Eating to Gain

(Originally published 2013)

So many people struggle daily with food choices, getting healthy, and limiting our intake of food on the journey to achieving our goals. I used to be one of them. I saw food as having a dual role: my crutch in times of stress and as an evil that had to be limited. I had this struggle for years and my weight bobbled up and down as a result. The fat free propaganda that swept our nation twenty years ago is a great place to start. Our country was getting fat and unhealthy and we were looking for answers. Rates of diabetes and heart disease were on the rise and we wanted quick convenient solutions. The food industry responded with waves of fat free and low fat convenience items. Many common boards of experts on health bought into this low fat idea. If we reduce our fat intake, we will stop getting fat should work, right? Wrong, the answer is if the food industry is taking out the fat, what are they putting in our foods instead? And really, who has time to research this stuff anyway? Isn't that why the food industry has experts out there researching this stuff? The answers given to the general population for how to handle the weight gain is to make simple exchanges from full fat to low fat or fat free. Trade out your regular soda for diet soda. Have you ever compared the ingredients in a full fat item to a low fat or fat free item? Try this on for starters so you can see what you find. When you go to the grocery store, pick up 3 tubs of sour cream (regular, low fat, and fat free) and compare the ingredients. How many ingredients are there and how many ingredients can you pronounce? This was my eye opener and as I began educating myself, I was appalled to learn what I did. The low fat and fat free foods for the most part are filled with chemicals to make them taste "just as good," but they come many times with a nasty side effect. We tend to eat more, looking for that same sense of satisfaction or fullness and simply don't seem to achieve it. We often go back for so many more servings and have no idea of why. I remember on many occasions consuming a box of fat free Snackwell cookies in college because hey, the box isn't that big and they're fat free so what's the problem? (This of course was long before figuring out the whole celiac issue.) As I learned more about how I had become a slave to food and how my approach to food wasn't working. I tried to limit my food intake and still find pleasure in what I ate or I would squeeze in whatever meal fit into my busy lifestyle so I could check the box and find some way to say that I ate something that would fit into this category of what I had been brainwashed to believe was healthy. I really didn't have a good relationship with or understanding of food. A year ago, I began my journey to getting healthy. It started with the fridge, freezer, pantry clean out on the morning news. This is my before video: https://www.facebook.com/1529872148/posts/10209964779625984?s=1529872148&v=i&sfns=mo Once I finally had something to go off for why I was gaining weight and struggling with a mysterious rash, I figured I'm going for it and I'm going to see how it works. What started as a journey to figure out how to reduce the other whole grains I was consuming became an extensive ongoing opportunity to learn. I changed my way of thinking about food and while my three influencers were Food Babe, Dr. William Davis of Wheat Belly, and Maria Emmerich, I have to call it a toss up between Maria and Vani (Food Babe) for who has been more influential in my approach to health. Food Babe does an amazing job of researching and reporting back to the general public about what is in some of the most popular foods and restaurants here in the U.S. Maria provides options that fit my lifestyle for what to substitute for the toxins being sold to the general population under the titles "healthy" and "food." It really is scary to learn what they are shoving into our foods to add the labels that make them appear as better choices. Maria is a nutritionist who doesn't just provide recipes, she also provides an explanation of why she recommends certain ingredients. She made me realize that instead of allowing food to control me, I could learn to nourish my body with foods that would satisfy and help me achieve my health goals. Eating fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, etc are important, but there are also some ingredients that can be added to optimize our results and the ability to achieve our health goals. We must learn to sometimes think outside the traditional box. Yes, there are foods that are real, not chemical concoctions that can actually help us feel full and satisfied, lose weight, reduce cholesterol and blood pressure. It no longer had to be about what I needed to limit, but rather what do I need to substitute and how. I learned to keep foods on hand not just for when my will power was low (times of stress), but also because they would provide nourishment. The best part is that these foods don't have to taste like cardboard. They can actually taste good. When I started approaching food to learn how it could work for me and improve my health instead of how I had to work around it, I learned that I could eat to gain instead of fearing food to lose.

As a sneak peek of what I really do eat and have on hand, these are pictures of what is actually in my fridge, freezer, and pantry right now. These aren't staged and it's pre Sunday shopping and cooking, but here's a peek into my 80% of the time healthy. Feel free to ask questions of what might seem surprising.

***8/2014 Update - I have partnered with a health & wellness company that has significantly cut my food prep time & budget, while still allowing me to live in the kitchen when I want.***