The Bitter Truth

Thanks to Martha on MFD for posting the link to this fantastic and scary information:

On YouTube: http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

It's also available as a podcast on iTunes - search for The Bitter Truth

I have a sweet tooth - always have and I probably always will. I do admit, it's changed somewhat since OPTIFAST. I find commercial ice cream too sweet. Sweet tea is too sweet. Common candy bars taste like crap to me. It's good that my sweet tooth has evolved for the better. It helps me eat healthier.

But I do like my coffee and my tea sweet. 1 teaspoon of sugar a day isn't going to kill me. But I need to be vigilant to make sure I keep it at 1 teaspoon.

And I'm going to start playing around with using pureed prunes as a sweetener in Peach's Baked Oatmeal. I've been using agave nectar and it's nothing but fructose. Fructose is bad.

More later.

A rant

I posted this in response to a post on MFD where the member indicated she preferred to frequent restaurants to make their nutritional information readily available:

I have a slightly different take on restaurants and their providing nutritional information. I think there's a much larger issue at hand - most chain restaurants do not really serve real food and what they serve are in portion sizes appropriate for 2 or 3 people. And on top of that, the food-like substances they are serving are chemically engineered in such a way to keep you coming back for more and more more. See Dr. David Kessler's The End of Overeating. It will make you want to stay out of most restaurants the rest of your life.

Compared to most people, my partner and I spend an inordinate amount of time planning and preparing our food for the week. We do this because we choose to know what we eat and how it's prepared. We don't necessarily buy only organic -we're not sure in today's society that organic farming on a scale to feed our nation is sustainable - but we do buy fresh and local whenever possible. And we spend about an hour a day cooking. We typically do not eat in restaurants during the week.

On the weekends we do typically have lunch out. Saturday's lunch will tend to be something quick and whenever possible, at a place where I can get something half-way healthy. I like Panera for that - so far most of their soups seem to be prepared in the restaurant and use real ingredients. Yes, there's the dreaded salt on fat on sugar formula - but I keep the portions reasonable and avoid the foods I know will trigger my wanting more. On Sundays my partner and I make a concerted effort to support local, non-chain restaurants. Nutritional information is not posted anywhere and usually these restaurants don't have a web site. What they do have, if we've made the right restaurant selection - is real food served in reasonable portions. And when restaurants serve real food like that - it is easy enough for me to guesstimate my calories.

I guess my point is that instead of demanding information about the caloric and nutritional value of the 'food' restaurants serve, what we should be demanding instead is to see their ingredient list. And if they aren't using real food, don't patronize them. See Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food where he provides a very simple definition of real food: the ingredient list of any single item is usually less than five items, and all the items are pronounceable and our great-grandmothers would recognize the item as food.

You know it's not always easy to eat this way and keep calories down. But it's doable. And the more processed food I eliminate from my eating, the better and better I feel. That makes it worth it.

Finding that balance again

Life goes on

So, the pity-party is done. I am tired of the ups and downs and excitement of a new program or embracing a new idea. New programs and new information can be just as enticing as the magic bullet - and sometimes used as a magic bullet. And it makes me get way out of balance.

For me, I'm gently returning to basics: counting calories (ALL OF THEM) and moderate exercise. I also decided to embrace a not-very scientific way of calculating my caloric needs. It's a rough guess, but will work for now: I used a caloric needs calculator and set my weight as my GOAL weight and lifestyle as sedentary. The result is that I try to consume between 1500 and 1600 calories per day. And the result of that is a very slow weight loss. But it's doable.

Note the parenthetical (ALL OF THEM). I take my coffee with a little bit of sweetener (maybe a teaspoon) and half and half - a good splash. I haven't really been terribly worried about the caloric impact of my coffee. One cup isn't so bad - but 4 cups is another story and I generally drink abut 4 cups per day for a whopping 200 calories. YIKES. Immediate steps - limit sugar (agave nectar) to my first cup of the day and reduce my intake at work to 1 cup. It's helping. In the days before I started paying attentiong to the dangers of using artificial sweeteners, I often would put two (or more) Splenda packets in my coffee and a generous pour of fat-free half and half. The caloric impact of the artificial food was minimal but in my quest to reduce my intake of fat on sugar on salt (real or fake), I forgot to factor in the increased calories. I'll gladly cut my amount of real food and keep consuming it vs going back to pouring chemicals down my throat.

As far as exercise goes - I am toying with the idea of ordering the Chalean Extreme DVD program. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it and I do want to ramp up (reasonably) my strength training. I've reduced the intensity of my cardio workouts and that's helping me not dread them so much. That and some new downloads on the iPods.

So - life goes on. In a much more balanced, less frantic way. I like that.