Look familiar?
How familiar does this look to you? Is it something you interact with a lot? Maybe every weekend? Every other day? Or even daily? This could very much be holding YOU back from achieving that fitness goal your trying to reach, and you might not even be aware of it, or even if your comfortable with your body and you have gained weight out of nowhere? You might want to think of how often your drinking. The kind of alcohol that people drink is ethanol, which is a sedative. When alcohol is consumed, it's absorbed into our bloodstream. From there, it affects the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), which controls all body functions. Alcohol actually blocks some of the messages trying to get to the brain. This interacts with our perceptions, emotions, movement, vision, and hearing. When we consume alcohol, it is metabolized extremely quickly by our body. Unlike foods, which require time for digestion, alcohol doesn't need to digest, it is quickly absorbed. Its kind of like alcohol gets VIP treatment in the body, absorbing and metabolizing before most other nutrients. About 20% is absorbed directly across the walls of an empty stomach and can reach the brain within one minute or less. Isn't that crazy to think about? Take a second today and think about how often your consuming alcohol, and maybe if it could be putting a hold on you reaching your goals.
HEALTH AFFECTS:
| Arthritis | Increases risk of gouty arthritis |
|---|---|
| Cancer | Increases the risk of cancer in the liver, pancreas, rectum, breast, mouth, pharynx, larynx and esophagus |
| Fetal Alcohol Syndrome | Causes physical and behavioral abnormalities in the fetus |
| Heart Disease | Raises blood pressure, blood lipids and the risk of stroke and heart disease in heavy drinkers. Heart disease is generally lower in light to moderate drinkers. |
| Hyperglycermia | Raises blood glucose |
| Hypoglycemia | Lowers blood glucose, especially for people with diabetes |
| Kidney Disease | Enlarges the kidneys, alters hormone functions, and increases the risk of kidney failure |
| Liver Disease | Causes fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis |
| Malnutrition | Increases the risk of protein-energy malnutrition,; low intakes of protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamine, vitamin B6 and riboflavin, and impaired absorption of calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D and zinc. |
| Nervous Disorders | Causes neuropathy and dementia; impairs balance and memory |
| Obesity | Increases energy intake, excessive weight gain |
| Psychological disturbances | Causes depression, anxiety and insomnia |
By: Healthchecksystem.com)
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Using self control during your diet is crucial. Some of us may not be great at it, but in order to succeed we must get better at using it! Its hard to walk by a thing of cookies sitting on the counter, especially if they are your favorite kind! Your stomach starts telling you to eat it! How great they will taste and how happy they will make you, but your minds telling you to not go anywhere near them! By using self control with those cookies or any other great foods that we love, stop think about what your wanting to eat, and what could happen? Meaning maybe it will effect your weigh in? Or you will feel discouraged or guilty afterwards? Lastly, is that what you want to happen? If its not then be strong and say no! 
Is this? -Jillian Michaels
I have had some people recently ask me for an eating plan, I mentioned an eating plan I was doing a couple posts ago, but I have recently changed it to something more strict. So if your interested in a new eating program, or wanting to eat more healthy try this!!
Breakfast:
2-3 egg whites 1 whole egg (you can add salsa to eggs if wanted) with 1/3 cup oatmeal you can add truvia sweetener or splenda and cinnamon tastes good with it also!
OR 1 cup special K cereal with skim fat free milk you can also have 1/2 grapefruit with 1 pack of splenda on top (Grapefruit its a great natural fat burner so eat up!)
Snack:
1 piece wheat bread with tablespoon of natural peanut butter or almond butter (best tasting natural peanut butter is Skippy Natural) with 3-5 strawberries
OR
any fruit or 100 calorie snack or granola bar or yogurt
Lunch:
Chicken salad with veggies with any fat free dressing or salsa is good too. You can also add black beans it tastes great. Try to include spinach and romaine lettuce if possible. You can also do tuna salad if you didn't want chicken. You can switch these up during the week. You can have carrots or celery with salad if you wanted.
Pre Dinner:
Slim fast shake/protein shake (optional)
1 medium sized apple
Dinner:
Chicken/tilapia/ or any white fish with 1/2 cup brown rice with any veggies. (I usually do broccoli and cauliflower) you can add salsa with your rice or chicken and if you must use salt use sea salt and not too much.
Tip:If your starving after dinner, grapes are a great way to get rid of that hunger pain. Try avoiding any carbs late at night before bed, your last carbs of the day should be about 5 hours before bed. Your body needs that time to sleep and not worry about trying to burn off food. We burn fat while we sleep on an COMPLETELY empty stomach! Cut out all sodas or sugary drinks. Fill up on your water!! at least 8 glasses daily! You can do propells or the crystal lite, or generic brand of the sugar free drink mixes that you just add to bottled water their great, easy, and fast! Try to get your workout in as earliest as possible, its proven its when we have the most energy. Always space out meals 2-3 hours apart! If your looking for motivation I suggest buying Oxygen magazine. They have all kinds of great recipes/workouts that are fun and easy! It is filled with true weight loss stories all about women, they give great tips and is truly a motivator for anyone who is trying to shed some extra pounds or just trying to be more healthy.
I hope you all have a blessed day, keep up the motivation summers right around the corner!
XOXO Britt
