Tips to eating healthier--little tricks I have learned over the years (Mainly from my wonderful roomie Katy) If you don't care about eating healthier, then read no further! Haha this will bore you to tears. 

-First off, it's easy to confuse hunger with thirst. You might think you are hungry for a snack, when in reality, your body is craving water (ANY form of water) so you might feel hungry when you just need a nice glass of water! 

-Snack on high protein and high fiber foods (nuts are a great way to pack on the protein and have a low calorie value to them!). Fiber and protein help you feel fuller longer so you won't snack as much or as often! Fruits and veggies are high fiber foods. Meat, oats, whole grains, milk--these things have fiber and protein as well. 

-Try to eat more frequent, smaller meals instead of three huge ones (If you are in nursing school, you are cracking up at this one--we hear it for almost all diagnosis' but it is so helpful!) Larger meals are harder to digest, they often make you feel sleepy afterwards [because of stimulation from the peripheral nervous system (this "chills" out your body and prepares it for digestion and is stimulated by a full stomach)]. When you eat more frequently, it keeps your metabolism stimulated and you don't feel famished whenever its time for the next meal (which makes you overeat!). It also keeps your blood sugars at a steady level and you avoid the big rise and fall after a large meal. You can avoid that shaky, jittery feeling you sometimes get when your blood sugar drops.

-If you like to drink your calories, have a coke. Those babies pack in more than you think! A coke or mountain dew can sometimes have up to 54 grams of sugar....which is a lot. Try diet coke or coke zero if you need that caffeine, carbonation fix (I know I do!!!) or just drink water or propel or something of that sort. A coke every now and then is completely fine. But some people drink these all day long and don't think about how much is actually in those things because they consider it a drink and not food. But it can be equivalent to a piece of cake or a large cookie.  

-Read labels before you purchase things! I just recently read the back of a sausage egg and cheese biscuit (the frozen jimmy dean ones) and those things are awful! Like 600 calories and 50% of your daily allowed fat in one tiny sandwich! Yikes. You could eat like a bowl of cereal, piece of fruit, and piece of toast for that calorie count. And you would be much fuller and satisfied. 

-A good general rule of thumb to find how many calories you should eat in one meal is dividing your daily allowance by four (most people a 2000 calorie diet is sufficient if you are not super athletic). So that's 500 calories for each meal and a total of 500 calories for snacks. Or if your not a big snacker, eat 600 at each meal and have one 200 calorie snack before bed. If your like me and like to eat 5 small meals, just divide 2000 by 5 and you get 400 calories per mini meal.

 -I encourage you to check out your favorite restaurant's nutrition menu (fastfood and regular). You can do this by going online, or download the sweet application on the iphone called "restaurants." Just check out the calorie, fat, and carb count on that meal. IT is insane. I promise you will not believe some of the stuff we eat! Like for instance, a chicken finger basket at the Dairy Queen or Sonic is like 1500 calories! I just couldn't believe it. I used to eat those like all the time when I was little. Which is fine every now and then, but wow. That is almost all of your daily allowance for calories.   

-On food labels, the main thing you should be looking at is the fat content, carbohydrate, and overall calorie count. More specifically the saturated fats (these are the "bad" fats). It's good to know about the other stuff liek cholesterol and sodium but you gotta start somewhere! Generally, you should only eat something if the total fat content is less than 1/3 of the item. So, at the top of the label it gives you the calorie count and the total calories from fat. Do a simple math problem and figure out if the ratio is greater or less than 1/3. If it is, avoid it. Unsaturated fats are better for you, but still not in mass quantities. 

More to come....