The only way I know to lose weight is to follow a simple formula. Calories in has to be less than calories out. It's really fairly simple. The bigger question than becomes, "what kind of calories?" It's not such a simple question and the answer is complicated as well.
I mentioned last month that I had started reading a book entitled Sugar, Salt, Fat: How the Food Companies Hooked Us, by Michael Moss. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to become more informed about what they're putting in their bodies. I will reference it heavily in this blog entry. It was both an eye-opening and disturbing find.
My own food choices have evolved over the years. In my last success at weight-loss, I participated in Weight Watchers. My experience was positive and I know the program has evolved. My own ideas, though, have changed.
Back then, I was a slave to the points. What I like about WW is that all food ingested is recorded. I found this to be an invaluable tool. If I'm not writing my food choices down, chances are that I'm trying to fool myself. It can happen in two ways. One, it's the mindless eating. If I've opened a bag of chips and I eat one every time I pass by the bag, how many is that? Am I taking two bites of my kid's leftover sandwich, or four? Even small things like that can really affect the overall picture of what I'm actually putting in my body.
The other feature about WW that I really like is the lessons on portion control. Prior to first participating in WW, I had no real clue about portions. I would read the nutrition information on bags of junk food and not understand what it meant. I would scoop food on my plate and not understand how much food I was actually consuming. This is also a key lesson in getting healthy. I need to have a good understanding of what an actual portion is. I can't make good choices about what to or not to put in my body if I don't know what constitutes a portion.
Two enduring things came out of the knowledge I initially procured. First, I eat almost all of my meals on a small (salad) plate. Study after study shows that people will fill their plate, regardless of what size it is. If I have a small plate and I fill it, it's far less food than filling a large plate. Second, I learned that simply counting points is the best way to lose weight, but not the best way to ensure healthy nutrition.
I'll explain. The last time I participated in WW, I was working in a corporate job. I was not good at cooking, I didn't have a lot of time to shop. I got into a groove at the store and ended up purchasing mostly food in boxes. I relied on Lean Cuisines, Luna and Clif Bars, fresh fruit and frozen veggies.
I was doing the best that I could with the information I had at the time. I learned some important lessons and did lose weight. I knew, instinctively, when I departed from what I had learned. It was no longer a shock that I started gaining weight. I knew how many points chocolate long johns from Jewel are. Eating 4 for breakfast was not healthy.
One more thing I learned during this period of time was that sugar (white sugar, specifically) is in absolutely everything. I had decided before my 25th birthday to give up refined sugar. That was the one diet my mom had tried. For one year, she gave up refined sugar. Her weight loss was tremendous--until she started eating sugar again.
I made the decision to give it up. It was a tough decision because I love sweets, but I was desperate to make a change. I started eating sugar again around October of 2006. I had been so crabby for so long without it that it's siren song finally got me.
I continue to eat refined sugar, but I have become more educated about it. What I said before, about sugar being in everything, is true. My first confirmation of this was in the movie Super Size Me. I know that most people dismissed the movie because any thinking person knows you shouldn't eat at McDonald's three times a day. I, on the other hand, was appalled by two things. First, there are (or were, at the time) only 5 menu items at McDs that didn't have sugar in them. Second, I was shocked to see how portion sizes had changed in the 50 years since McDs had opened. I knew, before then, that fast food was not a healthy choice. But it started my nutrition label scrutiny.
If you see me in a store, I am the person standing in the aisle reading the label. I was influenced to do that because of Super Size Me, Food, Inc. and the book Fast Food Nation. I never previously gave labels too much thought.
I ate Lean Cuisines because they fit into my points allotment. They were easy to make, tasted pretty good and helped with portion control.
This time around, I am steering far clear of them. This is really because of the book Salt, Sugar, Fat. Mr Moss, a journalist, does exhaustive research into several different food companies. It's really the same wherever he went. Food companies use large loads of salt, sugar and fat in all the food they manufacture. All of it.
It's actually quite disgusting to think about the chemicals, additives and flavorings that we allow them to put in our food. (In this fight, the EU is way ahead of us. They have been aggressive to monitor and ban the use of a lot of the things still allowed here in the States.) Most disgusting is the way the food companies prey on kids. That's for another day, though.
What I will say is my shopping and eating habits have dramatically changed. Hal Higdon wrote a book about training for a marathon. His suggestion for diet was simple-"eat a wide variety of lightly processed foods." That line has stuck with me for almost 10 years.
I do absolutely everything I can to avoid any food that comes in a box. I still eat M & Ms, Reese's Pieces, etc., although very sparingly and infrequently. I use store-bought pasta, I buy hamburger and hot dog buns, I buy pretzels. Other than that, there are no boxes in my shopping cart.
Of all the evidence Mr Moss presented in his book, the most compelling was this--the scientists that formulate the food, the men and women that serve on the board, executives, marketing people--do not eat the food they manufacture. They just don't. And that concerns me more than anything!!
I cook and bake a lot. I didn't used to love it but I have grown to love it, both because it saves my family money and is saving our lives. I cannot fathom creating a meal for someone and then telling my family not to eat it. They would think I was crazy and I would feel awful feeding something to someone else that I wouldn't eat myself.
And so I'm following the scientists actions. I'm not eating the food they're creating. It costs more money, although there are steps I've learned that save money over time. It takes more time. I mostly cook from scratch and so I have to be strategic and planful. It's tough to be healthful at the last minute. (Tough but not impossible.)
The problem is that no one really talks about the cost of eating what's in the box. Some additives have been linked to causing cancer. The food companies are interested in selling as much food as possible. To do that, they use sugar, salt and fat in addictive quantities. They speak internally of customers as "heavy users," in the same way tobacco companies talk about their consumers. They are interested in creating an experience when eating. They talk about "mouthfeel," literally the way that food feels when it hits your mouth. There is very little actual, real food in the boxes. More often than not, it's been modified in one way or another from it's original form.
So I've literally dropped the load. I walk the perimeter of the store. I make most of my food from scratch. I started making my bread and bread products last October and I've not looked back. My cholesterol has plummeted. I eat a lot of butter!! I don't do spreads or margarine (and my cholesterol still dropped). I make pizzas from scratch, pasta sauce from scratch (bread and spaghetti sauce carry the highest sodium and sugar loads of any products in the store, no joke).
I never envisioned myself being this foodie type. I didn't imagine that I would enjoy making healthful, whole food for my family. I have a tremendous responsibility to my kids to build healthy eating habits. We don't have fruit snacks, Goldfish, fruit roll-ups, Teddy Grahams, Cheerios (or any other breakfast cereal) in our house. I won't buy them, I just won't do it.
So that's my secret. It's not a new idea or revolutionary or flashy. It's not causing me to lose weight any faster. But it is satisfying, it's good for me and it's sustainable. And any personal trainer would tell you that's the key for long-term success in getting healthy. It might take me longer to get to where I'm going, but I'm not going to be starving when I get there.
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