No Friday Food Find today, it’s just me nursing my migraine. I never used to get them before, and now, at the ripe old age of 42, I’m finding that they’ve found me. The good news is I went to my Dr and he gave me something that actually helps! Migram, anyone else using it? So instead of a food find, please enjoy this representation of me with a migraine.
A great article in the Contra Costa Times about fat acceptance. The article discusses women who appreciate themselves the way they are and who don’t feel they need to lose weight. I especially liked that they cited a doctor who evaluated his fat patient’s overall health, and didn’t look at fat alone as requiring intervention.
So why is a woman who lost over 100 lbs digging an article about women who have no plans to lose weight? It’s all about being happy and comfortable in the skin you’re in. I got a lot of support and help from the fat acceptance movement back in the day. It said it was ok to be who I was. It was ok to look after my health, and to exercise. It was ok to be social, to have dates, and to have self-respect. It said I didn’t have to apologize for who I was, or make excuses.
When I did start losing weight, it was from a place of self-respect and love, not hatred and shame. Making major life changes is hard, and it’s even harder if there’s a lot of emotional baggage around what you “should” be doing.
Truth is, most of us never look like we want to look. And it’s a lot easier to take care of ourselves if we actually care for ourselves, first. Whatever our size.
With tens of thousands of products in a typical supermarket, it’s ironic that it’s harder than ever to figure out the healthiest food options. What to Eat by Marion Nestle is a nutritionist’s guide to cutting through the hype and navigating through the supermarket in order to get the healthiest food.
At 624 pages, it does attempt to be comprehensive, perhaps more comprehensive than the average reader has patience for. And as the title foreshadows, it does have a bossy tone. But it’s a great resource for learning how to interpret all the health claims you see on foods.
Nestle shows you should take any nutritional claims on foods with a grain of salt, if you’ll pardon the expression. The best foods, fruits and vegetables, don’t have any labels or food claims at all. Many health claims are red herrings, such as claims on vegetable oils that they contain zero cholesterol–no vegetable oils contain cholesterol! “All-Natural”? Turns out there’s a lot you can do to meat and still label it “all-natural.”
Ultimately, Nestle reveals how deeply manipulative food packaging and marketing is. Companies manipulate serving sizes, make questionable health claims, all in an effort to get you to buy and eat more. Energy bars? Candy with added vitamins. Energy drinks? Sugar water with added vitamins. Granola bars? Candy bars with a health varnish.
Her chapters on fish and baby formulas are especially instructive in helping to separate health claims from facts and health benefits versus benefits to the environnment. If you’re confused about the different kinds of fats and how they affect your health, her chapters on dairy and oils are invaluable.
What intrigued me most was her assertion in the introduction that supermarkets are designed to have you look at as many products as possible. The aisles are as long as can be made without people complaining, and necessities such as dairy are placed as far from the entrance as possible to force you to look at more products. To make more money, food companies and supermarkets need you to buy more “value added” food, meaning processed or branded so as to convince you it’s worth spending more money for them.
Her answer? Disregard health claims, read the nutrition facts and ingredient lists, and look for sugars and added fats. Write to politicians to tell them you want more truth in labeling.
My answer? Learn to cook your own food. It’s healthier, more satisfying, and doesn’t need to take more time than prepared food. Get a sharp, good knife. Learn how to cut an onion. Cook your own food, and you can cut out all that oil and sugar and eat better.
UPDATE: Nestle has a regular column in the San Francisco Chronicle. This week, she’s writing about the “Smart Choices” food program which has the collaboration of the American Dietetic Association and the American Heart Association, as well as members of the American Society of Nutrition. This program purports to help consumers find better choices, but the qualifications allow so much in sugar, sodium and fat that for most processed food you might have trouble telling the difference between the smart and not-so-smart choices. Marketing at work!
Well, whaddya know… you can go on vacation, eat a chocolate souffle, and drink a glass of wine and still lose 0.4 lbs, for a total loss of 103.8! DH also lost 0.4, so that must have been the magic number for this trip.
We certainly didn’t diet (that chocolate souffle was very good!) but we didn’t go crazy, either. Well, I TRIED to go crazy with that burger, but my body doesn’t do crazy anymore, apparently.
Speaking of magic numbers, there’s a lot of those going around this week. These numbers are magic because they magically derail success, or put it on pause anyway. They’re magic because of the power we give them.
My thinking on this started with reading Katherine’s blog Weight for 160, where she wrote she was stuck hovering around the 200 mark (she succeeded this week!). And then, the weird way things work, someone in my meeting discussed how she was stuck after having lost 20 lbs.
My magic number is 100. I’ve lost 100 lbs, and I’ve had the damndest time making any serious dent in it since. It is a scary number, and it represents a scary place. My weight loss has gotten to the point where my mom admits she sometimes doesn’t recognize me. Heck, I saw my two kids in the mirror at a store the other day, and it was a moment before I realized the person holding their hands was me!
Part of my reluctance is due to this disorientation I’m feeling with having made such an enormous change, and I’m giving myself time to sort that out. But part is also resentment: what, 100 lbs isn’t enough?!? It feels like enough for me right now! I can do everything I ever dreamed about, and lots of things I never considered. So who is this BMI who says I need to lose more? And why is my Dr happy, but thinking I can get down further?
I’m also a little afraid; I’ve made so many changes in my life; how many more changes will I have to make? Will my life be unrecognizable? Will I?
There’s nothing in the number 100 in and of itself that is magic; if I was anyone else in the world, it would be 45 odd kilos, and it’d be 50 kilos lost that would no doubt be my magic sticky number.
So maybe instead of thinking of my goal in lbs I’ll think about it in kilos. Once I’ve lost 50 kilos I’ll be down 110, and only 20 lbs or so away from the magic number dictated by BMI.
I have completely unrelated pictures! Here’s one of me in the tank top I was so scared to wear to my workout:
That’s Sam trying to feel my muscles. Here’s the photographer, Nate, who took the picture:
He’s got a good eye! He must have gotten it from his photojournalist daddy, who was otherwise occupied painting:
He’s so handy!
So what’s your magic number? What did you do to turn it back into a regular ol’ number!
I could eat the same salad every day and not feel deprived. In fact, I DO eat the same salad every day, and dig in with the same relish every time (but not with actual relish; that would be gross).
I can’t say Mark Bitten’s salads include relish, as I haven’t reviewed all 101 of them. But if you’re looking for a different salad, check out his recipes in his Minimalist column. Phew, I’m getting hungry just looking at it. Strangely enough, he doesn’t have my favorite salad listed (red leaf lettuce, sliced cherry tomatoes, dried cranberries, toasted almond slivers with Newman’s reduced calorie honey mustard) but if you’re looking for something to do with your carrots, craving a new vegan salad, or just plain bored you’re sure to find something there.
