Thursday, August 16, 2007

Food First

Over the past few years I have talked with countless people about weight loss. Those who have witnessed my transformation personally know how I did it, but are still amazed at how I look, and others who had never met me, once they hear my story, want to know how I did it, because they can't believe how good I look! My muscle tone and shape create my "look" and is a direct result of my kettlebell training. But before my KB training can show, I had to reduce the size and leaness of my body, and that comes from my food.

People that I talk with still want to hear a "magical cure". They skip over what I have to say about diet, for the most part, because they already know they eat like crap, and think that kettlebells are the secret. And although I credit kettlebell training as a miracle, the miracle started with me, and how I took responsibility over the foods I ate.

You have to get your food in order first. This is my absolute belief. My diet, the foods I eat and how I eat are responsible for the size of my body. The food I eat is responsible for the health of my body. The food I eat is 1/2 responsible for the leaness of my body, if I didn't have my food in order first, I could never see the muscle tone that my style of KB training gives me.

If you are overweight, whether it's 5lbs or 100lbs., you are eating too much. You are also, more than likely, eating to much of the wrong foods. But you already know that. So what are the wrong foods? You already know, but here's a reminder;

Instant foods.....period.

If you are relying on ready made foods, and that can be restaurant food, (not just fast food ) or packaged foods like frozen diet dinners and even "power bars", you might not ever break the cycle of eating foods that will keep you overweight or unhealthy. Why not?

Because ready made foods, instant foods, are over-flavored. They are over-flavored with salt and sugar, yes, and sugar, and therefore wreck your tastebuds! Most people would be surprised to know that the ready-made roasted chickens that you buy at Costco, and even good grocery stores are "brined" first in a solution of salt and sugar! Instant and ready-made foods also have preservatives, fake fats and fake sugars, and who knows what else! Good, healthy food will always be less appealing to you as long as you keep these over-flavored foods in your diet.

But before I go into all of this, the point of this post, originally, is a reminder that everyone can start to change the size of their body, right now, right this minute, by changing the foods they eat. And if you cannot (or will not) change the foods you eat, eat less....throw the last few bites away, consistently.

You can never swing a kettlebell and still get thin. You can swing a kettlebell and still stay fat. When it comes to health and weight loss, it starts with food first.

I wrote a post about my thoughts on "Instant Food", February 15, 2007, check it out!

6 comments:

leslie said...

I'll be directing my friends to read what you've written. You hit the nail on the head AGAIN!

fawn said...

SO TRUE... I say this as a (ex)professional cook who has worked in a lot of restaurants.

Restaurant food is "treat food", not everyday food. Anyone who claims to be too busy to learn how to prepare nutritious food at home isn't interested in being healthy.

If it is alright with you I'd like to copy this to a printable form and give it to some of my clients...

ColeC said...

Leslie linked this on her blog, so I checked it out ;)

I couldn't agree with you more! It is said that what you eat is 90% of how you will look...the rest is like fine tuning an instrument. This is something people don't want to hear, because it means giving up all that fried, sugary foods that we've all come to know and love. It takes hard work to retrain your mind and start craving the healthy foods.

I look forward to reading more on your blog.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Leslie,

I've been wanting to address the "food" side of health and fitness for a while, hopefully this is just the start.

How are the family dinners coming along?

Tracy Reifkind said...

Fawn,

I could go on and on, of course, in more detail, but I'll have to break up all the things I want to say on the subject of diet into smaller posts, so stay tuned!

I hate to bore people with paragraph after paragraph of too much information.

I like how you used the term "treat food" to describe restaurant food. I'll have to borrow that one!

Tracy Reifkind said...

Colette,

Welcome! Thanks you for your addition to this post.

I think people would give up the junk if someone else hand delivered healthy meals! It's, in part, about convenience.