By Mark Darter

Along with regular exercise and getting quality sleep, healthy eating is a major part of leading a healthy lifestyle. It is also important in getting good results from the gym when exercise and eating healthy are done in conjunction. Healthy food choices are a large contributor to weight loss and can help or hurt your progress in the gym depending on the food choices you make.

In this blog post I will cover some healthy eating habits and resources that have helped me in my food choices and some that I think will help you too.

Breakfast is a meal that many people struggle with in the mornings, whether they just don’t like to eat in the morning or they don’t have time to make anything. Whatever the reason, breakfast is a crucial meal that can affect your health. Unlike other meals, breakfast follows approximately eight or more hours since your last meal. According to a study done over the effects of breakfast on glucose balance, eating a good breakfast can help improve insulin sensitivity and decrease your chances of diabetes.¹

In today’s culture, most of us have smart phones with us at all times. The good thing about smart phones is the abundance of applications available. One of the applications that I really enjoy using is called MyFitnessPal. The app is beneficial because it allows you to see approximately how much food you should be eating throughout the day and how much you actually ate during the day, whether it was too little or too much.

A continuing goal of Holistic wellness is to transfer your healthy eating habits to your family’s table as well as your own. Setting a good example for children on eating healthy can help them make good food choices in the future and can keep you on the right track too. Something as easy as replacing sugary snacks with fruits and vegetables can help get you started eating healthy. Choosemyplate.gov is a site with information regarding many different aspects of eating and is available to everyone. I recommend checking it out!²

Bringing your lunch with you to work can help save money by not going out to eat every day, it can help you plan your meals, and it allows you to prepare healthy snacks and lunch options. For the busy bee, an option in healthy food preparation is setting aside one day a week to prepare your lunches. With this preparation, all you have to do in the morning is throw the current days’ lunch in your lunch box and head off to work.

Eating healthy is just one aspect of health and wellness and hopefully these tips will allow you to start on, or continue, your journey towards living a healthy life!

¹http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2014/06/04/ajcn.114.083402

²www.choosemyplate.gov

Buddy Broncho

Buddy Broncho made his first appearance in UCO's own newspaper The Vista. It was the October 3, 1932, issue where a Broncho appears wearing a UCO football uniform. He has appeared numerous times throughout the years from local Edmond papers in the 60's to state-wide papers in the 80's. The commissioning of the first ever live mascot appears in UCO's 1979 Bronze Book where Buddy Broncho made his first public appearance at Homecoming. Since that time, Buddy has been a fixture at UCO events and in the hearts of UCO students.