Kim's Fitness and Nutrition

There are countless theories and everyone speculates as to, "What is the purpose of life ... why am I here??" I have studied many teachers and there are no wrong paths. The teaching that rings the truest for me, and has since I was a very young girl, is that "CREATOR" has all of us humans ... trillions of us ... to experience life through. In doing so, "IT" expands and grows ever more intelligent, conscious and evolved.

Protein has really been getting a bad reputation the past decade or so. The medical associations and all forms of media would have you believing that it is all but poison. I realize that heart disease, cardiovascular disease and high cholesterol are certainly on the increase, but that should not be blamed entirely on our meat intake. Our lack of exercise is much more to blame, as well as our lack of education. Not all meat is bad, and I'm not simply talking about fish and chicken here. It is my opinion that saturated, polyunsaturated, unsaturated and trans fats are the real villains. If we make the choice to eat lean cuts, and if possible, organic meats, we will be much better off.

For the most part, we have been taught to put the cart before the horse, at least that is the way I understood the process to be. I thought that if I got the job of my dreams, the friends I admired, the car, the big house, the perfect body, the large bank account, the handsome husband and on and on, well then, then I would be happy. Everything was contingent on my obtaining stuff out there, outside of me, first, before the elusive happiness could, in fact, be mine. I played the game this way for a very long time. I can be a very slow learner sometimes or just plain stubborn. It did begin to dawn on me, though, when I would get some of what I had been yearning for and yet still feel unsatisfied. It didn't fill that empty, hollow place quite the way I thought it would.

We all know that fiber is "important" to our overall health, but most of us presume that it is all about keeping us from becoming constipated. That is, of course, a significant role that fiber plays, but it is not the most important reason why we need it. The presence of fiber in our digestive tract is crucial to our body's ability to extract all the valuable nutrients from the food we eat. Without it, our food passes through so quickly that our bodies are unable to benefit from what it is we have eaten. Consequently, we are hungry more often, suffer from cravings and never really feel satisfied. When the food pyramid was designed, suggesting 8 to 10 servings of fruit and vegetables each day, it was right on the money. The problem is that very few of us are actually able to eat that much in a day's time. It helps to snack on raw veggies mid morning and midafternoon, and definitely have salad with lunch as well as dinner whenever possible. A large serving of veggies with dinner and fruit with breakfast, and as a late night snack, get you very close. I know it sounds outrageous, but once you are able to do this for a week or two, I promise that you will feel a serious difference in your energy levels, sleeping patterns, lack of cravings
and in general, less hungry. Oh, don't let me forget that if weight loss is a goal, you will begin to drop weight seemingly effortlessly.