There was a time when the excuse for me was, "Oh, I'm still trying to lose this baby fat." Never mind I had my child years ago, I was in serious denial.
I have also heard other women refer to their "extra" love handles in the same way. And some can be quite creative on how and why they haven't lost the weight. Let's face it, as we age and gain, the "extra pounds" we will be fighting the battle forever, if we are not constantly aware of it. Oh, and doing something about it.
Now mind you, not all women have that extra "baby" fat problem. Some women actually do go back to their pre-pregnency weight and into their clothes. And let's not forget the husbands that have gained also from the sympathy cravings while their lady is having her taste for a pint of ice cream. As they go out to buy her one, they are buying a pint for themselves as well. We don't say much about it, cause misery loves company. Hey, if I gotta gain weight, I don't mind if he gains weight too!
Whatever the reasons and causes are we are gaining too much weight at alarming rates. Our BMI's (Body Mass Index's) which measures our height and weight are too high. If your BMI is 30 or higher, you are considered to be obese.
According a quote in NaturalNews from Dr. Lawrence J. Cheskin, director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center,"Let's work on changing our food supply and environment, reducing poverty, enhancing education about health promotion, and keep moving."
Look the bottom line is this, We can make all the excuses in the world for why we are not taking care of ourselves as we should, or we can do something about it now. We have a generation of obese children needing our guidance and direction. We have to create a mindset in them that being aware of what you eat can literally be a matter of life and death. As the saying goes, "When you know better, you do better." Let's help ourselves and our kids do better and "Eat to Live!" rather than "Live to Eat."
Wishing You Much Success!
Karen McPherson
I agree Karen. Knowledge is definitely the key to a leaner, healthier person. I think what is happening is that because we don't have the time to cook like our parents did when we were younger; and all these "boxed" products like hamburger helpers, mac n cheese, ramon noodles, etc., which are quick and easy meals but high in sodium and loaded with preservatives, is definitely killing us. Also the fact that these type of foods are so cheap and affordable and The "good" food is so expensive doesn't help our situation. With jobs on the decline and gas, bills, and the daily costs of living sky rocketing it is tough to make wise choices in regards to food. But in the long run it is definitely wiser to choose the "good" foods no matter what the costs, because when you factor in the expense of diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure caused by the wrong foods, it will out weigh the expenses of eating right.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more and you hit it right on the money. Eating to live instead of living to eat is exactly what I'm doing. We must plan our meals to focus on high nutrition with low calories to achieve the optimum energy to sustain the body. Your treat meals should be planned as well. High fat and increased calorie meals occur when you do not plan.
ReplyDeleteThanks Constance for you comments on how vitally important it is to weigh the cost of damage we pay by looking at price rather than quality in how we feed our body. Hey, I have been guilty of it as well, but you know that saying,"When you know better, you do better." The saddest part is that we pay it forward to our children when we don't take care of their basic needs of good nutrition. Although we are living longer than our ancestors now, I'm afraid that we will experience a change in our quality of life and longevity if this problem of obesity persists.
ReplyDeleteYes David, eating on the fly has to stop. aside from taking your lunch, unless you go to Whole Foods and eat from their salad bar, you get more fat than nutrition doing the fast food circuit. Do you realize that during this time when our economy is down, the fast food industry is still a profitable business. If we all took the time to plan our meals, we would also find we are saving money buying groceries rather than fast food. And we are getting a more nutritious meal as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks Karen, but I think we are faced with a bigger problem, that is, instilling in our kids and ourselves good nutrition. For example, the nutritional value of school lunches are zero. I asked my son what he eats for lunch every day, he excitedly tells me they have a choice of pizza, hamburgers, taco's, cakes and cookies. Then he nonchalantly says, "oh yeah, we can eat fromt he salad bar too, but mostly teachers eat from there." So I had a heart to heart with him about trying to eat better at school and make wiser choices when it comes to his lunch. The point I'm trying to make is that our children are bombarded with so much of these unhealthy foods that it seems like we are trying to swim up stream. I have never seen so many $1.00 menu's in my life! So I'm trying to make the change of providing quality healthy meals daily for my children. Even as Dave stated, planning healthy snacks as well.
ReplyDeleteIf we had only known then what we know now. I was fortunate to have a mom that never worked, and she believed in good nutritious whole foods. So I basically grew up eating right, and taking it for granted. But later when I married and had children, my husband didn't eat the way my parents did, so I started eating more fried foods, more salt and some prepared foods too. In came the Kool-Aid and out went fruit juice etc. They went to Fast Food Joints. Their dad took them there. I never liked fast food. We all need to go back 50 years and eat the way we are supposed to eat. It will save everyone a lot of money in the long run when they don't get heart disease, hypertension,diabetes and cancer. So get on the band wagon everybody. Let's GO!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree, but a lot of families eat routine meals every night. The meat, the vegetables and the starch. Sometimes you have to be creative because life is not what is use to be years ago. So the way your families feed you growing up we can't eat like that today. The preparing of food also is something that is very important because back in the day most people use butter or Lard etc, today we have olive oil which is much better for you. Try to cook meat on grills to drain the extra fat. Seasonings can be substituted for sauces that don't have sodium. If it may be sweet and sour, mango, or sometimes of glaze that your adding for taste, that cut's out the salt etc. Pasta (any pasta) with a little flavored meat added to it with a topping,peppers, tomatoes & onions and fresh garlic with broccoli is very much practiced in the Greenidge home. Sometimes you can take a vinaigrette salad dressing at add it to the past for taste. We eat to be full that will fill you and it's still healthy.
ReplyDeleteI am pleased to be able to post a comment on behalf of Edward Arnold. But first I'd like to request that you visit his website for a great trip dowm memory lane. He is sharing some really good music. Visit this site
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@Edward - Tried to post the below comment, but I don't have any of the accounts that it references being needed to do so. Don't know if you can post it for me. If you can, cool.
"Eating healthier foods was definitely a limited option in a great number of people's time of growing up b/c there were no stores such as Whole Foods around back then. Nor were nutritional facts required at the fast food places. Everyone basically ate what they wanted without care, and these same eating behaviors were carried to the next generation (sons/daughters). Being so, a lot of us had to make a conscious decision to move to eating better for our own well-being and teaching our children to do the same and therefore attempting to break the cycle of bad eating habits."
I would like to thank Constance, David, Charlotte, Kelly and Edward for your valueable comments. Please pass this message along to encourage others to make "Getting healthier through better nutritional choices" a priority.
ReplyDelete