The importance of VARIETY – food and exercise!

When I work with people for weight loss, one of the biggest things that seems to slow people down, even if they are eating “healthy things” is TOO MUCH REPETITION!!  They tend to eat the same things everyday for breakfast, or everyday for lunch, etc and their body goes into a SLUGGISH mode.  It needs more VARIETY!!

This is the same thing with workouts – your body cannot run as efficiently with the same foods, and it can’t get conditioned as well with the SAME workout!  You must rotate what you do so the body does not go into  a SLUGGISH mode with your progress. Workouts ALSO need VARIETY.  That is one reason the P90X is so sucessful (apart from the horrible abs that are shown in that workout.  skip that abs and your good!)

It has been said variety is the spice of life, and I SO agree.  Here is an article with a study that has shown JUST HOW IMPORTANT variety is to LONGEVITY, QUALTIY OF LIFE, and HEALTH.

In this article they REALLY concentrate on food needing variety.  Some things I have learned that I pass on to my clients are:

1) not having the SAME food for lunch and dinner, that you had the previous day for dinner.  Tempting on those tight-for-time days – but important.

2) Don’t have the SAME veggies and fruits everyday.  Each color of fruit and vegetable – classified in the American system as red, red/purple, yellow, orange, white/green, dark green, and green.  Each different color of vegetable gives off a specific antioxidant.  You need ALL SEVEN to really de-oxidize the aging process of your body. For instance, the antioxidant for the “red” category – tomatoes – is LYCOPENE, which we know is good for keeping the prostate heatlhy, AMONG OTHER THINGS!!  The main antioxidant in the red/purple category for things such as blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries is VERY GOOD FOR THE SKIN.  So if you have skin problems, load up on these.  Most importantly, give your body variety.

3)  DONT have the same proteins everyday.  One of my clients would eat ground beef for every meal, and it stalled ALL of her weight loss and fitness goals for weeks and weeks.  Your body needs fish, poultry, soy – OTHER THINGS!!  

4)  This one can seem like a beast at first – DONT have dessert everyday!!!  Sugar can really mess up your body if had too often  – it IS a WICKED WHITE, after all.  Rotate it just like anything else.  Or have frozen blueberries or fruit for dessert instead.

5)  Dont have SO MUCH WHEAT!!  The american diet is SO MUCH WHEAT – all the time!  It drives me nuts!  There are SOOOOO many other grains – quinoa (my personal fav), oats (get the steel-cut if  possible!), kamut, spelt (spelt bread is FANTASTIC!), millet (watch this one – high on the GI scale), barley, and others.  With too much wheat  – in everything from bread, to gravy, to soups, to salad dressings, its very easy to O.D. your body and cause it to go in a sluggish mode, especially for weight loss.  Your best bet is to look for a variety of options.  And when you DO have wheat, make sure the INGREDIENT list on the back says:  100% whole wheat. 
If the label says: unbleached flour, wheat flour, durum semolina flour, enriched flour, or anything like that – it TOTALLY refined WHITE flour (a  WICKED WHITE!!).  Know the marketing tricks to make it sound healthy and be SMARTER than the companies who make you THINK you are buying healthy.

Those are my tips for variety!  Let me know what YOURS ARE!!