How many of you healthy foodies have been faced with someone telling you this? It's been awhile, but I often forget that I too was ignorant as to what "healthy" eating meant. I try to remind myself this when people talk to me about their thoughts/attempts at being healthier.
But then again, there's enough info out there now that it's hard to not pick up on a few healthy habits. There's definitely a lot of BS out there claiming this diet makes you lose weight fast, or eating carbs precisely past 5:45PM will make you blow up like a blimp.
This site lists the top 5 excuses for not eating healthy, and I have heard all of them.
1. Don't Need to Lose Weight/Already Skinny
2. Don't Know How
3. Too Expensive
4. Don't Like to Count Calories
5. Healthy Food has no Taste
My advice? Avoid any verbal or written "advice" that's centered around a certain diet; this typically means that someone will gain financially as a result of the diet becoming popular. The less food you buy in a box (unless it's your CSA basket!), the better off you are. Allergies and tastes aside, real, whole food will almost always win in the health department.
If food is processed, it's not so bad if it took place in your kitchen, but a short ingredient list of real food is the next best thing. I know most of you reading know most of this information, but besides jut ranting, I'm also curious to see how many others deal with this.
Always bringing my lunch and having carrots, peppers, celery, turnips, dried okra, ect. as snacks has labeled me the healthy eater at work. I still can't understand why me eating healthy is so "strange" and I don't go out to eat "real" food more often. What's wrong with people?! Is it that crazy to prepare your own food and know exactly what goes into what you put in your body?
All five of these excuses make me turn red in anger. Why? How does it affect me if I don't make the excuses? Because I want the world to know what's better for them. If everyone made better choices, the Earth as a whole would be cleaner and healthier. Think of the extra cost the obese put on the economy. I won't list them all, but the heavier you are, the worse your fuel economy is. Just sayin.
I sound pretty harsh, huh? Well, it makes me happy to see people actually trying to get healthier....as long as the are consistent. One week of healthy eat will do nothing if you go back to crap eating. And counting calories? There's no need when choosing unpackaged whole food; the miracle of fiber will help keep you from eating more than needed!
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| Healthy, homemade, and delicious! |
It feels like I'm all over the place on this post, sorry, it's late and going to work is looming over my head. Basically, I know how easily some people can change the way they look and feel just by changing their diet. I'm not an RD or certified....anything, but I know from experience. I made these same excuses, but then I just searched for and soaked up as much healthy lifestyle info I could. The info is there, people just have to search for it.
If someone came to me for help, I'd gladly offer what I can and enjoy seeing them fall in love with their healthy changes. I've been wanting to post on this topic for a while, and now it's just out. I'm sure there's more to come, but my blog is a great place to vent to others who "get it."
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| 6 minutes to steam veggies and scramble eggs vs. 10 minutes in the drive-thru and growing gut. Hmm, tough decision... |
If you've made it this far, thank you for reading! Do you experience people talking to you and making healthy excuses? How do you proceed to answer or what do you offer to them?
I expect a pretty low-key week of posts since I didn't get a chance to take a lot of pictures and work will be busy. Would you still enjoy reading my posts without pictures? Let me know if there's a topic you'd like me to discuss, I'm always happy to please my foodie friends
Happy Monday, hope you had a great weekend!
Such a great post! The fiber part is so true, too...built in portion control! Besides, I always feel more satisfied with a bit of healthy food than a lot of unhealthy:)
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it! I was worried some people might be offended, but I want to stress the importance of knowing what you eat and not just grabbing "food" out of a package.
DeleteThanks for the comment and support!
Hey RC, great post! I feel your frustration with people simply making excuses not to eat healthfully. They way people have come to eat is ridiculous. Their fake, cheap (or maybe not so cheap...cheap QUALITY), processed food is now "normal" and real whole food is "weird diet food." It's terrible people simply refuse to eat healthy foods. Healthy doesn't mean dieting, tasteless, boring and bland. Read foods are flavourful and delicious!
ReplyDeleteActually, another excuse I hear a lot is laziness. People don't like to cook...they just want to order out or buy food from a box. Cooking "real food" would take too long. That's a pretty lame excuse, IMO! I love being able to talk to people about how gosh darn easy and fun it is to work with real ingredients and how great it tastes and how great you feel by eating real food!
Hope you had a great weekend! Oh, and also...I nominated your blog for the "Inspiring Blog Award!" :) (http://healthykitschyvegan.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/mindful-monday-the-future-is-completely-open/)
Thank you for commenting, Danni, always great to hear from others who agree and "get it." I know, sadly most homes could probably have no oven or stove-top and they wouldn't be missed nowadays!
DeleteLike you, I love talking with others who are passionate about cooking and health too. I seem to dread talking with people who just ask me some dumb question without actually caring that much.
I say I want to help others who lack health knowledge, but they have to want to learn before I care to offer my time. Sometimes I feel it's like fighting a losing battle!
Thank you so much for the nomination, I enjoy seeing others actually enjoy reading my posts!! Have a great week!
this is the story of my life. my family is pretty much the complete opposite of me. ( I swear I was adopted!) Every time I eat healthy, they always have some obnoxious comment or make it a full on dinner conversation. The latest rant has been over my protein powder and how chalky it tastes. (Oh- and BTW- they've never even tasted it!) I get myself so worked up all the time, but realized that it's not worth it anymore. I should just live for me and when they want to change (if they want to change) they'll understand. My parents are notorious take out lovers. Take out almost every night. It kills me inside! Just like you say- it's so much quicker and healthier to cook up some veggies than wait in those pizzerias and drive-thru lines! okay, end rant. I promise!
ReplyDelete...I know you are into running...maybe you could do some kind of post for beginner runners who'd like to tackle long distance at some point? :)
It is sad and hard to see family making unhealthy choices. I try and try to help my g-ma make better decisions, but she just won't stick with it!
DeleteThat's annoying about the protein powder thing! I can't stand when people comment on food I have making some claim that they don't really know from experience. Ahh!
Ha ha, by all means, feel free to rant away here! I love reading the passionate words of frustration; basically the same feelings I have every day at work. It can be good to just let it go, but maybe try to lead by example and show how much better you feel and can exercise and recover with your better foods. One day, they'll make the connection....I hope.
I'm not as much into running as in the past, just trying to keep it varied and gain some strength. But, I would more than love to offer any advice I can. Go ahead and e-mail me at RCrown2@aol.com with any and all of your questions and I will try and answer in detail as well as possible. I promise!