I Am What I Eat and I Like It, Thank You!

As we know, I’ve been working really hard at becoming healthier. I’m glad to say that I’m still going to the gym and that I’m feeling much better since starting to work out. A wonderful little side effect of trying to become healthier is that I am making better choices about what or when I eat. I figure I work hard enough on the treadmill and lifting weights that I really don’t want to screw that up.

I think I’m doing pretty well. We don’t have any soda in the house. When we do go out to eat, I do my best to have lots of water or juice instead of soda. For Lent, I gave up coffee…and hopefully I’ll get used to that as well. I now make time to eat breakfast. Lunch is my heaviest meal of the day. Vegetables accompany most of my main meals. I try not to keep food at my desk, because if I have it…I’ll snack. This has become a big adjustment for me and I feel that it’s working.

That being said, why do people insist on having “better” dietary tips for me? It’s not enough apparently that I’ve cut out the extra eating in my life…but I am told that I HAVE TO go low fat, low carb, low taste! Most of my friends have been supportive (thanks cubicle neighbors), but sometimes I get the one “Food Nazi” yakking my ear off about how I can’t have bleu cheese dressing on my salad.

Sure that works for a lot of people. But I chose not to deprive myself when I eat. It just seems all too futile to me. All these diet plans like Jenny Craig or NutriSystem…they make you buy their food. So yeah, you lose the weight. But you’re eating someone else’s food. What happens after you lose the weight? Now you’re hooked on someone else’s food and paying their prices for it!

Makes it kind of hard to except dinner plans with your friends at the hot new sushi place in town, doesn’t it?

The best example of my food dilemma is the milk debate. I don’t drink a lot of milk; I only have it when I eat cereal a couple times a week for breakfast. If I have a choice between skim milk and Vitamin D, I’m taking the Vitamin D milk. Skim looks like regular milk thinned out by two cups of water. And the taste? Well, let’s just say it’s as thin as it looks in the glass. However, more than one person has told me that if I really want to lose the weight, I should just drink skim milk.

This drives me absolutely nuts. One cup of cereal and one cup of milk. I hardly think that it’s going to kill me if I keep with the Vitamin D. And isn’t milk SUPPOSED to be good for you? So, now you’re telling me that milk is going to kill me too?

Look, food is everywhere and universal. I’ve come to the conclusion that all of it is bad for you in one way or another. And you know the old saying: Too much of anything is a bad thing. But I’m not willing to give up the opportunity to try new things, just because its chuck full of calories. If Food Nazis had it their way, the only thing we’d be eating is some cardboard tasting cracker!

And don’t get me started on the guilt that supposed to be associated with dieting. Let’s go back to the diets. You have tons of diets out there that give strict menus or guidelines as to what to eat. So let’s say you choose one and you cruise along for three weeks eating nothing but a cup of rice and chicken you’re allotted a day. One day, as is human nature, you want something sweet. So you pop a bite sized candy for a little dessert.

That little tiny square of candy eats at your conscience the rest of the day like termites on a wood frame house.

Once you tell yourself “Okay, I can’t eat this,” your body naturally starts to crave it. When you deny yourself that craving, your mental state kicks in to where you actually cave in and have it. So why do it?
Food is there to enjoy, not to be afraid of. If humans weren’t meant to eat the stuff we create, we’d be further down in the food chain and rabbits would have learned to make chocolate tortes.

All I’m saying is that you have to trust yourself to make the right decisions for your own diet. And just like everything else, there are consequences to your actions. But you shouldn’t have to beat yourself up over it. Getting healthier is about feeling better about you. So do yourself a favor and tell the Food Nazis to shove off.

Take responsibility for your diet because no one else will.