Perspectives
Saturday, December 26th, 2009A couple of things happened this week that totally put this health journey into a very new perspective for me.
The first thing is that I just ate this soup I found at my local natural food store. It was so very delicious, creamy and satisfying; I could have sworn that it was super fatty and not really good for me. How wrong I was. Each serving of this soup is 110 calories! I’m so glad I looked at the package, because it was like a light bulb went off on top of my head like in cartoons. Good, satisfying, eating does not have to be packed with calories and other unsavory things. I knew this already intellectually, but I didn’t really take it to heart until just now. I’m so glad I did, this opens up so many options now.
The second thing that has given me some perspective is a movie called Food, Inc. This movie is about how drastically the food industry has changed in the past half century or so. For example, the thousands of items in a typical grocery store comes from just three or four companies. Most of those items contain some derivative of corn, due to the extreme subsidies given to corn growers by the government. High positions in governmental agencies whose task it is to police the industry are filled with former executives of those few companies that they are supposed to oversee. It is a very thought provoking documentary. I encourage everyone to watch it; you will come out of it with a new perspective. If you don’t, watch it again, and pay attention next time. For me, I am going to pay much more attention to the food I buy. I already don’t eat much meat, but now I am going to make sure that the meat and milk I do buy is as local as possible. I’m going to work up to eating fruits and vegetables in season, and buy as much organic as possible.
This new perspective of mine basically comes down to being much more conscious and deliberate with the things I buy and eat.
Sunday Scale #7
Sunday, December 13th, 2009Workout Video: Getting better slowly.
Eating: I’ve been bad this week. When I’m home, everything’s good, but at work, I go out to eat lunch many times. This is bad for both my weight loss and my wallet. So I am going to stop that starting now. I’ve come up with lots of lunches that I can make ahead so that I can just grab them and go in the mornings.
Weigh in – no change, thankfully, mostly because I was doing the exercise, but dammit I’m ready to see those numbers go down!
New Mindset
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
So it’s relatively easy for me to get myself to exercise. I just get up and do it, when I have the motivation to do so. Much harder to do is to watch what I eat. I love food so much really love to eat and the thought of giving up something that is so good made me blanch. Worse yet, looking at food as only carbs, fiber, calories, etc., is downright depressing. I know it can get people into trouble with emotional eating and such, but food is more than calories. Food is love, life, happiness (okay maybe that’s an exaggeration, but the feeling is similar).
Anyways I wouldn’t watch what I ate because I didn’t want to become one of THOSE people. Lately, however, something seems to have shifted in my brain. I had the urge to just document what was going into my mouth, and see how much food it actually was. Answer = much more than I thought. Then I began cutting down on that amount. For the past year or so, I haven’t been eating too much bad/junk food, but I have been eating a lot of food. So I began paying attention to portion sizes and all that. Turns out I can enjoy food just as much if I slow down and eat a little/lot less. Who knew? 
So I got an app for my iTouch to help keep track and keep me on track (pictured above). This change is a very organic thing that seems to have grown out of some healthy seeds planted a while ago, so I’m not going to rush myself, or get extreme about anything. I want this to last, because my goal overall is health.