My Eating, Present

Evening! Well, I have been a tad late in writing this, part deux, about my present eating habits. But I'm sure everyone, all 2 of you, totally understand. (Granted, I haven't made an honest effort of promoting my blog. But I enjoy just writing it so I'm guessing that's why.)

I'll try to keep it short and simple. I am NOT a nutritionist, by the way. There is a lot I have yet to learn.

I eat real food. & one of my biggest pet peeves is for someone to tell me that I do not eat enough.  I always get those friendly comments about how I "hardly ate anything" or those tips like, "You should add ___/more/etc."  I don't mind the tips from people who know what they're talking about (nutrition/health), and I'm sorry if that offends anyone.  Really, I eat just fine.  I have 3 square meals a day with snacks in between.  I consume PLENTY.  I just don't do it in one sitting.  Or unhealthily.

This might turn into a Pro-Organic blog posts because that is what I am. There is just WAY too much information out there for me to even want to go into WHY but I will recommend to you this awesome, awesome book: "Master Your Metabolism". I did a lot of researching and reading (besides this book) and finally made the personal choice that I'm just not willing to throw my hands in the air, say "We'll see what happens!" about what the food I put into my body contains. I eat meat, mostly chicken, turkey but also red meat, though not too much in one sitting.

I eat a lot of veggies, fruits and nuts which we've all heard before! You're probably tired of hearing it but here it is again. & why do you think that is? Guess what, folks, exercise alone will not get you healthy and fit. It has a lot to do with what you fuel your body with.

My mornings usually consists of oats so I might eat a bowl of oatmeal with fruits mixed in. I'll have 8oz of organic apple juice and a slice of whole grain, whole wheat bread with peanut butter instead of butter.

I don't deprive myself of anything REAL & GOOD. I'm not anti-fat, anti-carbs or anti-whatever else is new. I simply do not eat too much of anything.

Mid-Morning snack might be a piece of grilled chicken I packed the night before and shredded into pieces. I usually take this to school because I get hungry in class #2 so I can pop it out and it doesn't make the crunching sound nuts might make. I'll have water on hand too. At all times. Haha. Honestly, you won't find me without water. But it could also be a nut mix, a piece of fruit or a KIND bar.

Lunch might consists of veggie mix/salad, a tuna patty cooked with a bit of olive oil, avocado and a few of my Late July Organic crackers. & water.

OR

 

After my workout, I have my Isopure Dutch Chocolate protein drink with 8oz of water.

I'm usually ravenous within the hour of finishing my workout so I have another snack:

Apple/Banana/Orange/You get the idea.

Dinner might be home made beans, grilled fajita on a whole grain tortilla, Mexican homemade salsa (never store bought), and some rice. With homemade lemonade.

As for the question, "Is eating at night bad for me?". Answer, maybe.

When you sleep, your body is in fasting mode. It hasn't stopped working just because you're dreaming. & if you don't have SOMETHING in there, it could have a catabolic effect on your muscles. NOT good. All that hard work you've put in at the gym is going to waste because all there is for your body to "eat" is your muscle. ::sad face::

Which is why I don't really eat before bedtime. But I do take my Isopure protein shake WITH 8OZ OF MILK this time. Casein protein is ESSENTIAL as a pre-bedtime snack. & while my Isopure is not a casein protein powder, MILK is 80% casein so, yea - you guessed it, I take it only with non/low fat ORGANIC milk.

I don't really eat a lot of dairy. I don't think it's essential in our diets as adults but I do take it with my protein at night and I sometimes eat yogurt. I digest it just fine, I buy dairy only if it's organic and I'm okay with eating/drinking it in moderation.

I know I only touched on a few things here and some might have questions so feel free to ask. I'd be happy to answer questions as to why I do or don't do something in specific. This was just a sample and not what I eat every day. Variety is the spice of life!

(PS., please keep in mind that your meals should reflect your goal.  If I had a clone and one wanted to lose weight, the other wanted to build muscle, they would both have different meal plans.)

Unhealthy Mentality & Our Children

As you might imagine, our children's health is very important to me, and not just in the physical sense.  To me, at least, being healthy also includes having a solid self-esteem no matter what size you are.

The truth is, everyone, that loving yourself and your body doesn't mean that we are not capable of seeing and accepting that perhaps our body isn't at its healthiest.  We should be able to love everything our body does, every single day.  It's that body - whether it's underweight, fit, overweight, big, small, round, pear shaped - that allows us to do things throughout our day that we really take for granted.

It's that body that allows you to stay or get in shape.

If you have a few "trouble" areas, guess what? Everyone does!  But there are two kinds of "trouble" areas; the kind you can change and the kind you cannot.  Simple truth.  There ARE things you CANNOT change.  If that's something you can't live with and want to go the cosmetic surgery route, that's a personal choice but, also, another blog.

For most of us who either don't want to go that route, or can't for whatever reason, our body's flaws is just something we have to accept.  I want you to see yourself and be able to ask, "Is this something I can change?", "Will it make me a better me, physically, mentally and emotionally?".  If the answers are "yes" then by all means, go for it!  Changing your body when it's for your well-being doesn't mean you don't love your body.  On the contrary, it means you love yourself and your body enough to recognize when change is necessary.

However, while we should be able to see those pounds creeping up on the belly (worst place to have fat because it's wrapped around your organs and can lead to diabetes, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, etc.), it's important to keep a healthy mentality.  When we begin to obsess about a number on a scale, get depression over it, beat ourselves up mentally and/or even hate our body, it is no longer healthy!  Our mental well-being is just as important and, at all times, we should be able to say, "My body isn't perfect but I love it for all it can do, all it will do and all it could do."

You might be wondering what all that has to do with our children and the answer is that it has a lot to do with our children.  How we see ourselves and how we see and describe others is what YOU are passing on to those young, innocent minds.  I really am so disturbed by this video on Yahoo! ( "Maggie Goes On A Diet" ) that I feel compelled to write how it made me feel.

If you don't want to go to the link, it's about a children's book about a little 14 year old girl who goes on a diet and becomes healthy and fit, joins soccer and becomes popular and famous.  While I get, and actually like, parts of the book, I just can't agree with the idea that telling young children that being thin is going to make them popular or famous. 

The video goes on with the journalist interviewing 5 & 6 year olds, shows them pictures, asks them which girl stands out and a little girls actually calls her "chubby wubby".  I just don't get how come, we as parents, actually TEACH our children to be so cruel.  I have to say, the word "fat" is not allowed up in this household.  And before anyone goes up in arms about why I consider "fat" a bad word, let me explain that what I consider bad is the context in which the word is usually used and I have found that if my daughters want to describe something to me (teddy bear, cat, what-have-you), there is almost always a better, more intellectual way of saying that the object/animal is big rather than just saying "it's fat".

With that said, I don't allow meanness at all.  There are many people, young and old, who struggle with being under-weight and actually get picked on, being called "anorexic", "stick", among other things.  It's just not nice to go on describing someones body in a non-complimentary manner as if we knew their health history.  So why would anyone teach their child to do that?

I've said this before in other blogs;  I am not a perfect parent but I know right from wrong and as soon as I could, I began to teach my child the very basic lesson of "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."  I also sat down with them and explained that while many people who are too overweight are unhealthy, so are many people who are too underweight.  I explained that we cannot tell someones diet or lifestyle just by looking at them so it's really just better to not judge.  What if the person has an underlying medical condition?  What if the person has already taken steps to become healthier? But we can't tell so WHY judge? 

What we really gets me is that we can teach our children to be motivators, friends, caring, understanding human beings but because we, as adults, have such an unhealthy relationship with our own bodies, we have passed on a sort of hatred to our children towards other children who are "too skinny" or "too fat".  It has a horrible domino effect because, in case you didn't see the video I linked earlier, eating disorders amongst children is up 119%.  That same unhealthy relationship most have with their own body is being passed on to children 10 fold.  That's a sad truth I hope we can change.

It starts at home.