What you eat and how you feel

It occurs to me that what we eat has such an important bearing on how we feel...both mentally and physically. It seems the more we travel down the path of fitness and healthier lifestyle/nutrition, the more aware we become of how we react to the food we put into ourselves! Fitness expert Chalene Johnson, creater of Chalean Extreme, points out in her Chalean Extreme video that food is fuel. She urges us to regard food in this way so as to regain control over it.

If we give our bodies good fuel, we can go further, longer with less. If we give ourselves leaded fuel, we're going to weigh ourselves down....literally!! The more aware I become of my fuel, the more I can see the results of putting the wrong fuel into my system. Let me give you an example....yesterday, I took a car load of girls to watch a high school hockey game. We stopped for lunch at a Subway restaurant. After half of a 6 inch Turkey and Veggie sandwich, I was primed! I felt really, really good!! Fast forward three hours, riding high on a hockey victory, we drove through the golden arches and everyone got a Shamrock Shake. For the next 6 hours, I felt weighed down and "blah". My stomach hurt, the energy spiked and then dipped really low. It is sooooo important to be aware of what we're eating so we can see how we're feeling physically. There is a HUGE connection between the two!!!

Write down EVERYTHING you eat! Carry a journal with you. Even easier, register with an online tracking. fitday.com and caloriecount.com are two good resources to track your food. It is so much easier to keep track of the connection when you're writing down what you eat! Sometimes the act of writing down your food can stop you from eating the french fries, whopper or cinammon roll. When you reach that point, then you're REALLY starting to take control and owning your fitness journey!!