Sometimes you need to know how things work before they can become important to you. Food and food addictions are like anything else.
There’s good stuff and bad stuff. A little education goes a long way.
Here is a quiet little video that tells you what food can actually do for your body. It doesn’t have to be an addictive junk food diet to taste good.
Don’t let the good stuff get away.
Where does your food come from? Do you know?
Throughout most of my life, I have eaten foods whose origin was easily determined. We had gardens and raised chickens, and bought milk from farmers in the area. We had apricot and peach trees. We raised strawberries and got apples from neighbors who bartered with us.
We canned and pickled, and kept frozen meat in a locker downtown. The vegetables from our garden were so delicious you could eat them raw right off the vine or stalk. Everything was prepared from scratch, and amazingly enough, it seemed very convenient at the time.
I have growing concerns about the prevalence of processed foods in schools and the ready acceptance of convenience foods in today’s households.
The power Monsanto wields over our food supply with their GM crops and patents is alarming. What the FDA considers good, nutritious food is not necessarily what I care to eat. Last year I planted an organic garden. This year, I will plant a larger one.
Here in the Tampa Bay Area, it is difficult to find Cod, Scrod, and shrimp that do not come from the coast of China. The seafood has no taste except for whatever flavor sauces add to it. Even then, it is mushy and has the consistency of a wet rag.
Why would anyone think it preferable to transport fish—everyday fish, at that—around the world for consumption by people who have lakes and/or oceans within 500-1000 miles of them?
Do they not take into consideration the polluted waters from which these fish are harvested and the amount of time it takes to get them from the source to the table of the consumer?
Eighteen months ago, I could buy fresh frozen Atlantic Cod Loins and Alaskan Salmon at my local Sam’s Club. It was expensive but it came from native waters and always tasted fresh and flavorful when I baked it with only lemon juice and balsamic vinegar.
No sauces or other seasonings were necessary. The tender fish flaked easily and almost melted in my mouth.
Most everything they sell now is fried, processed, sauced up, and greasy. Supposedly, that’s what the public wants these days. Cheeses are added to the already high fat content, and at least half the shoppers I see on any given trip are fifty to one-hundred pounds overweight.
Salmon is farm-raised, Cod is breaded, Cod loins are not available anymore, and frozen Mahi-Mahi has developed an unpleasant back taste.
Even Grouper, our “state fish” rarely has any flavor without breading and sauces. We haven’t had Halibut steak in this area for fifteen years or more. It is becoming a chore to find a nice place to eat out, and I rarely order fish anymore.
It is frightening to think that we could one day become the society depicted in Wall-E, one of the most telling movies I have ever seen.
But we had better wake up soon or that may become the fate of half the people in our beloved United States.
Not everyone is a food addict or an emotional eater but the stress is mounting and the ranks of the morbidly obese are swelling in a way that we can no longer ignore.
It’s time to wake up and do what you can. Plant some herbs or a small garden, a tomato plant, some parsley–something.
Refuse to put that garbage in your bloating stomach. Chicken, hamburgers, potatoes–those aren’t junk foods. It’s what is done to it before you buy it, and sometimes after you get it home, that makes it junk food.
You’re in control of this one, so make your demands.
Enough of this junk. GIMME SOME REAL FOOD!!!!!
Believe it or not, this is actually good advice, especially for food addicts. When someone has a food addiction, they are always on guard.
It’s hard to enjoy yourself when you’re always on the watch for something you don’t want to have happen. That’s a lot to ask of someone who’s just trying to get through the day without feeling powerless around food.
Holiday foods like turkey, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce are all very healthy foods. And then there is Resveratol in red wine, so if you drink wine with your meal, that can be healthy too.
Food needn’t get in the way of fun. It can be part of the fun, and should be. Sondra Ray wrote a book a few years back titled The Only Diet There Is.
That book taught me how to stop feeling guilty about what I ate. One of my favorite chapters was Pleasure Yourself To Thinness.
Check it out. Let me know what you think.
Not only is it important to eat on time, but it is also important to consider the amount of each food in your meal. There is more to a meal than a hamburger and fries.
So how do you know how much food should go into a meal? And how is it all supposed to fit together? What do you eat that makes you feel like actually doing something afterward instead of just sitting in front of the TV or computer like a blob?
For instance, how much salad do you eat with how much chicken? And how much rice or potato should you eat with a meal? When do you eat fruit? Do you combine the same foods for a meal as you do for a snack?
There is a way to combine foods so they will work for you in terms of energy and fat-burning potential. When you get it right, you won’t need pills and you won’t have to cut calories or go on diets, or binge and purge, or skip meals. And no more food addiction feelings and cravings.
Finding that formula can be challenging but it is worth it. For me, I think that Michael Thurmond’s program is the best program for real life eating, or should I say, real living.
It is customized for men and women, definitely not a one-size-fits-all-doomed-to-fail diet. In my case, a meal might be 2 ounces of turkey breast, 1-2 cups of a vegetable and half a baked potato. A snack might consist of 2 ounces of chicken and a piece of fruit.
If I am really hungry at a meal, I might want an extra ounce of protein. In that case, I have to add enough extra starch and vegetables to keep the formula intact so it will still be effective.
This is where it’s really easy to mess up. If you change the proportions, you won’t get the result you want. Your body will know something is missing and the cravings and anxiety will set in. So, when you eat, remember that foods have to work together to make a meal.
It’s up to you to figure out the rest. If you’re really serious about getting fit, I recommend that you check out Michael Thurmond’s program. It will take you by surprise–in the best way.