read your labels

Don't let fancy packaging fool you! You have to read ingredient labels very care carefully! Many foods that shout FAT-FREE on the box are loaded with sugar and/or sodium. Remember fat adds flavor without fat the flavor has to come from somewhere right?! Fat in foods is not your only enemy you have to watch the sodium and the sugars too. Remember sugar doesn't read as sugar on a label all the time, it can read cane syrup, high fructose corn syrup and a myriad of other items I can't even spell! Sugar substitutes and diet sodas should be consumed in small quantities as well. They keep your sweet tooth going. Anything that tastes like sugar keeps you craving sugar, keep that in mind! Also be sure to watch serving sizes, a small frozen personal pizza may say it's 250 calories and you think that's great until you see the tiny writing that reads per serving and what you thought was a personal pizza turns out to be 4 servings which means it's a whopping 1000 calories if you ate the whole thing. Yeah I know this may sound cruel and it is but it's not so bad when you are knowledgeable with what you are fueling your body with. Once you get into this mind set it's second nature! The best thing you can do for yourself is eat single ingredient foods with no label. If you pick up an apple, guess what? You're eating an apple, no foreign ingredients to figure out or wondering about a serving size. This is not very realistic in the easy access packaged food world we live in but it's something to think about. You want a good balance of wholesome pure foods and avoid processed foods as much as possible!