FOOD FIGHT!!!!!!!

No I am just kidding. I am not about to waist some perfectly good chicken throwing it. I will however, throw all the junk food I can out the window because this post is about nourishing your body the way it deserves to be nourished. Now that we have talked about the daily pep talks and getting active I am going to talk a bit about feeding your body. Honest fact here, did you know 75% of healthy weight-loss comes from your kitchen? So even if you work out for 5 hours a day, which I really don't recommend you doing, if you are not eating right, you are throwing all that effort down the drain. Contrary to popular belief, you need to feed your body to reach any goal you may have. I am not telling you to go to the store and grab a bunch of chips, Twinkies, and junk food. There is a right way and a way to feed your body. Please hear me out before you click close on the browser tab and think “oh no here comes one of these posts that make me feel bad because they eat all perfect and I don’t. Man I can tell you some stories about how I slip up and my trainer and mentors always know it. Even before they ask me how my eating is coming along. This is not going to be one of those posts. I will tell you how I eat and the mistakes I have made and maybe I can help guide you and myself to eat better. Here lies the confusion me and most others face, what is the proper way to nourish my body? Why is it so important to eat the right kinds of foods? What are some healthy tips I can use to pick out food that will nourish my body and not hinder it? All of these and more will be answered in this post. I am going to tell you guys my struggles and bad eating habits nearly killed me and how I, with a lot of tough love and guidance from my mentors, have focused on eating better and extended my life.

Oreo’s, chips, pizza, these all use to be my weaknesses. I would sit on the couch in front of the tv and dip Oreo into peanut butter and pig out till the whole package was gone. Then I would feel so guilty that I would start crying because I felt so fat. I never knew why I felt the way I did. All I knew was that something had to change. With the hell and torment I was going through at home, even though I hated food, I would use it to make me feel better. All in all, it only made matters worse. I was never taught the importance of not eating junk food or eating a bunch of fried foods. Shoot, my favorite food growing up was my mother’s fried chicken. Even to this day, I am still told that removing gluten and processed foods from mine and my children’s diet is child neglect from my family. I mean, I know that isn't true but it goes to show how people who don’t know or who are jealous lash out on those who are trying to better themselves and their family. When I went to the doctor and was told that all of this stress and eating was killing me I got scared. Even more so because she told me if I didn't change something soon, I would have a heart attack because my father had a heart attack in his 30's and my cholesterol and blood sugar levels where so high. She even wanted to put me on medicine and I know I am not good at taking pills so I opted to change my diet. It worked. With all the confusion that these companies are causing my mislabeling their products is not helping society any.  Shoot I know when I first tried to read labels I was all sorts of confused on what was healthy and what wasn't. That’s when I made the choice to stop stressing myself out so much and do what was the easiest. You may be wondering what that is and I bet you have read it before. Is what I did was limit what I did buy that had a label on it. In this day and age I know that is hard to do because I do it every month but there are tons of benefits from doing this but we will get those juicy facts in a minute.  I honestly am about to give you the best and easiest advice I can give you when trying to shop for healthy options for you and your family. Shop around the edge of the store and stay away from the center isles. Kind of easy sounding don’t you think? It is but it isn't. I only use the center isles to get my frozen veggies and fruit only because they are flash frozen shortly after picking so they have more nutrients in them.

Understand that I didn't get this way over night. It took a lot of slipping and failing miserably on my part. I would catch myself in the juice isle or the snack isle grabbing things off the shelf because they said on the label that they were healthy or had less sugar in them. It wasn't until I stopped and looked at the labels and noticed that I was so wrong. The sugar content on the juices were so high, it is like giving my kids a tablespoon of pure sugar with each 8 ounce drink. That is a lot of sugar. For example, I went to Wal-Mart and got a package of 10 Fl. OZ. of Welch’s 100% juice. If you don’t know what you are looking for, you would probably just pick these bad boys up and be done with it. The scary part is when you look at the label.  Upon reading the label you will notice first that this little 10 oz. bottle of juice is has 36g of sugar. You will also notice in tiny little wording that the juice is from concentrate.  Makes you wonder why they make those little words so small so people can’t read it unless they are actually reading the label. This one little bottle of juice has more sugar in it than a regular size snicker bar and a whole pack of star burst. I don’t know about you but I know that scares me because with me feeding it to my kids, it is making their insulin fluctuate so much and is leading them down the road to major health problems like Obesity and Diabetes.  Brace yourself for what I am about to tell you because it is a harsh reality. An estimated 300,000 people die each year from obesity and overweight together.  That is basically ½ of the people living in Wyoming die each year from obesity and the problems it causes. That is also more than the Hawaiian islands of Maui, Kaui, Molokai, and Lanai combined. That alone should be an eye opener.

Reducing your foods that have labels on them will help you and your body out a whole lot.  This is because the foods without labels such as fresh fruits and vegetables don’t have any preservatives. This makes them a lot healthier for your body. That’s why doctors recommend them so much because they are packed with healthy vitamins and minerals your body needs to survive.   I personally buy frozen fruits and veggies more than I do fresh because as that apple or tomato sits on the shelf at the store, it starts to slowly decay and wilt, losing all the viable nutrients.  When they are frozen, they are washed then flash frozen within a matter of hours of being picked. This process locks in the nutrients and the flavor. I avoid canned goods if all possible because they have added preservatives and salt to extend their shelf life.  This causes so many issues because nearly every food we eat has sodium in it. If you actually take a moment and look at your average daily salt intake you would be shocked. Why is salt so important yet so deadly? Well this is because your body needs a little bit of sodium to survive. It is why when you are dehydrated they give you a salt water mixture to replenish your body. However, like most everything else, there is such thing as too much. When you eat too much sodium in your diet, you will notice bloating, swelling of the hands and feet. This is because salt makes you retain water. When you retain too much water, it puts a major strain on your cardiovascular system because it has to pump 3x as hard to get blood to the places it needs to go because the extra fluid presses against the vessels making them have to force blood through a tinier opening. The best way to describe this is to make you a really thick smoothie and try to drink it out of a coffee stir straw. Makes it harder to drink it doesn't it.  Now imagine how your body feels.  Ladies, we are doomed by this even more so because of that time of the month makes us retain water as it is so the added salt only puts a bigger strain on our heart and cardiovascular system.

It is also to wise to be careful what meats you eat as well. When trying to lose weight, it is best to limit your red meat intake due to the high fat content it has. I am not saying give up your steaks and such. I am simply saying it is best to limit them. I still eat steaks and such 3-4 times a month. Eating leaner white meat like chicken, turkey, and fish are your best option for a healthier you. This is all in part of these meats being low in fat and high in protein. Red meat is high in protein but if you don’t eat the proper portion size, which no one ever does, then you can overload your system with too much protein which causes your kidneys to have to work 3x as hard. Besides it takes longer for red meat to digest in your stomach than it does white meat. With white meat, you will notice you are hungry more often than with red meat but that also means that you will be taking in the proper amount of calories your body needs. This is where the controversy comes into play. Now days you hear from so many so called experts that say you need to this fad diet and only eat 400-600 calories. The problem with this is yes you may lose some weight with it but what happens when you stop? You are going to gain it all back plus some. That is the problem with all these diets out on the market. None of them have your health and well-being in mind. They only care about those dollars you are forking up. They promote if you don’t lose a certain amount by this certain date they will give you your money back. Is what they are not telling you is yes it may make you lose weight because you are starving your body. Did you know that we females need at least 1200 calories to sustain ourselves on a daily basis? That’s why I never diet. I don’t see the point because diets are designed to fail. This is why you never see me say diet anymore. Instead I talk about lifestyle changes. A lifestyle change won’t set you up for failure because not only are you eating right but you are combining it with physical activity so in turn they are working hand in hand.

Staying along the outer side of the store makes it a lot harder to fall off the wagon when it comes to nourishing your body. Not only will you find foods that will give you everything your body needs but you will also notice you have more energy to do things. This in turn eating healthier food actually helps you reach your goals a lot faster. I bet you are probably wondering why healthier foods are any better than those meals you find pre-made in the frozen section or those just add meat meals. The reason these are so bad for you are the preservatives that are added to them to extend their shelf life.  Most are loaded with salt and sugar and the things that are used to preserve them are chemicals that your body doesn't know how to handle them. There are so many study’s going around today and they all are discovering the negative side of these preservatives and additives so I won’t go into those. I will say this though, if you do have to get something off the shelf, read the label carefully. If you see anything on that label you cannot read or know exactly what it is, please don’t get it.  If it says artificial flavors or artificial sweeteners, please don’t get it. For example, without looking it up on Google, what is Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) or butylated hydrozyttoluene (BHT)? How about Yellow #6 or Sodium Nitrite? Without looking do you know what these are? I bet you if you pick up that box of Macaroni and cheese or potato chips you will see it on the label. At the end of this post, I will have some links available for you to look over and find out where I got my information from and what each of these words mean.

Have you ever eaten potato chips or even those McDonald's fries you like to eat and had a kind of waxy feel to your mouth? Have you ever thought about why that is? Well it may come a shocker to you but did you ever think it is because all of the additives and preservatives they use to keep it looking fresh. McDonald's uses additives and chemical fragrances as does this as most big name fast food conglomerates get their food from the same place yet they have different fragrances and additives to them. I am going to challenge all of my readers to go a month without fast food and processed food and then tell me how you feel. This includes sodas, any fast food, any easy cook meals, etc. I highly recommend you looking online and finding a BMR calculator. I prefer using the one at If It Fits Your Macros. It will tell you your basal metabolic rate, which is the rate your body metabolizes food if you don’t get up and do anything during the day. Or in other words if you are completely sedentary and don’t even get up to go to the bathroom. Once you found out that I recommend you eating that number of calories a day at minimum. If you are active of any kind, I recommend you eating more.  Another awesome tool I use is My Fitness Pal It takes everything I eat and breaks it down for me so I know how much fat, calories, carbs, sodium and fat I am eating a day. You will be surprised on the outcome.

I hope you enjoy the 3^rd post of the All about you week. Stay tuned for some hydration and a little bit of relaxation that is on the way. 

What guilty foods do you like that are not good for you? What are some foods that you like to substitute for bad ones?

Resources for this post are as follows:

http://foodmatters.tv/articles-1/top-10-food-additives-to-avoid

https://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/oehp/obesity/mortality.htm

http://www.sugarstacks.com/candy.htm