"Eat real food", Michael Pollen's advice seems reasonable and makes sense in terms of following a healthier diet. Real food is food that mostly looks like it's constituent parts. Vegetables, fruits, meats and grains are all real foods. Real foods don't require an ingredient label because they really don't have ingredients, they just are what they are. If a food does have ingredients, a real food has recognizable and pronounceable ingredients and not many of them either.
So what did I have for lunch today? Soy Protein Isolate, Chicory Syrup, Brown Rice Syrup, Evaporated Cane Juice, Palm Kernel Oil, Rolled Oats, Almond Butter, the list goes on, and on. My Builder's Bar is touted as "The Entirely Natural Protein Bar" but I don't think it really qualifies as real food.
Why was I eating this for lunch? Because I once again got involved in a project and didn't leave myself time to eat and get to my next appointment. My choice of lunch might have been better than something from a fast food outlet but after the soy protein the next three ingredients are all just fancy organic names for sugar and the next after that is fat. For the sake of brevity I didn't list the large number of vitamins and minerals that were also added to my bar in an attempt to make it "healthy", but I'm sure you can imagine it also went on and on.
In all fairness these bars are not intended to be a meal replacement, and my using it as such is just because I ran out of time. It does however reinforce two issues. The first is the fact that eating real food takes time. Time to shop, time to prep and time to cook. If I am committed to healthy eating I need to make the time to actually do it.
The second issue is that there are far more industrially created food-like options out there than real food. Add as many ingredients as you want, natural or not, they still aren't food, and they still are not as satisfying as real food. The natural foods folks would like us to believe that these products are somehow better for us, yet they have the same high sweetness and fat content as other convenience foods. These products are just as designed and manufactured as the stuff in the next aisle, it's just labeled and marketed to a different niche.
Tomorrow, if I want to have a lunch with plenty of protein, carbohydrates and lots of vitamins and minerals, I think I'll have some soup and maybe a sandwich. I just need to make the time.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The Stealth Holiday Season
To date entries on this blog have reflected my thoughts and opinions regarding what I am reading, studying or thinking about. They have not been about me. Granted what I think or read does reflect me to some degree, I have found that I often don't post entries because I don't have the energy to polish something up to present.
I have decided to change it up by posting more of my own struggles to maintain my health and achieve some sense of balance in my life, rather than the theory of how it should work. Theory is good but it is practice that gets us where we want to go.
I have not posted for almost a month. During that time my daughter has returned from her first year of college and there have been numerous family and other social events. I think that May-June is a sort of stealth version of Thanksgiving to New Years. Although there are no big holidays, there are innumerable opportunities to eat and socialize. Between graduations, weddings, anniversaries and just general thank God winter is over celebrations, it is hard to stay on track with an exercise plan and healthy eating. The lone spring holiday, Memorial Day, is an opportunity for food even if the "first" picnic requires a fleece vest for comfort.
I feel as though I have not been regularly exercising and definitely not eating well for over a month. I haven't had so many baked goods since Christmas. And my mood hasn't been this low in a long time. On looking back at my training calendar I was surprised to see what a clear connection there was. So today I got out there for a run, and yesterday I worked hard in spin class. My outlook is better and I feel like I am back on the right road if not actually moving forward. Thank goodness for new days.
I have decided to change it up by posting more of my own struggles to maintain my health and achieve some sense of balance in my life, rather than the theory of how it should work. Theory is good but it is practice that gets us where we want to go.
I have not posted for almost a month. During that time my daughter has returned from her first year of college and there have been numerous family and other social events. I think that May-June is a sort of stealth version of Thanksgiving to New Years. Although there are no big holidays, there are innumerable opportunities to eat and socialize. Between graduations, weddings, anniversaries and just general thank God winter is over celebrations, it is hard to stay on track with an exercise plan and healthy eating. The lone spring holiday, Memorial Day, is an opportunity for food even if the "first" picnic requires a fleece vest for comfort.
I feel as though I have not been regularly exercising and definitely not eating well for over a month. I haven't had so many baked goods since Christmas. And my mood hasn't been this low in a long time. On looking back at my training calendar I was surprised to see what a clear connection there was. So today I got out there for a run, and yesterday I worked hard in spin class. My outlook is better and I feel like I am back on the right road if not actually moving forward. Thank goodness for new days.
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