Thinking About Food

One of the things I've been thinking about lately is that in order to make healthy choices you have to change the way you think about food.

My old way of thinking about food was basically to eat whatever appealed to me at the time, not considering calories, the health value, how much fat it contained or anything like that. I know how to make healthy choices, but I totally ignored that in favor of my appetite.

The result of that thinking has been a weight gain throughout my adult years, resulting in a high weight of 290 or so pounds.

Over the years since that time I've been retraining my way of thinking about food. Overall I've done well, although at times I've backslidden into old habits.

It's not that you need to completely eliminate the less healthy foods, you can have them, but in moderation. However, the majority of your diet should be healthy foods...whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, healthy oils.

There are some food that should be almost, if not completely eliminated. This would include most fast food, processed foods, fried foods, candy, and the like. Doritos taste yummy (trust me, I love them) but they offer no real nutritional value, and a steady diet of McDonalds, Doritos, Snickers, Coke, ice cream and Burger King offers little in the way of health and too much in the way of fat and empty calories.

It's important to get hold of that concept, and to learn to view healthy foods as the more desirable. In a previous post about the importance of enjoyment, I mentioned that it's vital to learn to enjoy healthy food. Sometimes that's not easy. In the past few days I've had cravings for pizza and fried chicken. It's not that I can't have those ever again, it's that right now if I did have some I'd likely have too much, and I'd lose some of the progress I've been making.

Sometimes a craving strikes and won't go away. What I do is wait and see if it goes away by distracting myself with an activity...not food. If the craving vanishes, I didn't eat other stuff to try and fill that craving. Sometimes the craving just won't go away. Satisfy it by having a small portion of what you're craving. If it's fast food, go through the drive through and get a small burger and a salad, no fries, no soda.

You really do have to retrain your brain and your taste buds. Experiment with new seasoning blends and fresh herbs. Find healthy recipes and try them out.

If white bread is your thing (or that fake wheat bread), be bold and try a sprouted whole grain bread. Replace your normal pasta with whole grain pasta, and use brown rice instead of white rice.

Add fresh vegetables to your diet. Explore vegetarian recipe websites for new and interesting ways to prepare vegetables.

Look at this new way of eating as an adventure, something new and exciting with fantastic side benefits of better health and feeling great.

And do set aside a meal or two here and there (not regularly, just occasionally) to enjoy an old favorite. I've already decided that I will be going to The Squeeze Inn once a quarter to have my favorite Squeeze with cheese (pictured at the top of this post) and an order of fries.