About a 5 minute drive from my house is a large park that as the benefit of having an almost 6 mile walk around a lake. I go there as often as I can as it is a good distance to walk, the scenery is pleasant, and it is always good exercise. If it is not too hot, then I can bring my dog as well. I look forward to after work walks in the spring, summer, and fall when it is light enough to do so and weekend walks all year round.
A few weeks ago, I passed an large couple walking together around the lake. Both of them were at least 100 pounds (45kg) overweight. Maybe this walk was a one off activity for them, maybe they decided to bring some fitness back into their lives and this was one of the first steps, or maybe they were once 200 pounds (90kg) overweight and they have been walking around the park for a long time. Overall, the fact that they were walking in a park and not sitting at home was a good thing.
While I contemplated seeing the couple walking, I thought about the other half of a healthy lifestyle. That other half is our diet and what we put into our bodies. In my opinion, exercise alone and diet alone are not enough. If we want to control our weight and achieve the health benefits that go with it, we must focus on both diet and exercise. If you run 10 miles and then go home to eat potato chips, ice cream, and pizza, you are not doing yourself much good.
Go into your freezer, pantry and cupboards and see what is sitting there. Are their soft chocolate chip cookies? Potato and tortilla Chips? Sweet snacks? Miss Debbie Cakes , Yodels, Twinkies, Twizzlers? Sweetened cereals (pink hearts and green clovers) ? Instant maple syrup flavored oatmeal? Granola bars? Are their 5 different flavors of ice cream in the freezer? Is there a ton of frozen or prepared foods? The list is endless and all nicely packaged in attractive boxes and bags backed up with copious amounts of advertising. All of these foods do nothing for us except take days away from our lives. They are unhealthiness in a box and a bag. If we are serious about our bodies and health, then these types of foods need to be seriously reduced if not eliminated in our diet. It is not an easy process, but it can be done.
Human beings have evolved to crave sweet foods. When we were hunter gatherers, finding a trove of honey was a bonanza of calories that helped us survive. We had the lifestyle to work off those calories and finding sweet foods was not a daily occurrence. We now live in a society where it is possible to have a sedentary lifestyle with a cornucopia of sweet foods at hand at all times. These three things, the human craving for sweet foods , a sedentary life style, and the full time availability of sweetened foods combine to conspire against our health.
Paired with this craving for sweetness is a evolved affinity for salty snacks like potato chips or tortilla chips. Finding salt when we were hunter gatherers was not a common occurrence and salt is essential to our lives. The problem here is that we can easily consume too much sodium and the delivery mechanism of high fat, high calorie chips is a horrible way to get the sodium we need. This combination of sweet and salty snacks is a terrible addition to one's diet.
For me the key is to keep the consumption of sweetened foods, salted chips and high fat prepared foods to a bare minimum. Elimination is unrealistic, but making the eating of a chip or a cookie a rare occurrence is obtainable. Moderation (and on the low spectrum of moderation) is what one should strive for. It means passing on the pile of donuts in the break room at work and taking a small piece of cake at a birthday party. It means going to the vending machine and deciding to walk away from it. It means realizing what you are putting into your body every time you eat something sweet or crunchy.
I have evolved a strategy to reduce as much processed sugars and salty snacks out of my diet. I always have several types of fresh fruit available to me at all times and I always bring several clementine oranges to work with me. Additionally, I have learned that even a single small piece of dark chocolate or a small amount raisins can eliminate a sugar craving if there is no fruit around. I also have a variety of nuts to snack on at all time. My home has no ice cream in the freezer, and my pantry has only sugarless cereals, has no cakes or cookies, one 100 gram bar of 70% dark chocolate that lasts over a month, and zero chips. The best result of my limited consumption of sugared products is that I have built up a dislike for overly sweet foods (give up sugar for a month and then taste a store made birthday cake and you will understand ). When I eat potato chips or nachos, it is a rare treat.
Going through your pantry, freezer and refrigerator to throw out those products that do nothing for you but add empty calories (via sweeteners or unneeded fats) is necessary to remove the temptation of having them around. Making these products a rare treat instead of a common occurrence is one of the best things one can do for one's health. It is not easy, but the rewards are worth it.
Namaste.
