Last week I talked about how my journey began. Well, now I want to get into more of the details of what I have been learning these past few months. I said I would talk today about the diet foods I thought were helping me to lose weight. Well, I am here to tell you that this is a fallacy. I know this from my personal experience of many years of trying to lose weight as well as what I have been reading lately.
It's hard for me to know where to start in this story. I guess the best place is to review what I have been taught. So, when I was growing up I ate a lot of sweets, processed and fast foods. Well, as I got older I thought by changing my diet to the low-fat, fat-free or diet options that I would be doing myself a service in keeping the weight off. I know some people say that no matter what, as we age we will continue to put on weight because our metabolism slows. I am not a doctor nor a nutritionist, but I can tell you that no matter what I did the scale continued to rise. The final straw was after I had my baby, I was at a weight I never thought I would know and that is when I knew something would have to change. As I talked about in another blog, I tried Weight Watchers and although that helped it didn't solve the problem. I still craved sweets and I continued to drink my diet soda, I just ate less food. I did lose my baby weight I gained from the pregnancy, but that was all. My goal was to lose another 25 pounds, but I didn't know what I was doing wrong. I quickly learned that not all food is created equal.
So, one day my daughter's nanny, Kim, and I were talking about food and she referred me to this website called 100 Days of Real Food. I read through the website and thought it would be a good idea, but I just wasn't quite ready for that big of a step. What I did like was some smaller steps you could take to learn about processed foods and how to cut them out of your diet. I found this mini food pledge on cutting out low-fat, diet foods and I started there. Although I haven't completed any of the challenges, I decided that cutting back on some of these foods would be a good step in the right direction. In the past few weeks I have thought more seriously about trying the mini pledges in their entirety, but my husband is not on board. Hopefully there will be more to come of that in the near future.
Did you know that the artificial sweeteners used in diet foods actually make you want more? Here is an excerpt from the Food Babe's website. "That’s right – consuming artificial sweeteners actually increases your appetite. Think about it – when someone consumes something that is sweet, but it has little to no calories – their brain receives a signal to want more calories because their body is not actually getting any energy (i.e. enough calories) to get satisfied. So that person keeps looking for gratification elsewhere and ends up craving more." That was me! I never understood why I craved so much sweet food, but it makes sense. The article is actually talking about Coca-Cola specifically, but there is some really good information about what artificial ingredients can do to our brains and therefore to our bodies. So, I finally cut out the soda, diet and all. I used to drink at least one if not two to three diet drinks a day. I do still drink coffee, but that is another step for another day (because it is not organic and there are lots of flavorings in it. Starbucks anyone?).
As I continued to learn about why processed food is not good for us, I decided it was time to clean out my pantry. My volunteer organization, the Junior Woman's Club of Raleigh, was supporting the Interfaith Food Shuttle this year through our donations and fund-raising efforts. I bought extra canned and boxed goods while they were on sale and by using my new coupon skills. Well, one night I decided I had enough of all this artificial, processed food in my house and I gathered three large bags of food to give to a food bank. I know some people will say that I shouldn't give away food that I don't want my family to eat, but honestly we all know that not everyone believes the same things and I will leave it at that. Now, I try to educate myself on what I am buying. I read labels, try to follow some of the 100 days of real food suggestions on 5 ingredients or less. I also have cut out the diet drinks and low-fat options in my foods. I started buying organic foods more often and have found that although it is more expensive, I don't spend as much money on groceries because we eat less now and I don't buy as much processed food. Another important lesson I have learned and am still learning about is the GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in our food. More to come on these topics in the coming weeks.
Please share any other resources you may have that shreds light on this topic. I am still learning and would love some other websites, blogs or news articles about this topic.
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