Dancers Weight Loss, and A Healthy Diet

Dancers and weight loss can be a problem, sometimes only in the minds of the dancers....but in the external world, weight management must be approached so as to achieve over all health.

Fresh, unprocessed foods are the best foods to eat on a daily basis. You need some lean proteins, (soft cooked eggs, meats, chicken, fish, tofu if you like it --) and fresh vegetables, fruits and salads, at least 50% raw. You can make some yummy dips, from lemon juice and olive oil, grated cheese or sour cream, and add some ranch flavoring, or flavor it as you like with other herbs.

Nuts, celery, fruit and yogurt are great snacks. If you have sweet cravings, you will have to avoid sweets for a couple of weeks altogether to make that go away. You may have headaches and energy highs and lows during that time, but it's kind of like drug withdrawal. Sugar acts like a drug in our bodies. Our system has to get used to running on real food again, with minimal sugar.

Packaged diet foods with artificial flavors are full of unhealthy chemicals. Do you know that when medical researchers want to quickly fatten mice up for an experiment they give them artificial sweeteners? The same kind of food chemicals that are in diet sodas, which make you crave carbs!

If you have true energy problems, ask your parents to take you to your doctor for a general physical. It's good to know that your body is okay. Most medical doctors would say I'm too strict on the diet part, but I am a dancer and that's what works. I do not think you should ever be hungry or feel deprived - but what you choose to snack on stores as fat, or not. Carbs like chips, crackers, and breads are useless calories. They do not build your bones and muscles, or brain cells. Also know that an iodine deficiency wreaks havoc with your weight, metabolism and health in general.

"Protein Power" by the medical doctors Eades and Eades, is an informative book. It explains how the body metabolises efficiently - that is, creates energy for you. The body can do this without any sugar at all! In fact, meats and vegetables have carb content, and that is enough for us.

Oils and fats are extremely important to eat - but, choose the healthy ones. Flax seed oil and olive oil are the most common oils to make salad dressings from. Most store bought salad dressings have heavier oils in them, and nearly always have some sugar. (And chemicals).

Butter is good for you, and so is the fat in eggs, but keep the yolks soft. Not eating any fat is BAD for you. Just don't eat too much, and how much is not too much, is relative to how often and how hard you exercise.

This is an overview. You need to read about health and diet and explore what will work for you.

If emotional eating or just bad eating habits is something you need help with, take a look at Deborah Vogel's CD about training your brain for dancers weight loss.