Several years ago, before I even embarked on my current campaign for personal health, I started trying to eat as many organic foods as possible. I'd read a book, you see...many of you may have read it. If not, I highly recommend running to the library tomorrow and checking it out! The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I always describe it as being "The Most Interesting Book You Didn't Know You Wanted to Read."
Pollan talks a lot about the state of food in the US today, tracing four meals from farm to plate. His discussions of the farming and processing that goes into making something like a McDonald's burger and his discussion of the way things are done on a small organic farm are, for me, the two most influential parts of the book. This is like Fast Food Nation stuff, and you will never ever eat a fast food burger again, I swear it.
But just eating organic isn't really enough. Organic is so much better, sure, but organic junk food is still junk food! (Organic corn chips from Trader Joe's are better than Fritos, maybe, but they're still salty fatty chips in the final reckoning.)
The thing is, like I said in my little interview the other day, I didn't think I ate all that badly. But I didn't really pay close attention, either! I made a lot of assumptions, many of which made an ass of me, as assumptions are wont to do, ha. A lot of foods are low calorie--but high in sodium, which causes you to bloat up and retain water. Many of these foods are highly processed, many of them are marketed as being the "low fat" or "low calorie" version of something. People buy them, thinking they're eating well--but they don't think about what has to be put INTO the food to compensate for what was taken OUT of it. Usually, what they put in is salt!
A lot of foods seem like they should be good for you, but have a surprisingly high number of calories--peanut butter is a good example. Two tablespoons has 200 calories! By contrast, you can eat two entire cups of baby spinach for only about 20 calories. And which do you think will leave you feeling fuller longer? That's right! If you pick the right ingredients (lots of raw veggies, maybe some lean protein, a simple vinaigrette), you can have a HUGE salad for about the same number of calories as those two little spoonfuls of peanut butter. And that's just one example!
So the first part of changing my eating habits was to actually start reading nutrition labels! Something so basic and simple, but so easy to ignore when you're impulse-shopping at the grocery store. If it's too high in sodium, I don't buy it. (Except miso paste. A gal simply must have SOME indulgences and I refuse to give up my miso soup!) If it's high in calories, I'll probably still buy it (peanut butter is a good example again!) but with the foreknowledge that I will need to eat it more sparingly than I might have previously.
The second part was to start eating more veggies and fruits. This one is pretty self-explanatory, I'd say! We all know we need to eat them. But frequently, we don't. (And pizza is NOT a vegetable, whatever the government says!) Most vegetables are so low in calories it's almost stupid. You can eat so much, for so little! What's not to like??
And the third part was committing myself to cooking more of my own food, rather than buying pre-packaged, highly-processed "convenience" foods. (Michael Pollan talks a lot about processed food vs real food in another book, In Defense of Food. I'd also highly recommend this one!) When you cook for yourself, you have so much more control over what's actually in your food! Restaurants frequently use way more fats and sugars (and the demon sodium!) than you would when cooking the same thing at home, meaning it's much better health-wise to just do it yourself. Now, I don't always have time to do cooking. I work a lot, and I work late hours. So it isn't like I cook every single meal I eat from scratch or anything; I'm not superwoman! But I do what I can, and I feel better for it! This has also led to increased perusal of cookbooks and recipe sites online. (I'm going to end this post with a little resources list including some of my favorites!)
But a final thought...all food is not created equal! Exercise is important, but burning calories is not the only component here. What goes into your body is just as important, if not more important in some ways. Food is your physical fuel, but there is definitely a mental component, as well. Eating good-for-you food is only helpful if you actually enjoy it, too. If you don't like what you're eating, you're going to be so unsatisfied mentally that you'll end up pigging out on junk in addition to everything you already ate, and no one needs that! So find the foods and the recipes you enjoy, and master them! Tweak them to make them perfect! Enjoy your food, enjoy your health, enjoy your life!
Resources:
Books
"The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
"In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan
"The Just Bento Cookbook" by Makikoh Itoh
"Local Flavors" by Deborah Madison
"Super Natural Every Day" by Heidi Swanson
Websites
http://www.101cookbooks.com/
http://smittenkitchen.com/
http://www.skinnytaste.com/
http://eatmakeread.com/
http://justbento.com/
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Thanks to my lovely wife for guest posting! Here's my pic for the day. Sorry this is so way late but I was on a photo/video gig and just got home!
This is why I don't believe in "diet" food. Especially sweets and soda. I drink as little soda as possible because it is SO HIGH IN SODIUM and has literally nothing good for you in it. But the worst thing about diet soda, and other low-calorie sweets, is that they actually screw with your brain.* It makes your brain expect a lot of calories, and when that doesn't happen it throws your whole system out of whack. If you're going to indulge, just do it. Don't splurge on low-cal sweets, because they're worse for you in the long run than just eating the damn piece of cake, haha.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a big thing to remember is to not only cut down your calories, but to eat -healthier- calories. For example, iceburg lettuce actually has negative calories, but it also has the nutritional value of water. I use spinach everywhere where lettuce could be used because it's high in vitamin A, has some vitamin C, some iron, and even a little protein and calcium.
Now that may not be much on, say, a sandwich or side-salad, but improving your nutritional intake will help SO MUCH in lowering your overall caloric intake because your body isn't reaching out as much for the nutrition it needs. That's also why it's better to eat organic--The less processing, generally speaking, the healthier the content. Baby steps, as has been said here. My two cents. :)
*http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/29/studies-why-diet-sodas-are-no-boon-to-dieters/
Yes, my old boss was huge and the only thing he did was cut out sodas and he lost a bunch of weight. They're just full of empty calories!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, baby steps. And you have to reward yourself for the mini-wins! But not with cake! :-D