Why America is Obese
It amazes me. I consume on average 1000-1500 calories a day. That’s not much, so the kind of food I consume matters a lot. I concentrate on low fat and high protein. I don’t count calories per se, but I do watch the fat content. Since January, I have lost 30 pounds (and counting) and my energy levels have increased 200%. I also workout and exercise. There’s really no substitute for that.
The Wendy’s Classic Tipple (pictured below) is what a lot of people have every day in this country. I used to go to Burger King and McDonalds all the time. Believe me, this is what a lot of children eat. And guess what? Every one of them have weight problems. And, we wonder why people are having so many health problems and why so many people are obese.
If I ate this, I would be sick for hours. It’s just not what I’m used too.
My diet is simple. I eat whatever it is that I want to eat. I call it the “Cher diet”.
I was flipping channels one day, and came upon an info-mercial featuring Cher. They wanted to know her lifestyle, her diet, etc. When she talked of food, she talked about all the healthy things to eat, in the right proportions. I also thought she was a health nut. The interviewer said, “Well, I can see now why you are so skinny.” She looked at him and said, “You think this is easy for me? I’m in the gym two hours a day to look this way. There’s nothing easy about it, and every thing you eat matters.”
They interviewer said, “Well, what if I like chocolate cake and want to eat that. You make it sound like food such as that are never to be eaten.”
Her answer blew me away. She said, “There is absolutely nothing wrong with that piece of cake. It is every bit as valid as that low-fat salad. The difference is, I don’t have to run for 45 minutes on a treadmill to loose the calories if I have the salad over having the cake. The bottom line is, if you want that piece of cake, you should eat it, and enjoy every bite of it. Then, you should pay the price for it and work it off! So the real question you should be asking yourself is, ‘Is that piece of chocolate cake worth that 45 minutes on the treadmill?’ If it is, then have it!”
Her point was, everything in life has a price tag. If you eat fattening foods, and do nothing about it, the price tag will be weight gain. If you work out and pay that price, a piece of cake once in awhile is not a bad thing.
I took all of that to heart. She also mentioned that when you eat, you really need to know what you are eating. If you are eating pasta, you should substitute the word “pasta”, for “complex carbs”. They burn off slower than simple sugars (candy bar). That’s how I look at all food now. If I’m going to have a piece of chocolate cheese cake, I substitute the words “chocolate cheese cake” with “gratuitous fat”, because to the body, that’s actually what it is - simple sugars and saturated fat.
You are what you eat.
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Obesity is always a strange topic for me.
1. People complain about being obese, that they want to fix it. When I tell them I lost weight via diet and exercise, that's "too much work." Either you take the steps to not be fat, or be fat; don't just pointlessly whine.
2. People blame food, and I'm not entirely sure why that is. When will people realize that if you have to choose between diet and exercise, you should choose the exercise? Plus, if the issue people are having is their lack of self-control when it comes to seeing a big, delicious plate of lasagna, shouldn't it be music to their ears that they can eat obscene amounts of food and still lose weight (I did it via running 3-6 miles a day, and lifting some hardcore weights). They blame everything, from genetics to age to gender, and I love to point out the fact that I have heavy parents, am also female, and I'm not all that salty, but Jack Lalain sure is and he's still truckin'.
The interesting thing is that you get into a "fuel" mentality; it's similar to Cher's ideology, except it has absolutely nothing to do with how much time you spend on the treadmill the next day and everything to do with what's good for your body. I need protein to build my muscles, so if I'm going to gorge on something, it'll be a whole salmon with wild rice, or a large slice of lasagna that I made, not a piece of cake.
3. People blame food companies. These guys provide a service. I appreciate the healthier options as much as the next person, but if I'm really that concerned about my diet, I'm not going on a 18-hour road trip and hoping the McDonald's I stop at will cater to me; I cater to myself. I pack a cooler full of sugar-free energy drinks, lots of water, sandwich-making foods, fruits, vegetables, and other healthy snack options. Just like I'm not going to cry to a jean company for making a style I don't like, I'm not going to cry to a fast-food chain for not making food to fit a specific diet I'm on. That's another thing, no one wants to make their own food. Why? Is it really that hard to take an hour or less out of your off-day and cook up some chicken breast for the upcoming week? What about making a slow-cooked meal on the days you just feel too damn lazy to stand in front of the stove?
To me, obesity is a person's choice, so it's not my place to tell them how they should eat. If they want to lose weight and they ask me, I'll give them everything they want to know, from diet plans to meal timing to writing out a workout routine. If they don't want it, they don't care enough to change. I actually got a large teenage girl to accept her body by telling her that if she knows how to fix her situation but refuses to, she has no right complaining about it anymore.
I have been on a diet since febuary my blood pressure was out of this world,so my doctor put me on a diet,i didnt start to gain weight untill i was 30,in high school i was 145 lbs and 6 foot tall,i was very skinny,i tried everything to gain weight nothing worked,in college i was 165,and i was that weight untill i was 30 years old,then in 2002 i started having high bloodpressure,my doctor put me on a pill and i exercised and lost about 60 lbs my blood pressure went back to normal,now in 2005 i gained it all back and i am 223 lbs,i have lost 17 lbs in 2 months,i am walking and eating a lot less pasta and pizza,i eat salad for lunch,and then for dinner i eat what ever i want but small portions i stay away from salt,i dont care for diet pop i need my pepsi,but i have been trying some diet pops i like the diet pepsi with lime or the diet aw rootbeer,but you have walk to keep the weight off and keep up with your cholestrol numbers,my cholesterol was 240 now i am on lipitor once a day.
Considering what I just went through - the thought of a triple hamburger is just disgusting and a bit frightening.
Not that I would have eaten it before, but now I just steer clear of pretty much all fast food (I'll have a salad, but that's it). In the three weeks since I got out of the hospital, I haven't been able to exercise much beyond walking, but just by eating better - I've lost close to 10 pounds and I'm losing more as I start exercising more.
Americans just need to get off their asses and do more - I mean, do we really need to drive a block to go to the store?
Besides, I just can't get over the idea of a SQUARE hamburger. That's just WRONG! It's right up there with farmers trying to come up with a square tomato that would presumably be easier to pack for shipping.
I was eating at the fast food joints near where I work every day. I would hit McDonalds in the morning for a bacon egg and cheese biscuit, (and maybe a sausage and egg biscuit to go with it,) and then head on over to Jack-in-the-Box for lunch.
For probably the last three to four months I haven't eaten at either of those places at all. For some reason the mere thought of their food makes me ill. I know if I were to eat a burger like Wendy's I also would be sick for a while.
I now bring a little cereal or something for breakfast, and have a light lunch and a modest dinner. I feel better, and I have lost a little weight as well.
You know, you think about what fat and grease looks like in the bottom of a pan at room temperature. That stuff is thicker and heavier than blood. No wonder it ends up clogging the blood vessels.