I've decided to try something new. I'm going to do my best to eat a lot more fruits and vegetables.
In the past I'd come up with this idea but thought it would be too expensive to buy a lot of produce so I didn't do it. Also, I couldn't come up with any good recipes that would be satisfying. And, my ex would not have eaten it (although he didn't eat with me and the kids anyway) neither would my kids. Ok. Those are all just excuses. I had sort of tried eating more veggies before but got sick of the same thing over and over and over.
Eating way more veggies and fruit was partly because of what I saw on Oprah with Dr Oz. The guests on the show (living past 100 years) ate veggies. I didn't see any processed food in the backgrounds. One guy was eating a diet called Calorie Restriction, which involves a lot of produce, and that was the guest that had my boyfriend interested. He asked if I would consider a Calorie Restriction diet mostly for the energy that the guest said he found. I thought about it and decided that it probably wouldn't work. I mean, I eat for emotional reasons so putting me on a restricted diet that I didn't choose would just cause me to eat boatloads of chocolate. That and the idea of counting calories makes me feel like I'm not getting enough food which would also cause the chocolate overload.
Some time ago I read the book In Defense of Food which also prompted this change in eating for me. The main message of the book is eat food, mostly plants, not too much. So eat real food that you can identify (not chemicals and ingredients you can't pronounce), eat vegetarian (meat is a condiment not a main course) and not too much (pay attention to your stomach's physical level of fullness). All of this made sense, but it seemed like too big of a task to completely switch my eating habits.
So today I went to Safeway and bought every fruit and veggie that looked good. As well, I bought some nuts, pita bread and hummus. I recently read that hummus can be used as a spread - I never thought of that! For my after-work snack I had a salad in a pita with hummus spread inside. It was so good! And mostly filling. I'm hungry now, but it's suppertime. I have the next four days off work and I plan to see if I can change my eating habits for the better. I plan on having fruit for breakfast with a little bit of nuts and Kashi cereal sprinkled on top and a bit of yogurt. Lunch can be another yummy pita salad. I don't know about supper yet. Today I'm making stir fry.
What I'm hoping for is the ability to eat a lot more fresh fruit and veggies and less processed stuff. I will most likely be consulting my computer for recipes a lot this weekend :)
I was on my elliptical this morning sweating away and bouncing to my music when I thought of Oprah. Oprah has said many times how she hates exercise but has to do it to stay thin. Guests on her show have had the same opinion - that exercise is to be despised and grudgingly completed in order to be healthy.
While I don't dispute that exercise is important to being healthy, I do disagree with the idea that it should be hated. Our bodies seem to be made to move. Throughout our history we can be found walking, hunting and building. We used our bodies daily. There was little rest or relaxation. With industrialization came convenience. Suddenly things could be made without using as much of our physical selves. We could use transportation different than our feet and hunting became less and less of a necessity and more and more of a sport. Now enter the twentieth century. We don't walk very far, we drive. Our jobs are not physically demanding, they are desk jobs. And of course there are jobs out there that make people sweat - mine is one of them. But by far and large we have built a world of convenience where we don't have to exert any energy to get things done.
Food has also changed drastically. We used to eat fresh meat, fruit and vegetables. Baked items were generally made at home with ingredients that are natural like flour, sugar and eggs. Now baked goods are purchased in a grocery store with ingredients that are almost unpronounceable. All kinds of natural ingredients are removed from items to make them fat free or low sodium. But then the manufacturers add ingredients so the fat free items still feel good in our mouths and the low sodium stuff still tastes good. But...is this real food? Or is it just a compilation of chemicals made into something we are told to eat? And what does our body do with all this fake food? It tries to run efficiently of course, but often fails and diseases arrive and take hold.
So here we are in the twenty-first century eating fake food and moving far less. No wonder the population is getting more obese. We are slowly destroying ourselves by ignoring our body's basic needs for food and movement.
In my opinion, any food with unnatural ingredients should be sold under a label that says it's imitation food. That way people are fully aware that they are eating something that isn't food, that the body doesn't process easily and that could harm us. All diet foods fall into this category as they are nothing but man-made chemicals with a bit of real food added in.
And back to exercise - our bodies are designed to move and we have created an environment that makes movement unnecessary. Instead of hating the idea of sweating - why not just try moving more that you do right now? Although increasing your heart rate is very important, simply moving more than usual will have tremendous results. Associate exercise with pleasure. Find something enjoyable and do it. I like my elliptical. It's low impact and has programmed intensity changes. I also love walking and swimming. Is there anything you like to do? Anything at all? Instead of thinking of exercise as a hateful chore, try thinking of it as something that could bring you pleasure. Try new things and see what you like.
Just my two cents.
I watched Oprah's webinar on Monday with Bob Greene. Most of the information was pretty redundant to me but one thing kinda stuck out.
Oprah kept saying the additional fat is about worth. If you are of worth and value then you won't be fat. Ok. I didn't agree at first, but thought it might apply to her or many others.
The next day at work it hit me: my family treats me as if I'm worthless. I grew up with the idea that I'm not of any value. This was demonstrated to me last Saturday when I saw my mom and my two sisters. For the duration of this event we were sitting around my mom's table and talking. Very early on my older sister started getting angry with me. I really don't know why she was angry, she didn't say. I didn't ask either. I was too taken aback by how outright rude and deliberately mean she was being to me. If I expressed an opinion she told me I was wrong, or diminished what I said by telling me it's only my opinion. She insulted my boyfriend by criticizing what he wears and wouldn't let up on it. I mentioned I have a yoga mat like the one my mom has, and my older sister went on an angry tirade asking me "is it thick?" over and over. Maybe I did something to piss her off, I have no idea, but she was mean to me the whole time. I was grateful to leave and pleased she was getting on a flight to go home the next day.
I didn't know how to deal with her at the time (still don't, really) because I know from experience that if I call her out on her behaviour then the others would tell me to calm down and stop overreacting. What I was waiting for (and didn't realize until later) was for my mom or younger sister to back me up. Or even just chime in and say to my older sister that she's out of line. Or even try to change the topic to get the focus off of me. Instead they sat and stared. Aren't I worth someone telling someone else to stop being rude to me?
The more I thought about it, the more I realized this was how our mom raised us. I don't ever remember her telling one of us to stop being rude or to just stop the poor behaviour. When we were children my older sister would take the Saturday comics right out from under my nose while I was still reading them. Then she would read them and just leave them on the table instead of giving them back to me. When I would tell my mom on her, my mom would just shrug. We all knew this older sister was difficult and, well, kinda bitchy, but why did my mom do nothing? Anyway, on Saturday I was using a knife to cut my apple. I cut it into quarters then would eat one quarter before cutting the core out of the next quarter. During my munching, my older sister reached over, took the knife and started cutting her own apple. I was still using the knife, why didn't she get another one? Or even ask to use mine? Why didn't my mom (it was her home) get up and get more knives?
I was aware of the poor behaviour during the event and wondered why I didn't do anything about it. I had been thinking of it in the back of my mind since then so when Oprah talked about worth I connected my worth to the events that transpired.
It's possible that my mom simply didn't/doesn't know better. She has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and Paranoid Disorder. These were diagnosed only in the last eight years.
The other element to this is that my family walks around on eggshells with my older sister. Partly because she really was mostly bitchy, angry, resentful, haughty, inconsiderate and mean while she was growing up. Seriously. Part of that was because she was put on anti-seizure medication and those were some of the side effects. The other reason my family continues to tread lightly with her is because she has stage four breast cancer. Should a terminal illness be a free pass to bad behaviour?
I need to figure out how to make myself feel worthy while at the same time maintain some connection with my family. Although they are turning out to me toxic.
I've decided to try something new. I'm going to do my best to eat a lot more fruits and vegetables.