Healthy Recipes to
Feed Your Body!

There are lots of healthy recipes that will keep your taste buds and tummy satisfied while feeding your body and helping you to get fit.

It is so important during your time of putting more demands on your body during fitness training, that you eat to fuel your body and eat to feed the development and growth of new muscle and lean tissues. 

Your diet and nutrition are important now: bones are getting denser taking on more stress; your heart is getting stronger; more capillary beds are forming increasing that blood circulation; muscles are getting denser and leaner; fat and toxins are being flushed out of your system and a whole lot of other things are going on that you may have no idea about!

But the changes show and eating healthy, raw and whole foods will help to supply your changing body with all of the amino acids (proteins!), enzymes, vitamins, nutrients, minerals, carbohydrates, fats and energy that it needs. 

But it isn't always easy to eat healthy when there are fast foods joints that call your name with huge, juicy burgers and crispy, salty fries...oh, and ice-cold milkshakes...ugh! 

So how do you satisfy both your tastebuds and your body's needs? With mouth-watering meals that are healthy of course! And there are lots of them. More so now that as women are looking more at staying fit as a lifestyle, we demand that our meals still taste good and will search for those alternate comfort food recipes that don't have all of the calories and extra fat, salt and added sugars.

You can find east-to-prepare meals that contribute to your diet and nutrition needs in fitness magazines and articles as well as on many online sites. 

Also, remember to keep a food diary or journal as it will assist you - and probably be your best ally in reaching your fitness goals. 

How do you create a healthy meal?

1. Use fresh, raw, whole and unprocessed foods. This means staying away from boxed meals or canned goods. When you grocery shop, stay towards the perimeter of the store where all of the fresh foods are kept.

2. Bake, broil or grill meats. These methods help the extra fats drain from the meats so less go into your meal and mouth. 

3. Steam your vegetables. Don't use canned veggies either. Stay away from breading or frying unless you are doing a healthy stir-fry with a spray of non-fat cooking spray. 

4. Replace refined white sugar with an alternative like Stevia or Splenda. To make a healthy recipe dessert try using honey or bananas as a sweetener in cereal, oatmeal or in baked desserts. 

5. Use low-fat dairy products. Stay away from cream and whole milk or whole-fat dairy porducts such as cheese and cottage cheese. Buy and use the low or non-fat versions.

6. Use whole grains. Healthy recipes include whole grains such as quinoa, whole-wheat, oats, barley and whole-wheat pastas; these are better than the refined versions. Use a pita or whole wheat tortilla instead of white flour bread or tortillas. 

Other tips for eating a healthy meal:

- Split the meal at a restaurant. Restaurant meals are almost always too huge and way too big for us; share the calories and save money too!

- Keep track of what you eat. Having to write it all down encourages healthier eating as well as planning what you are going to eat...and write down!

- Drink water with lemon or orange slices and mint sprigs. Citrus is known to boost the metabolism and this will give plain water a nice taste. 

- Look for low-fat or 'lite' meals at restaurants

- Try the salads and wraps at fast-food places

- Order grilled instead of crispy

- Have a side salad instead of french fries

- Stop eating before your plate is empty! We gain a lot of weight listening to Mom say "Clean your plate!"

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