Talking yourself into eating right

Through my 15 years in the fitness industry, I have heard all sorts of excuses from people as to why they do not exercise regularly or why they do not eat right. Any self-improvement program like fitness will only be successful if the person himself is determined to succeed and proves it in his daily actions.

What are the most common excuses people give for their poor food choices? What is the reality behind these excuses? What can the person do given his situation to start eating right?

Trapped In The Rat Race

The most common excuse is the lack of time to exercise and eat right. This person runs from one meeting to another. He does not even seem to have time for his family or other activities. His life centers on work alone.

This person can easily end up with ulcers because he often forgets to eat or never has time to even grab a decent meal. If time is the problem, we know that a person’s best choice is fast food where making a healthy choice is confusing and difficult. As an expert once said, "Occupational ambition leaves a guy with two things: A fat wallet full of dough and a doughy belly full of fat."

Health strategies for this situation:

• Have some healthy snacks within your reach – in your bag, desk drawer and car. It would be ideal to have some apples, oranges, chicken or tuna sandwich, and the like around. But if you are the type who forgets, storing non-perishables such as whole-wheat crackers and energy bars may be best.

• When you do get the chance to order something healthy, order for two or get a larger portion so that you can have something to eat in the office later. It is, of course, best to get something that can be eaten cold (unless your office pantry has a versatile microwave oven).

• Collect all the menus of fast-food restaurants or delis near your building. Study them and highlight the healthier choices. This will make you order something healthy next time you ask somebody to get you a take-out or delivery. When you order hastily, chances are your first reaction is to go for the fast-food staples, burgers and pizza.

Nutrition Knowledge Is Power

Lack of nutrition knowledge is also a factor some people claim to be the hindrance to eating right. Though that may be an acceptable excuse before, it would be hard to pass for one now. The Filipino Food Pyramid guide to eating right is well publicized and some restaurants even have a guide to inform their patrons. You can also see it in some milk boxes and other food packages.

For this dilemma, experts offer the following strategies:

• How do cavemen eat? If you just look back at how men of old eat and then eat that way, you need not memorize the food guide. The less processed food is, the healthier it normally is.

• At least balance your food choices. For every sinfully delicious food, get an equal if not heavier dose of what is right for you. If you are going to eat steak for dinner, take a full order of fresh green salad for starters.

• For men, who normally admit to being less informed about proper nutrition, pay attention to what your date orders. Women, especially on a date, tend to eat right.

Food Ledger

People stay away from an audit of food they take in much as they cringe at the thought of a performance or accounting audit. People also only tell you half the truth when they answer their food diaries. It is not as much as wanting to lie as to protecting their freedom of choosing what to eat. The restriction that comes after an audit is not a welcome idea to many.

Nobody likes the idea of counting calories or balancing fat grams and glycemic indices daily. There must be a better and easier way, right? Experts believe you should give these strategies a try:

• Just get an orientation and have a rough visual idea of what constitutes 100 calories. That will allow you to estimate how much food you can guiltlessly take a day.

• If you would rather go by glycemic index rather than calories, then just take note of those foods that you should avoid because their indices are too high.

• If you are watching fat and cholesterol intake (or if sodium is your enemy), just make sure you look at food labels for information. It is always best to cut off fat before cooking and to leave them in your plate if served.

• Do you see green in your food? If one fourth of your meal is green (for veggies), then you are eating healthier.

The Pricey Tag Of Healthy Food

Another common excuse, and misconception, is that healthy food is expensive. This notion arises from the fact that at health food stores and grocery health sections, everything is at least 30 percent more expensive than an ordinary variant.

Be creative. These foods are expensive because they are imported and demand is low. The more you have to take extra care, as most I have seen are about to expire. Most nutritionists would not even go for these types of food because they are processed.

Health strategies:

• Go for raw and natural such as fruits and vegetables. Or your complex carbohydrates such as oatmeal, brown rice (it is less than P5 more than white rice per kilo), and root crops. Even whole-wheat pan de sal is so affordable at P20 a pack!

• Study a restaurant’s menu, chances are the least expensive entrées are also the healthiest as the most expensive are the imported meats.

• Eating healthy at home even cuts down your food costs as you focus more on complex carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits and fish. There should still be some meat, chicken and eggs but these can just be added as garnish rather than the main meal itself. For example, meat can just be part of the sauce of spaghetti rather than a steak meal.

Never In Love With Veggies

This is a problem that we grew up with. We know that veggies are good for us but we can hardly force our children to eat them, too. You should not force yourself to eat what you do not like but there is no harm trying these strategies:

• Read more about the benefits you get out of eating fruits and vegetables. Focus on the anti-cancer properties and other healing benefits. Knowing it is really good for you (and it may save your life later) makes it more appealing to taste it for the first time.

• If you are trying a vegetable for the first time, try it out in a restaurant (because they already did their homework and made tasty preparations of vegetable dishes). You might be surprised that veggies can taste really good.

• Hide them inside the food. Throw veggies in the osterizer, liquefy or puree them; then add as a sauce to your pasta or meat dishes.

Genetically Blessed Bodies

Don’t you ever hate it when models say in interviews that they never watch what they eat? Sometimes they even claim that they live on the exact types of food we were told to avoid such as French fries, burgers, hot dogs, potato chips, cakes and soda.

Well, appearance was never an accurate measure of one’s health. They may look great now but if their food choices are really bad, the malnourishment they are subjecting their bodies to will catch up with them as a nutrient deficiency or a disease later on.

Health strategies:

• Even though you may be blessed with a fast metabolism, learn how to eat healthy. In fact, you can eat much more than what you are currently enjoying as long as you choose the right food.

• Slowly decrease the foods cited above, as well as sugar, salt, fat, caffeine and alcohol, while slowly increasing fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates and lean protein.

It’s Not My Fault!

I saved this for last because I grew up in the industry hearing, "I am at the mercy of my cook." I can understand why this may be a real impediment to eating right. Regardless of whether lola, or mom, or your wife, or your mayordoma is cooking for you, the issue of their food not being healthy is the easiest way to hurt their feelings and egos.

Health strategies:

• If you can, arrange that whoever prepares your meal sit down with your nutritionist or somebody who can help them prepare healthier foods. This would appear as further education rather than a cruel judgement of their cooking pattern. The normal practice is for the nutritionist to interview the one who cooks regarding foods the family enjoys and the cook’s specialties. Tips on substitution techniques or variations may be introduced to these foods to make them not only delicious but also healthier.

• Compliment the healthy! If you show more appreciation for the veggie and fish dishes, then you will get more of that.

• Don your apron and "pretend" you like to help prepare the dishes. During the preparation of food you will get an insider’s view of what really happens in the kitchen and whether there are lots of hidden fats, salt and sugar that go into your food.

• Buy low-fat, low-calorie recipe books. Bookstores overflow with books on healthy cooking. Buy some and give them to your "favorite cook at home" as a well-deserved gift!

No Excuse Acceptable For Health

It does not take a long time to think through your excuses for not eating right. If you are a parent like me, the responsibility compounds because your children and the whole household depend on for what they eat.

We are not asking you to stop eating cakes and ice cream, French fries and burgers, altogether. I’d be lying if I told you I don’t eat that kind of stuff. But we should build a stronger nutrition foundation for our whole family, beginning with ourselves, by taking on healthier choices now.

If you are tempted to make an excuse again, re-read this. In the end, it all really depends on you.

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E-mail mylene@bender-and-strands.com for questions and comments.