With New Year’s resolutions in full swing and everyone getting fired up about their health goals, this is a great time to talk about FOOD. Not diets. F-O-O-D.
Potato Chips. Sweet Potato Chips. Chocolate Bars. Pop. Yogurt….Whoa! Hold up! Did you just say “yogurt”? Isn’t yogurt supposed to be healthy? Turn over the little cup around and read the label.
There’s a good reason why I don’t buy snack-size yogurts for my kids’ lunches: LOADED WITH SUGAR. I’ve seen labels with 18 grams of sugar on them. Blasphemy! If a kiddo downs a snack-size yogurt for breakfast, he’s already consumed 10 MORE grams of sugar than the RDA for children (8g). And he hasn’t even gotten on the school bus yet!
When I was growing up, my mom always talked about ‘junk food’. She was referring to ice cream, twizzlers, and twinkies. With the serious degradation in the quality of our food, most of the ‘good’ stuff is starting to become junk. We are losing more nutrients in our food than ever before, so we really need to be keen and picky about what we eat. It’s obvious to you that pop and chips aren’t healthy. But that’s not the concern here.
The concern is about foods that are being marketed and sold to us as ‘healthy’ but are actually not.
Clever marketers rely on the modern busy consumer to not have the time to read the back of the box, and they sure make a case for their product on the front! Key words like “x grams of fibre”, “heart healthy”, or “low fat”. This isn’t health promotion for people, this is product promotion for profit.
“You literally become what you eat. You are not junk, so stop eating that crap.”
Every time you eat something you are either dictating your wellness or your illness. Ok. So, you didn’t know about yogurt. That’s cool. But now you do! And now you can do better for you.
In order to have phenomenal nutrition, we need to be wayyyyy more conscious about our food habits and we need to start educating ourselves about what is in that pretty little shiny, easy-to-open package.
So, what are you going to DO about it?
Allow me to help.
Here are 3 challenges from which you can choose:
1. For one week, eat products with only 3 INGREDIENTS in them. Yup. Three. Max. Click HERE for a link to a quick youTube video about label reading!
2. For one week, forego ANY food that has sugar in it. Yes, even fruits. If I can do this for 42 days, you can do it for a week. I dare ya.
3. Eat 3 servings of vegetables a day. Think a heaping handful. Most of us get NONE. If you never eat vegetables because “broccoli’s gross”, this would be a good one for you. And, no, fries don’t count.
*An important note to the challengee:
This is not supposed to be easy. That’s why it’s called a ‘challenge’. Pick the one that LEAST appeals to you and go for that one. If you have the most resistance to it, it probably means you should do it. Either the challenge wins you or you win the challenge.
You in?
*This has been another tough love post brought to you by the compassionate folk here at Living Light.
Yours in self-care,
Kendra