The Dreaded D Word

Hello All!

Welcome back :)

So today I want to address a topic that I feel very strongly about, and it all starts with the word DIET! 

I HATE the word diet, well, mostly I hate how society uses the word diet. Everything is DIET DIET DIET! The "new" diet, the "IT" diet, diet pills, diet drinks, diet food.... How many times have you heard someone or even said yourself, "okay, I'm starting my diet tomorrow..." Does anyone ever stop to really think about what that word means... Technically speaking, a diet is just the food or drink regularly consumed by a individual or group of people. However, our society has turned it into a word that means you have to deprive your body of calories in order to lose weight and to get the figure you want. This is NOT true!! You can actually feed your body the nutrition it needs, never feel deprived AND lose weight!! It actually inhibits your weight loss when you starve yourself because your body goes into panic mode and starts to store fat. This is no bueno. 

Anyone who knows me, knows I can go from happy go lucky Katie, into DEMON ZOMBIE in a matter of seconds when I get rapidly hungry and my blood sugar crashes. Just ask my husband....or my friends, or family... or ANYONE who has been in the vicinity of me while I feel as if I'm starving.  I am not a pleasant person. I have tried to "diet" a numerous times in my adult life, all unsucessfully. I just can't do it. It wasn't until I decided to change my outlook on life, food, nutrition, and fitness that I was able to eat, satisfy my hunger, while still fueling my body with food that it NEEDS, not food that I WANT, and STILL lose weight and get fit.  

Diet's DO NOT work. Plain and simple. Diet pills don't work (instant gratification, yes possibly, long term satisfaction, no.) Healthy nutrition and consistent fitness will get you the results you want in your body, while also allowing you to live a life full of happiness and good health.  Our society is obsessed with instant gratification. We all want, what we want, and we want it NOW! If you live your life constantly wanting instant gratification you will likely live a very unhappy life in the long run.  Nothing in life that is worth it comes easy. You have to work HARD at things in order to make you appreciate them. Your health is no different. 

That all being said, lately I have become more and more interested in all these "diet" gimmicks out there. The one I see most often, literally on a daily basis, are microwave meals. Now I'm not talking about food you cook at home and then microwave, or even the food you can by at healthy food stores that is made with fresh ingredients and packaged weekly. I am talking about the brand name, freezer section, microwave meals. Company's brand these "meals" with words like, "lean and healthy", but there is nothing lean or healthy about pre-packaged, preservative packed, nuked food.  I literally see about 25-30 women and men a day eating these meals. Each time I walk past I just want to stop them and say, do you REALLY want to put that in your body? But I'd probably get slapped. 

Now I'll be honest, I used to eat these meals regularly, however I used to do a lot of things that were terrible for my health on a regular basis. Granted, is eating a pre-packaged microwaved meal better than a big burger and large fries? In some ways, sure.  It's lower in calories, thats for sure, but it's still not healthy and people are being deceived by marketing. 

Everyone, for the most part, knows that in order to lose weight you have to burn more calories than you take in. Pretty simple concept. Therefore most people think just limiting their caloric intake will give them the results they want, with out thinking twice about nutritional value of the calories they are eating. Sure, you can limit yourself to 1300 calories a day, do it for a month, lose a few pounds. However, without completely changing your lifestyle could you live on that "diet" forever? Probably not. Therefore as soon as you stop limiting your caloric intake you will likely gain back all the weight you lost and then some. Why? Because you didn't change WHAT you were eating, you just changed how MUCH you were eating. Also, most "diet" foods are horrible for you... I have become a "label nazi" in that I read the labels on EVERYTHING!!! If it has things I can't pronounce or don't know what it is I generally won't eat it. Why would you put things in your body when you don't know what they are, or how they will effect it? My husband actually gets annoyed at how often I read labels. But I would rather know and make a health conscious choice then turn a blind eye and ingest unnecessary chemicals. Makes sense, right?

  I had to change the way I looked at food, and focus on eating healthy, clean, fresh, non-processed food. If you do this too, you will not only lose weight, but you will feel 100x better and in turn will be likely to keep that weight off for the long haul. 

Now back to these dreaded meals. Microwave meals lack nutritional value. It is all in the processes it takes to create them. They lose all of the vital nutrients and minerals that may be in those veggies or meat you are eating and therefore are just EMPTY calories. Yes they are LOW in calories, but the calories you are consuming are not doing anything for your body. 

The food  is chemically altered as it is heated by the microwave. When you then eat those meals you ingest those chemicals into your body.  They are heavily filled with preservatives and chemical additives (they HAVE to be to last as long as they do in the freezer).  Just think of it this way. If you made say a turkey breast and some veggies and you put it in your Tupperware and stuck it in the fridge/freezer. How long would you let it sit there before you threw it out from going bad? A week? A month? Now how long would you leave a packaged meal in your freezer and then eat it  no problem? Thats because it has chemicals in it to preserve the food. 

Fresh ingredients will ALWAYS be a better choice for your body. Poor quality ingredients (like those found in microwave meals) have to use additives to make them taste better, and lets be honest, none of them taste very good anyway. How many times have you eaten one of those meals and walked away saying "MAN! That was tasty! I am so full and satisfied!". Mmhmm thats what I thought, never!!

       As soon as a vegetable or fruit is picked it immediately begins to lose its vitamin and mineral content. By the time the fruit/veggies in those meals are processed, packaged, and make it to your microwave, they have almost no nutritional value.  Which brings me back to my point that you are just eating empty calories. If you are going to limit your caloric intake a day (which isn't a bad thing, you have to limit your calories if you want to lose weight, but just make sure the calories you eat are not empty calories.) Wouldn't it make more sense to take in calories that are going to give your body the nutrients it needs to aid your goals?
       Trust me on this one. MAKE YOUR LUNCH! Bring a sack lunch from home. Fill it with fresh healthy foods: protein, vegetables, fruit, complex carbs. Things that will make you actually feel full and satisfied while still fueling your body with things it needs to thrive. You will feel a million times better and you WILL see a dramatic difference in your body. 

I don't mean to offend anyone who chooses to diet this way, or diet in general. I just know from personal experience what works for me and what doesn't. Thats what I want to share with you guys. I was so naive at one point, and I still have a lot to learn. I am constantly reading fitness and nutrition articles and watching documentaries to learn more. I just really wanted to get this one out there since I know so many people fall to the marketing scheme of these meals. 

You CAN lose weight the healthy way. Yes it took me almost a year to lose 30lbs. I probably could have done that a lot faster if I chose to do it in an unhealthy way. But it has been 4 months and I still haven't gained any weight back. I continue to fuel my body with healthy food because it tastes good and makes me feel good. I resist temptation and things I find to be empty calories. I choose wisely what and when I put things in my body. Yes I have "cheat meals" but for the most part I eat a healthy, clean, diet. (there's that word again!)

You can do it too. Just think. You only have this ONE body to live in for the rest of your life. Give it the best chance you can at a healthy, satisfying, successful life. 

Until Next time, 

Eat fresh, eat clean, train hard, train mean, live lean and of course,

Live the Fit Life.