One of the keys to maintaining a healthy weight, having good heart health, blood pressure, and cholesterol scores, and giving the body all the things it needs to function at it's best is Making Good Food Choices. A food choice is what you decide to eat.

When ordering from a restaruant you have a menu, and each one of the items on the menu has a different amount of nutrients, vitamins and minerals in it. Obviously some things are better for you than others.

The following guide will help you learn to optimize your choices so you can stay healthy or succeed in your mission to achieve a weight loss goal. Let's continue our journey from exercise concepts into the second part, which is equally important! Good Nutrition starts when considering a food to buy or what to pick off a menu (when you can read the nutrition label it makes it a whole lot easier):

Here are some good guidelines to help you know the basics to making healthy food choices.

Play the Percentages

Look at it’s fat content and compare the total calories to the number of fat calories.

A good food choice has less fat and more “good calories,” which include the protein and carb variety (there is less energy per gram in these, and therefore they are easier to burn off). When you look at the nutrition facts make sure you are finding the food items which has a lower percentage of calories coming from fat. Reduced fat items, low-fat and fat free foods have come a long way over the past 5 years. They’re now tastier than ever!

You don’t have to avoid fats altogether, just try to make sure you pick foods that have lower percentages of fats when possible. It is by far a healthier food choice to eat a turkey hot dog that 120 fat calories out of 290, than it is to eat a regular hotdog that has 240 fat calories out of 275—even if the former has less calories, it will be easier for your body to use them up (turn the carbs into usable energy for bodily processes or use the protein to build or repair muscle), rather than simply store the fat (which becomes all to easy for the body to do if we put too much of it in our bodies by eating the wrong foods—again, those with too high of a fat content!)

Un-Think Your Fried Side!

The “Good Fats” are the Un-Saturated Fats: SO

(You should look for mono and poly-unsaturated fat content.)

(This is probably the only time mono is better than stereo! And definitely better than trans or sat!)

If there are any good fats in the food item, then it is a better food choice than one without. What are the “good fats”? These are the poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated varieties of fat. We don’t need to get into the science of why these are better for you than saturated and trans-saturated fats right now. It is enough to say that the body is better equipped to process and use the poly- and mono-unsaturated versions of fat. Usually these come from vegetable, nut and palm oils, as opposed to the saturated fat variety that come from the other sources (corn and animal byproduct). Avoid saturated fats (although, they're fine in moderation); and, at all costs, avoid trans-fats, which will probably be banned in America within decade or two (hopefully at the same time as wasteful plastics).

And Finally, You Should Avoid Putting

Too Much of A (Sugar) Load on Your Body

New Science Made Easy For Consumers:

Use the glycemic index and find foods that have a lower estimated glycemic load.

In a nutshell, the estimated glycemic load of a food is how much it is going to cause your blood sugar level to rise. When blood sugar levels rise, the body responds by releasing insulin to regulate it. The problem with this is the body will then respond to this surge in insulin level by beginning to store available fats from foods and even convert other energy sources—from carbs and protein—into fat (basically the body thinks, Oh OK, I’ve got all the energy I need now and then some, so I’ll put this away for storage and later use. But this isn’t winter, and we aren’t squirrels!)

The important thing is, most of us don’t need that energy later (we need to use it up now, before it is converted to fat) and oftentimes we overeat and are in fact taking too much in the way of energy compared to what we actually need. So do yourself a favor and eat less of any food with a high glycemic index. Avoid sugary drinks and candies, because these are full of empty calories that cause our blood sugar levels to rise, which triggers the insulin release and subsequent energy storage. We want energy use! Not fat storage...

Here’s a list of foods which have a low score on the estimated glycemic index list, and all the figures can be obtained by running a simple search on NutritionData.org

• Oatmeal (as long as you don’t add tons of sugar)
• Apples and Oranges
• Strawberries and Grapefruits
• Celery and Carrots
• Spinach and Lettuce
• Cucumbers and Pears (starting to sound like a tasty salad)
• Mushrooms and Lentils
• Chickpeas and Snow peas
• Lima Beans and Green Beans
• Cherries and Plums
• Peppers and Cabbage
• Wild Rice (and rice in general is pretty good too)
• Sweet Potatoes (definitely healthier than regular potatoes)
• Almonds and Walnuts (both are pretty high in fat content, but relatively low in Saturated Fat compared to Unsaturated fats, and they have zero trans fat, making them a pretty healthy food choice)
• Whole grain and unprocessed breads (if possible: find things made without any flour, because even enriched flour is too overprocessed and causes a quick spike/rise in blood sugar.)

Making good food choices is one half of the battle when it comes to loosing weight. Always check the food label (or do your research ahead of time) to figure out what is your best option. Pick the better choice more often than not and you are going to be on the right track. Remember, the other half of the equation is exercise. But by following these guidelines, you are going to get the most out of your workouts—basically you won’t have to do as many of them or work as hard at them for as long—and achieve your weight loss goals much more easily, compared to if you were not following the guidelines laid out above and were still trying to drop those tough to loose pounds.

You can do it—and GettingOutside.com is here to help—and the best part about our own custom healthy weight loss plan is that you can have tons of fun while doing it:

• Enjoy time with those you love.
• Learn about healthy things you can do outside which will get you more in touch with nature.
• Find your inner child and explore the unknown as you tackle the challenge of loosing weight.

GettingOutside will show you the way. Wait, getting outside IS the way!!! No Kiddin’

Remember: The reasons for doing this are nearly limitless. It’s all for you, but also those who depend on you! Just be safe about it—consult your doctor and always practice moderation and balance. Stop any exercise if it causes you physical discomfort.

You can do it! We offer you the guidance and the skills to plan—you have to execute it!

That’s why we say: It’s all up to you!