Color your meals

Color your meal and stay healthy

If food be the music of life, then eat on! ( apologies to Shakespeare!)

The more colorful a meal, the better it is for us, so I'm told. What colors can we have in a meal?

Vegetables are usually green, save for capsicums which can also come in red and yellow, apart from the usual dark green. Carrots are orange, radish is white, tomatoes are red, beetroot is really red while the cauliflower is off white and likewise the beansprouts.

So to go with the colorful vegetables we can have some fish or lean meat, preferably chicken minus the skin, rather than red meat.

Fruit should be eaten on an empty stomach and they digest fast. Those who are keeping an eye on sugar levels can opt for fruit that are not very sweet, such as guava, green starfruit rather than honey starfruit, avocado and others that have less sugar content.

Jacket potato, roasted or boiled is excellent to provide that portion of carbohydrate which we need to give us energy. Asians can cut back on their boiled rice and consume more vegetables.

The vegetables can be blanched or eaten raw or simply boiled. This will cut down on the oil as fried vegetables will definitely have oil and the thickened gravy will add up the extra calories. Vegetables eaten as salad can do without dressing such as the thousand island dressing which is very fattening so if you're looking to reducing your weight, you should forget this particular dressing. A dash of balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt will do fine.

What do we drink? Plain Adam's Ale of course! Nothing like a glass of water with a slice of lemon in it. How much water should we drink to keep ourselves hydrated? The WHO recommendation is that we drink half our body weight times 100 c.c. So if you weigh 70 kg, your water intake should be 35X100 which is 3500 c.c or 3.5 litres of water.

If you drink a cup of coffee you must drink extra water to compensate for the dehydration brought about by the cup of coffee.

So a healthy meal should comprise lots of vegetables of different colors preferrably plus some fish or chicken together with a small portion of boiled or steamed rice or mashed potato or jacket potato.

Dont have any snacks in between or you may find yourself putting on weight. Cakes and tidbits are a no-no if you're watching your bathroom scales.So the above can be eaten either at lunch or dinner time.

What about breakfast? This provides us with energy to kickstart our day. What's a good breakfast?

Cereal such as rolled oats is excellent as it provides fiber. Fruit and of course Adam's Ale. However, if you want a truly nutritious meal and well balanced nutrients for your body, then go for cellular nutrition, in the form of nutritious shakes that go direct into your body cells.

This nutritious shake gives you bounding energy and vitality. You feel great after taking it. Over a period of time you may even find yourself losing the belly fat around your middle. There are different flavors to suit your taste buds. Mix and match is the order of the day. Your imagination is the limit.

I've lost my belly fat and a few inches off my waist line. Gone from XL to M size now and my energy level's great. Pulling a trolley with a full set of golf clubs on an undulating fairway for a round of 9 holes every morning is no problem. The ball goes further too! So if you are interested in good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle, I'm willing to share more information with you.

Being obese will lead to health complications later on in life, one of which is metabolic syndrome. It is always better to be safe than sorry later. So eat wisely and in moderation. Bingeing is out.