Proper nutrition for beginners

Hello Everyone!  I hope you had a great weekend.  I also hope you ate lots of dessert and had a few drinks, because I'm about to show you how to change your diet to be the healthiest you possible.  The other day I had a teacher from my daughter's preschool ask me for some diet help, and what I told her seemed to be a great idea for a post.  So here I am.  The easiest way to change up your eating habits permanently is to take baby steps and start with simple ideas.  I have 5 that I started all my clients out with.  1.  Don't drink alcohol or drink as little as possible.  Alcohol is the simplest of sugars and is the easiest way to consume what I call 'dumb' calories.  Alcohol is a total waste of calorie consumption, so unless, like me, you're a mother and just have to catch that tiny buzz so you don't lose your mind before the kids go to bed,  :)   try some tea, seltzer, or a personal time-out so you have a moment to yourself to just breathe.  2.  Cook ALL your food yourself or do that as much as possible.  I don't know about you, but if I owned a restaurant, I would care the LEAST about calories and fat and the MOST about taste and people coming back.  I still remember when I had a dinner party one time and I made a lasagna.... everyone loved it, and I sat there thinking... man, if they only knew what was in that thing!  3.  Avoid sugar as much as you possibly can.  This does not mean fruits, people!  It means hershey's bars, ju-ju-bees, candy corn, (you all know you just had some of those sitting around!) and stuff like that.  Sugary foods like that are again, a total waste of calories.  If you want some sugary stuff, make a cake from scratch, at least it has real ingredients in it and not yucky trans fat.  4.  Eat REAL FOOD.  Do hot dogs grow on trees?  Do chicken mcnuggets?  Last I checked the answer is no, so avoid those things as much as possible and your body will thank you.  Did you know that processed chicken is the same color and consistency as pink soft serve ice cream?  It's true!  Companies change the color and texture to 'mold' it into the finished product.  Pretty gross, huh?  Make your own chicken mcnuggets out of chicken meat, not cut up eyeballs mixed with blood.  (pardon the graphic stuff, but this site is called THE TRUTH!)  5.  Don't eat anything with a shelf life of forever.  I also remember clearly going to my friend's house who was having a food demonstration done one time and the girl giving the presentation had a 3 year old happy meal there.  Folks, I'm telling you, it looked like it was purchased THAT DAY.  If something is so processed that it will never mold, then it really is bad for you.  Your body doesn't metabolize these things as much as it 'reacts' to them, so please, leave the twinkies at the gas station and grab a coffee till you get home to your fridge.   Ok, so keeping with the theme of THE TRUTH I will tell you this:  My daughter loves hot dogs, much to my dismay, and I had a beer Saturday night with my husband out on our patio.  I'm not going to be the food police and never enjoy a piece of chocolate.... life is too darn short!  I do cook almost all my own foods, and do my best to avoid stealing my daughter's Halloween candy.  hee hee!  The best thing to do is to look at your diet just like you would your workout program, choose moderation and do your best.    Life without champagne toasts and chocolate fondue would be so boring!