I'm going to redirect your attention from mainstream politics today to talk a little bit about health, lifestyle, and fitness. The first lady's Let's Move initiative focuses on teaching children about food, nutrition, and fitness. (So does Recipe for Success, a local nutrition education program that was founded by Gracie Cavnar, wife of the founder of The Daily Hurricane, Bob). Our nation faces a serious health crisis. Our medical costs are staggering today; imagine what they'll be when an entire generation of obese children start to come of age and require expensive ongoing treatments for diabetes, heart disease, joint replacement and therapy, and eating disorders.
Our children must be taught how to fuel their bodies with the right foods, but that won't happen until we get our own houses in order. By that, I mean lead by example. You can tell a kid broccoli is good for them but without someone preparing it in a tasty way and serving it to them (and eating it themselves!) the child will continue to see a weird-smelling tree like vegetable and choose the fries on the side instead.
There are several ways to change your habits without depriving yourself of tasty foods or restaurant fare.
Our children must be taught how to fuel their bodies with the right foods, but that won't happen until we get our own houses in order. By that, I mean lead by example. You can tell a kid broccoli is good for them but without someone preparing it in a tasty way and serving it to them (and eating it themselves!) the child will continue to see a weird-smelling tree like vegetable and choose the fries on the side instead.
There are several ways to change your habits without depriving yourself of tasty foods or restaurant fare.
- Bad, Better, Best
A dear friend of mine changed my life and made my healthy lifestyle become habit with this mantra. Bad, better, best. When you are choosing a food at the grocery store or at a restaurant, run this through your head.
Examples:
Chicken Fried Steak - Bad. Grilled Sirloin - Better. Grilled Fish - Best.
Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream - Bad. Dreyers All Natural Vanilla Bean Ice Cream- Better. Vanilla Greek Yogurt with Fruit - Best.
French Fries - Bad. Sweet Potato Fries - Better. Steamed Veggies - Best.
Bad is always going to be high calorie, synthetic ingredient, processed foods. Better is the next best choice, and best is the ideal choice for a perfect diet. Now, no one is perfect - but by shooting for the 'better' choice 95% of the time and striving for the 'best' choice whenever appetizing or possible, you can always find something on a restaurant menu that is healthy and fuels your body and doesn't leave you sluggish, sedentary, and guilty when the meal is over.
- Substitute
There are easy ways to ensure the food around your house is better for you by making a few substitutions. Instead of beef, pick turkey or chicken. Instead of fried fish, choose grilled. Instead of real butter, choose light butter with omega threes. Instead of whole milk, choose skim. Instead of cheetos, choose pop chips. Instead of tortilla chips, air pop some corn.
- Stop it with the food rewards and 'special occasions'
Let's say you get a big promotion at work, or achieve a personal goal. You decide to go out and order a few drinks, some local delicious Tex-Mex. How is that a 'reward' if it attributes to a negative body image in the long run?A special occasion is Christmas Day or Thanksgiving. If you treat every single holiday as a special occasion and reason to binge, you'll get nowhere. There are too many holidays and special occasions. Birthdays (I have 30 family members in Houston! Holy cake!!!), baby showers, Cinco de Mayo, St. Patricks Day, July 4th, Weddings, Job Promotions, Haven't Eaten at That Awesome Restaurant, But I Only Have the Mac and Cheese with Bacon Every Few Months, Mardi Gras, But It Is Tradition.Do you see the problem? There is a special occasion every other week - if you can't learn to celebrate those occasions without over-indulging in unhealthy food, then that becomes your lifestyle.You can celebrate holidays in a healthy way. Our Cinco De Mayo this year is going to be grilled fish tacos. For birthdays, I bake a homemade cake with real ingredients and use egg whites and applesauce instead of eggs and oil. It goes back to 'bad, better, best' - and it can make your desired transition easily integrated into your day to day life.You really can learn to have fun without food being the center of every event. I promise.
- Move more.
This is where eyes usually glaze over. I know a lot of the Hurricane readers personally and it's a pretty active bunch. A few of you run, some of you are just busy bees - many of you have animals that you take for walks and care for.There will never, ever be a diet that works forever. Just live well, eat well, play hard, and have fun. You'll get there. And our kids will follow in our footsteps. Really.You don't have to spend 12 hours a week in the gym (although someday you might want to). Just do more than you're doing now. Once your body stops getting tired at your increased activity level, increase it more. It doesn't have to be running or biking or dancing. It can be spring cleaning, walking, playing Wii or Kinect. Just do more.Share. What are your goals? What do you do to remain healthy? What do you do that you wish you wouldn't?
Oh my Gosh. Both of my Grandmothers. Obviously they aren't both maternal.
Forgive me, and lets just chalk it up to Mommy brain! I've got three sick little kids!
Bobo, both of my maternal grandmothers had diabetes for years. I refuse, absolutely refuse, to go through what they did when it is something that I can control.
Besides, I really really enjoy exercising and I love to cook so I had fun playing with all the things I was able to eat.
My last three sugar tests have been clean.
AGK, it's very impressive that you took on metabolic syndrome and whipped its behind.
I'm pretty sure MOST of us are. Know what I mean?
You know the BEST Boudoin in the state of TExas is at Nick's grocery on 39th street in Port Arthur. Careful with the "spicy hot". Caught my seat covers on fire in my truck.
LOL - we are probably related somewhere down the line.
Any Heberts, Myers, or Thibodeauxs in Lake Charles, New Iberia or Lafayette is probably my kin a ways up the line though. Most of the family swam that Sabine River and lighted in Port Arthur and the Groves.
Carguy, you apparently know my family!
Oui, j'aime le vin!
A Cajun is a person who can look at a rice field and tell you how much gumbo it will make.
Every time I hear that phrase I want gumbo.
Viva la France!!! Laissez les bon temps roullez!
Thyroid disorders and diabetes, in all its forms, sure screw things up. I am in the diabetes club, myself. Not bad, my meds seem to allow me to hold my own most days. Fortunately, I have no problem doing without sugar. I do have a problem doing without pizza, rice (I'm Cajun), and potatoes in any form.
Better living through chemistry is my new motto. I was gonna run a marathon, but.....that's a really long distance. Even if there is a Pizza Hut "super supreme" pizza at the finish line.
carguy,
I am already close to a French lifestyle, myself, then :D
Bobo,
I absolutely sympathize - I don't have a thyroid problem but, up until this year, I had metabolic syndrome (insulin resistance). For two years I had to go on a strict diabetic diet with no sugars, etc, and increase my activity levels to get my pancreas out of 'overdriven' mode. After practicing this type of dieting and lots of exercise, I only lost 10 lbs but I cured my insulin resistance and my tests are now normal. I can now eat complex carbohydrates again and even have dessert from time to time (but no corn syrup for me, it makes my pancreas explode).
The thyroid is a totally different issue and I have a few family members that really struggle. This blog, really, is to paint a broad picture of what Americans, in general, are doing wrong.
The key to living better, no matter your condition, is to have a healthy lifestyle. That will make any condition more manageable, especially endocrin system deficiencies. For the thyroid, you may know this already, but, like you said, avoid soy, caffeine, simple carbs. I'm glad you have a doctor that is helping!!
Carol - re: Enjoy life - I thought you'd chuckle when I told you I took my two oldest girls out for milkshakes today because they're running fevers. Perfection isn't always choosing the perfect path, my friend!
I don't disagree with anything you say. But it's not always a simple situation. Every time someone offers a cut-and-dried solution, I cringe. It took a lot of investigation on my part to understand and find what my body needed. If I had listened only to the "experts," I'd be in bad shape today.
I say this as someone who, for a couple of decades, ran marathons while eating a diet of only 10% fat and never more than 1400 calories a day. (Machine-like? I'll say.) I was not skinny. That was my problem, I thought. And I can just work my body into submission. I took total responsibility.
But all my diet and exercise machinations weren't as powerful as a mal-functioning thyroid. Only now, in my 60s, have I found a doctor who knows how to deal with it.
Worse, some of the good-health advice today is just wrong. More soy, some say. It's good for you. And soy proteins have crept into just about every imaginable prepared food.
The problem is, soy mimics estrogen. And, like some sunscreens, it blocks the production and utilization of the thyroid hormone. I no longer assume that overweight people are poor eaters and a little lazy. They may be consuming too much soy protein and just don't know it.
Low-fat diet is another typical recommendation. Yet, the thyroid's own metabolism depends on fatty acids. Some days, healthy fats make up 40% of my diet. Yet, I've lost over 25 pounds since November.
The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists suggests that has many as 20 million Americans have undiagnosed thyroid problems. I have to wonder, it is those undiagnosed and untreated individuals, with more soy proteins in their foods than ever before, slathered in the recommended sun screen, who are the overweight among us?
Like carolsb, I do think it's just as possible to love yourself into good health as it is to beat your body into submission.
As a kid, I didn't like a lot of the "good" food my mother made. Vegetables, mostly. My mother, frankly, tried to get us to eat vegetables by saying, "They're good for you." If she had made them "taste" good, woulda been an easier sell.
Then, I went away to college. Met a girl in Nacogdoches at SFA. Ate with her family frequently. They were poor and ate a lot of vegetables, and chicken. I "discovered" that a lot of vegetable are very tasty when properly prepared and seasoned. Shoot, you go to a Chinese restaurant and ALL their vegetables are delicious. I wonder if they discovered that was the key to getting people to eat them. Here, we would say, "Eat your vegetables or you can go to room without TV tonight."
One problem is that "poor" people, and there are lots of them, tend to eat a lot of fatty and high-carb foods. (Or so I am told). They're cheaper. Frankly, I don't know what we can DO about people whose diets consist mostly of weiners,mac n cheese,potato chips, bacon and eggs.
We COULD adopt the Asian dietary habits, or the Mediterranean diets. But, IMO, we probably have a better chance of converting the nation to the "French dietary customs". Red wine with every meal, lots of it, even kids, starting at age 6.
Hi AstroKelGirl,
I recently discovered just how much fiber is in peas, and lentils and other legumes. And, found out how little of it is in most other foods. Progresso makes a wonderful lentil soup. That's my food tip for the day.
For years I just naturally wen to the "bad" part of the menu. Gawd, I love french fries and other such culinary delights. Then 2 years ago March 9, I had to go in the hospital for a carotid stent (the artery was really, really plugged up. Just before I went in to the operating room I asked; "what were the chances of a problem occurring ?". I was told 2%. Well, dam, I fell in the 2%. When I finally came to, 2 days later, I was told the stent placement was just fine but the stroke and seizure had been problematic. Doh ! Since then I have been going to the best part of the menu with occasional forays to the better, but don't do the Bad anymore. That and sessions on a bike hav led to a 50 pound reduction in weight and follow ups by the Drs. show I'm probably in very good shape. Thats considering my age, of course. SOme have mentioned i"m older than dirt.
Ouch, Kelly! You really know how to hurt a girl!
Goals...obviously to lose the excess weight..that's a given lol. Another is to finally quit smoking (almost there).
I am lucky enough to love fish to the point of eating it all day long if I could. I have a hamburger about 4 times a year (and enjoyed every one!) We eat every kind of veggie known to man and, while we don't renounce beef - we raise our own which is leaner and healthier.
I agree with you that the choices we make can lead to better health, but I also believe in everything in moderation. Life is meant to be enjoyed and I made the decision 12 years ago next Tuesday to do just that - ENJOY LIFE.