I need to apologize for my rant yesterday. I realize I probably have readers who eat fat-free products. Who enjoy the occassional pop-tart or Weight Watchers food product.
My problem? I’ve done too much reading. I’ve become a food snob.
I want to know what is in things. I want real butter, not something engineered to look like butter. I want bread with just a few ingredients and without high fructose corn syrup. I want pasta made with whole wheat. I want full-fat cheese and yogurt. I want peanut butter with 2 ingredients even if I have to keep it in the fridge and stir it like crazy.
I want real food. Even if it means more calories and fat and expense. I would rather eat less of the best stuff than a greater quantity of food product.
I used to not care. I used to eat the Chili Cheese Frito Wrap from Sonic and all of those low-point pastries. When I lost weight on Weight Watchers the first time (2003), I ate frozen meals, hot pockets, fat-free yogurt, over-processed lunchmeats. I knew the lowest point options at Taco Bell and McDonalds. But I had no idea what I was putting in my body.
But now I know better. And I am concerned with what I put in my body.
I wouldn’t put a can of Pepsi in the gas tank of my car. I wouldn’t cram play-doh into my dvd player. I wouldn’t put a handful of rocks in my blender. I care too much about my stuff to put things into them that would tear them up.
I’m working on being equally concerned about my body. If I don’t know what it is, or if I know it has something in it that is bad for me, I’m trying to make better choices. And I do most of the time.
I’m still learning. I’m not perfect. But I’m better. And I can’t go back. I can’t imagine eating a french fry today. Or a poptart. Or a can of pepsi. And that’s a far cry from where I used to be.
Very well said! I feel exactly the same.
I think your attitude is right on target. No need to apologise.
Yes, it’s easier to lose weight by cutting out certain things and going for low-fat options, but if it’s not healthy in the long-term, what’s the point? I don’t drink sodas much anymore and especially not diet ones – who needs all the chemicals? I too prefer butter to chemical spread and whole-wheat to bright white. I prefer the taste of real food which satisfies me to ‘fake’ food that fills me but leaves me wanting more.
But you’re right, it’s a process and it’s about making the right choices for you and your body.
I think one of the problems is that often we don’t think long-term. We don’t think about how we got fat in the long-term or how our food choices affect us long-term. We just think about how we can get what we want without having to sacrifice the short-term – the sweet, the creamy, the salty. I love that you said that fake foods leave you unsatisfied. I have the same experience. I’m thinking long-term today!
just an FYI, I pust strawberries in my green monster for the first time this week…..the color is absolutely DISGUSTING! But it tastes great!
Yeah, my strawberries created a horrible brown color. But it turned greener as it sat. I don’t have any bananas this morning and I’m almost in mourning about my lack of a green monster. How sad!
I sooooooooo hear ya on this!! Great way to put things!!
Aww! Thank you! Keep up the food tweets, girl!
New to your site. I am on Weight Watchers too and get the same reaction as you did in your meeting. I eat mostly light or full fat and have lost over 9lbs doing so. Everything in moderation. Learn to eat real food. Good for you!!!!
Thanks so much for coming by! I think some people get scared by points – I try to look at them the same as I do my money budget. Is real cheese worth what I would “spend” on it? Absolutely! I just may not get to have as many almonds as a snack that day. It’s all about moderation – you’re right! Hope to see you back!
That is a great analogy – right on target. I have loved learning to use veggies in new ways, and enjoy it too.
Thank you! I’ve started sneaking carrots into EVERYTHING. Spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, meatloaf, etc. It keeps me especially entertained when I do it when my dad comes over to dinner. It kinda freaks him out!
carrots? seriously? I’m curious now!
I got my dad eating artichokes the other day and my mother was super impressed.
I dice up carrots really small and get them softening with the onions in any sort of spaghetti sauce or bean dish. You don’t notice them if they’re cooked until soft. And if there’s something red or orange to cover up the color!
No need to apologize. We all have our soap boxes! And from where I stand you are well on your way to
I started my weight loss eating some of those things, but like you as I became more aware I started eating real food. And that made a big difference. I don’t believe our bodies have evolved to the point where we can process all that crap in fake food. The body is to busy trying to figure out what it is and I think that makes it harder to lose weight. I have nothing to back this up but personal experience…
The food culture we live in right now is one of overly processed food “stuffs” and based on convenience. However I think in order to live well, be healthy and successfully lose and keep off weight we must slow down and eat real food. Actually I’m convinced of that. So many of us got heavy by eating that processed crap we think that we can get thin by eating it too. Your WW group is a great example, it’s like they are trying to cheat the system somehow…. Like I said, I this too and I did loose weight for a while, but my plateau at 245 was only busted once I started cooking real food and laying off the baked lays and fake cookies. Years later after much practice and changing my tastes I figured out that you can live with food, but it has to be quality, it has to be real.
Well said! I’ve also noticed that when I eat real food, I do pretty well with being able to eat “just enough” instead of handful after handful of food stuffs.
Thanks so much for stopping by…and for coming back!
um – what’s a green monster?
You’ll see a picture post in a few days! Mine looks like this: ice, almond milk, banana, peanut butter, protein powder, and spinach in a smoothie. Can’t really taste the spinach,but it makes me feel accomplished to have 2-3 servings of vegetables in my breakfast!
I don’t think you should apologize, there was no disrespect at all.
I think that most people who want to eat healthy as opposed to those who want to lose weight start to eat as naturally as possible. That’s just what I’ve seen from reading blogs and listening to my friends.
I’m on the fence about this one. I like me my cool whip lite. But I also like me my fresh raspberries from the Farmers Market.
You know, I don’t think that the lite stuff is damaging in moderation. Eating “as naturally as possible” for me will still include the occasional meal out or processed food at my mom’s or something. I know it isn’t realistic for me to go all the way, but I’m going as close to that as I can. As long as you are aware of what you’re eating, and don’t use un-real foods as the foundation of your diet – you’re on the right track as far as I’m concerned.
I totally agree with you!! I went to weight watchers for a while and couldn’t believe all the fake food people were eating in the name of losing weight. The one that got to me the most was splenda – I’ve never heard so many uses for splenda!! Interestingly enough, Jillian talks about how bad artificial sweetners are for you body and how your body just doesn’t know what to do with them.
I used to give my sister-in-law a terrible time about all the diet pop she was drinking and all the aspertame in it. I’ve always found that artificial sweeteners taste artificial. I’d rather eat the real stuff any day!
I will still eat pop tarts occasionally and I tend to drink at least one pop a week and I’m in no way offended. Even if I drank nothing but pop and ate only poptarts I would be in no way offended. You’re entitled to your opinion… regardless of who agrees with it.
Girl, I love the taste of Pepsi as much as anyone. I will never judge! One a week is impressive! I had to stop cold turkey. I am too much of an addict!
*high five*
I agree with you. I’m trying to cut out as much processed stuff as I can. I’m not perfect and somedays all I want is a piece of choclate cake from a box mix.
I’m thinking of trying the Raw Food Detox Diet. Because if all these little changes make such a big difference in my health, imagine what a temporary BIG change could do!
Have you read In Defense Of Food, by Michael Pollan? I recommend it highly. He talks about the overprocessing of our foods.
I’m currently reading Fat Land: How Americans Became The Fattest People In The World.
Pretty eye-opening stuff. There’s also a new documentary out called Food, Inc.
Sorry to ramble! This is all new education for me and I’m pretty passionate about it!
I loved In Defense of Food and my husband is reading it now. Fat Land? Fantastic. I also have Food Inc. in my list of books to be read. But what really rocked my world? The End of Overeating by Keller. I’m still wrapping my mind around it. Loved it. Read it.
Oops. I just read your post previous to this one regarding the cake debacle at the weight watchers meeting. Dude, I totally used a can of diet soda to make a chocolate cake last week. Doh!
My defense is paltry. I didn’t have eggs. I DO, however, have a car that could take me to the store to BUY eggs. And the diet soda was my roommates.
I feel like I got caught with my hand in the highly-processed-cookie jar!
Ha! Just don’t eat all your daily points in cake, okay?
I had the same experience at WW. The first time I joined, I too concentrated on finding ways to ‘cheat the system’…looking for ways to eat a larger quanitiy of food but staying within my points range. It was only after hitting a plateau and falling off the exercise wagon that I realized that I was totally missing the point! It is not about finding the brand of fudge popsicles with the lowest points so you can eat 4 instead of 1! Its about self control and making healthy choices.
I was totally oblivious to the idea of eating clean until recently. Jillian on biggest loser opened my eyes regarding artificial sweetners. It doesnt take much research on the web to find out how bad that stuff really is.
I recently stumbled across a blog you might enjoy.
http://happyfood-funnyfarm.blogspot.com/
He is an organic gardener and most of his blog is about organic gardening, but he does have some great info about clean eating/living. Be sure to look for the very disturbing video about how big business (monsanto) genetically engineers food. Yikes!
Oh, those fudge popsicles. I don’t even know how many of the WW Mocha Pops I’ve eaten in my lifetime. Sigh.
Thanks for the link too! I’ll check him out!
I was on WW once and remember laughing about how I could eat a whole frozen pizza if I just didn’t eat anything else!
Since then I have started thinking the way you do and I think I feel better for it. I am not “perfect” but I am trying….
Your post was spot on and in no way offensive. In college and grad school, I was the queen of processed food. I could rattle off the nutritional information of any fast food restaurant or frozen food item. Post grad-school, I started eating more wholesome foods. But I was still eating way too much proccessed food and drinking too much diet soda. I had slowly been making my way away from the diet soda, then I got the news that I am expecting a baby. I definitely have a reason to eat the healthiest that I can be. And those diet sodas will not slip past my lips again.
Congrats on the baby! That’s definitely good reason to get as healthy as possible!
I read your post the other day (about the “fake” food) and was SO impressed. I wanted to comment then but didn’t have time then I couldn’t find it again (too many blogs in my reader :( ). So glad you brought this topic up again. :) I eat as naturally as I can but due to time and other constraints there are still some processed things that end up on my table. That’s getting less and less, though and I love it. I just really hate how expensive eating fresh is. :( My siblings think I’m weird for eating fresh and not boxed and make a lot of comments on my “weird foods”. Not sure what’s weird about it but, oh well. Sometimes I just don’t tell them — like when I substitute fresh ground almonds for breading on my chicken — what they don’t know doesn’t hurt them. :) Plus, it gets lots of compliments instead of rants. LOL
On the green monster — try using Kale sometimes instead of or in addition to the spinach. I’m not big on Kale just to eat but in a smoothy it’s pretty darn good. Of course, I need a top on my cup to help me eat it because it looks a murky gray/purple color with the berries added. I also need a better blender to liquify my kale. Should probably try just the spinach again to see if that blends easier.
Loving your blog. :) Thanks!
It can be more expensive to eat healthier, but I’ve noticed that I eat less when it’s quality. My husband is a bottomless pit, so I often have to portion our stuff out – including leftovers – before we have a chance for seconds.
It is interesting how people can mock our weird foods, but also love it, right?
I’ll have to try kale sometime! Thanks for the suggestion!
Pingback: Weigh-in #6 (or 2) | Fat Chick's Journey