Screw being "skinny" -- I want my body to be strong and healthy. I want it to be prepared to do all the things I want to try to do, even on a whim: run for hours, hike mountains, go rafting...
When most people decide to lose weight, they go cold turkey on the Chunky Monkey and chips and dive into a Spartan menu of vegetables and cottage cheese, determined to do an immediate overhaul of their diets. Wrong approach, Greene says. Gradual is better. “Don’t radically change your entire diet overnight,” he advises. Phase in healthier foods a little at a time.
“Stop fighting it and stop negotiating with yourself,” he says. “Do it because you care about yourself, not to lose 10 pounds.”
“Instead of focusing on cutting calories [only], which drops your metabolism, focus more on activity levels,” Greene says. “It’s the bigger of the two.”
Activity burns calories. Exercise like weight training also builds lean muscle, helping to boost your metabolism over time. So it offers a short-term and long-term advantage to meeting your fitness and weight loss goals, Greene says.
Many people plan to diet first, then incorporate exercise. But Greene says that if you have to do them one at a time, make exercise a habit first, then focus on cutting calories.
Did anyone see Alicia Silverstone, Michael Pollan, and the founder of Chipotle on Oprah the other day? I didn’t, but I heard about it. In fact, one of my coworkers actually wrote down Pollan’s name to remind herself ask me about him (of course, I told her what a huge fan I was!). For the rest of you who missed the show, Annabel, of Feed Me I’m Cranky, posted a wonderful summary of the show (with her great comments) I had to share:
Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself (Food Rule #39) – It actually takes a lot of effort to cook junk food from scratch. If you put in the time and effort, you can go ahead and enjoy it. (I don’t think poor Michael understands that my cranky tummy has no bounds and neither does my ambition, so if I truly believed I could cook and eat as much “junk food” without consequence, I surely would. But these hips don’t lie. They surely don’t!)
Cooking is key. Pollan thinks cooking is key since it’s the only way you can take back power from the corporations (and restaurants) that use much more fat, salt and sugar than you would use yourself. Kitchen-phobic? Check out my “get in the kitchen” motivation here.
We need a food revolution. As a result of federal agricultural subsidies, crops such as corn, soy and wheat are made cheaper to the consumer (and ever notice how soy is in EVERYTHING now?). The government doesn’t, however, subsidize fresh produce. Says Pollan, “we’ve made it rational to eat badly.” Because it truly is cheaper at the onset to eat a burger than to buy all the fixins to make a salad, we can rationalize eating poorly (I hear you if you think it’s like ya gotta choose to eat poorly or be poor).
We all vote with our forks. Each item you eat, every meal, every morsel that goes into your body, is a choice that tells Big Brother and Agribusinesses what you want and what they should continue to produce for profit. I get it if you’re broke (holla!), but splurge a little less here and there on your Seven jeans and buy more organic foods, more foods from farmer’s markets and more fresh produce.
If you’re going to eat meat, eat meat that has itself eaten well. Cows were meant to eat grass, not corn. Eat grass-fed meat.
Getting out of the supermarket is key. Shopping at a supermarket is like walking through a maze of bad choices. At a few corners you might find something worthwhile, but most of the time you just end up lost, dazed and confused. Try venturing out to health food stores, farmer’s markets and even checking out food co-ops in your area.
The average American eats fast food 4 times a week. While that number sucks, I thought it was worse (I’ve known people who eat out EVERY day…). Even cutting out one fast food meal a week will make a difference to your health and to “rockin’ the food vote” in the right direction.
Loved Food Inc. and just ordered three of his books on Amazon.com. I cannot wait to read them. Watching the Oprah interview, these are a few quotes that stuck out to me:
“We all have to start paying more attention to what we put in our bodies” [Oprah]
In 1960 we spent 18% (of GDP) on food and 9% on healthcare. Now we spend 8% on food and 17% on healthcare. [Michael Pollan] — HELLO, REALITY TO AMERICA, this is what we call an inverse relationship. Look it up. We’re not ACTUALLY SAVING MONEY by buying “cheap” “food.”
