Natural Painkillers

 

Here is another picture from the great people at PositiveMed.com. It's good to be knowledgeable on herbs, spices, and foods that can help heal you in some way. Personally I hate going to the doctor and taking prescriptions. I always find a way to natural heal myself. The only time it becomes dire is if my life is on the line, then I might consider man-made medication.

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Natural Foods to Cleanse the Colon

I'm sorry I have to do this, but this post is about your colon. Gross or not, this is a very important thing to think about, especially as we get older. I found this on a website called PositiveMed.com. I love this website because it shares a lot of natural ways to heal your body. Check their website out daily for new tips. If you are having problems reading this picture, click on it and it will open up a window with a larger size or click on the source link below to go directly to their website.

Source: http://positivemed.com/2013/04/09/natural-foods-to-cleanse-the-colon/

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Natural Cures

I found this poster on a Facebook page and thought it was something everyone should know. We don't always need medicine from the doctor to heal ourselves. Mother Nature made it to where we can heal ourselves with items grown from the soil. Taking care of our bodies should be the number one thing we do in our life.

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Why Losing Fat is Important.

Found this picture on Facebook and had to share. This does not mean if you are real skinny that you need to lose more fat. This is for people who are above their BMI and need to lose fat.

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Smoothie's False Identity

We have all had smoothies before. There are several places to go to get them like Smoothie King, Smoothie Factory, and Jamba Juice. They promise good health and the perfect drink before or after a workout. Packed full of vitamins and minerals, smoothies seem to be a very tasty way to stay healthy. Today I am going to tell you why I think smoothies are overrated and why you should be more careful when choosing one to supplement your diet or workout.

I have been a big fan of smoothies for a long time. They taste great and you feel like you are being supercharged. I never would of thought something that seemed so healthy could actually be worse for you than the products they try to replace. For this post, I will use Smoothie Kings drinks for my examples.

Sugar. Lots and lots of sugar. That is what you get when you order almost anything off the menu. Yes, a lot of it does come from real fruit and that is great and all, but the amount of sugar is mind blowing in some of these drinks. They still use syrups and other liquids in these drinks that are not natural fruit. The protein shakes like Gladiator and The Shredder have fairly low amounts of carbs and sugar, so that's good. They also pack a lot of protein so I can safely say they are good for after workouts. Although, when you add the two fruits to it, they do get a little bit of sugar added. The rest of the drinks, start at around 30 grams of sugar for a small drink and can go up to 200 grams for a Hulk large. The Hulk large also has 60 grams of fat. That is like eating 3 hamburgers from McDonalds with 4 large cokes to chug it down with. Granted, the McDonalds meal has tons more sodium than the Hulk large, but I still don't think it's a "healthy" drink.

Another thing I hate about smoothies is that they are so expensive. For a medium, plus the tip they make you feel guilty about, it is around $8-9. Wow! For around that much I could go to Le Peep and have an egg and ham breakfast with fruit and a tall glass of water and it would be miles healthier and delicious. I could think of a dozen more options I could spend that money on that would get me a better meal than a smoothie.

The last thing I will say about smoothies is that you need to make sure you research them before you make it a habit and become overweight all of a sudden by being "healthy". Get a smoothie if it makes sense, otherwise pass and get something better.

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Diet Trends

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. I'm sure we all pigged out more than we wanted to, and it's OK! Life is about choice and enjoying what the world has to offer. It's OK to eat hamburgers and fries on occasion with a tall glass of vodka and Redbull. As long as you don't let your cheats be a way back into an unhealthy lifestyle, I see no problem with it. Today on Trendy Tuesdays, I want to discuss why I am such a disbeliever in most diet trends.

We have all heard about diet trends that pop up every year or so. One of the most popular I can remember is the Atkins Diet. This was a diet that made you scared of any kind of carbs. It was real popular because people would lose weight by avoiding carbs. Well, what ended up happening is a lot of people got sick or got even fatter once they got off the diet. Another one that I tried before was the Anabolic Diet. This diet was similar to Atkins. It made you not eat carbs for 12 days, then after 12 days you eat carbs for 2 days, then continue a cycle of shocking your body pretty much. I will say, my wife and I lost a lot of weight when we tried this 5 years ago. The problem was that you had to eat all the time. After a couple of weeks I was tired of cooking 4-5 meals a day and really didn't have the time to. Our grocery bill was real high too because of all the meat we had to consume. The most recent one is the Paleo Diet, which I talked about last week. This is again the same ole story about avoiding carbs and eating only meat, veggies, and fruit for the most part. Check out my post from earlier last week to see what I say about the Paleo Diet.

So why the hate? These diets work for some people, I will admit that. For the average person though, I think they are a little too much. I think someone can achieve weight loss and good health by just being smart about what they eat and not over consume. By being on a fad diet, there is a little part of everybody that knows that this may not work, so when crunch time comes, it is easy to just give up. By eating what you want, but being smart about it, you can enjoy life more and not have to be the guy at dinners who refuses to eat a roll or goes for a bunless hamburger.

In conclusion, I will say that some diets are extremely beneficiary to people who have health concerns. If a doctor tells you to stay away from wheat, red meat, or dairy, then I suggest you follow orders. If you got fat because you have gotten lazy and eat way too much fast food, then a fad diet is probably not going to work. You need to get moving, educate yourself on what your body really needs, and watch your calorie intake. We eat more than we do anything, so don't take the fun out of it, just be smart.

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Ten Food Additives to Avoid

TGIF everybody! Today I'm not going to share a recipe. Instead, I am going to tell you about 10 food additives that you should avoid. Check for these when you grocery shop and it will help you in deciding what brand to buy.

Aspartame – found in foods that are diet or sugar free; neurotoxin and carcinogen

High Fructose Corn Syrup – found in everything; number one source of calories in U.S.

MSG – Asian food, some canned soups, chips, snacks, frozen foods; neurotoxin

Trans Fat - margarine, chips, baked goods, fast foods; increases LDL, lowers HDL

Common Food Dyes incl. blue #1, blue #2, red #3, red #40, yellow #6, and yellow tartrazine – candy, sports drinks, soda, cherry products, cheese; can cause ADD, ADHD

Sodium Sulphite (sulfite) – wine, cheese; 1 in 100 people are sensitive to this chemical, can cause illness, rashes, among other things

Sodium Nitrite or Nitrate – hot dogs, bacon, ham, lunchmeat, smoked fish, many processed foods; carcinogen

BHA and BHT – potato chips, gum, lard, shortening, jello; affects neurological center of brain, can cause cancer, alters behavior

Sulphur Dioxide – beer, soda, juice, wine, dried fruit, vinegars; sulphur additives are toxic, can cause asthma, bronchial and respiratory problems, destroy Vitamin E and B1, should never be given to children

Potassium Bromate – found in most bread and rolls; known to cause cancer in animals, even small amounts can cause problems in humans.

So there you have it. Check for these on food labels and try to avoid them as much as you can. Come back next week and I will share a delicious recipe.

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Paleo Diet

Today on Trendy Tuesday, I will be talking about a new diet I have heard about called the Paleo Diet. The Paleo diet is a modern day version of our ancestors’ diet from the Paleolithic era and focuses on food that can be hunted or gathered: Vegetables, fruit, seafood, grass-fed meat, eggs, nuts, seeds, and poultry. While it seems like it could be a very healthy alternative to your regular diet, it does raise questions on a few things.

No one can argue that eating only vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, and nuts is bad for you. Most diets actually follow the same guideline. Processed foods are a big no-no in this diet and that's a good thing. This diet is rich in soluble fiber, omega 3 fatty acids, low-glycemic carbs, and the good kind of fat. I have read stories of people losing an easy 15 lbs and feeling great while on this diet. This diet is also extremely low in sodium which is something I really like about it. So why is this diet not practiced by everyone in the world?

The one thing that I thought of when I heard about this diet is, "A caveman's life span was only 20 years or so, does that mean you will be fit but die sooner than other people in today's time?" Another thing to think about is the animal's meat from a long time ago is much different than the commercial farm animals we have nowadays, even if they are grass fed. The meat is not as lean and they are still pumped with chemicals even at the most organic farms. Also, without milk and cheese, it is almost impossible to get calcium and vitamin D in your diet. You also lose valuable nutrients by taking away grains. This diet is also very similar to a low carb diet which I am not a fan of. I actually see nothing wrong with carbs if they are the good kind. I also love bread so I might be a little biased. The last thing that made me not a fan was that your grocery bill will most likely be much larger than before.

After saying that, this does not mean this diet is bad for you. There are supplements you can take to get the missing nutrients, and as long as you stay active, like cavemen did, you should have no problem eating all the fat and protein you want. It is also recommended that you eat more fish than red meat. If all you eat is red meat from today's farm animals, you will most likely develop cardiovascular problems.

In conclusion, the Paleo Diet is a new approach to a low carb diet. I personally would never do it but that is my personal choice and I do not feel it accompanies my lifestyle. If you have the wallet, the patience, and the drive to do this diet, I say go for it. Make sure to check with your doctor or health care professional before trying this if you have medical issues. My advice is just to eat normal foods and stay away from as much processed foods as you can without driving yourself crazy.

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Gatorade is Old News

We all know the drink. The thirst quenching sports drink that has been around since most of us have been alive. Gatorade has been helping athletes for decades and is still a big seller in the stores. What if I told you that it is not that good for you? What if I said it can actually make you gain weight? These questions are topics I will be talking about in this post on Trendy Tuesdays. The trend that sports drinks after working out is a way to refresh yourself, is not entirely true.

Let's start with the pros of Gatorade that we all know and have been taught.

• Electrolytes - This is probably the #1 reason people support and drink Gatorade. Electrolytes are very important to you especially if you have been sweating for an hour or so. They can give an athlete energy when he feels like he has none left. Good example is a basketball game. It's 4th quarter and your team is down by 10. You are the star shooter, but are dead tired from a hard game. Drinking some Gatorade in this instance will give the player more energy right away to finish the game than water or any other beverage would.
• Taste - Gatorade has a ton of flavors to please anybody's palette. My favorite is the classic Lemon-Lime.

Ok so maybe there aren't too many pros to Gatorade besides helping athletes finish games strong. Let's take a look at why it's bad for you.

• High Fructose Corn Syrup - This alone is reason enough to know that sports drinks are bad for you. Inexpensive way to sweeten and preserve a drink. This just screams bad for you.
• Citric Acid - This is used to flavor the drinks and makes it taste pretty good and leaves your mouth feeling pretty refreshed. It also can wear at your teeth enamel and can cause tooth decay after a lot of exposure to it.
• Less Water Intake - If you find yourself drinking Gatorade every time you get thirsty, this can cause a serious problem. Your body needs pure water to live and stay healthy, and if all you are giving it is water with sugar and other chemicals, it can take a toll on your body.
• Weight Gain - A lot of people look at Gatorade like they do Coke or any other soda. High amount of sugar and empty calories is a recipe for weight gain.

So there you have some pros and cons for Gatorade or any other sports drink. I am not saying that it is horrible and needs to be banned. It works great for athletes and people who do a lot of physical work for extended periods of time. But for the rest of us who may only do an hour of physical work all day, it is the same as a soft drink.

Well Chris, what can I drink after I go to the gym if Gatorade isn't that good for you? I personally go for some chocolate milk (ones without High Fructose Corn Syrup) or protein shake. These give you the protein your body needs after a work out and gives you some good carbs to boost your energy back up the rest of the day. In conclusion, stay away from sports drink and drink more water or a shake if you are trying to repair after a workout.

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Men's Health Poster

Happy Tuesday to all my readers. I had an idea for a blog post today, but it was going to require more research than I had time to do. I will post that next week! Today, I wanted to share a poster I saw a few weeks ago that is pretty helpful for men. Sorry ladies, I try to be unisex as often as I can. I know this isn't really a "trendy" topic for Trendy Tuesdays, but I felt it was important to share. Take a look at the poster for a minute and absorb what it is saying.

Do you feel like some of the organs mentioned may be in the danger zone with you personally? Go see a doctor and get a physical. I don't usually say go to the doctor for anything, but it's good to go when you know what you need checked and are already informed so you can decide whether or not to take doctor's orders.

This poster wasn't made to scare you, but to inform you of how major organs work and are affected by our daily living. The older we get, the more we realize the importance of keeping our body healthy so we can live long and prosperous lives.

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The Truth About GMO

Let's get nerdy today. This Wellness Wednesday, I want to discuss GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms). This technology is used in the food we eat and even used on animals in factory farms. Many people strongly oppose them and some people say they are a way of improving the world. Let's take a look at the facts and you can make a decision for yourself.

So what is GMO? GMO are genetically modified organisms that have had new genes from other organisms added to their existing genes. The goal of such genetic engineering is to give the original organism new characteristics, such as disease resistance. This seems like a good thing for the food industry, but with any new science, there are always side effects that have not yet been averted. Let's take a look at the pros and cons of it.

Pros:

• GMO crops can be modified to where they will become insect resistant. Therefore not needing to use pesticides and other products to keep them away from crops and destroying them. This saves farmers huge amounts of money by not having to waste crops. It also protects the environment from the chemicals in the pesticides and prevents soil erosion.
• GMO foods are known to have more nutrition than normal. They have been engineered to contain more vitamin and mineral content. Besides providing you with more nutrition, this also helps in the fight against malnutrition in the world.
• GMO foods have better quality and taste. Again, they engineer the foods to have more taste. They can make corn sweeter, peppers spicier, and just about anything else have better taste than the original.
• GMO animals have been tested and they are known to have less health problems in general. They can fight off disease better and can withstand typical factory farm conditions better. This in turn produces higher quality meats, eggs, and dairy to the consumer.
• GMO foods can carry vaccines for common diseases. Example, they are working on a banana that can carry a vaccine to kill Hepatitis B.

So the pros of GMO seem very hopeful for the future of the world. Super foods that help us live longer and animals that can withstand anything and stay healthy. Well, it's not all sunshine and lollipops. GMO is still a new technology in terms of it being perfected. Let's take a look at the cons of GMO.

Cons:

• GMO foods can cause unknown allergic reactions to people. When they engineer the foods to be super foods, they often introduce new proteins and chemicals into the food that were not originally in it. This can confuse the body. If you are allergic to nuts, and you eat some corn that has GMO in it. There is a slight chance the protein in nuts that makes you allergic, will have traces of it in the new corn. So now, you are allergic to nuts AND corn, even though you weren't allergic to corn before.
• GMO can decrease the efficiency of antibiotics. This happens because the antibiotic features put into the GMO foods to resist against disease and viruses, causes your body to persist the antibiotic markers. Worldwide they have seen a decrease in the efficiency of antibiotics in hospitals.
• One concern is that the modified genes of the organisms may escape into the wild. For example, if a GMO crop that has a strong resistance to herbicides loses some organisms into the wild and attaches itself to the wild weed population, then you will have super weeds that cannot be killed by herbicides. This technology can be very bad if it is applied to crops and animals we don't want modified.
• GMO also can cause disruption in an ecosystem. One example I heard about recently was the bee population of a small town had almost vanished because the bees could not survive on the new genetically modified flowers that have been growning. Bees dying off doesn't sound bad, but they are a vital part of nature and without them, can slowly destroy an entire ecosystem.
• GMO also can make it to where the bacteria they are trying to kill, will just become stronger and stronger by adapting to the new organisms. This can cause certain strands of bacteria to almost be invincible.
• There has been no long term testing on GMO because the technology is not old enough to collect data for long term effects. So basically we are all playing a guessing game on what might happen to us in the future. There are already many counts of dying animals that ate GMO foods that were not tested properly and are being fed to humans also.

So there you have it, an unbiased report on what GMO is. There are definitely more cons to it, but that is only because you will normally get that with new technology that has not yet been perfected. With you knowing the facts now, you can take it upon yourself to make a decision on how you feel about it. I am somewhere in the middle. I think the idea of it is great and can really save the world in an overpopulated Earth. But I also know there are many side effects from it and don't like the idea that the government is using them in almost all of our foods before it has even been close to perfected. I feel that GMO should be used in a small market of the food industry until they have it under control.

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Think Healthy Every Day

Hello! A nice 3 day weekend is upon us and I could not be happier. It will be a test for me to stay on path over a long weekend, as I will want to go out and be social. Today on Training Thursdays, I will talk about how you can keep your mind thinking healthy every day, even when you don't go to the gym. I will talk about activities to do on your days off and ways to avoid taking steps back.

Earlier in the year, when I started my health kick, I would tend to let days off be free days where I could do whatever I want because I know I was going to the gym the next day. This ended up making me lazy on days off and taking small steps back, forcing me to work harder on gym days and not advance as much as I would of liked. So what did I change? I would either take an early jog before work or go to the bike trail with the family after work for a nice 3 mile walk. Sometimes schedules get hectic and I can't do either of those. In this case, I would focus heavy on my diet.

When you aren't as active throughout the day, you don't need all the calories that you would intake on a normal exercise day. I usually shoot for around 3000 calories on active days, because I am a tall dude and need those calories, but on days off, I would shoot for around 2100 calories. I would also avoid bread as much as possible and absolutely no fast food of any kind. My typical off day diet would consist of:

• Breakfast: Apple, Orange, and big glass of water (very important in the morning)
• Lunch: Chicken breast, green veggie, and potatoes (leftovers from night before)
• Snack: Small candy bar (trick or treat size)
• Dinner: Pork Chops, green veggie, and corn

This is just a quick example, I usually make it a little more fun than that if I can. The key is to also drink a lot of water that day so you don't feel as hungry and snack a lot. On days you workout, snacking and getting hungry is perfectly fine because you need to replenish your body.

So on this long weekend, keep a conscious effort to stay in healthy mode. If you find yourself spending all of Saturday on the couch watching college basketball, drink water whenever you feel the need to eat a snack and get up during commercials or halftime and walk around a little bit. I'm not saying you can't have lazy days, you just have to make sure not to ruin your success by eating a whole pizza to yourself because you have been dormant all day, yes I have been guilty of this in the past. Stay healthy, stay fit, stay strong, and most importantly, stay happy.

* Although tomorrow is my day off, I will still post a recipe for Foodie Fridays. I know this is one of my more popular posts.

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Ingredients to Avoid

TGIF! I'm sure everyone is excited for Friday, except people who work on the weekends, and today on Foodie Fridays, I am going to talk about ingredients you need to avoid when choosing what to eat. I will cover both fast food and food you get at the grocery store. I won't make this too detailed since I know everyone has somewhere to go today. So here's a quick little list to keep in mind over the weekend when you are grocery shopping or eating out.

Avoid These When Eating Out
- Cheeses, unless locally made
- Condiments, except oils and vinegars
- Bread, unless made that day at the bakery
- Red Meat, unless local beef
- Chips and Salsa at Mexican Restaurants, I know this one is brutal for my Houston peeps.
- Only thing healthy at a Chinese Restaurant are the lettuce wraps.
- Sauces, unless homemade, Olive Garden sauces are horrible for you.

Avoid These at the Grocery Store
- If you need a chemistry degree to understand items on an ingredient list, you probably shouldn't eat or drink it.
- Avoid the middle aisles at the store as much as possible, this is where all the processed foods are located.
- "Enriched" or "bleached" listed on your bread is just not good for you.
- Low fat options of food are usually not better for you because they have more calories and sodium most of the time. Sodium and calories combined is a lot worse for you than fat that often is good for you.
- Soups. I have not found one soup that is remotely low in sodium.
- Cereal. Yup, all of them.
- Always get Whole Milk

That should be enough items to piss you off. LOL. This is a pretty strict list to follow, but if you can try to achieve them all, you will definitely notice your stomach getting flatter even without working out. Start off by following a few rules if you want and work yourself up to more.

Although you might feel that I have just taken the fun out of eating, I will tell you that I follow this list pretty strictly and I eat new and exciting meals everyday. Get creative and use Google to find millions of recipes and options for when you go out. Keep it local when choosing a restaurant. Have a good weekend!

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Living in a Fast Food World

If you live in America, then you know that fast food dominates the food industry. It's fast, cheaper than restaurants, and pretty good depending on how you look at it. In reality, it is not cheaper than buying groceries and making meals, and almost all of it is bad for your health. We have all been forced to eat fast food, either because we forgot our lunch or our friends are meeting there to get something fast and cheap. So what do you do if you are trying to be healthy and not gain back the pounds you lost this week? I will explain why fast food is so bad for you and what you can do to be healthy if you have to eat it for a meal. Let's start with just some basics of health and how they relate to fast food.

All fast food places use preservatives. They have to in order for food to stay fresh and meet health standards. What if McDonalds didn't put preservatives in their meat? By the time it got to the restaurant and sat for a few days, it would most likely grow mold and spoil. So why is it bad that they do this? It's bad because the food is loaded with sodium. Sodium is vital to humans because it hydrates our body by holding water in and can help in preventing heart attacks and cardiovascular diseases. Of course sodium is only good for you if you keep it at a healthy level. Too much sodium can have the reverse effect by raising blood pressure and holding too much water, causing you to build fat in your body and bring up a whole bunch of cardiovascular problems. The average person should intake around 1500 to 2300mg of sodium a day. This seems like quite a bit of sodium to intake per day, but when you throw processed foods in the mix, the numbers climb really fast.

Fat, specifically saturated fat, can increase your LDL cholesterol if you consume too much. LDL cholesterol is the bad kind of cholesterol. This is usually found in burgers and cheeses at fast food places. You do need fat and cholesterol to maintain a healthy life and keep your heart healthy, but there are no benefits from eating saturated fats. It basically hardens your arteries and therefore causes several cardiovascular problems related to high cholesterol.

Calories are the easiest way to track how you are doing. The average person is allowed between 2000 and 3000 calories a day depending on age, sex, and activity levels. For me, being 6 foot 3, male, and working out 4 times a week now, I need a little less than 3000 calories to stay moving and have energy for my body to burn fat. You never want to consume too little calories, because then you will fatigue and your body won't have energy to burn fat. If you go over though, then those unused calories will be stored by fat. So for me, I need to always have at least 2500 calories a day, and no more than 3000. This does involve being conscience of what you eat, which you should always be doing anyways. Eating is something we do 3 or more times a day, so why not treat it with respect?

The vegetables in most fast food are not healthy for you. If they are used in fast food then they were most likely sprayed with heavy pesticides and were depleted of all nutritious value. So you are basically just eating empty mass that use to be a vegetable high in nutrition.This is why almost every salad at a fast food place is no more healthy than the burgers they serve. Besides having no nutritious value, the dressings they use are loaded with sodium and fat.

Let's take Taco Bell's XXL Grilled Stuft Burrito with Chicken, one of my old favorites. One burrito alone has 2080mg of sodium, 850 calories, 93g of carbs, and 35g of fat with half of that amount being saturated fat. Now let's see why this is so bad for you. This one burrito has a full days worth of sodium, so you are already above your limit just from one item. Unless you eat raw veggies the rest of the day, this is going to effect you enormously. Calories from this burrito aren't too horrible, but you usually want to consume 400-600 calories per meal so you can eat good throughout the day. The carbs and fat of this burrito are a bad combination together. When you have a large amount of carbs along with a large amount of fat, you are setting your body up to store all the fat you eat. So to recap on this burrito, in one meal you have exceeded your sodium intake for the day, left little room to consume calories for the rest of the day, and set your body up to store fat. I use to eat this burrito along with a Double Decker Supreme and maybe a small taco with a soda. Adding those other items made my numbers sky rocket for one meal and is probably the main reason I developed high blood pressure at a young age. Imagine eating this way for two meals out of your day, scary huh?

I'm sure you've heard enough about why fast food is bad. Now let's take a look at what you can do to be healthy if you have to eat it. A lot of the fat and sodium comes from the processed cheese they use. There is almost nothing good about the cheese at fast food places. If you look at all the items on the menu, you will realize that most everything has cheese included. The first and most simple thing to do is order something without cheese. If cheese is an essential part of the item, then that is an item you should avoid. You might of noticed the Fresco Style menu at Taco Bell. This menu has cut out the cheese. This is a good option if you are visiting Taco Bell because you could have 2 or 3 tacos Fresco Style and stay relatively healthy. If you want to be extreme about it and are trying to cut carbs, you can always eat just the filling of the tacos. Sounds like a waste, but will leave you surprisingly satisfied and carb free.

Beef from fast food places are also something you should avoid. They are loaded with saturated fat and filled with preservatives. The best option is to order grilled chicken when you can instead of beef. Fish that isn't fried is also a good substitute if available. You never want to get fried food at a fast food place, because it is loaded with saturated fat and preservatives also.

Another way to be healthy is portion control. All of the fast food places I know of have nutrition charts on their website so you can check the stats on what you are wanting to eat. This usually helps me in deciding what to get so I don't go over my calories for the day. Looking at these will also help you realize how high in calories and sodium these foods are and hopefully give you a reality check, like it did for me. If an item alone has over 700 calories, you do not want to eat that. If the combination of your meal is over 700, cut out one of the items. One example I use when talking portion control is Subway. Eating a foot-long sub puts you almost to 1000 calories. If you only eat a 6 inch, you are doing pretty well. Just remember, the vegetables they use are doing you no good.

In conclusion, I would say to avoid fast food at any cost. If you must eat it for whatever reason, try to limit it to one time a week. This will allow you to join in on Fridays or whenever your co-workers want to grab some McDonald's and hang out. If you use portion control and search for the healthier options, you save yourself from the evil that is fast food.

*This will not be my last post about fast food, but this is a good introduction to it.

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