The Health and Fitness Tip: Don’t Be Afraid of Your Fridge

By Ismael D. Tabije

Being fit and healthy does not necessarily mean keeping your distance away from your fridge. In fact, it would be more effective to befriend your fridge and all its contents instead of seeing it as the villain in your quest for a healthier, sexier and fitter body.

Take a look at what’s inside your fridge. Do not cringe if you see “fattening” food inside. Are you really sure they are “fattening”? What defines a fattening food anyway? Most diet programs always check on the calorie count, and the carbohydrate count, fat count and other food elements and their measurements. Then there are fitness experts who will tell you to stay away from high-calorie food, much carbohydrates, fats and even sugar as they can add up to the fat and weight.

There are studies that show low-carb diets, low-cal diets and low-fat diets are the most effective and sweat-less weight-loss techniques. It may work for others but not for everybody. Again, it still depends on how your body reacts to different weight-loss programs.

Calories and carbohydrates are just some of the things believed to make a person gain weight. So, in most diet programs, people are advised to cut down on their intake of these two. However, some experts say that it’s not necessary to cut down calorie and carbohydrate intake as they can be very useful in a person’s daily activities. This is because calories and carbohydrates are the source of energy people use in their daily activities. Without these two, there’ll be not enough energy for the body to use in accomplishing tasks. And besides, losing weight does not necessarily happen with dieting alone. Most of the time, there is the great need to exercise, sweat and stretch.

So, let’s check again what’s inside of your fridge. In Jesse Canone’s article about 5 fitness myths that are responsible for thousand of fitness failures, the number four myth states. “Pasta and bread are fattening!” to which Jesse replies “anything is fattening”. It is true, because every food you take which has calories in it could be stored as fat. And that’s when you gain it. But, if you use it up in all your activities, you need not to worry about it being stored. It is then converted into energy you can use at work, school, exercise, having fun and many other activities that you don’t see as weight-loss activities.

Jesse also states, “Muscles burn calories, so the more muscles you have, the more calories you burn which makes easier to burn fat and not gain it”. If you help yourself, the rewards will be sweet. Don’t just rely on the magazines and the diet programs you were told to follow. It is more important that you are educated and determined on how to get and maintain a healthy and fit body.

The next time you open your fridge, do not cringe. Check out what’s inside and see what can help you gain strength that you can use in your daily activities. Eat and work it out, that’s where the secret is. How can you work when you have no strength and no nourishment? Everything taken in moderation is good. Do not deprive yourself, because the more you deprive yourself, the more you will crave for larger portions of what you wanted. If you resort to eating other than what you’re craving on, the tendency is that you can’t be satisfied and that it’ll only frustrate you. The secret is to control, not to deny yourself, the things you wanted to eat.

Do you see some chocolates, pasta and other “fattening” food? Smile, indulge a little and work it off. Have fun staying fit!