In vs. out

    Ever have one of those moments when a realization hits you and you find yourself thinking "DUH!!!"

    Yeah, I have those pretty often, but my most recent came to me this past weekend. I spent some time on Saturday speaking with a pair fitness lovers like myself, and the topic of healthy eating came up. We got to talking about the importance what you include in your daily diet, over the importance of what you cut out. It suddenly hit me that this is exactly what we had done in our family, without even realizing it. Instead of a "cut out" mentality, we just started to add in healthy things here and there. That, I believe, is why we were met with success.

   It is no secret that the less processed food you eat, the healthier you will be.  Unfortunately, it is not easy to maintain a low/no processed diet in this world we live in.  At least not in the United States.   Think about it, the cheapest food out there is going to be processed, and non organic.  Our family began to cut out processed when and where we could, but it isn't always easy on a VERY tight budget.  Often we still have to buy some processed for the sake of our sanity and savings, however we are very picky about reading labels for ingredients.  The change was noticeable.  Our food spending went way up, although it was fortunately balanced once we discovered some local farmer's markets and produce stands.  Regardless, I can see why people who are very poor choose to eat convenience foods more than anything.  Healthy is expensive!

    I also lay some blame on the rise of extreme coupon use.  A person can go in to a store and buy twenty boxes of (insert food here) and come out having spent little or nothing on it if they know how to coupon.  It is no surprise that money saving techniques like this have become the norm in a time where prices of basic needs rise almost daily!  As great as that may seem, however, coupons don't usually cover things like fresh fruits and veggies, hormone free produce, or even processed foods with healthier ingredients.  At least they don't cover them in such a way that you can buy in the "extreme" style of shopping.

    So, when we made the transition to healthier foods, it was a slow process.  Honestly, we are STILL trying to transition.  I can say that we are much healthier than we were before.  Keep in mind, Ben and I lived off a diet of Mt. Dew, Ramen, hot pockets, Foosackly's, and hamburger helper before we had kids.  So the change required a lot of research and learning on our part.  Not just about about what foods we needed to eat more of, but how to cook them, what ingredients to avoid, where to buy cheap but healthy food, how food helps or hurts your body...there is a lot to learn!  Of all the things that I discovered, one truth sticks out now:

It  is NOT what you take OUT of your diet, but what you PUT IN that matters most.

    Of course, having read some of my other posts, you will have seen me say "cut out" more than once.  Well, it is true, I have cut out a lot of things from my diet.  Like soft drinks, and excessive processed carbs such as high fructose corn syrup.  I think it is fair to say, though, that I didn't really cut them out as much as I left no room for those things in my daily eating.

    The first steps we took to healthier eating were steps to add in more fruits and veggies.  It was a baby step, but an important one.  Instead of snacking on cheez-its and cookies, I started having us snack on grapes, bananas, and apples.  Instead of ice berg lettuce tossed with a bottle of dressing and calling it a salad, I made steamed asparagus for dinner, or baked some broccoli with olive oil and topped it with a little Parmesan cheese.  Over time, the healthy food began to take the place of the unhealthy foods.  As we began to add in better ingredients to our daily diet, we had less room for the unhealthy things.  Somewhere along the way we had cut out the bad, without even really noticing it.

    Carbs have, and always WILL, be my weakness.  So protein was not always the easiest thing to convince myself to eat unless it was fried.  Not to mention, we also favored lots of red meat, instead of white meat and fish.  Yet again, we took small steps.  I found meals that could use chicken or turkey, instead of beef.  I learned how to cook some new dishes with fish, something I had never tried.  And we began to have meals that included a new veggie we had not cooked with before.  Over time, our diet became more protein heavy.  Funny thing happens when you eat more protein...you get hungry less often.  It is true.  Protein helps keep you fuller longer!  So naturally, snacking was less and less common for us.  Another change we noticed is that beef really is not our main source of protein anymore.  We love eggs, chicken, and fish more than anything.  Beef, while a good source of protein, is unhealthy in large amounts. I have to say, my favorite meal these days is blackened salmon.  Not to brag on myself, but I can not deny that my blackened salmon is amazing!

   Also complicating my carb-love issues was the fact that I can not stand whole grain or whole wheat.  It is not the taste, but texture.  It always feels rough, and grosses me out!  I know it is probably all in my head, but try telling my tongue that!  So I added in ground flax to just about everything we eat.  I toss it in our chili, bake it in my home made bread, cook it into our burgers...it can be mixed in to anything!  While we still prefer the "white breads" to whole grain, we cook smaller amounts of it for meals, so that our proteins and veggies take up the bigger percentage of the meal!

    It was the same with soft drinks.  I'll be the first to tell you, my sprite and mountain dew consumption was beyond unhealthy.  How I escaped diabetes in my early life is beyond me.  I started by replacing one soft drink with a glass of water.  Then another, and another...and eventually water replaced soda as my primary drink.  The less Sprite I consumed, the less I desired it.  I didn't actively seek to cut it out, it just naturally happened.

    You see, sugar is addicting, and soft drinks are basically liquid sugar.  Research is showing that for some people, it can be as addicting as cigarettes!  Sugar addiction is a very real, and very dangerous illness. It is well known that companies strive to make junk food as addicting as possible.  Take time and read ingredients on the food you buy.  Sugar or high fructose corn syrup is likely to be one of THE main ingredients!  The more you eat, the more you want.  That is why a person can sit down with a sugar loaded snack, and eat the entire thing without realizing what they are consuming.

    I realized finally why I failed every time I tried to cut out "bad food." I failed because I approached it with the "cut out"  mentality.  In a way, I was feeling like I was missing out on something, like I was having to make a sacrifice.  So somewhere inside my mind, I decided to start approaching our new lifestyle with the idea that we were not cutting out anything, but adding in something better.  Well, it worked.  I can count this as a win for my sub conscious powers of decision making.

    There was time when if I turned down a dessert, or soft drink it would feel like a loss.  So you can see why I would fall back in to bad habits very easily.  Today, I can pass on one or the other, and not give it a second thought.  Now, understand that I still do have a treat once in a while.  That is the key though.  Once in a while.  I've admitted to my weakness for Famous Amos cookies, and I indulge in a few of those small delights once a week. Also, we don't really ever eat out, but when we do, I get something I know I will enjoy and not something I think will keep my waistline small.  I DO however get my takeout box at the start and set aside half the meal to take home for later.   I know that allowing myself something fun is not going to hurt because I make sure the majority of food I fuel my body with is healthy!

    Once I approached eating with the idea that what goes in is more important than what I take out, I was able to enjoy this "diet switch."  Our meals are a lot more colorful now, which is a good thing.  Your diet should be colorful, because the varying colors of the foods we consume represent the varying nutrients we are getting.  It is why fruits and vegetables are so colorful...they have a spectrum of essential nutrition for us!

    Eventually, like us, you will realize that all the processed junk food out there is just that, junk.  Like I said, I still like a treat once in a while.  Lord knows, I look forward to our monthly trip to the mall for the American cookie stand as much as the twins do!   But we finally realized we had made the "switch" when one weekend of eating out led to VERY messed up stomachs for all of us.  When your body becomes used to healthy home cooked food, anything besides that will probably upset your stomach!  And boy did it upset mine.

   Like anything in life, you have to approach lifestyle changes with a positive attitude.  Making a long term, if not permanent, change in eating habits is hard.  Some of the best tasting foods can often be the worst for us!  So when you look at it as adding in something, and not cutting out (thus missing out) on things you enjoy, it will make the transition easier.   And when you do this, you'll find that you don't need those unhealthy foods as much as you once thought.  Remember, though, that moderation is always the key.  It is okay to eat bad here and there.  When your body is healthy from all the good things you put in to it, the occasional indulgence won't mess you up.

Unless it's buffalo sauce...I love that stuff, but it comes with major regret the next day!

Keep positive, and you'll keep going.

-K