To Count or Not To Count...

As promised, today I'm going to share something that just doesn't work for me. In one of my very first articles, I mentioned using a food journal to help me stay under my "calorie-limit" for each day and gave links to how you could find what your limit should be. This method works well for a lot of people - you may even be one of them - but not for me. I have tried food journals and counting calories several times and it's never once worked. This time I made it a little more than 3 weeks  before it fizzled out. 

The most common thing I hear people say in reference to food journaling is, "it's really helped me see what I'm actually eating and to see where I need to cut back." Honestly, my first reaction to this statement is really?? You don't know what you're eating each day unless you write it down and look at it later? That seems like a pretty big problem. The first thing we need to do is be aware of what we're putting in our mouth, as we're putting it in our mouth! That should not be the reason we are keeping track of what we eat. 

However, there are some good things that can come from keeping a journal of our food intake. It can help you make sure you've taken in everything that you need to - have I had all the fruits and veggies I need today? have I had 6 or 7 glasses of water so far today? Do I need more protein today? Also, if you record how you feel as well, it can help you link what you eat to how you feel. I have seen how sugar gives me stomachaches, how not enough water gives me a headache, how too many tomato-based sauces give me heartburn, etc. What we eat has everything to do with how our body functions and journaling can help you see the correlation. For these reasons, I will continue to give journaling a try because I think it's important to see how your diet effects your health. But I certainly don't need to write it down to know that I had too much junk one day.

The other aspect that fails horribly for me is counting calories. Being so concerned by keeping track of how many calories I've had and how many I have to go actually makes me hungry. It keeps my focus on food and eating all day long which naturally makes me hungry. I kept count for about 3 weeks and noticed that my calorie intake progressively increased with each day that I kept track. This is how it always happens for me so I don't think I will try to count calories again. For me, it just doesn't work. It wasn't all a loss though, counting calories did help me to get a better grasp on portions and meal times. The first week, when I was doing well staying under my limit, I ate at regular meal times (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner) and used smaller plates and servings. Therefore, as long as I make sure to eat only at regular intervals and not all day long, and to watch my portions when I do eat, I can be fairly confident that I'm staying within a healthy calorie range without actually going through the hassle of counting each and every one. If you really like the idea of counting though, there are some great apps out there to help you - the Livestrong app, the Spark People app, and My Fitness Pal are all great apps to help you keep track of not only your calories, but also your fat, sugar, carb, protein, fiber, etc. intake. And they happen to be a journal as well... win/win. 

For those of you who have tried calorie counting and food journaling, do they work for you? Why or why not?

Venting Some Frustrations...

I've not been sure of what to write lately. This week I became paralyzed by the overwhelming amounts of information that's out there and from trying to decipher what is true and what is to make a profit. The desire to keep trying to wade my way through the masses and get to the bottom of the health mystery and the desire to throw my hands in the air and give up duked it out, and unfortunately, this week the desire to get healthy was on the losing side. Because of my knee injury, I haven't been able to do a lot of exercising the past few weeks, and that led to a backward slide in my nutrition as well. My sweets intake skyrocketed this week and I had an insatiable craving for "snacks" all week long. And, as expected, I didn't feel well for much of the week - sluggish, weak, headaches, bloated, stomachaches, etc.

In the Introduction to his book, Food Rules, Michael Pollan voices nicely what I find so frustrating. In talking about the Western diet, and the Diet and Nutrition Industry's desire to pinpoint the exact problem in the Western diet (carbs? sugar? salt? calories? etc.) while ignoring the entire diet as a whole, he says: "There's a lot of money in the Western diet. The more you process any food, the more profitable it becomes. The healthcare industry makes more money treating chronic diseases than preventing them. So we ignore the elephant in the room and focus instead on the good and evil nutrients, the identities of which seem to change with every new study. But for the Nutritional Industrial Complex, this uncertainty is not necessarily a problem, because confusion is a good business." (Emphasis mine.) He goes on to say that every time the industry discovers the "real problem," the food manufacturers can go back and tweak their products to reflect these findings, and then everyone across the board can make another round of profit without caring if they actually improve anyone's health - in fact, they may even aim NOT to improve health so that they can continue to "fix" the problem. This perfectly articulates the problem which I find so MADDENING when I try to do any research - why it all contradicts itself, why there is no clear answer, why you can try a lot of different things and still not lose weight or improve health conditions.

One obvious point that jumps out after changing how I think about food: what we eat isn't actually food. Pollan uses the term edible foodlike substances. Every time they tweak something to fit the new fad, it becomes less food and more product. There are a lot of things I loved about his book and I'm sure to reference it again, but in the meanwhile, I highly recommend you buy a copy for yourself. It's very short and consists of straightforward, common sense rules.

So I guess the point of this article was just to vent some frustrations... I'm ready to dive back into the mire and will continue to use my common sense approach to try and decipher what is actually helpful and what is not. Stay tuned... (hopefully) exciting stuff to come...

Using a Common Sense Approach

As I mentioned when I started this blog, I'm not an expert, but through research and my God-given common sense, I'm searching for the answers to a healthy life. The main advantage to using common sense is that no one is profiting from it. As much as I'm able, I research various issues first, but as anyone who has tried to find a straight-forward answer about anything health related will probably tell you, they've most likely found it to be incredibly difficult. I'm sure there are many reasons for all the contradicting information available, but I have a feeling it all boils down to money.

The pharmaceutical companies are billion dollar corporations; the diet/fitness/exercise industry is a billion dollar industry; medicine and health are billion dollar industries. The government is a billion (er, trillion, eek!) dollar industry. If it was easy to figure out what was healthy and how to become and stay healthy, there would be very little need for all of these - well, I suppose we might still need the government. None of them want that because that would hurt their profits, and money is power. Many scientists probably have a price - that amount when they're willing to alter, suspend, or outright lie about their findings. So these scientists publish information that is wrong or misleading, often with the backing of their money-men - the very people we're supposed to trust, like the FDA.

I'm sure not all scientists are like this however, and they publish their findings with legitimate results but also with little fanfare. It takes a while before the general population starts to give these studies any attention or consideration, and when they do, it starts with not knowing what to believe. (For me, the best starting point is going against what the big companies or government are supporting until I have a valid reason to believe them.)

So after reading all the contradicting "facts," I'm left with my common sense to help me figure out what to do. This is where I'm coming from when I write, which compels me to remind you that common sense can be very subjective and what makes sense to me, might not make sense to you. I'm ok with that if you are ;)

This article is mostly a prelude to the next few articles I have in mind, but for now, I encourage you to implement this one small action: Before making a decision, ask yourself, "Who is profiting from this? Do they really care about me? Or do they just care about making money?" And then use your common sense - just because someone is making a profit from it doesn't make it bad, but just because "science" is supporting it doesn't make it good.

Motivation Concept

We all have areas in our lives in which we just have a hard time. These areas are our own individual vices that we struggle with no matter how hard we try to stop. It could be overeating, laziness, frivolous spending, losing your temper, messiness - really anything that makes you feel regret later on, but you still can't deny when the urge strikes. For me, it is a really frustrating feeling and can make me feel really weak. Some people have even said or implied that I am weak, but my guess is those people just don't share that particular vice for which they're ridiculing me. To be completely honest, each item I listed is something I struggle with to some degree or another. You may share some or all of my shortcomings, or yours may be completely different. My hope is that this post will be applicable no matter what your struggle(s).

I found this idea on Pinterest (imagine that) and it's specifically for exercise motivation:

Each time you workout, put a dollar in the jar. When you reach your goal, treat yourself to something.

My immediate reaction was, "what a great idea! That would be so motivating!" However, this was quickly replaced with reality. As a stay-at-home mom - read single-family income as I haven't found someone to pay me for that yet - I realized putting a dollar in a jar, for me at least, wasn't really practical. First of all, I would have to go to the bank and trade in a twenty for ones. And then those 20 $1 bills would sit in one jar while waiting to be put in the achievement jar. That seems rather pointless to me. Secondly, I'm sure that something would come up at some point requiring me to "borrow" against the achievement jar, and Lord knows, once it comes out, it's not likely to go back in. I still really liked the general idea though and so I started thinking about how I could adapt it to make more sense.

About that same time, I was out Christmas shopping and I got a major (and I mean MAJOR) hankering for the Baconater Cheeseburger from Wendy's. (I had actually been hungry for one for a few weeks, but thankfully don't have a Wendy's near where I live. But since my Christmas shopping took me near one, the craving came back and it came back stronger.)  I know, I know, that's certainly not something that should be found on a healthy eating plan, but remember it takes a while to break the addiction and make the cravings go away. While the craving and the voice-of-reason battled it out in my head, I directed my car toward Wendy's. Before I got there though, the voice-of-reason took the lead and I turned around. I hopped on the highway before I could change my mind again and headed home.

An incredible sense of pride flooded me as I drove away from the temptation. I did it! I resisted a really strong craving! I felt like that one, small victory should be celebrated somehow (I can probably thank my dad for this who is a big Celebration fan). That's when the idea hit me - why not record my victories and put those in a jar? Each time I felt I made the right decision even though the temptation was really strong - write that down on a piece of paper, watch my achievements grow instead of money I probably didn't have anyway? I think this could be a really empowering approach by encouraging me to take ownership of the good decisions I make instead of always feeling guilty about the bad ones. I could still celebrate when the jar got full by treating myself to some kind of reward. Better yet, I could get my husband or a friend to partner with me on it and they could treat me to something when I reached the goal. And this idea could be used for anything - I can even have separate jars for separate goals (this might be a great visual for where I still need work... I'll be able to see where I'm getting better at making good decisions and where I still need help by comparing how quickly the jars grow in relation to each other).

This idea may not work for everyone, but if you think it would work for you, I encourage you to give it a try. I haven't had much of a chance to test it out so I'll have to get back with you on how it goes for me. For now, I like it. I hope you do too.

***Disclaimer***
Because of my faith, I feel that struggles with temptation, no matter what the temptation is, are very much a spiritual battle and that asking God for help is paramount to success. I Corinthians 10:13 states that in temptation, God will provide the way of escape, but we have the choice to take it or not. This idea is not to replace my need for prayer, but to records the times that I use His way of escape to make the right decision, which will encourage me to do it again next time.

A Fat Free Twinkie is Still a Twinkie

When I was in fifth grade, I was friends with a girl who was rather large - as in, she was probably already well into the obese category at that tender age. At one point she decided she was going to lose weight and so she started eating fat-free twinkies at lunch time. She was convinced this would help her because they were fat-free!

I was reminded of this story today when I almost got in a debate with a good friend. She stated she was hoping to get a full 6-8 servings of fruits and veggies each day and I suggested the Machine drinks by Naked (Blue Machine, Green Machine, Red Machine.) These particular drinks are full of fruits and vegetables, some in juice form and some pureed from the whole fruit/veggie. They easily have 6-8 servings of fruits and veggies in them and have no naughty ingredients. Other than being high in sugar (from the natural fructose found in the fruits), they are extremely good for you. However, this friend is on Weight Watchers and these drinks are worth 4 points each (probably due in part to the juices added which aren't as good for you as the whole fruit or veggie), and so she said she couldn't drink them.

This thought greatly confused me as some other women in our same circle had been discussing just the day before how great it was that a boxed cake mix mixed with a can of Diet Coke or Sprite made a dessert that was barely any points. It struck me that this summed up my problem with points systems quite nicely - they encourage you to eat things that may not be good for you (as I assure you a boxed cake mix most certainly isn't!) because they are low in points but discourage you to eat anything that is high in points even if they are really good for you.

In all fairness, I hadn't ever looked into what exactly Weight Watchers stands for, so before I made up my mind too firmly, I decided to research it some. My first problem with the program is that there was very little I could find out from their own website without signing up for the program. I also have a problem with paying to get healthy, but I do recognize that it can be a motivator for weight loss for some people.

I decided to do their free assessment which brings me to my next problem with the program: they claim

You don't have to give up any of your favorite foods to lose weight! 

I actually have two issues with this statement. First, what if my favorite foods are McDonald's, pizza, ice cream, chips, and cookies. Really? I don't have to give up ANY of those to lose weight? And second, the goal shouldn't be to lose weight, the goal should be to be healthy. In order to become healthy, you have to give up unhealthy foods, many of which top most people's list of favorite foods. 

Finally, I have a problem with the accountability of the program. They say they encourage healthy options, but unless you regularly attend their meetings, the only accountability is in the Points system. They use this picture to show how you can eat more if you eat better things (sounds suspiciously like trading in your "favorite" things):

 

But when I look at this picture, my only question is what's to stop you from eating the meal on the left? They're both worth 11 points, so why should I eat the rather disgusting-sounding pasta salad and soup when I can enjoy the childhood favorite of PB&J with chips? What if the meal on the left was 10 points? Would that make it a better option than the meal on the right? Unless there is a goal for how many fruits and veggies to eat each day, how much meat and dairy and grains (remember the Food Plate from last week?), people could stay within their points range every single day and still gain weight. Because I'm sorry, but if you're struggling with your weight, I can almost guarantee you that you'll have to give up at least something in order to see any success. A 2-point chocolate cupcake with Diet Coke is not better for you than a 4-point organic fruit and veggie drink. A fat-free Twinkie is still a Twinkie. 

One thing I think they do have right, they incorporate exercise into the program, although, to what extent I'm not sure. 

To be fair, there may be more that I have missed, but as I stated, this was the most I could learn from their own webpage without signing up for the program. To their credit, I do think they have really delicious recipes, but as it turns out, you can make them even if you're not on the program.

****UPDATE****
Due to some of the immediate response I got, let me clarify a few things:

1. I don't want to discount anyone who follows this program the way it is designed to be done and sees results. I'm sure if you follow it exactly as recommended, you can see results if your goal is weight loss. However, my goal is Whole Health, and for that, there are things I have to give up. For example, is it ok for me to eat carcinogenic ingredients as long as I only do it every once in a while as a treat?  I really don't think so. This program may teach you about fat, protein, carbs, portions, etc. but does it teach you about healthy ingredients? Personally, I feel that things with poisonous - I refer to these as naughty - ingredients should not be allowed, not just take up  more points. My point with this article is that unless you're going to their meetings, the accountability relies on the Points. The accountability to follow their recommendations and guidelines depends entirely on your will power, making it no different than than just watching your portions and eating a well balanced meal. That you can do on your own, you shouldn't have to pay for that. Having someone tell us what we should and shouldn't eat in order to lose weight is not what the problem is for most of us. The majority of people are probably aware that an Oreo is worse than an apple. We - or at least I - don't have to pay for that.

2. If I had gone in and met with one of their specialists, I may very well have learned more about their program, but I feel if they're going to offer an online option, then you should be able to learn everything you need to know online before signing up.

3. I'm not sure where people are getting the idea that I recommended cutting out entire groups of food - I am not saying to cut out carbs or dairy or anything like the sort. And I do think that total deprivation of something you like, on the path to weight loss, will lead to binge eating and mess up your "diet" even more. Let me make this perfectly clear: I AM NOT ON A DIET. I am on an adventure to find Whole Health. So yes, allow yourself a treat, just make sure it doesn't have naughty ingredients in it that may kill you no matter how thin you are.

4. I suppose I should not have started with a program called WEIGHT watchers, but as far as I'm aware, there is no program called HEALTH watchers. If weight loss is your goal, and you have the will power to make the right choices on your own, then I'm sure you will succeed with this diet and that it will be sustainable over the long run, in part because of their incorporating indulgences into the program. If you have seen results using Weight Watchers, congratulations!

****UPDATE 2****
Please read Janis' comment to this post. She is a Weight Watchers success story but is still able to help clarify what I'm trying to say. Maybe it will seem less offensive or judgmental if it's coming from someone who has not only done the program, but seen a lot of success with it. I'm not trying to say you can't lose weight with this program, all I'm saying is that you can lose a lot of weight with it without necessarily getting any healthier.

I do know, from my own mother who is currently on the Weight Watchers program (as is my grandma - I'm not against people on the program!!), you can apply a point value to anything using only the fat, carbs, protein and fiber. The actual ingredients do not matter. So when they encourage you to indulge every once in a while so as not to feel deprived, you can turn to Oreos or Chips Ahoy. By not discouraging these foods, they in a way do encourage them as an option for your indulgences. It'd be far better to indulge in a homemade cookie than a prepackaged cookie. What's worse, they do encourage low-fat or sugar-free or low-calorie alternatives, which as Janis very clearly stated have a much naughtier ingredient list than their slightly more fattening counterpart. Points are a good guideline, but should not be the determining factor. No one should look at a healthy fruit drink and think of it as "wasting points." Follow the points, but also look at the ingredients and know what you're eating. 

****UPDATE 3****
Instead of posting a new update, I decided to completely re-do the whole article in an attempt to better clarify what I'm trying to say, as well as give the program credit for what I like and some statistics about the program. View it here.

Let's Get Reading

I've spent most of the day reading in order to prepare for my book club meeting tonight. Last fall, I started a book club and so as the leader of the group, I felt it was probably best if I had actually read the book by the time I was supposed to be leading a discussion on it. But having invested most of my free time in this blog over the past couple of weeks, I lost track of my days. This morning I woke up and realized I was only on chapter 2 of the book I was to have read by the end of the day. I spent 5 hours this afternoon hurrying my way through it and actually managed a pretty decent discussion.

Since today has been entirely devoted to reading, I didn't have much chance to think about what I wanted to write. After the meeting was over and everyone had left, I sat down at my computer to finally squeak out a post for today. But no matter how hard I tried to switch gears, my mind remained firmly affixed on reading. (Remember, I warned you that I was an avid reader.) So I started pondering if a post about reading belonged on this blog. While it doesn't have much to do with fitness other than providing a form of entertainment while on the exercise bike or treadmill, I strongly believe that it is vital to health. And since this blog is about whole health, and not just fitness, here I sit writing a post on reading. 

I love the outlet that reading offers - it can be so therapeutic! When I'm having a bad day, I can easily slip into a book and become someone else. I can read about someone going through something similar to my situation and learn from what they did, good or bad. Or I can become someone else entirely and forget about my own trials for a little while. It also gives me the opportunity to be all the things I don't have time to be. I have sincerely desired to be an astronaut, a meteorologist, a doctor, (this could go on) none of which I will ever see come to fruition. But within the cover of a book, I can be whomever I want to be, even if just for a short while. 

In addition, reading also stretches my imagination, extends my knowledge, and expands my vocabulary, all of which enable me to become more articulate and increase my intelligence. Therefore, I feel reading is important on the path to whole health. With this in mind, I'm proposing the first Challenge of this blog. (I love challenges and will probably present them often.)

This year, challenge yourself to read at least 1 book per month (that's only 12 books this year for the mathematically challenged). 

*Bonus Challenge #1: Choose your books from 12 different genres and branch out from what you would normally read.

*Bonus Challenge #2: Try to join a book club. If you can't find one near you, start your own. 

If you are an avid reader like myself, and 12 books sounds like a great weekend to you, please comment with a number that you think would be a good challenge for you to complete this year!

When Addiction Wins

Some days are just harder than others. Some days, no matter how much my head is screaming no, my taste buds are screaming louder, and they're screaming for junk. Even knowing the reason why doesn't always help. You may or may not know, but we are actually physiologically addicted to processed foods. The food industry has strategically planned this by adding things to foods that don't need anything added to them. For instance, today I noticed that my Pepperidge Farm Stuffing mix has high fructose corn syrup in it. Why on earth would my stuffing need to have added sugar (and I'm being very gracious with the term "sugar" here)?? Without looking at the ingredient list, who would even think there was "sugar" in it? It sure doesn't taste sweet! I don't know about you, but when I get a craving for sweets, I certainly don't think, 'mmmm, a big bowl of stuffing would really hit the spot right about now.' The reason there is high fructose corn syrup in my stuffing, as well as in just about any other item on the shelf, is because it's one of these additives. It doesn't need to be there, so why is it? Because it's making you addicted to that product. The food industry is using it to get you hooked on their product so that they make more money (and their main weapon is corn because of the government, but that's a discussion for another time). These companies do not care about me. They do not care about you. They care about their bottom line.... ((gasp))

But unfortunately, knowing this doesn't help. Addictions are strong. Addictions are hard to kick. Which is why last night, even after burning the popcorn three times, I still continued to make it until I had bowl of unburnt popcorn to which I could add M&M's (I'm a sucker for salty and sweet). To my credit, I poured the M&M's out into the trash can immediately following to ward off any such encounters from getting the best of me again. (Yes, I felt it was best to actually pour them out as I know I won't go through the trash for individual M&M's, but if the craving was really strong, and the trash was more paper products or not completely disgusting, I maybe just might go through it for M&M's that were safely untouched inside of the bag. Don't judge me. I said maybe.) The addiction is so strong that even some of my most motivating posters on my Healthy board, like this one, didn't save me:


Of course afterward, I not only felt immediate regret, but I had the physical side effects of heartburn and a stomachache to remind me of my bad decision.

If any part of this story reminds you of yourself, then I'm here to tell you:




It won't be easy, especially in the beginning. Trying to break addiction is never easy, but it is possible. Right now it's hard because our minds are constantly focused on it, but it will get easier. They say you crave what you eat. This is so true. I think back to certain candies I loved as a kid and I can't imagine eating them now. Once you go for awhile without something, it becomes easier to see it for what it really is, JUNK. The same will be true for the processed foods we're so addicted to now. One day we'll ask ourselves, 'how could I have ever eaten that??' But for now, if you fall off the wagon, it's ok. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, determine to do better next time, and hop back on.

It Was Bound to Happen Sooner or Later

Over the past year or so I've flirted with the idea of starting a blog but I hadn't found my niche, that one area that I could go on and on about that people might actually want to read. Adding that I don't really know much about blogs, it continued to be a peripheral thought - one that I'd come back to if I ever really found a passion, but not one in which I was investing too much time or energy. In its place, I discovered (and quickly became addicted to) Pinterest. So instead of acting on the thought of creating a blog, I started building pinboards. One board in particular, my Healthy is as Healthy does board, has become quite popular (WARNING: I'm a pin addict and much of this blog and my healthy board will go back and forth.)

I now have more than 200 strangers following my healthy board which took me off guard. That's when I realized that so many people really are trying to get healthy. But even if they have the motivation and the self control and the persistence needed to see it through, there's still so much contradicting information out there that success may not be as simple as working hard for it. I've spent time researching and using my God-given common sense to try and unravel the mysteries of what is healthy and what is not. I have not limited this to only diet and exercise but have also looked for the truth about skincare products, makeup, etc., and have tried to get healthier in all areas of my life. While this blog will focus primarily on eating right and exercising, it will also cover topics from financial health to mental health. It's my adventure through what works and what doesn't on the path to Whole Health. Will you join me on it?