I’ve been a fitness trainer in Campbell, San Jose and Saratoga for many years. One of the toughest jobs I have is helping people eat healthier, yet not allowing them to “diet” (e.g., eat next to nothing). The concept of eating well is simple, but it’s not always easy for people with bad eating habits to put healthy eating into practice. Rather than take a cold turkey approach and change everything all at once, I usually advocate changing things a little bit at a time.
One of the first tips I give to my new San Jose personal training clients if they’re trying to lose weight is to increase their fiber intake. It’s such an easy change for most people.
When you’re trying to increase your fiber intake, you’re often adding something to your menu as opposed to taking something away! How cool is that?? The great thing about increasing your fiber intake is that you’re likely to fill up on good-for-you foods like beans, fruits, veggies and whole grain products. So it ends up being a positive situation in several ways: you eat fresh, more healthful foods, you eat more fiber, and, you’re probably going to lose some weight (not to mention decrease your risk for heart disease, stroke, and some cancers). What a deal!
Why can increasing your fiber intake help you lose weight? By eating foods high in fiber, you are likely to eat fewer calories. Fiber helps you to feel fuller faster and satisfied longer because it moves through your body more slowly than highly processed foods. It is estimated that most of us consume less than half of the recommended 25 grams of fiber per day.
Here are some foods you can add to your eating plan to increase fiber:
• Fruit (higher fiber fruits include berries, apples and pears)
• Vegetables (higher fiber veggies include broccoli, artichokes, avocados, and sweet potatoes)
• Beans/Legumes (higher fiber beans/legumes include soybeans, chickpeas, lentils, split peas and black beans)
• Whole grains (use barley, oats and whole wheat products in place of processed white flour products).
The moral of this story: Eat more fiber, feel fuller longer, weigh less. That’s it in a nutshell.
Committed to your success,
Becky