouldn’t you want to have it? Following our Dermathol No Nonsense Diet will give you that. Plain and simple. No difficult menus with expensive, never heard of before foods. No regimented aerobics exercises. Nobody telling you to walk away from the dessert table. In fact, we’re telling you to eat! Just make good choices. Plenty of fruit and veggies – there’s so many to choose from, your bound to find something you like. Be sure to drink lots of water – now a days they even have flavored water for those of us that don’t like the taste of plain ‘ol water. Go ahead and take that parking spot that is at the other end of the lot. Play a game of hopscotch with your kids or grandkids – or even join the neighborhood kids!!

 By eating lots of fruits and vegetables, staying away from junk food, increasing your water intake, making wise choices in your meals and simply taking the stairs instead of the elevator – all of that adds up to one healthy body. Not to mention happy too!  So in conclusion, when you don’t overeat or consume large quantities of unhealthy foods, you have more energy. That’s just a given. Now, what could YOU do with all that extra energy?  

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