healthy holiday “policies”

On a daily basis, when I get to work, I read many different websites.  I start with People and Us Magazine (I know, really wholesome), then check out all the overnight updates on Facebook, then check allrecipes.com for the daily recipe, then check out the 4 major “deal of the day sites” (freebies for mom, groupon, half off depot, and living social) then I read two different fitness blogs. Oh and don’t forget, I update myself on all the blogs I follow!! (one of my favorite parts for sure)

Recently, on one of the fitness blogs I read (here’s the other one I read… its more favorite) he wrote about “food rules”. (please excuse some of his colorful words)  I took some notes on the video posted, watched the long version (45 mins) of the presentation video and learned a few policies I’m hoping to implement during the holiday season and if I can make it through the holiday season then I think the policies will have stuck! 

Now a little background… I do not support dieting! I know there are many wrong ways to diet (i.e. crash, “omission”, eating nothing, pill form, etc).  There really are only a few right ways to do it (eating less by eating healthier while moving more).  I prefer to follow the later of these methods for staying healthy!  It’s scary to think how obsessed we can get over calories, carbs, sugars, etc and forget that food is meant to be enjoyed not meant to be the focus of our every thought.

So without further ado… here are the things I learned.

Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food (for example gogurt! I mean seriously!? who wants to eat yogurt out of a tube?)

Don’t eat processed foods with more than 5 ingredients (this is going to be hard)

Shop the peripheral of the grocery store (the place where most of the healthy stuff resides… they put it on the outside aisles because they have to restock it the most often)

Avoid foods that never rot (with the exception of honey which can last like forever!)… if bacteria has no interest in the food to break it down…. then you shouldn’t either!!

Here are a few more little tidbits I learned:

1. How we eat matters as much as what we eat. If we often eat alone, or distracted by tv, or not at the dinner table, we eat more!
2. Eat when you’re hungry, not when you’re bored.  This is something I have to work on. Just because I frequently have a snack when I come home doesn’t mean I always have to have a snack when I come home.  I should only eat a small one if I’m hungry!
3. Stop eating before you’re full.  The French, when they have finished eating, say “I no longer have hunger” which is a great philosophy! It shouldn’t be “I’ll stop when I’m stuffed".”
4. America is really good at masking the problems it creates through food.  It’s sad to think that one of America’s greatest accomplishments is getting people fat!  We are one of the only diets that does this in the entire world!
5. It would be more economical for America to fix the problem of “food” then create an industry of diet foods, heart disease prevention, etc. We spend so much money trying to mask the problem and fix it after it already happened rather than spend the money (and it would cost less) on fixing the problem.
6. A lot of “healthy” low fat yogurts contain more sugar than a can of coke! YIKES!
7. Currently America's "Healthy Kick" is low carb diets.  Before low carb was low calorie, and before low calorie was low fat.  There are 3 interesting food cultures in the world that oppose all three of these "healthy" diets.  One people group eats a high carb diet, another eats a highly fatty diet, and the last group eats a high calorie diet.  None of these people groups see the problems with heart disease and other heath conditions that we see here in America.

We need to remember it’s a combination of being smart (for starters!) and eating smart.  I’m the first to say that I don’t follow these rules well at all. I enjoy a can of regular coke and pizza often =) and there’s nothing wrong with that so long as overall I make healthy choices. Even when I choose to eat something that may not be the best (pizza, ice cream, etc), I must remember to enjoy them in moderation and MOVE ON! 

So anyways… enough of the ranting and raving over food.  I just want to encourage each of you to make healthy and smart choices when it comes to food.  And when in doubt of “how to diet” use this rule of thumb

EAT LESS, EAT SMART AND MOVE MORE