Oh, sugar — how we love you so. But with spring and summer soon approaching, we have to get our bodies right!
Day 4 of our #BossWoman Fitness Challenge, brought to you by GrpFit, highlights how to reduce sugar in your diet. Here's what co-founder, Richard Bailey, had to say on substituting sugar with healthy foods to achieve your fitness goals.
When looking to reduce sugar in your diet, look no further than the added sugars that lurk in your pantry snacks. Read the nutritional facts label on your foods and read the section marked as “sugars”. A lot of the processed foods we eat contain a lot of added sugars, and too much intake can be harmful. If you don’t look at the sugar section of the nutrition facts, read the list of ingredients that make up whatever you are eating. Some names to stay away from include corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, and any others that contain high amounts of sugar.
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To cut back on how much sugar you consume, make healthy substitutions. If you consume sugar, make sure that it is not coming from what you drink. This just adds to any sugar that you will get from the food you eat. I know that deliciously sweet Frappuccino from Starbucks is so good but they have so much sugar in them, not to mention the number of calories they have. I know it can be difficult, but to properly reduce your sugar intake you need to put down the sodas, juices, and caramel frappes. If you don’t want to stop altogether, then at least reduce the amount you have throughout the week to gradually wean you off the excess sugar.
Healthy substitutions are the best ways to reduce sugar in your diet because you won’t recognize much of a difference. An example of sugar substitutions includes eating fresh fruits instead of processed fruit cups. Fruits do contain sugar, however, they contain natural sugars while processed fruits contain high amounts of added sugar especially if they are drowned in that sugary syrup. When you drink coffee, try sweetening it with cinnamon instead of sugar. If it doesn’t sound great, give it try because once I tried, I never stopped using cinnamon as my go-to sweetener.
Another simple way to reduce sugar in your diet would be to just cut back on those large portions. In America, we have huge portions which are part of the reason we are unhealthy. When you go out for breakfast, I know they give you two huge pancakes that are the size of the plate, but that does not mean you have to eat all of it. Eat half of the pancake and save the rest for later. Eat until you are satisfied, not until you are full. You do not have to finish every crumb on your plate.
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