5 Reasons I Don’t Miss Processed Food

August 17, 2015August 17, 2015 / ktbuchs87

When people hear the way I eat, they usually ask, “But don’t you miss such and such food?” Such and such food most often being some type of processed/junk/convenience food.

In the beginning, I would say yes. I did miss the ease of ready to go foods. I missed the taste of the sugar and salt and fat of those foods. I missed what I thought was the cheaper option of food at the grocery store. Overall, I missed the comfort of what had been my eating habits for the majority of my life.

Now, I don’t miss it at all. I don’t even think about the food I’m not eating because I’m too busy enjoying all the food I am eating. Here are the reasons that I don’t miss processed food anymore.

1. Real food tastes better

“But Katie, have you tasted a Reeses/Twinkie/Doritos/whatever lately? They are delicious!” To be honest I haven’t tasted any one of those things in a very long time, but that is a good thing. It has allowed my tastes buds to realize how good real food tastes. Processed food is chemically altered to make it tastes as appealing as possible, real food just grows that way. It doesn’t need anything added to make it better. I like that. It does take some time for your tastes to adjust, so if you have been living primarily on processed food you’re probably raising an eyebrow right now. There is no way that a piece of broccoli tastes better than a candy bar. Give your taste buds and your brain a chance to adjust and you’ll realize real food is pretty delicious!

2. I’ve learned to cook

I’ve known how to cook for awhile, but I really grew confident and adventurous in the kitchen when I stopped using processed food. Rather than boiling some pasta and throwing a store-bought jar of sauce on top, I now had all these ingredients that had to turn into a meal. There was a learning curve, but I got the hang of it and now I come up with my own meals and recipes and enjoy the whole cooking experience. I wonder how certain foods would taste together, or if one technique would work better in a certain dish, and I can test all those things out. I never did that with boxed or packaged food. I like the creativity real food lets me have.

3. I’ve become more aware

I never used to wonder what happened to create the package of food I bought in the store. It tasted fine and I didn’t need to worry about that. Now I am a firm believer in reading all labels and really understanding what is in the food you eat. There are certain ingredients that we don’t need to put in our bodies and the more we are aware of these things, the better off we’ll be.

4. I feel better

After I’m done eating, I don’t feel the need to take a nap (fact: I’m always ready for a nap). But seriously, food doesn’t make me feel like I need to slip into a coma after I’ve eaten it. I don’t feel sluggish, my stomach doesn’t hurt as much, my skin has gotten clearer, and I have more energy to do the things that I like doing. Now some of that is the result of living a healthier lifestyle overall, but a lot of it is the food I choose to eat. Food plays such an important part of your daily functioning and you should choose it with care.

5. I have never felt restricted

When I first started, I worried that there would be nothing left for me to eat but salads and celery. I would never really enjoy food again, it would just be something to fuel my body and move on. Nothing could be farther from the truth! I love food and savor every bite. I never feel like I’m missing out on something and I love finding a healthier way to enjoy old favorites. So much of our culture is centered around food and we forget to enjoy the experiences going on away from the table. It’s nice to place the emphasis on people and making memories rather than worrying about what I’m going to eat.

Do I think that all packaged and processed food is the devil? No. There are many things that I still buy myself and use in my kitchen. I’m just more conscious of my decisions and do my best to choose things that are as close to their natural state as possible. If you’re trying to step away from a highly processed diet, do it slowly. Take baby steps towards eliminating old foods and introducing new ones. You’ll start to see the positive effects in your life and you’ll wonder why you haven’t switched sooner!

3 Things I Did In The Past That Did NOT Better My Health

August 10, 2015August 10, 2015 / ktbuchs87

We all make mistakes. It’s part of the human experience and I am most definitely human so I make a lot of mistakes. Shocker, I know. People hear the word mistake and immediately associate it with something negative, I do it all the time. But I have started to look back at my mistakes and realize that they were important parts of my journey and helped move me in the direction that I needed to go, even if I resisted at first.

As a blogger, it is so tempting to only show you the good stuff. The happy stuff. The stuff that spreads my message beautifully. But it isn’t the only stuff that goes on in my life. There are messy parts, ugly parts, not so good parts that I am glad the whole world can’t see. It’s the combination of all these stuff and parts that make me who I am.

When it comes to health, I have made my fair share of mistakes. I have done things that did nothing to help me and if I had kept up with them would have ultimately hurt me. I want to share these with you so you can avoid the same problems or maybe realize you aren’t alone. Here are three things I did to try and be healthier but were all wrong.

1. Severely restricting my calories

This is usually some of the first advice you get when you want to lose weight and be healthier. Eat less, move more. It seems so simple and we want weight loss to be simple. On the surface calories in vs. calories out makes sense and it is true that if you eat more food than your body has a need for, you will gain weight. But there is so much more going on. We are learning more and more that calories aren’t all the same and we don’t use them in the way we previously thought. I know when I first started to be serious about losing weight, I demonized calories. Calories were the enemy. They were the things that were making me fat. They were the evil demons that I had to battle every day. The less the better was my mindset. Here’s the thing, calories are not the enemy. You need calories. They are the things that fuel your body. Literally every function of your body requires calories, from blinking, breathing, just being alive. I had to work to flip the switch in my brain that made calories bad and focus on finding the right food to fuel my body and allow me to accomplish my goals. Which leads me to my next mistake…

2. Putting food into a “good” or “bad” category

Ok so I figured out that calories aren’t the devil. But there were definitely good food and “bad” food. I had to avoid the “bad” food at all costs or my body would revolt and instantly fall into a pit of unhealthy shame. Dramatic? Yes. What I whole-heartedly believed? Totally. Food is food. There are better choices but in the end bad food won’t completely end you. A healthy diet is what you consistently eat, not what you treat yourself to once in awhile. Eat the chocolate and move on. Don’t dwell on it, don’t feel guilty about it, and keep eating the real food that makes up the majority of your diet. I still struggle with this every now and then, but it is getting better.

3. Thinking my weight was the end all be all to health

I used to weigh myself every single morning and I sadly let the number on the scale dictate my rule and mood. If it was what I believed was acceptable then the day was a good one and I was happy. Anything higher than what I wanted was grounds for a horrible mood, more food restriction, and feeling guilty. It took me a REALLY long time to get over this one, but I can say that I have not weighed myself for over a year and have no clue my number is. And you know what? The world hasn’t ended. I haven’t gained 50 pounds (I literally worried that would happen when I retired my scale) and my self-worth has not gone down. What you way is in no way the best measure of your health or the entirety of who you are. If you weigh yourself all the time, try taking a break and see how you feel. Go about your day and see if not knowing what you weigh affects you in a negative way. I bet it won’t. Your family will still love you, your co-workers won’t ignore you, and life will not stop because you don’t know your weight.

These are three of the bigger mistakes when it came to my health, but once I started working through them it got better. I realized that good health isn’t static and changes from day to day. There are times when I’m less than perfect and that is ok. I’ll learn and move on.

If you’re just starting out with your health journey, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You will learn more about yourself and be able to adjust your habits to find the best health possible!

3 Common Myths About Exercise

July 27, 2015July 27, 2015 / ktbuchs87

Diet and Exercise. Those two go together like peanut butter and jelly. They are the first pieces of advice for anyone trying to lose weight. Both of these things are important pieces of the puzzle that is getting healthy, but that is the key. They are just pieces, neither is the whole thing. While both diet and exercise get a lot of talk, I think sometimes that exercise gets more of the emphasis. This emphasis creates some myths about exercise and its role in a healthy lifestyle. Today I want to address some of those myths so you can better incorporate exercise into your life and health!

1. Exercise is the best way to lose weight

Exercise is great and I’m not going to bash it or anything like that. But exercise really isn’t the only or best way to lose weight. Don’t get me wrong, exercise does help you lose weight, but it isn’t as big a factor as you might think. Your body is a very tricky thing when it comes to exercise. It likes to be efficient in all things and it will always find the easiest way to go about its daily tasks. After you have been exercising awhile your body will adapt to the change and you will actually burn fewer calories every time you workout. This doesn’t mean exercise is a hopeless cause, you just have to be smart about it. Try different workouts, different intensities, different times, and don’t rely totally on exercise to get the body or health that you want. The food you put in your body is what you really want to focus on but more on that later.

2. Exercise has to be vigorous/hard/long or it doesn’t count

This one took awhile for me to wrap my head around. When I first really started getting into exercising I thought that I had to be dripping in sweat, lying on the ground exhausted, or sore beyond belief for my body to get the full benefit of exercise. Soooooo not true. You don’t have to destroy your body in order to reap all the good stuff that comes with exercise, and in fact, that can lead to injury and burnout. Vigorous exercise does have its time and place, hard workouts aren’t evil, and sometimes you have the time for a longer workout. But there are times when it’s better to take it easy, do a shorter workout, or even have a rest day. You need to listen to your body and give it what it needs not beat it up just because you think that is the only way to get fit.

3. Exercise will cancel out any “bad” food that I eat

This common myth is one of my biggest pet peeves. I hate when I hear someone say, “Oh it doesn’t matter what I eat, I work out.” It seriously makes me want to rage throw a table. But instead of throwing tables, I am going to calmly address this myth right now. First, don’t put food into a good group or a bad group. Food is food, not a miracle and not evil. There are better choices that will benefit your health, but you shouldn’t feel guilty about eating anything. You’re an adult you can choose what to eat. Second, the saying you can’t out exercise a bad diet is SO TRUE. You can’t just eat a piece of cake go run 3 miles to “burn it off” and be healthy. The first problem with that mindset is that exercise doesn’t burn as many calories as most people think (see first myth). The second problem is that in order to function, as well as exercise, you need to get certain nutrients. If you are constantly filling your body with things like cake and cookies and processed food your body is missing out on vital things it needs. The last problem with this is that getting in the habit of working out just to cancel out what you eat is a really good way to develop exercise bulimia. Exercise bulimia is a very real and serious disorder that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Choose the food that will help you reach your health goals and the exercise that makes you feel better.

Exercise is good, it has tons of benefits, and it works in tandem with a healthy diet to make you feel your best. Just make sure you aren’t falling for some of these common myths and use exercise to your advantage.

What is one thing about exercise that you found wasn’t true?

Run The Mile You’re In

July 20, 2015July 20, 2015 / ktbuchs87

1 mile down, 6 to go.

Only 45 minutes left. 40…35…30…

The minute I cross the street and go from walking to running, I am counting down. I love running, I really do, but there is a struggle between my mind and my body. Some days my mind is fully prepared to run, it urges my tired and leaden legs forward. Other days my legs are ready to go 100 miles, but my mind wants nothing to do with the pavement beneath my feet.

There are good running days and there are bad running days. The bad running days are brutal and each step, each labored breath, each drop of sweat pleads for me to stop. On those days I am only looking forward to the second that my run is over and I can move onto better things, easier tasks, and just take a shower and wash the bad run juju off my body.

But then I think of a quote from Scott Jurek’s book, Eat And Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness.

Run the mile you are in.

It’s so simple yet so powerful. Run the mile you are in. Be there. Be totally present for THAT mile, right now. Notice the air on your face, the sites around you. Take inventory of your body and see where you are in that moment. Don’t think about the tough hill in that next mile, stop longing for the finish line, and run the mile you are in.

Take this mantra and apply it to all areas of your life. Having a hard time eating better and incorporating more healthy food? Run the mile you are in. Don’t think of all the things you have to give up, focus on what you can do today to make a better choice. In the middle of a tough project at work? Run the mile you are in. Stop thinking about what will happen if you don’t meet the deadline, accomplish one task at a time until you reach the end. Finding your life in a rough patch? Run the mile you are in. While the suffering might hurt, learn as much as you can from this experience so you can grow as a person and help others with similar problems.

My tough run is making me a stronger person. I need to be there for every single mile of that tough run to get the full effect of it’s lessons. I need to be present for all moments of my life instead of wishing and waiting for better things. Often the better things are passing us by in those moments we are wishing were over sooner.

I’m running my 7th mile and it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t run the other 6.

Put Down The Phone And Step Away: Try Unplugging

July 13, 2015July 13, 2015 / ktbuchs87

Raise your hand if you feel uncomfortable when you can’t check your phone every five minutes? How about if you have to turn it off? If you go a day without checking Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/whatever social media site?

Don’t worry if you raised your hand and kept it up there, you’re in good company. Most of us have a hard time getting away from our TV, phone, or computer screens for longer than a few minutes. I’m just as guilty as the rest of you. As a blogger, I spend an inordinate amount of time writing and researching posts, putting things up on all of my social media accounts and browsing the enormous amount of cat pictures online. Ok, that last one really doesn’t have anything to do with blogging but you get the idea.

As a culture, we are enamored with the instant gratuity that social media provides us. It feels good to post a picture on Instagram and have 20 likes in the first 5 minutes. I love hearing my phone ping with a notification that someone favorited my last tweet. It makes me feel important worthy, like I’m doing my job as a health blogger right.

While that’s somewhat true, if no one liked or read my stuff I would be pretty ineffective, it’s also a little counterintuitive. Being healthy doesn’t mean spending all my time trapped behind a screen and in the online world. We need to get away from the glow of our phones and laptops and televisions and out into the world of people and natural light.

I recently noticed that some of my best work for my blog came when I was actually away from it. Every day I try to take an afternoon walk. It helps break up my day of sitting and gives me a chance to not be working. While out on these walks I don’t have my phone to tell me there is a new notification on Facebook or my laptop refreshing with new emails.

It’s just me and the great outdoors.

It clears my head and I can actually come up with some awesome ideas for the blog. Sometimes I compose whole posts while out on my morning run or solve a problem that I have been struggling with for the past few hours while I’m strolling by the lake.

Technology is great, don’t get me wrong. I love being able to reach a big audience and have my words and thoughts make an impact all while I’m sitting in my pajamas. But don’t forget there is so much more out there than getting more followers or retweets. Try unplugging yourself for just a few minutes each day. Just 20 minutes where you don’t look at any technology.

Go outside

Take a walk

Read a book

Get coffee with a friend

And don’t post one picture of you doing it on Instagram. You’ll be more productive for taking a short media break and the internet and slew of cat memes will be waiting for you when you get back.