Friday, March 5, 2010

Dieting









Let me start by stating the obvious. Dieting sucks!! I say that being fully aware that I've never reeeeally dieted. Not in the traditional sense of the word, but I do try. For instance, I eat peanut M&M's rather than just plain chocolates because at least there's that protein in there, right? (Of course, now that I mentioned those, and don't have any, I'm going to have to get creative and eat a plain Hershey's Kiss and a handful of peanuts. I'm like the MacGyver of candy eating!)

OK, this is exactly what I'm talking about. I just made myself sick eating the rest of my Valentine's Day chocolate (and peanuts) so now I'm eating half a bag of mini-carrots and just read that they are like eating a big bowl of sugar! What?! Why bother! Unreal. What can one just sit down and eat a colossal proportion of without the proverbial "moment on the lips, lifetime on the hips"??

Why is it that if human beings were made to run on food as fuel and by nature should crave natural things that are good for our bodies, do we literally fiend when we smell dough boiling in oil or, what may or may not even be meat, sizzling on a giant frying skillet? Why don't I crave broccoli or leafy greens rather than Cheetos? Are Cheetos even a food? I just read the contents of the coffee creamer I use in bulk (I thought it was suspect that it lasted for months and didn't need to be refrigerated) only to find that there was not one actual food ingredient involved in the makeup of this liquid I pour into my body on a daily basis! Scary.

I'm sure there are very logical reasons for these unhealthy cravings, so if anyone can enlighten me and then help me to rehab off of sugar and processed non-foods, I'd love the suggestions. In the meantime I can speculate that it's like anything, we are so saturated in non-food, packaged, processed, bagged and on-the-go, fat-free, sugar-free, chemical-filled, crap that our bodies literally don't recognize whole foods anymore.

I had a conversation with a girlfriend who is amazing at staying organic, raw, whole, etc when it comes to her diet and I could literally see horror in her eyes when running down a list of what I consider dieting or healthy and what I eat in a given day. I always said (and I still believe this to be true) that if I were to write a book about dieting it would be three sentences: "1. If you want to lose weight, eat fewer calories than you burn off. 2. If you want to maintain weight, consume the same amount of calories as you burn. 3. If you want to gain weight, consume more calories than you burn off." I said you can lose weight and eat nothing but lollipops and my friend added, "yeah, but then you'd die". OK, blah blah, the TYPE of calories are an important variable.

I'll try and compromise and stop eating candy and Girl Scout cookies for breakfast. The coffee creamer may be another story. Here's to a healthy balance and everything in moderation.

~ Kate

3 comments:

  1. I use the same coffee creamer and it is scary! It doesn't even need to be refrigerated. I need some healthy tips too. Let me know if you find any.

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  2. LOL! Nope, Cheetos are not a food nor is anything else that is created in a factory. And I'm horrified that you read that eating carrots is like having a big bowl of sugar! There's a lot of misinformation out there about food but if we think about it logically and how nature intended us to eat, we'd understand that if something doesn't grow from the dirt and is 100% natural, it has no business being in our bodies. This is why America is so sick with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc. There are so many lies about food it's unbelievable. The fact is that the human body has the ability to heal itself when properly nourished. It becomes a well oiled machine : )

    Modern man has an addiction and this makes sense when you research the unnatural ingredients in all the so called "food" at supermarkets. It's not a mistake that these ingredients are in there. The companies know exactly what they are doing.

    Here are some healthy alternatives to your everyday, crappy, processed sugars: agave, raw honey, stevia and organic dark chocolate. All of these are available at Whole Foods. When I crave something sweet I'll have a bowl of berries with raw/organic honey or agave drizzled on top. Also, I make amazing fruit smoothies (strawberries, blueberries, banana, organic almond milk and honey...throw it in the blender and drink. Yum!). Try putting agave or honey in your coffee too. It's awesome! As for the creamer, I would go for organic heavy cream. Yes, there's a ton of calories but at least it's natural so your body can digest it easier. Coffee, cream, and excessive sugar is something that you should begin to slowly remove from your everyday diet too my dear. There's so much more that I can share with you. We should chat more so you can rant about it, LOL! I would love to talk to you more about it as you know how passionate I am about health and nutrition.

    Lastly, I'm not sure if I ever told you but I learned most of what I know on the subject from my friend, mentor and nutritionist, Natalia Rose. Check out her website www.detoxtheworld.com (her blogs are awesome) and read her book when you get a chance, Detox 4 Women. It's an easy read and most of it is recipes!

    Much love lady! xoxo, Suz

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  3. Susie! Thank you for the info. I need to be scared straight, so to speak. I'm taking steps, baby steps, but steps towards eating actual food. (Ok, I'm eating a giant box of Hot Tamales at this very moment, but I'm putting them down and switching to cuties.) The no coffee thing scares me to no end, but I just bought the most amazing white/pomagranite tea so I'll try. xoxoxo!!!

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