Life Sentence

Alot of what I've been hearing about dieting lately is the new catch phrase "lifestyle". In fact I, myself, recently wrote a guest post (on Jens Gym) about how I realized that to stay at a healthy weight, consistently, you have to make good food choices part of your lifestyle. Good food choices are not only the type of foods that we choose, but the amount of those foods that we eat. So how do you change the type of foods that you eat and/or the amount of foods that you eat without feelings deprived. As someone commenting on my blog described it, feeling like they're in jail.

This was the start of my approach.

Realize the foods that are convenient, alot of times fast and cheap, are simply not good for you! Crappy, calorie dense, foods are not healthy. They're over-flavored (salted and sugared), they're loaded with fake fats and other ingredients to make them look better, "taste" better, and last on the store shelves longer.

I could go on, (and I will another time!) but accept the fact that we are not eating in a way our bodies were intended to eat, that's why we're fat. We have to eat cleaner, more natural, real "live" foods, that we can control the quality of. That means cooking and preparing more (in my case most to all) of the foods we consume. And that's not a bad thing! It's about changing our habits...making it part of our lifestyle.

The good news is that good, healthy foods can become easier to prepare as we get in the habit of doing it regularly....I promise! And good healthy foods can taste better, and you can eat more food for fewer calories. Easy, better tasting and more food!

If you can't or don't want to make an extreme change, like I did (I have to take everything to an extreme, it's my personality, lol), start with one meal, breakfast or lunch, (or both). I don't have to tell anyone how to do that...especially if breakfast is currently a latte and scone or breakfast burrito, and lunch is take out... Breakfast and lunch, I think, are the easiet meals to change. Oatmeal (obvious, how many times do you hear this suggestion?), yogurt, fruit, and try making you own lunch...how about small portion of leftover dinner, or a sandwich, or even better, a salad (the best choice!)

Feeling healthy and lean does not feel restricting to me, it feels free. Free to move easily, free to breathe easliy, free to live my life happier. The way I eat, most of the time, not only makes me feel better and look better, but tastes better!

Staying within a healthy calorie range to keep my body at a healthy weight does not feel like jail to me. Surrounding my body with extra weight and fat that keeps me from....wearing clothes that I want to wear.....joining in physical activities that I might want to be included in, (or other simple things like climbing stairs or walking all day at a convention or fair without my feet killing me!)....... taking pictures with family and friends because I don't like the way I look....going to the beach...etc.... I can list many more simple everyday activities that become harder or impossible to do when we become overweight or are in bad health.....that feels like jail to me!

Which life sentence do you want for yourself ?

PS the last part of the comment that inspired this post was "how do I stick to my regime?"...My answer is, look at my all day lunch photos! They show the large amount of food that I get to eat, as well as, I hope, the quality of nutrition that I get by making my own meals.