Diet Shmiat.

So, the word "diet" means: "a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one's weight."

So when we want to lose weight, we go on a diet, right? But why??  

I know what you're thinking..."To lose weight; to be healthier Piper, duh!"

But bear with me for a minute. I think there's a huge misconception about what it means to be healthy. But it's just all very confusing, and yet it doesn't have to be. Ask around and everyone has a different view on what it means to be healthy, and especially eat healthy.

So what's a girl to do? What's a guy to do? We want to stay in shape. We want to be healthy but we are busy, busy people with little time to invest in how to become it.

So we go with the general consensus. What that means is that we go with whatever we hear works, or whatever marketing tells us should work.

Here are some common solutions we come up with (out of lack for an alternative):

1. Opt for a quick fix by taking some sort of diet pill.

2. Go on some crazy diet like the Cabbage Soup Diet, The Atkins, or the Tuna Diet (I've done them all..)

3. Buy diet related foods like rice cakes, healthy choice tv dinners, fat free foods, and diet cokes galore.

4. Go to a doctor who tells us to do one or all of the above.

5. Sign up for a Gold's Gym account we only use a few times (this hurts because I've done this....twice.)

And we've all tried most of these, right? Can I get an, "Amen!"?

But here's what's not so healthy about that stuff:

1. Diet pills almost always have horrible side effects and are rarely approved by the FDA. Sometimes you can actually lose weight with some of these products, but it almost always comes right back. And in the end, are you even healthier? Some can even cause serious long term effects.

2. Fad diets seem like great quick fixes, but my main problem with them is that they are such a waste, when instead you can just lose weight fast by eating healthy and filling foods. Not to mention the fact that fad diets usually consist of focusing on one food group, which means you're not getting a lot of necessary nutrients.

3. The thing with rice cakes is that they don't fill anyone up, nor do they add anything beneficial to your body. Gummy bears are fat free, which goes to show you that "fat free" doesn't equal healthy. In fact, did you know what products with fat free usually have more sugar? And products with sugar free usually have more fat. In fact, did you know there's nothing wrong with fat? Fat won't make you fat. Yeah, I said it!

In my experience, Healthy Choice TV dinners (and others like them) don't taste good, aren't filling enough, and are truly not worth the calories. If you're in a hurry and need a quick fix (I know I do sometimes), I've found Amy's brand to be much more filling with the same amount of calories. Sometimes they do have a few more calories, but they keep me full for twice as long, saving calories in the end. And guess what? You can find Amy's brand products in the freezer section of Walmart.

4. I love my doctor; I really, really do. He's not quick to give medicine unless he feels it's truly needed, and he's a great listener when I need him. But here's the thing - he's just a doctor. He's not a nutritionalist. When I mentioned my breakfast of a couple eggs and some fruit (real, whole and healthy foods), he said, "yeah, or you can have a nutri grain bar!" Those things are full of sugar and ingredients I've never heard of. He's a nice guy, but not the person to go to for healthy food choices. Doctors aren't always studied in this area, so you may want to go to a specialist.

 5. There's nothing wrong with signing up for a Gold's Gym account. In fact, I miss mine. *instert comment to gain sympathy so someone will buy me a membership*

We want to be healthy, and we all know the extra pounds aren't going to do us (or our spanx) any good.  We want to be healthy and we assume that when we lose weight, we are healthy.

My issue with this is that there are so many amazing foods that are overlooked. We shove these diet foods into our bodies without second thought, and we miss out on wonderful, healthy, and most of all, delicious food that I feel God designed for us to eat. And most of all, they can be more satisfying than anything else!

It took me a looooong time to appreciate this concept, but once I did, I lost 15 lbs within a couple months.

I don't like the seemingly healthy options at restaurants, which poses an issue. I'm busy after all! I don't have time to cook!

But here's a problem. I work full time, I'm in school part time, and I have about 4 hours from the time I get off work, to the time my head hits the pillow. During those 4 hours, I need to do housework, homework, and cook enough for dinner that night and lunch the next day. So what happens in a situation like this, is that I end up having to get creative. See, I don't just want boiled fish or grilled chicken every night, and neither does my husband..which is where things like Crispy Cajun French Fries come in.

So that's what I hope to share on this blog. Recipes that are simple enough that you have time to throw in a load of laundry, do a couple dishes, finish your paper for class, and have a little time left over to spend with your husband on the couch, watching Mr. Ed reruns.

And by the way, once I started eating real food, I lost 15 pounds almost right off the bat.

Alright, enough babbling, these are a few of the things we eat all the time. Maybe I'll stir up your taste buds!

None of these are my pictures, but I'm fine with you pretending they are. I'm all about happiness in this world, and if it makes you happy....

Quotes are from the attached links below..

Kiwi: (read more here) "...bursting with vitamin C. One kiwi has 120 percent of the RDA for this disease-protective vitamins."

Blueberries: (here)"... Blueberries are literally bursting with nutrients and flavor, yet very low in calories.....Packed with antioxidant phytonutrients called anthocyanidins, blueberries neutralize free radical damage to the collagen matrix of cells and tissues that can lead to cataracts, glaucoma, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, peptic ulcers, heart disease and cancer."

Salmon: I try to do this once a week, although often in the form of Simple Salmon Croquettes. Nutrition info (here).

"....Salmon is low in calories and saturated fat, yet high in protein, and a unique type of health-promoting fat, the omega-3 essential fatty acids. As their name implies, essential fatty acids are essential for human health but because they cannot be made by the body, they must be obtained from foods."

Chicken: Nutrition info (here)

"Chicken is a very good source of the cancer-protective B vitamin, niacin. Components of DNA require niacin, and a deficiency of niacin (as well as other B-complex vitamins) has been directly linked to genetic (DNA) damage. A four-ounce serving of chicken provides 72.0% of the daily value for niacin."

Brown rice: Nutrition info (here) and (here)

"The complete milling and polishing that converts brown rice into white rice destroys 67% of the vitamin B3, 80% of the vitamin B1, 90% of the vitamin B6, half of the manganese, half of the phosphorus, 60% of the iron, and all of the dietary fiber and essential fatty acids. Fully milled and polished white rice is required to be "enriched" with vitamins B1, B3 and iron."

Broccoli (especially roasted, YUM!): Nutritional info (here).

"...Research on indole-3-carbinol shows this compound helps deactivate a potent estrogen metabolite (4-hydroxyestrone) that promotes tumor growth, especially in estrogen-sensitive breast cells, while at the same time increasing the level of 2-hydroxyestrone, a form of estrogen that can be cancer-protective. Indole-3-carbinol has been shown to suppress not only breast tumor cell growth, but also cancer cell metastasis (the movement of cancerous cells to other parts of the body)."

Wait a minute...

Where did that come from? I don't ever eat ice cream!!

Okay, well assuming I binge on Coffee Haagen Daz every now and then, it certainly doesn't make it to the bowl. What a waste of dishes..

But as a side note, this is me eating ice cream. Like my brown hair?

Fine, this isn't me. It's not even my picture. In fact, all of the following are pictures I stole from the internet.

When I am eating use to ice cream, I feel felt like this.

"Maybe this is too much ice cream...Oh well..I won't eat it all...."

"Do I have anything on my face? Who cares...it's ice cream! It's supposed to be messy!"

"Maybe they'll think it's a milk mustache"

(Yeah, I don't know what's up with all the milk references either. Maybe I'm calcium deficient....maybe I need CHEESE.)

"Real men eat straight from the carton." 

 

 Followed by: "Uh...what happened to the carton? Why is it....empty?"

Of course this all results in....

And that's how you eat healthy.