Weight Loss Tips: 7 Important Nutrition Principles

Hey everyone. It's Dr. Angela, and I'm super excited to be with you today.

I have had lots and lots of questions in Sugar and Flour Buster Society. General questions like 'what am I supposed to eat now?' It's a huge question. So many people want to know - how do you go about eating properly if you want to lose weight and get healthy.

So that's what we're going to talk about today. I'm going to give you my top seven tips on how to eat properly if you want to lose weight and get healthy. If you are watching this live, or if you are watching the replay, just pop a little note in and say hi to me so I know you're there. That would be awesome! Thank you!

So what are my top seven tips on how to lose weight and get healthy?

• #1 - Stop thinking about dieting.

So many people have this mentality where they're either eating whatever they want or they're on a diet. It's like this binge diet mentality. What we want to do, if you want to really get this problem under control long-term, is you want to stop that thinking. Just stop that thinking! Just stop that thinking!

You want to STOP dieting, and you want to START focusing on nourishing your body. You have got a beautiful, gorgeous, amazing chemical factory here. This is an amazing chemical factory and you want to be giving it all the nourishment that it needs in order to stay healthy.

Eating whatever you want and then dieting it away later is not healthy for your body, and it's not going to serve you long term. That's tip number one - stop the dieting and start focusing on nourishing your body.

• #2 is super important. Avoid processed foods and sugar sweetened beverages.

Why would I say that? Because there is nothing nourishing about most, I can't say all, but most processed foods. So if you are regularly and routinely running through the McDonald's drive-thru or the Taco Bell drive-thru, or going to Subway, or drinking sodas, or going to Starbucks and getting those sugary lattes, and stuff like that - that is not nourishing your body!

That is giving your brain a little sugar high, and giving you some energy I'll grant you, you do get some energy, but those foods are not the least bit healthy.

You want to start thinking about that stuff as toxic to your body. In the same way that you think about cigarettes as being toxic to your body, I want you to begin to think about processed, pre-made food as toxic to your body. So that's tip number two.

• #3 - and this might be the most important thing you ever hear from anybody when it comes to food... you ready? Tip number three. Plan your meals in advance! That's right. I said, plan your meals in advance.

So either the night before, or the morning of, you write down on a piece of paper or in your phone, everything that you're going to eat for the day.

What are you going to have for breakfast? What are you going have for lunch? What are you going to have for dinner? Write it all out ahead of time.

Why do I say this is the most important thing? Because too many of us are making decisions about eating on the run. We aren't thinking about making decisions about eating.

We just grab something, right? When you are planning your meals, you're using the prefrontal cortex of your brain. This is the smart part of your brain. This is the adult part of your brain. This is the part of your brain that is in touch with your goals.

When you make decisions from this part of your brain, you're going to make the right kinds of decisions. As your day goes on, you're going to get tired. You're going to feel bored. You're going to have periods of time where you're like, 'Oh, I just want to have a snack.' Let this smart part of your brain be the part that responds! 

Remember, that's a lower part of your brain that just wants some pleasure in the moment. We have these different parts of our brains that are sort of always vying for our attention.

I want you to really understand - the best part of your brain from which to plan your meals is this part of your brain. Not the toddler brain, the primal brain, the brain that just sees stuff and wants to eat it.

That might be the absolute most important tip I could ever give you - is to plan your meals in advance.

• #4  - Eat Protein.

When you're planning your meals, and if you want to be nourishing your body properly, you need protein. Your body needs protein for use as building blocks for muscle and bone tissue, as well as to make enzymes.

You want to be eating protein with every meal. Three times a day.

• #5 - Eat vegetables.

I try to get 20 ounces of vegetables in each day, and I actually weigh my vegetables just because I want to make sure that I'm getting enough.

Now what do I mean by vegetables? I don't mean potatoes, not French fries, and the like. I mean the leafy greens, also mushrooms, onions, and bell peppers.

Tomatoes are technically a fruit, but you could use those as a vegetable. They've got lots of nourishing qualities and contents. What else? Carrots, celery, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash - there are all kinds of vegetables out there.

Eat your vegetables!

I just had some Brussels sprouts and onions for lunch that I had sautéed the other night. I had some leftovers, and they were delicious. You really want to learn how to chop and sauté vegetables and do a really good job getting vegetables into your meals. I do all kinds of things with vegetables - I roast, sauté, and stir fry them. That is a great way to nourish your body - with vegetables.

• #6 - Be careful with carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates get digested and and move into your bloodstream and turned into glucose molecules. And guess what your body does with them? It turns them into triglyceride fat. So all of the fat that is stored in your fat cells is actually made from blood sugar!

The fat in your body - it's not made from fat, it starts as blood sugar! Is that interesting? Does that blow your mind?

My private patients and the people in my online programs - Journey Beyond Weight Loss, know exactly how all this happens, because we go into great detail in the biochemistry of it.

I want you to understand that SOME carbohydrates are good for you, but we are eating way too many carbohydrates in this country. And not to mention that since you're here in the Sugar and Flour Buster Society, you recognize that sugar and flour products are actually addictive drugs and you're working at getting off of them.

I would not have very many carbohydrates first thing in the morning. I would avoid oatmeal. I would avoid muffins. I would avoid bagels. I would avoid juices. I would avoid all that stuff that most people have - like fruit smoothies with tons of fruit in them. I would avoid all of that.

I would have protein and fat for breakfast. And then during the rest of the day, I would have small amounts of fruits or some starchy carbs, like beans or sweet potatoes. I would be careful even with rice just because your blood sugar can go up pretty high from that too. That is the carb piece of it, which is super, super important.

• #7 - Fats.

We've talked about that there's three macronutrients: there's proteins, carbs, and fats. So we need to talk about fats.

Most people are scared to death of fat. I want you to be scared to death of carbs. No, I don't want you to be scared to death OF carbs, I just want you to be careful WITH carbs.

You don't need to be scared to death of fat because fat does not turn into fat in your body. That's not the way the body works. The body takes fat and turns it into energy. It uses it to make cell membranes. It uses it to absorb fat soluble vitamins. Its super, super important: fat.

You can eat too much fat pretty quickly though. I generally measure my fat. So for example, I measure out an ounce of nuts at a time. If I'm going to have nuts, I measure them, I don't just grab a bunch of nuts. Just recognize that it is important to be eating some good, healthy fats.

I haven't had my avocado yet, but I'm going to be having one for my lunch. They are healthy fats for you as well. And they've got lots of fiber in them!

When you start eating like this, your body is going to be well-nourished, and you're going to be feeling great. You're going to drop fat like crazy. It's an amazing thing that happens when you start nourishing your body with good wholesome food.

It takes a little time and effort though. It just takes time and effort to make the change. But the time that you get back in terms of your energy and your health is so worth it, so, so worth it.

If you have any questions, type them in whether you're on YouTube or whether you're on Facebook.

So again, what are the seven keys to healthy nutrition?

First thing is ditch that whole diet mentality. Just ditch it.

Stop with the 'I'm going to eat whatever I want and I'm going to diet later.' Just stop all of that and just learn how to eat normal food and stop dieting. Think about nourishing your body.

Tip number two was to recognize the toxic addictive nature of processed foods and beverages. So you're going to want to avoid fast foods. You're going to want to avoid sugary stuff. You're going to want to avoid sodas and energy drinks and all of that.

Not because you're on a diet and you're trying to deprive yourself, but because you realize they're actually addictive drugs and they're really toxic to your body. Start thinking about this stuff in the same way you think about cigarettes. They are killing us more so than cigarettes.

As a matter of fact, it takes decades for somebody who's a smoker to develop lung cancer. It only takes about 20 years for a little kid who starts eating sugar when they are less than one to become diabetic. So we're talking serious stuff here.

Tip number three. Plan your meals in advance. That was the most important tip - is to plan ahead so that you're using this part of your brain (the frontal lobe), not your rambunctious toddler brain who just has urges and wants to eat whatever they want. So use the forward thinking executive part of your brain to make your food decisions, which means plan your meals in advance, write it all down so that you can refer to it during the day. That makes it a lot easier.

Tip number four, make sure you're eating protein with every meal.

Tip number five, eat lots of vegetables. And again, I shoot for about 20 ounces a day.

Tip number six was to be super, super careful with carbohydrates because they actually do get turned into fat. It's not what you've been taught, I know, for most of you.

Tip number seven is don't be afraid of eating fat, but eat good, healthy fats, like nuts, avocados, and olive oil. All those kinds of things. And be sure that you measure the amounts because fat calories do add up quickly.

So that's what I've got for you today. Just to help you all out, I'm going to share two things with you.

The first is a replay of a webinar that I did the weekend before last. And that's going to give you some really good insight into what it actually takes to lose weight and keep it off.

And then the second is the Five Day Sugar Detox Menu. We've got a lot of new people in our group now, and they haven't seen it. This is just a starting point to get you off the carbs and the sugar, and to help get you through the withdrawal.

I'm super, super glad for you that popped in live. And for those of you who watch this later, I hope you've gotten some value and I will see you again next time I do a Facebook live. Take care.

To Your Health!

Dr. Angela