This article has the list of the tainted brands.
In general, just stay away from pills. I figure it's more harm than any weight-loss good.
Happy New Year Everyone!
I've only lost a few pounds this year but I'm very happy with my progress because I've lost a lot of fat and gained a lot of (heavier but slim) muscle. Since January of 2008 I've managed to go for regular long walks a few times a week almost every week. I've kept a log of my mileage and have been averaging about 15 miles per week (with the exception of a few lazy weeks throughout the year).
My legs are a lot slimmer than a year ago, my butt has totally firmed up :-) and my middle-age belly is looking a lot better. I think the walking has even helped tone up my upper arms, as I haven't done any other kind of exercises but my arms feel much more toned.
I'm not overweight on the BMI scale but it would still be nice to weigh 10 pounds less. I've got an ambitious goal to walk an average of 30 miles per week for 2009. Doubling my mileage over last year may be a bit unrealistic and I likely won't be able to complete my New Year's Resolution but it feels worth shooting for.
I've really gotten to enjoy my walks and feel pretty keen about trying to meet the new goal. One thing I have to confess is I've been using a little prop that I don't think I could do without.
Walking would seem a little too boring without it. My personal secret motivator for getting out on that walk is the tiny little iPod I bought for under $80. (The price has since gone down to $49 as in the image above). My routine before every walk is to load up my iPod with about one hour of podcasts that I can listen to while walking.
I pass by a lot of other people walking or jogging with some sort of iPod or other type of MP3 device. I'm sure most of them are listening to music as they exercise. But in my case, I never download music as I find the podcasts are way more interesting. All the stuff I listen to is free and my favorite are the daily podcasts put out by NPR radio, the New York Times, Bloomberg News and some free Buddhist podcasts.
The iPod is so tiny that it's hard to find when you misplace it. There's been a few times when I couldn't find it and that was enough (not fully justified) reason to cancel my walk on those days.
I haven't paid any attention to limiting my food intake in 2008 and I don't plan on it in 2009. I think the increased exercise could easily do the trick of losing the weight. I have however been trying to limit my food intake to just healthy foods. Recently I stopped eating as much bread and cheese as this used to be my staple easy snack or lunch. I'm now eating wheat alternative breads but also choosing other types of snacks much more often.
I haven't posted here for a couple of months but hope to post regularily in 2009. A new year is here and there will be lots of success stories to write about.
Wishing you all a lot of resolve and motivation in your New Year's Resolutions!
I've only lost a few pounds this year but I'm very happy with my progress because I've lost a lot of fat and gained a lot of (heavier but slim) muscle. Since January of 2008 I've managed to go for regular long walks a few times a week almost every week. I've kept a log of my mileage and have been averaging about 15 miles per week (with the exception of a few lazy weeks throughout the year).
My legs are a lot slimmer than a year ago, my butt has totally firmed up :-) and my middle-age belly is looking a lot better. I think the walking has even helped tone up my upper arms, as I haven't done any other kind of exercises but my arms feel much more toned.
I'm not overweight on the BMI scale but it would still be nice to weigh 10 pounds less. I've got an ambitious goal to walk an average of 30 miles per week for 2009. Doubling my mileage over last year may be a bit unrealistic and I likely won't be able to complete my New Year's Resolution but it feels worth shooting for.
I've really gotten to enjoy my walks and feel pretty keen about trying to meet the new goal. One thing I have to confess is I've been using a little prop that I don't think I could do without.
Walking would seem a little too boring without it. My personal secret motivator for getting out on that walk is the tiny little iPod I bought for under $80. (The price has since gone down to $49 as in the image above). My routine before every walk is to load up my iPod with about one hour of podcasts that I can listen to while walking.
I pass by a lot of other people walking or jogging with some sort of iPod or other type of MP3 device. I'm sure most of them are listening to music as they exercise. But in my case, I never download music as I find the podcasts are way more interesting. All the stuff I listen to is free and my favorite are the daily podcasts put out by NPR radio, the New York Times, Bloomberg News and some free Buddhist podcasts.
The iPod is so tiny that it's hard to find when you misplace it. There's been a few times when I couldn't find it and that was enough (not fully justified) reason to cancel my walk on those days.
I haven't paid any attention to limiting my food intake in 2008 and I don't plan on it in 2009. I think the increased exercise could easily do the trick of losing the weight. I have however been trying to limit my food intake to just healthy foods. Recently I stopped eating as much bread and cheese as this used to be my staple easy snack or lunch. I'm now eating wheat alternative breads but also choosing other types of snacks much more often.
I haven't posted here for a couple of months but hope to post regularily in 2009. A new year is here and there will be lots of success stories to write about.
Wishing you all a lot of resolve and motivation in your New Year's Resolutions!
Good, good...all to hell.
That's my pattern of eating. I do a virtuous breakfast. I do a decent lunch. Then at dinnertime, I go nuts.
This is not a new pattern. It's old and ingrained and very, very, very hard to break.
But I gotta.
So, yesterday I was having my egg white omelette for bkfst, coffee (black, Splenda), a carrot juice. Lunch was a nice salad with fabulous herb chicken (grilled) and mixed greens with artichoke hearts in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
Then comes dinnertime. I feel like this crazed monster in the kitchen. I go and heat up some onion broth and add, not a discreet amount of cheese. No, I add a huge wad of cheese--it would choke a rhinoceros-- and croutons. Then, as if that wasn't enough to clog every artery in my body, I have a dessert hubby bought unthinkingly, cause he knows I adore Napoleons--when they are fresh. Only when fresh. This one was fresh.
So, I told him, flat out--do not buy me desserts, sweets, candies, etc. Just don't. I know you love me and just want to please me, but I cannot resist a fresh, flaky, cream-filled Napoleon that's sitting in the fridge calling my name. I can't have that in the house. It's like the Siren Song to me. Tie me to the mast!
I did give myself a head-start on a more healthful week of meals:
Today, after meaning to for weeks, I skipped sleeping (am just about to nod off as I type here) in order to go to a farmer's on the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk in South Florida called Josh's Organic Garden.
Unbelievable.
It was a wonderland of gorgeous, fresh, fragrant, vividly colorful stuff. Anyone who likes greens would have had an instant veggiegasm. It was piles of fresh--and I mean picked YESTERDAY locally--greens and assorted garden veggies and fruits. I took four canvas shopping bags and filled them all to the brim with arugula, spinach, lettuces, peppers, strawberries, bananas, tomatoes, carrots, celery, pears, apples, tangerines, grapefruit, broccoli, cauliflower (so beautiful white ones, like an alien bridal bouquet), potatoes, onions, cucumber, zucchini, mushrooms, and assorted herbs. ALL ORGANIC. ALL FRESH.
If any of you live near enough Hollywood, Fl so that you can get to it, it's on the broadwalk, you can see the beach right there, the ocean, the air smells wonderful. You'll find it almost right behind the Ramada resort, just on the corner of Harrison and the beach promenade. You won't be sorry. The produce is lovely. The fresh juices and smoothies are superyum.
Yay, I now have a lot of good, healthful stuff in the house. FINALLY!
To add to and round out my bounty:
On the drive home, I stopped at Whole Foods to get eggs, cheese, Ezekiel bread, whole wheat nan, organic tortillas (wheat for quesadillas and corn for breakfast and dinner tacos), those raw fruit pies I like (mango and mamey), and, happily, I stocked up on my beloved Gardenburgers. I hadn't had one in months, so I'm looking forward to my Gardenburger with a slice of cheese on Ezekiel bread lunch sandwich. One of my fave homemade sandwiches. Hubby got beef stew from the deli, and I got a vegetarian dish (the Indian lentils).
So, what did I eat today?
For breakfast, I had a freshly made smoothie of fresh berries, bananas and apple at Josh's Farmer's Market. Hubby had fresh-pressed apple juice. For lunch I had whole wheat nan, a cup and a half of the lentil stew, and a cup of papaya slices. Mmmmm.
It's so nice to have fruits and veggies once again in the house.
I do need to get some organic chicken breasts and pork tenderloin for some suppers, and maybe some lean ground beef for homemade tacos (I got some locally produced guacamole made by Glaser Organics, who specialize in raw vegan foods made on a farm way south of me). I was in a hurry at Whole Foods (and so tired), that I rushed and just got a few essentials. Not meat this time.
Now, if I could just tame that night gorging monster. It really is my major time-of-day weakness for overeating.
So, how are y'all doing? Did you get to the grocery store for good food? Did you go anywhere pleasant this weekend? Are you resting enough? Any other night overeaters out there?
Happy Sunday. Let's make this a healthful week.
Oh, and remember that this week Oprah focuses on helpful stuff on her show, including weight loss (as we all know, by now, due to her regaining 40 pounds) and finances. Might be worth a look.
That's my pattern of eating. I do a virtuous breakfast. I do a decent lunch. Then at dinnertime, I go nuts.
This is not a new pattern. It's old and ingrained and very, very, very hard to break.
But I gotta.
So, yesterday I was having my egg white omelette for bkfst, coffee (black, Splenda), a carrot juice. Lunch was a nice salad with fabulous herb chicken (grilled) and mixed greens with artichoke hearts in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
Then comes dinnertime. I feel like this crazed monster in the kitchen. I go and heat up some onion broth and add, not a discreet amount of cheese. No, I add a huge wad of cheese--it would choke a rhinoceros-- and croutons. Then, as if that wasn't enough to clog every artery in my body, I have a dessert hubby bought unthinkingly, cause he knows I adore Napoleons--when they are fresh. Only when fresh. This one was fresh.
So, I told him, flat out--do not buy me desserts, sweets, candies, etc. Just don't. I know you love me and just want to please me, but I cannot resist a fresh, flaky, cream-filled Napoleon that's sitting in the fridge calling my name. I can't have that in the house. It's like the Siren Song to me. Tie me to the mast!
I did give myself a head-start on a more healthful week of meals:
Today, after meaning to for weeks, I skipped sleeping (am just about to nod off as I type here) in order to go to a farmer's on the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk in South Florida called Josh's Organic Garden.
Unbelievable.
It was a wonderland of gorgeous, fresh, fragrant, vividly colorful stuff. Anyone who likes greens would have had an instant veggiegasm. It was piles of fresh--and I mean picked YESTERDAY locally--greens and assorted garden veggies and fruits. I took four canvas shopping bags and filled them all to the brim with arugula, spinach, lettuces, peppers, strawberries, bananas, tomatoes, carrots, celery, pears, apples, tangerines, grapefruit, broccoli, cauliflower (so beautiful white ones, like an alien bridal bouquet), potatoes, onions, cucumber, zucchini, mushrooms, and assorted herbs. ALL ORGANIC. ALL FRESH.
If any of you live near enough Hollywood, Fl so that you can get to it, it's on the broadwalk, you can see the beach right there, the ocean, the air smells wonderful. You'll find it almost right behind the Ramada resort, just on the corner of Harrison and the beach promenade. You won't be sorry. The produce is lovely. The fresh juices and smoothies are superyum.
Yay, I now have a lot of good, healthful stuff in the house. FINALLY!
To add to and round out my bounty:
On the drive home, I stopped at Whole Foods to get eggs, cheese, Ezekiel bread, whole wheat nan, organic tortillas (wheat for quesadillas and corn for breakfast and dinner tacos), those raw fruit pies I like (mango and mamey), and, happily, I stocked up on my beloved Gardenburgers. I hadn't had one in months, so I'm looking forward to my Gardenburger with a slice of cheese on Ezekiel bread lunch sandwich. One of my fave homemade sandwiches. Hubby got beef stew from the deli, and I got a vegetarian dish (the Indian lentils).
So, what did I eat today?
For breakfast, I had a freshly made smoothie of fresh berries, bananas and apple at Josh's Farmer's Market. Hubby had fresh-pressed apple juice. For lunch I had whole wheat nan, a cup and a half of the lentil stew, and a cup of papaya slices. Mmmmm.
It's so nice to have fruits and veggies once again in the house.
I do need to get some organic chicken breasts and pork tenderloin for some suppers, and maybe some lean ground beef for homemade tacos (I got some locally produced guacamole made by Glaser Organics, who specialize in raw vegan foods made on a farm way south of me). I was in a hurry at Whole Foods (and so tired), that I rushed and just got a few essentials. Not meat this time.
Now, if I could just tame that night gorging monster. It really is my major time-of-day weakness for overeating.
So, how are y'all doing? Did you get to the grocery store for good food? Did you go anywhere pleasant this weekend? Are you resting enough? Any other night overeaters out there?
Happy Sunday. Let's make this a healthful week.
Oh, and remember that this week Oprah focuses on helpful stuff on her show, including weight loss (as we all know, by now, due to her regaining 40 pounds) and finances. Might be worth a look.
A blogger named Atara--who has a lovely new baby, too, and a blog I've enjoyed perusing this AM--asked the following in a previous post of mine about junk food and kids:
Lyn made a great point in the comments section of that post: Kids, when they are older and are mobile and have friends who share, will get junk. Unavoidable. Kids like sweet. Kids like fast food. Humans like salty, sweet, fatty. We just do.
The thing is that just like parents try to instill all sorts of "against natural desires" behaviors in kids (ie, don't just jump in and have sex when you get those first stirrings, don't cheat on a test just cause you can and everyone else does, don't be a bully just cause you're bigger and stronger and faster and power is fun, don't blow off school when you're bored, don't shoplift if you can't afford that pretty necklace cause stealing is wrong, etc), what cuisine/foods/tastes a kid has is partially (if not fundamentally) set in the home. I love bean soup, avocado, olive oil on bread, and fresh fruit cause we ate those a lot (almost daily, except for avocados, those in season) as a kid. We ate beans about every day, and I can still eat beans about every day now, cause my taste buds adapted. But I also had candy and pizza and potato chips and Cheetos a lot, and that was NOT a good thing for my teeth or my weight. Daily crap is not good for anyone.
But especially not kids who are learning how to eat for life. What should be "sparingly" eaten is now routinely eaten. A factotum from Junk Food Wars:
I simply think that parents who don't want kids burdened with junk food habits and weight woes need to do what they can at home to develop from the earliest age a taste for fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other "clean" and nutritious fare and show kids what normal portions are like. Two cups of rice is not a normal portion. A big fat heaping bowl of spaghetti is not a normal portion, and neither is 20 ounces of fruit juice (much less fruit drinks that are full of sugar and very little fruit).
Keeping the junk mostly out of the home and putting the emphasis on treating a sweet tooth with natural sweets created by God in their perfect form--an apple, grapes, an orange, strawberries, pineapple, lychees, plums, peaches, pears, kiwi, blueberries, etc. And to make sure they start eating a wide variety of veggies as soon as possible, so they can develop a taste for produce and not just go yuck at greens (or any other color veggie). It's simply part of teaching good habits, along with brushing and flossing and getting exercise in play (cause video games all afternoon long is hardly healthful, either).
What they do with what they learn at home when they're older and have access to Burger King and the Kwik Mart, what they do as adults out of your home...you cannot control. No parent can. (Though Madonna sure is giving it the best and most obssessive shot she can!)
Parents can control IN the home (except for creative sneaking of candy). What's in the fridge, in the pantry, on the table, and in the lunchbox. That is controllable. Mom or dad buy it and store it and cook it. They can control it.
Our society is too riddled with junk to have utter faith that kids won't sneak it, buy it with an allowance, get it from friends, have it at school. But if the foundation is laid not to indulge in it freely at home and to think of cookies and candies and cakes and sugary drinks as special-occasion treats that are NOT good for us, but that we can use for a limited purpose, that's a step in the right direction. Of course, if a kid develops a taste at home for healthier versions of junk, "redeemed" junk, as it were, cause mom and dad are willing to find alternatives to the high-fat, sugary crap, that's also good. Oatmeal cookies made less sweet and with whole grains, nuts with dark chocolate in modest portions, etc.
I was one of those kids whose eating was not at all monitored,except by the limitation of "this is what's there". Once the platters of food ran out on the table, well, that was the limitation. Or if the box of cookies finished. Or the bag of bread lay empty. But... if I wanted to fill a bowl with five cups of sugar-rich, artificially colored cereal (which I did) and dump in 3 cups of full fat milk (which I did), as a between meal snack, I did. If I wanted to dump 5 tablespoons of sugar in my oatmeal, I could. If I wanted to drink the whole jug of orange juice, I could. And nobody said anything to indicate that I was out of control or doing something that was unhealthful. Not till I got older and did get fat. But it takes all those steps to get there. It's not overnight.
I could eat whatever, whenever. And this is not a good system. For anyone at any time. I learned that I could eat until stuffed and I could eat sugar at will. How nuts is that? And especially not kids in the formative and "training" stages of life--from pureed foods to table manners training to first grade. And no kid should have total access to a pantry or fridge full of crap. How is that good nutritional sense?
To quote Obama's former pastor: The chickens have come home to roost...and they are breaded, fried, salted like the Dead Sea, and (until recently) utterly riddled with trans fats and come with an fatty, white-flour, salty biscuit on the side.
Fast food, easy "convenience foods", processed foods, junk foods, oversized portions, sugary supersized drinks, big candy bars....they have resulted in many kids considering the fattiest items at McDonalds and KFC and Pizza Hut what lunch and dinner are supposed to be. That a 32 ounce soda is a serving. That a giant muffin or humongo cookie is for one person at one sitting. That Doritos is a normal after school snack. Something's wrong with that.
I mean, come on--watermelon, fresh and chilled, really is so much better than cupcakes as a treat. Just not cheaper or easier to have on hand. A ripe mango has it all over artificially flavored jelly beans, even mango-flavored ones. The thing is that real food will cost more than processed crap, oftentimes. And fruit goes bad quickly, while convenience foods are...convenient, with long shelf lives. It's easy to eat bad. It takes a bit more effort--and maybe cash--to eat cleanly.
So, that rant--and this one--is out of my fear of the next generation being even fatter and and more riddled with diabetes and cursed with shorter life expectancies than today's because WE ALLOW and WE OFFER them junk instead of real, honest, fresh, wholesome food that they can develop a taste for. And they CAN develop a taste for all sorts. Just look at kids in cultures without fast food or candy shops. They eat what the parents eat--be it nuts, seeds, fruits, veggies, meats, etc.
Oh, and this study goes counter to idea that kids hate fruits and veggies. That article says this, emphasis mine:
Will they want junk anyway? Probably. But they can be trained to love good, healthful food, too, and that means they will crave that as well.
Sorry. It's a sore subject, I guess.
Y'all should just go look at Atara's cute baby, now. :)
~
OK, I'm just curious because I have a 3 month old. If I never bring the junk in the house, will he still want it? In other words, do they just get used to eating it? Is that it?Well, I'm not a mom and never have been. I posted--er, vented may be a better word--because I keep reading about the obesity increase in kids, the increase in diabetes, earlier-in-life atherosclerosis, etc, and I've observed how very many kids are allowed to just snack and feast on all sorts of crap from morning till night--sugary sodas with meals, candy between meals, allowed to skip veggies but have white bread, etc.
Lyn made a great point in the comments section of that post: Kids, when they are older and are mobile and have friends who share, will get junk. Unavoidable. Kids like sweet. Kids like fast food. Humans like salty, sweet, fatty. We just do.
The thing is that just like parents try to instill all sorts of "against natural desires" behaviors in kids (ie, don't just jump in and have sex when you get those first stirrings, don't cheat on a test just cause you can and everyone else does, don't be a bully just cause you're bigger and stronger and faster and power is fun, don't blow off school when you're bored, don't shoplift if you can't afford that pretty necklace cause stealing is wrong, etc), what cuisine/foods/tastes a kid has is partially (if not fundamentally) set in the home. I love bean soup, avocado, olive oil on bread, and fresh fruit cause we ate those a lot (almost daily, except for avocados, those in season) as a kid. We ate beans about every day, and I can still eat beans about every day now, cause my taste buds adapted. But I also had candy and pizza and potato chips and Cheetos a lot, and that was NOT a good thing for my teeth or my weight. Daily crap is not good for anyone.
But especially not kids who are learning how to eat for life. What should be "sparingly" eaten is now routinely eaten. A factotum from Junk Food Wars:
Even though the Food Guide Pyramid suggests eating fats and sweets sparingly, the survey found that children consume more than three servings of these foods daily. Fatty goods such as French fries, desserts, potato chips and soft drinks have become staples rather than occasional treats.And kids don't have to eat tons to gain weight, says the article. Two hundred extra daily calories than what is needed by a child's bodymeans a half-pound gain a week. 26 a year. That kid can be 100 pounds overweight in 4 years. Scary, huh? And how easy is it to eat 200 calories? A small pack of 4 Oreos will do it. A bag of chips goes over that (unless it's a very small bag). Half a slice extra of a meaty pizza. A candy bar will do that and more. An extra cup of sugary cereal. Eight Hershey's kisses. A 16 ounce glass of Coke (non-diet). Easy peasy to eat 200 calories too many.
I simply think that parents who don't want kids burdened with junk food habits and weight woes need to do what they can at home to develop from the earliest age a taste for fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other "clean" and nutritious fare and show kids what normal portions are like. Two cups of rice is not a normal portion. A big fat heaping bowl of spaghetti is not a normal portion, and neither is 20 ounces of fruit juice (much less fruit drinks that are full of sugar and very little fruit).
Keeping the junk mostly out of the home and putting the emphasis on treating a sweet tooth with natural sweets created by God in their perfect form--an apple, grapes, an orange, strawberries, pineapple, lychees, plums, peaches, pears, kiwi, blueberries, etc. And to make sure they start eating a wide variety of veggies as soon as possible, so they can develop a taste for produce and not just go yuck at greens (or any other color veggie). It's simply part of teaching good habits, along with brushing and flossing and getting exercise in play (cause video games all afternoon long is hardly healthful, either).
What they do with what they learn at home when they're older and have access to Burger King and the Kwik Mart, what they do as adults out of your home...you cannot control. No parent can. (Though Madonna sure is giving it the best and most obssessive shot she can!)
Parents can control IN the home (except for creative sneaking of candy). What's in the fridge, in the pantry, on the table, and in the lunchbox. That is controllable. Mom or dad buy it and store it and cook it. They can control it.
Our society is too riddled with junk to have utter faith that kids won't sneak it, buy it with an allowance, get it from friends, have it at school. But if the foundation is laid not to indulge in it freely at home and to think of cookies and candies and cakes and sugary drinks as special-occasion treats that are NOT good for us, but that we can use for a limited purpose, that's a step in the right direction. Of course, if a kid develops a taste at home for healthier versions of junk, "redeemed" junk, as it were, cause mom and dad are willing to find alternatives to the high-fat, sugary crap, that's also good. Oatmeal cookies made less sweet and with whole grains, nuts with dark chocolate in modest portions, etc.
I was one of those kids whose eating was not at all monitored,except by the limitation of "this is what's there". Once the platters of food ran out on the table, well, that was the limitation. Or if the box of cookies finished. Or the bag of bread lay empty. But... if I wanted to fill a bowl with five cups of sugar-rich, artificially colored cereal (which I did) and dump in 3 cups of full fat milk (which I did), as a between meal snack, I did. If I wanted to dump 5 tablespoons of sugar in my oatmeal, I could. If I wanted to drink the whole jug of orange juice, I could. And nobody said anything to indicate that I was out of control or doing something that was unhealthful. Not till I got older and did get fat. But it takes all those steps to get there. It's not overnight.
I could eat whatever, whenever. And this is not a good system. For anyone at any time. I learned that I could eat until stuffed and I could eat sugar at will. How nuts is that? And especially not kids in the formative and "training" stages of life--from pureed foods to table manners training to first grade. And no kid should have total access to a pantry or fridge full of crap. How is that good nutritional sense?
To quote Obama's former pastor: The chickens have come home to roost...and they are breaded, fried, salted like the Dead Sea, and (until recently) utterly riddled with trans fats and come with an fatty, white-flour, salty biscuit on the side.
Fast food, easy "convenience foods", processed foods, junk foods, oversized portions, sugary supersized drinks, big candy bars....they have resulted in many kids considering the fattiest items at McDonalds and KFC and Pizza Hut what lunch and dinner are supposed to be. That a 32 ounce soda is a serving. That a giant muffin or humongo cookie is for one person at one sitting. That Doritos is a normal after school snack. Something's wrong with that.
I mean, come on--watermelon, fresh and chilled, really is so much better than cupcakes as a treat. Just not cheaper or easier to have on hand. A ripe mango has it all over artificially flavored jelly beans, even mango-flavored ones. The thing is that real food will cost more than processed crap, oftentimes. And fruit goes bad quickly, while convenience foods are...convenient, with long shelf lives. It's easy to eat bad. It takes a bit more effort--and maybe cash--to eat cleanly.
So, that rant--and this one--is out of my fear of the next generation being even fatter and and more riddled with diabetes and cursed with shorter life expectancies than today's because WE ALLOW and WE OFFER them junk instead of real, honest, fresh, wholesome food that they can develop a taste for. And they CAN develop a taste for all sorts. Just look at kids in cultures without fast food or candy shops. They eat what the parents eat--be it nuts, seeds, fruits, veggies, meats, etc.
Oh, and this study goes counter to idea that kids hate fruits and veggies. That article says this, emphasis mine:
Fewer than half of California’s children ages 2 to 11 eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetable servings daily (5 or more servings), according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Further, almost 25 percent of them eat two or more servings of cookies, candy, donuts or popsicles every day.
Lack of proper nutrition contributes to certain health problems, such as the rising trend in childhood obesity. In California, one in three children is overweight or at risk of becoming overweight – far worse than the national average.
“While there has been a lot of research on barriers to childhood nutrition, this study dispels the myth that kids are predisposed to dislike healthy foods,” Perry said. “Now our challenge is to help parents find simple, affordable ways to prepare nutritious meals and snacks for their kids.”
Will they want junk anyway? Probably. But they can be trained to love good, healthful food, too, and that means they will crave that as well.
Sorry. It's a sore subject, I guess.
Y'all should just go look at Atara's cute baby, now. :)
~
Yes, there's progress. :)
Here's how Friday went--and I know it's still technically Friday, but I conked out at 6pm and slept until 10:15 pm. Not sure if I'll go back to bed or stay up. We'll see. (Yes, I need to normalize my sleep schedule. Being sick throws me a serious curve ball in that department. So, yes, Friday:
BREATHING: I had moments when I actually breathed without thinking. A good sign. I still have inflammation and still had my breathing "conscious" through the day--asthmatics know what I mean, that you have to think and focus and make effort, that I avoid triggers as much as possible, that it's not "automatic" to get air in and out. BUT...those moments when it got better and I didn't think about it means I may be well over the hump.
EATING: I had some of Heidi's Cottage Classics Grainy Day Pancake Mix
handy,and it was the first time I was up early enough to make breakfast for hubby, so I made some and had two with sugar free syrup by Smuckers and half a cup of apple juice. Not so great, but I had no fruit to have for breakfast. I also had a handful of soy and wasabi almonds (I'm addicted to these. The salt is bad for me, but dang if they don't taste amazing.)
I still didn't feel up to driving and shopping and risking exposure to something that will send me straight to the ER, so I ordered stuff from the one "healthful" restaurant in my area that delivers. I had some good stuff and some not so good: 5 falafels, about 1/4 cup hummus with olive oil, brown rice with chick peas/chopped tomatoes/peppers/cucumbers/avocado, two pieces of grilled tofu, green vegetable juice smoothie, a fruit blend smoothie.
I have leftovers of the rice/salad/tofu for another meal and some fresh carrot juice, too.
I went over my calories for sure. So, I'm not there. But it wasn't a Whopper or Pizza or cake or some of the other icky stuff I'd been indulging in during some heedless, mindless, comfort-and-holiday-eating. I got fruits and veggies and legumes and fiber.
The goals for Saturday:
~Get those healthful groceries, including a ton of produce.
~Begin journaling what I eat and keeping calories to 1900 max (38 points). Same target for all week. Use my nifty new Levenger's Circa Fitness Journal to keep track of intake (and exercise). The journal was a present I gave myself for Christmas. :)
~Try to get some movement in, as far as breathing allows. I hope I improve so I can do Pilates Monday.
~Start reading and applying The Complete Beck Diet for Life: The Five-Stage Program for Permanent Weight Loss
Since it's a new year, I scheduled a GYN appt (hate hate hate hate those) and will schedule my mammo. I see my PCP on Thursday (will run out of one of my meds Wed, new insurance info to give her, need a ton of prescriptions for my asthma/allergy/thyroid/BP).
Here's how Friday went--and I know it's still technically Friday, but I conked out at 6pm and slept until 10:15 pm. Not sure if I'll go back to bed or stay up. We'll see. (Yes, I need to normalize my sleep schedule. Being sick throws me a serious curve ball in that department. So, yes, Friday:
BREATHING: I had moments when I actually breathed without thinking. A good sign. I still have inflammation and still had my breathing "conscious" through the day--asthmatics know what I mean, that you have to think and focus and make effort, that I avoid triggers as much as possible, that it's not "automatic" to get air in and out. BUT...those moments when it got better and I didn't think about it means I may be well over the hump.
EATING: I had some of Heidi's Cottage Classics Grainy Day Pancake Mix
handy,and it was the first time I was up early enough to make breakfast for hubby, so I made some and had two with sugar free syrup by Smuckers and half a cup of apple juice. Not so great, but I had no fruit to have for breakfast. I also had a handful of soy and wasabi almonds (I'm addicted to these. The salt is bad for me, but dang if they don't taste amazing.)I still didn't feel up to driving and shopping and risking exposure to something that will send me straight to the ER, so I ordered stuff from the one "healthful" restaurant in my area that delivers. I had some good stuff and some not so good: 5 falafels, about 1/4 cup hummus with olive oil, brown rice with chick peas/chopped tomatoes/peppers/cucumbers/avocado, two pieces of grilled tofu, green vegetable juice smoothie, a fruit blend smoothie.
I have leftovers of the rice/salad/tofu for another meal and some fresh carrot juice, too.
I went over my calories for sure. So, I'm not there. But it wasn't a Whopper or Pizza or cake or some of the other icky stuff I'd been indulging in during some heedless, mindless, comfort-and-holiday-eating. I got fruits and veggies and legumes and fiber.
The goals for Saturday:
~Get those healthful groceries, including a ton of produce.
~Begin journaling what I eat and keeping calories to 1900 max (38 points). Same target for all week. Use my nifty new Levenger's Circa Fitness Journal to keep track of intake (and exercise). The journal was a present I gave myself for Christmas. :)
~Try to get some movement in, as far as breathing allows. I hope I improve so I can do Pilates Monday.
~Start reading and applying The Complete Beck Diet for Life: The Five-Stage Program for Permanent Weight Loss
Since it's a new year, I scheduled a GYN appt (hate hate hate hate those) and will schedule my mammo. I see my PCP on Thursday (will run out of one of my meds Wed, new insurance info to give her, need a ton of prescriptions for my asthma/allergy/thyroid/BP).
Welcome to the New Year!I wanted to share less words and more pics with you showing how much fun I had with family and friends. Twenty one of us celebrated together in many ways - around a bonfire, dancing, eating (naturally), drinking (was that even a question?) and playing games. Check out the fun and enjoy! Hugs and stay tuned.ToscaPS. I nearly forgot to share some fantastic news with you ...
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