Pay Now or Pay Later

Fast food is hard to resist. The concept is fast and cheap food, right? Fast enough to fit into a hectic lifestyle; after all, who has time to cook, especially with a house full of active kids and tired adults? It's cheap enough even in this economy. That dollar menu is so tempting. Not to mention how much the fat and carbs fill you up and keep you from eating again for hours sometimes, especially if you get the burger plus fries plus a soft drink plus the dessert. The kids like it. Fast food places are easy to find on every corner and convenient on the run. There's quite a selection of burgers, chicken, roast beef, tacos, pizza, pasta, hot dogs, sandwiches, fried rice, sweets, you name it. Which makes me wonder how Sonic can be one of the smallest buildings ever and offer so many selections. How do they do that?

If you can believe it, I just added up in my head 28 traditional fast food places within 15-20 minutes of my house, and I live in the suburbs. I also didn't count the ice cream and donut shops, small mexican and pizza places or the food court at the closest mall!

Let's go back to the temptation of fast food based on cost, in terms of time and money. We've established it's fast, convenient and cheap. So fast food wins, right? I say wrong. You're either going to pay now, or you're going to pay later.

Think about the fast food menu. It feels like a dollar here and a few dollars there right now. But think about what that type of food over a sustained period of time can actually cost you. Consider the simple things such as additional clothing costs due to weight gain, all the way up to strain on your body (joints, heart, lungs, organs and blood) doctor bills, prescription drugs, insurance issues. It's a vicious cycle. Now consider having to try to reverse your lifestyle under duress, damaged self esteem, potential loss of abilities or activity due to obesity and its associated health problems. It's not worth it. You can learn to order in a fast food restaurant if you must eat there, but better yet, avoid them completely.

Now think about the grocery. True, it may cost a little more to buy that extra lean ground beef, the 99% fat free ground turkey, the non-fat greek yogurt, chicken breast and lots of eggs. But if you shop the perimeter of the store and focus on fresh fruits and veggies, meat, eggs, non-fat dairy, whole wheat grains, and frozen veggies the prices are very reasonable. Much more so than the conveniently packaged foods you pay for in the center of the store that have no nutritional value. In the summertime it's highly likely you can find a farmer's market or stand selling fresh local stuff. I'm not even talking about organic, just not fast food and not the trans-fat laden center section of the grocery store.

Approximately $10 at the local farmer's market

A well planned trip to the grocery followed by a designated time for food prep can do wonders. My husband grills a ton of chicken breasts at a time, we hard boil at least a couple of dozen eggs at a time (even my dogs eat hard boiled eggs, but that's a different story). Veggies stay fresh when they are chopped and refrigerated. Last night we put several cups of steel cut oats on the cooktop for 40 minutes while we were doing other things and then split them up into 1 cup containers for the week.

Are we perfect at this? No! Do we eat perfectly? No. But with very deliberate and focused effort we've turned our kitchen around and our bodies are showing the results of it, and I'm 43 with a husband that is 59. If you have young kids, involve them now, there is so much to gain from it. Our grown, married kids are still trying to adjust to the way we eat now and they are relatively healthy eaters. If I knew then what I know now. We don't get a do-over, but we can start making changes right now, so we're not paying and sacrificing so much later. I hold my sweet grandbabies and know that it's all worth it.

Food Journals - Do They Help?

If asked, how accurately do you think you could describe your eating habits? Most of us could probably describe our preferences, some of our habits, favorite restaurants, foods we prepare or have around the house, and recent diet adventures, but the details of timing and portion might be harder to recall. If you want to lose fat and you're not keeping a food journal, it's a tool you might find helpful, in an eye-opening kind of way. That said, keep in mind it's only helpful if you are completely honest with keeping it. That means every M&M you put in your mouth, or in my case, every spoonful of peanut butter with jelly squirted on top. No one has to see it but you. Even better is when you get to a point that you want to share it with someone who can help you when you get stumped.

What to record each day:

• The time you get out of bed in the morning
• The time you eat
• The foods you eat
• Portion sizes of each food item
• How you felt each time you ate
• What time you go to bed

I would recommend keeping your food journal for a solid two weeks before reviewing it. Even with special events planned this should catch a good view of your typical eating habits, including weekends, giving you a real snapshot of the true state of your eating. You might be surprised at what you see. Of course you could also get creative and take pictures of what you eat.

Okay, so why record the time you get up in the morning and the time you go to bed at night? This tells you a couple of things. The first is how many hours of sleep you are getting at night. We're learning more and more about sleep deprivation and obesity. So if you're not getting your ZZZZs for about 8 hours a night, that's one adjustment to make! The other thing it tells you is how close your eating is to waking and going to bed. A sound goal to shoot for in the mornings is to break your fast and eat within an hour of getting up. So, if you're waking at 6am and not eating until 10am, that's not ideal. (Don't even get me started on not wanting breakfast, just eat it!) The opposite may be true of evening eating. A good rule of thumb is to do most of your eating during daylight hours. If you need a snack before bed, choose a lean source of protein that your body can use efficiently while you sleep. So if you realize you're noshing on carbs right before bed, you'll know to make some different choices.

Recording the times you eat can tell you if you are waiting too long between eating occasions or if you have time periods of eating too frequently. In general, you will want to eat about every 3 hours, no more than 4. Eating reasonable portions of lean protein combined with quality carbs and/or healthy fats this frequently will help keep your energy levels up and keep you satisfied. It can also show you if you're neglecting your eating during the day and eating too much at night because you're famished. Some people cannot imagine eating that often, but remember that it doesn't have to be an elaborate meal, it can be tuna out of a packet with an apple.

Portion sizes are tricky and you may have to guess, but be as descriptive as you can. As you identify appropriate portion sizes, you can compare your journal entries to them to know when you're eating too little and when you're eating too much, and the foods that give you a problem with this.

How you feel when you eat is important in terms of the psychology behind it all. Was it a social occasion? Did you feel pressure to eat? Were you angry, lonely, sad, happy, tired? How did you feel afterwards? This will help you identify what sabotages you now. By removing some obstacles that consistently derail you, you can eat well enough to plan a cheat meal, eat some ice cream and actually enjoy it!

Give a food journal a try. It should be a helpful tool that shows your opportunities for improvement. Once you know them, take action! Productive use of a real-time food journal over a period of time should lead to proactive meal planning, which is even more effective for mastering your eating habits.

Random Thoughts on Fitness, Nutrition and Life

I am working on projects, drinking green tea, listening to Birdsong Radio via iTunes and not minding the cloudy sky at all on this Monday. Too many blessings for that. Here are some random thoughts rolling around in my head at the moment!

• Green tea is a good thing to reach for when I know I'm not hungry and I want something different than water. My favorite is Bigelow.
• Goals are where I want to go and action items are how I'm going to get there. Stay focused on the goal.
• The foundation of every eating occasion should be lean protein and veggies, both as fresh as possible. (Toss in fruit, healthy fat and starchy carbs strategically). Fuji apples...my favorite.
• The 5th Turbulence Training Transformation Contest starts today! Can't wait to watch this one.
• To worry about something you can't change is useless. To worry about something you can change is stupid, change it! - R. Craig Strickland, Pastor, Hope Presbyterian Church
• A non-fat chai latte from Starbucks has a lot more useless carbs in it than I realized.
• I'm going to try as many (sound) programs and products as I can and write objective reviews. Only the ones I believe in will be found on my blog.
• My relationships are what really matters in my life, although my dogs are a great example of unconditional love.
• I will do an unassisted pull-up. I will do an unassisted pull-up. I will do an unassisted pull-up.
• We spend most of our lives buying things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't really like. - R. Craig Strickland (original unknown by me).
• I am blessed with one life. I must take care of it and give it all I've got.
• I'm trying out Cheat Your Way Thin by Joel Marion. Not really interested in cheating, just learning more behind the concept of starchy carb timing and experimenting with myself!
• I will wean myself from regular peanut butter.
• I have carved out time today to work on my goals for the next 100 days using The Magic Hundred. Will write about how it goes!
• Jimmy (my husband) is now 8 weeks out from his first bodybuilding competition this summer. I like sharing this adventure with him.
• I'd like to live long enough to have a great-grandchild.
• This afternoon I will do more push-ups than before.
• I'm having a hard time finishing Jillian Michaels' book Master Your Metabolism. Can't decide yet if it makes the get fit with kelley cut or not.
• I've learned so much and still have a lot more questions about true fitness and balanced nutrition.

What are you thinking about today?

This post contains affiliate links with the exception of Hope Presbyterian Church. Please see my disclosure statement.