When We Go to Extremes

August 19, 2013 / ktbuchs87 / 2 Comments

There are a lot of extreme things out there. Extreme sports, extreme food, extreme vacations, pretty much anything can be made extreme these days. Extreme can be a good thing, as some people really like to push themselves when it comes to sports and thrive in an “extreme” atmosphere. But extreme can also quickly get out of hand and become dangerous, especially when it comes to the way you eat.

Extreme dieting is not a new issue. People have gone to great lengths just to lose weight and shed pounds. We have heard of the grapefruit diet or the cabbage soup diet. Back in the day, those were some pretty extreme diets. Subsisting only on one kind of soup or one type of fruit is definitely not a healthy or sustainable way to lose weight or eat. That seems like common sense for most of us. Yet there are still extreme forms of weight loss out there today. This week I came across this article from Health magazine. It highlights seven crazy and ridiculous methods that people actually use to try and lose weight. From feeding tubes, to tapeworms, to having a patch surgically attached to your tongue that makes it too painful to eat any solid food, the list is pretty extreme.

When I first read this article, I thought, “Come on now people! This is just silly!” As I kept reading, I started to feel really sad. It made me sad to think of the extremes that some people will go to just to lose weight. It made me sad that some people felt that this was their only hope at being thinner. It made me sad that I used to think the exact same way. It also made me mad that in some of these situations (feeding tubes and tongue patches in particular) doctors, people who are suppose to be helping, not hurting, were endorsing these forms of weight loss. To be honest, it also made me feel a little helpless. How can I, one person with very little pull, help stop this? How can I make even a tiny dent and convince people that this is not the way to go?

Once I stopped feeling helpless, I realized I can keep sharing my story and my experiences with others and help guide them in the right direction. When it comes to diet and lifestyle, extreme will NOT help you. Sure, on some extreme diets you will lose weight quickly. That’s what happens when you cut out food and starve yourself. That weight loss though isn’t healthy weight loss and it is not sustainable. Taking extreme measures to lose weight will just hurt you in the long run. With some of the methods listed in that article, they can cause serious medical damage. At the very least, you are taxing your body and messing with your metabolism which will make it really difficult to maintain a healthy weight in the future.

I understand the helplessness that can accompany trying to lose weight. At times it can feel like nothing works. You either can’t lose weight at all or you lose the weight just to have it all come back. You feel that you are on a never ending diet and you are tired enough that giving up and going back to your old lifestyle seems more and more appealing. Not caring anymore is a lot easier than caring sometimes. I have been there and I know it’s tough to push past that mentality. Truth is the only way to truly be healthy is to change for the long term. You have to make yourself view it as a lifestyle change, not just a temporary fix. You can’t have the mindset that you are going to do this until you lose x amount of pounds and then go back to the way things were. It doesn’t work that way.

Yes, changing for the long haul is hard and daunting. You mean I have to do this forever? Yes. Yes, you do. Stop looking at all the things you are “giving up” or “losing”, don’t put food into categories of can have or can’t have. View it as you are CHOOSING to live a better life, you WANT to have great health, you are GAINING good nutrition and habits. If you are at a point in your life where you are ready and willing to change, don’t overwhelm yourself. Don’t make a massive change to your life, because changing everything at once can cause overload and make you want to quit before you even begin.

Start small and start simple. Remember, extreme doesn’t help when it comes to a lifestyle change. Cut out candy bars as a snack and have fruit instead. Go for a 10 minute walk on your lunch break. Read a book instead of watching TV at night. Easy things that you can sustain, and once you have made those into a habit, move on to the next change. Will this take a long time? Yes, but this is what helps you change for life permanently. As you slowly start changing your life, you will start to see the benefits of living healthier. Those stairs that used to wind you at work are now a breeze to climb. Chronic headaches that used to plague you are now few and far between. You sleep better at night, you have more energy than before, and you are actually enjoying real food more and more instead of processed junk.

If something doesn’t work for you or doesn’t seem to benefit your personal health, then stop and try something different. That is OK! Remember we are all different and our bodies need different things. Maybe your friend is feeling amazing by running every day and subsisting on a more Paleo- type diet, but those things leave you feeling drained, sluggish, and you are SO not motivated to run for even 5 minutes. That is totally fine! Find out what works for you. Health is very personalized, which makes it so great. You can customize your life to give yourself maximum health benefits.

The main takeaway for this post is to keep things simple. I don’t want you to feel that the only way you can lose weight is to take up smoking or swallow a tapeworm. You and your health are worth so much more than the damage those methods will cause. The only extreme you need in your life is extreme happiness. Keeping your best interests in mind will help lead you to the best health you can obtain, I promise!

Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged….

July 15, 2013 / ktbuchs87

I like to think of myself as a non-judgemental person. I am a very accepting and open person. I feel that I am pretty empathetic and can easily put myself in others shoes or at the very least try to see things from their perspective. Imagine my surprise then when I realized I judge people constantly. Allow me to explain.

This past week I have read a couple of blog posts that really made me think of how I make snap judgments whenever I pass someone on the street. The first post was sent to me by husband, and it was about how poor people grocery shop. After reading this, I thought about how many times I have been shopping at the grocery store and seen someone else loading up on junk or unhealthy food. I have always thought to myself, “There are so many better options, I wish I/someone could teach them how to be healthier.” In my mind I felt that thinking that was not very judgmental, but that post made me realize it really is. I have no idea where this other person is in their life. I have no idea about their life story. I have no idea what has led them to this place/time/moment. How unfair of me to condemn their eating habits without knowing the full details. One of my main goals is to help people find their healthiest self, no matter what may be going on in their lives. There is no way I can do that by making snap judgments in the grocery store check-out line.

The second post that got me thinking about how judgmental I am was this one by OliveToRun. She talks about another runner she passed a couple of times on her long run and how later she thought about how she would have never guessed he was a runner by the way he looked. Thinking about this, I realized I do the exact same thing. Maybe it’s because I am a runner, whenever I pass people while running I sub-consciously think to myself, “Runner, runner, not a runner, could be a runner, nope, runner, runner….” I never really pay attention to this habit, but boy, what an awful habit. I hate it when people look at me and decide what I can or can’t do based on my appearance. “Well she is tiny, she probably can’t lift very much weight” or “Obviously she is a runner, look at her legs”. These things have been said to my face or in my general vicinity and they always irk me. Since when has the way someone looks contributed to what they are able to accomplish? Yet here I am doing the same thing to other people. It may not be out loud or to their face, but I am still not giving them the benefit of the doubt and judging them on what I think they can do based purely on appearances. When I first started running, I in no way looked like a “typical” runner. I was slow, I could barely huff and puff my way through one mile, and I am sure other people would never have guessed that I was training for a 5K. In my heart and mind though I was still a runner, I was logging the miles and doing the work and I counted myself in the community of runners. Everyone out there pounding the pavement, no matter what they look like, deserves that honor.

Let’s face it, we all are judgmental sometimes. Whether we like to admit it or not, we make snap judgments and place people into categories. In 2001, the International Journal of Obesity published a study about how the weight of a patient significantly affected the attitude of the physician attending. They found that while physicians would order more health tests for overweight patients, they would spend significantly less time with them and they viewed them more negatively than normal weight patients. This is one of the reasons why obesity is such a huge problem. We are quick to judge overweight or obese people and blame them for their problems and we don’t try to offer help or find out what is really going on. How can we expect to help them when doctors’ spend less time with them and view them in a negative light? Who are they suppose to look to for help when people passing them look down on them because of their weight without knowing the full breadth of the issue? Will the AMA recognition that obesity is a disease help or hurt this issue? Only time will tell on that one, but I remain hopeful that we can step out of our judgmental boxes and start to turn things around.

I know that this problem will never be fully fixed; there will always be people out there that will judge others no matter what. I know that I can start to work on myself and learn to look past a person’s food decisions or appearance. If I want to help others reach their optimum health, I have to meet them where they are and work with them and not against them. I really disliked when people made judgments at the beginning of my journey to better health and I dislike when people make comments about my abilities based on what I look like now. I do not want anyone to feel that way, and I really do not want them to feel that way because of my thoughts, words or actions. Instead, we should all work a little harder every day to give people the help and care they deserve and not pass judgments based on appearances.

How do I look?

June 10, 2013 / ktbuchs87 / 1 Comment

I am not perfect. Thank you Captain Obvious, right? Of course I’m not perfect, no human is perfect. I think that people who have health or fitness blogs sometimes get put on this pedestal as totally in sync with all things nutrition and exercise. This could not be farther from the truth, at least for me. Yes, I have figured some things out and I have better health than I ever did before, but I still struggle daily and have a lot of learning and growing to do when it comes to my health. That is what I love about health, it’s a journey that we all have to go through and evolve as our health evolves.

That being said, I wanted to share a personal post with you today. I have gone back and forth about whether or not to talk about this, but I have decided that in order for me to move forward I have to get this out in the open. No one likes to admit that they struggle or have issues, but we all have them so there should be nothing to be ashamed of if you have to say, “Hey, I’m dealing with this right now.” It’s a part of the process of working through that struggle.

I have shared my story with weight loss/gain and my issues with self-image before. I have come leaps and bounds from the girl I was back then to who I am now. That is why it has troubled me that some self-image issues have started to pop back into my life. I have noticed lately that I am becoming very focused on the way my body looks. I spend more time looking in the mirror, zeroing in on what I believe to be my imperfections. I find my thoughts turning to things like “How do I look in this outfit?” or “Are people staring at my stomach?” Because of my past with these struggles, I know that this is a dark and unhealthy road to start down.

It’s tough in a society that places a very high value on looks to NOT think about your appearance, but I do not want to place all the blame on other people or the world. Yes, they contribute to the problem, but they aren’t the only factor. For me, I seem to have this distorted and unrealistic view of what I should look like. This is partly due to constantly looking at airbrushed models when I was younger and believing that woman truly looked like that. Luckily over the years I have gotten wiser and know that there is no possible way that any woman can have the body that is portrayed in so many magazines and other media. So why am I having a problem now, knowing all that I know and going through all that I have gone through?

The simple answer is, I’m not totally sure. I think though that I will always have to battle my self-image demons and the little voice that whispers to me that I should look a certain way. I have fought that little voice before, so I know that I can do it again. How am I going to try and work through this? I want to shift my thoughts from what I look like to what I can physically do. I was thinking about that this week and I was shocked at all the things my body can do that I never thought was possible before.

I can run over 6 miles in less than 50 minutes. When I first started running, I could barely get through one mile without dying. I can touch my toes (and some days even the floor) and hold difficult yoga poses, like the wheel, for a significant period of time. I could barely do downward dog when I first began yoga. I can hold a plank, and do some advanced variations, for 5 consecutive minutes. I used to collapse after a minute of planks (if you could call barely raising my body off the floor a plank). I can do a headstand and barely need to use a wall for support any more. A month ago I struggled to even get my feet off the floor, let alone above my head. These are just a few of the things I thought of that I can do. When I look at all the things I have accomplished in the last few years, it doesn’t seem so important to have washboard abs or buns of steel. Not to toot my own horn, but I can do some pretty amazing things that have NOTHING to do with the way I look.

I used to struggle just to get my feet in the air, now I barely need the wall

Furthermore, I have so much more knowledge about how to live a healthy lifestyle. I can move through a kitchen with ease and create a delicious and nutritious meal. I can give others advice and help on how to live a healthier life. I started a blog that, hopefully, motivates and inspires my readers to change for the better. None of these things are dependant on the way I look.

The wheel. It’s not perfect yet, but I never thought I would be able to even lift my leg off the floor when I first attempted this pose

I know that there are some of you reading this right now who are going through self-image problems. You look in the mirror and don’t like what you see staring back at you. You hate the thought of other people looking at you, believing they are constantly judging the way you look. You wish there was some way you could look like someone else and finally be happy. Trust me, I’ve been there, and done that, and am still there sometimes. I encourage you to look at other things in your life that have nothing to do with your looks. Find all the accomplishments and amazing things that you can do that don’t hinge on your reflection in the mirror. For me, those accomplishments have made me feel empowered and I think that your achievements can give you a strength that you might not have realized you had. Don’t stop there either. Once you have listed your awesomeness, make new goals. That way you can work towards something and feel super proud of yourself when you have another item to add to your awesome list. Me? I am going to turn that headstand into a handstand and not use the wall for support. I am going to work towards running 10 miles and then a half-marathon. I am going to continue to expand my knowledge of health and nutrition and share it with as many people as I can. I am going to work on not judging the way I look and start focusing on all that I can do. Because I am so much more than just a reflection in the mirror.

My Story

May 13, 2013 / ktbuchs87 / 1 Comment

I think it is about time that you all hear my story. I have shared a few insights into my health journey in some of my posts but I haven’t given you the full spiel. It was brought to my attention that readers might not relate to me because I seem to have it all together health-wise (trust me I’m still learning and growing on that front) and I want you to realize I have been in some of the same situations that you might find yourselves. My story probably starts a lot like yours….

I was a pretty normal kid (I use normal very loosely here, I am a bit quirky!). I didn’t have any major health problems and I was the same as most kids in my class. I had no issues with my appearance and I had no reason to have any issues. I was your average American kid.

Yes normal children sing for their Grandma in their bathing suit…

Then I entered fifth grade and puberty hit, which is totally normal, but I started puberty before all of my friends. That is when a lot of my issues started. I couldn’t understand why suddenly I was developing hips and boobs and my thighs were getting bigger and hair was sprouting places, yet my friends were still skinny and flat-chested and seemingly hair-less. I’m a naturally shy person and all these changes made me feel awkward and ugly and made me retreat even more from public situations. I didn’t want anyone seeing me or focusing any type of attention on me. This is also when I started to hate my body and when I started to go on diets to try and look like what I thought was normal. The diets would work for a little while, I would lose weight, feel good about myself, go off the diet and, you guessed it, gain the weight back.

Pretty sure this is fifth grade, I’m the one with the glasses flexing a non-existent muscle

Quite the attractive face, I think I was going for “I’m cool” ? Either way it didn’t work

High school wasn’t much different than junior high. I came from a small parochial school, so public school was a bit of a shock for me. I had never been around so many kids at once. My graduating 8th grade class was 21 kids and suddenly I was in a class of over 500. This made shy Katie nervous and panicky. Luckily, I got involved in the marching band and made amazing friends and had amazing experiences. I excelled in band and was a squad leader by my sophomore year and a section leader my junior and senior year. As cheesy and nerdy as it may sound, I really believe that marching band saved me during my high school years.

I believe this was my senior year? I wasn’t a big fan of pictures

But, high school was also a really hard time for my body, especially my self-image. Now that I was in high school I had more freedom over my food choices, and not knowing anything helpful about nutrition, I made HORRIBLE food choices. Our cafeteria was full of fat and calorie laden food, and I was drawn to those choices. I would eat bread bowls full of cream of broccoli soup, drink tons of soda (diet is fine right?), get candy as a snack from the vending machine, munch on bacon potato skin chips dipped in cream cheese (yes, it is as gross as it sounds). Of course I would also make sure I got “healthy” food like bottled smoothies (fruit is good for you, even when it is in liquid sugar form, right?), and baked potato chips.

Told you I was quirky

Needless to say I gained weight. While I might never have been considered obese, I was definitely overweight. The added weight did nothing to help my self-image, which I already struggled with, and I started to crash diet, in the most unhealthy way possible. I would skip meals and at one point even tried weight loss pills, anything to try and make myself skinny and pretty. Of course, none of these things worked and I was miserable. I hated my body and felt that I was so ugly that no one else could ever love me. It was a very difficult time for me. But things did look up my junior year when I got my first boyfriend. I was elated that someone of the opposite sex actually thought I was worthy enough to date Trust me, I know how sad and pathetic that sounds, but when you have such a low opinion of yourself, you look for anything to validate your worth, even a boy.

Freshman year of college

By the time that I got to college, I had had a few boyfriends. Sadly, having a boyfriend made me feel like I was worth something. I felt that if someone else other than my friends and family thought I was good enough, then I really was good enough. I entered college feeling both petrified and excited. Petrified because I was leaving home and my comfort zone and stepping into a world that I knew nothing about. Excited because I was finally going to become a little more independent and adult like. I decided one of my new major goals in college was to become healthier and finally lose weight for good and be happy with the way I looked. Great goals, but I still went about them in the wrong way. For the first year or so of college I was a vegetarian, partly because my boyfriend at the time was and partly because I thought it would help me lose weight. But you can still eat junk food while being a vegetarian (hello mac n’ cheese!) and having a prepaid meal plan where you can get all the food you want can be dangerous. But I was determined not to gain the freshmen 15, and in fact I actually lost weight. This was because I started to work out on a regular basis. I had free access to the Rec center at my college and made working out a part of my routine. While I had never been totally sedentary before and had worked out in spurts in junior high and high school, I had never had an established routine. Being able to go to the Rec center for free was great because it got me started on a great habit.

But I still ate some not-so-great foods and I still had self-esteem problems. I had hoped that once I lost weight I would magically be transformed into this happy, self assured person. At the time I didn’t realize that I needed to work on more than just my body, I needed to work on my mind and my relationship with myself. I never gave myself the chance to do that though because I was always relying on other people to make me feel better about myself, mainly my boyfriends.

And then something happened that really changed everything for me. The summer before my last year of college, I worked as a trainer with my dad. My dad is a kinesiotherapist (specialized area of medicine in which exercise and movement are used as the primary form of rehabilitation), and we would work with all different kinds of people, from athletes to the elderly, to make them stronger or faster or better in whatever they did. I got to create exercise programs for people and then work with them one on one to help them improve. That summer my dad also had another intern working with him, also my age and a friend I had known for awhile. It was a great summer, I got to step outside of my box and do something I didn’t think I was good at and I actually did fairly well. I also got to interact with my dad and become better friends with his other intern. It was that friendship that really turned things around for me. And the one thing that he did that pretty much changed everything for me? Encouraged me to sign up for a 5k race through our church. Yup, that was my big epiphany moment. At the time, I hated running. I thought it was pointless and stupid and I dreaded the thought of running. But my friend convinced me to give it a shot and we even trained a little together at work. I’ll admit, it wasn’t very fun and I was just doing this to make him happy. I figured I would get through this one race and never have to run again. Boy, was I wrong. The day of the race arrived, and I was a nervous wreck. There was no way I was going to be able to run 3.1 miles and I was about to make a huge fool of myself. But I didn’t, I ran really well. I never stopped or gave up and I didn’t die. I crossed that finish line and I felt amazing. Finishing that race made me realize I could do things that I never thought I could do. I was a stronger person than I thought possible.

Running became my therapy. Each time I laced up and went for my run, I proved to myself how strong and amazing my body was no matter what it looked like. I could do things that I was always too shy or scared to try. I started to love myself on my runs and started the long process of healing years of self-hatred. Yes, this all sounds spiritual and hippie-dippie, but running really changed my life and opened so many doors for me. Before running, I would never go up and talk to a person I barely knew. After running, I finally got the nerve to actually talk to a boy without him approaching me first. Good thing too or else I would have never met my husband. Before running, I would never have picked up nutrition books or health books or researched about eating right. After running, I completely overhauled the way I ate and learned as much as possible about being the healthiest me I could be. And you know what? I finally found that happy person I longed for ever since fifth grade. Yes, I lost weight along the way (about 45 lbs over a course of 7 years), but for the first time in a long time I didn’t care about the weight. I cared about how I felt on the inside. I cared about treating my body with exercise and good, wholesome food. I finally believed myself that I was worthy enough.

I’ve been in dark places in my past health-wise. Please believe me when I say I know how you feel. While I might not have the EXACT same story as you, I know what it’s like to go through rough times. Do I have my whole life together now and never struggle? Heck no. I still have my moments. I still struggle with self-image and self-esteem and have to work on it daily. I will probably have to work on it daily for the rest of my life, but I am in a MUCH better place than before. Life is so much more than how much you weigh or what you look like and sadly we (me included) get so wrapped up in trying to meet other people’s standards. But we can change that. Let’s work on setting our own standards and move towards a healthy life. Realize that getting to your happy place may look very different than how I reach my happy place. Not everyone is going to run a race and change their life. You do have to go out there and WORK at what will change your life for the better.

I hope that my story gave some of you inspiration. It is hard to share some of these personal moments with the whole world as well as make sure that I am sending a message of hope and encouragement as well. Remember, I’m here to help you find your way to a healthier life. Because I know how hard it can be along the way and how amazing it is once you see the light at the end of the tunnel! Have a fabulous week everyone!

Happy!

The Cost of Eating

May 6, 2013 / ktbuchs87 / 4 Comments

Yes, we all know that eating healthy is good for us and eating unhealthy is bad for us. This is not surprising news, mainly because it is drilled into our heads on a daily basis via news, twitter, blogs, newspapers, magazines… You get the idea. So what does it cost us to eat poorly?

Health- This is the obvious cost of eating an unhealthy diet. We all know this and it is constantly cited and analyzed. It is also a really important factor, simply for the fact that a bad diet can cause serious complications, and may ultimately lead to death. One of the most obvious health effects of eating an unhealthy diet is weight gain. In 2008, 1.4 billion adults in the world were overweight, and 500 million of those were classified as obese. There are a ton of obesity related diseases, The CDC lists coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, cancers, such as endometrial, breast, and colon cancer, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides, liver and gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, degeneration of cartilage and underlying bone within a joint (osteoarthritis), reproductive health complications such as infertility, and mental health conditions, just to name a few. That is a really long list of unpleasant complications all related to obesity. The decision, YOUR decision, to eat unhealthy food leads to this nasty list. YOU have more control over these issues than you might think. In this study, researchers looked at two different measures of a quality diet and then assessed how they affected the risk of the chronic diseases mentioned above. Both measures of a quality diet, which included more consumption of fruits and vegetables and less reliance on processed food, led to reduced risk, with the Alternate Healthy Eating index predicting risk just a little bit better. Even small changes like eating more fruits and vegetables, like in this study, led to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Food has a huge impact on so much of our daily lives, it is the fuel that runs EVERYTHING going on inside your body. I know this comparison has been made before, but it really is a great illustration. Think of your body as a car and the food you eat as the gas. In order to run properly, your car needs the proper fuel, or else it’s not going anywhere and will likely have major troubles along the way. The same goes for your body. It needs the right fuel to function optimally. Good food = good fuel.

Financial- There are a few factors to the financial aspect of eating a poor diet. The first relates directly to the health factor, healthcare costs. Let’s just look at the numbers. In a 2009 study the CDC found that obesity related costs were around $147 billion in 2006. By 2012, that number had risen to $190 billion, and exceeded the costs of health care costs for smoking which has in the past been the number one health cost. That is a HUGE jump in just six years, and unfortunately it doesn’t look any better for the future. Researchers are saying if we keep heading down the road that we are on, by 2030 health care costs will be somewhere in the $550 billion range. I won’t speak for anyone else, but to me $550 billion feels like an astronomical price to pay for good health. While I’m not saying this is the magic bullet to fix all problems health related, eating better foods can DRASTICALLY reduce this cost. Instead of shelling out your hard earned money on medications and surgeries and other health costs, channel that money to a healthy diet.

“But Katie, that’s the problem! My family can’t afford to eat healthy foods! It’s just too expensive!” Many people are under the impression that eating well is also synonymous with being expensive, and at a quick glance it does seem that way. Go to the grocery store and find a bag of chips at will probably cost anywhere from 2 to 5 dollars. If you compare that to a bag of organic chips, without added chemicals or preservatives, the price will probably go anywhere from 4 to 6 dollars. For some families, they just can’t afford to buy all the “fancy” organic healthy food, and our family is one of them. That doesn’t stop us from eating as well as we possibly can. Somewhere along the line, it has gotten drilled into our heads that in order to eat well and be healthy we have to buy the top shelf, organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, dairy free, soy free, nut free, expensive products. While I don’t think that any of those things are bad, they are NOT absolutely necessary for a healthy lifestyle. Adam and I have a limited food budget, but we still manage to eat a very healthy and nutritious diet on that budget. Every Friday I do one big grocery trip for the week. Here is this week’s haul:

All this food cost us $46.80, which is what we usually spend on our big shopping trip. I do also make a quick run on Wednesday’s to pick up a few things, but that is because at our local grocery store they give a 10% discount on Wednesday and that bill rarely goes over $20. So for under $70 a week, Adam and I eat a healthy and balanced diet and there are others out there who spend even less on good food. We have also made the decision to not eat out frequently and spend our money on whole foods that we can prepare for ourselves at home, which saves us money in the long run. Americans are spending more and more money on eating out, which isn’t helping their wallets or waistlines.

This article shows the trend of spending on food over the years, and it’s amazing to see how it has changed over the years. More and more is being spent on quick convenient foods and then subsequently on medical costs to combat the result of eating those convenient foods. You have the power to change that, all you have to do is make the conscious decision to spend your money on food that is healthy and not harmful to your body.

Emotional- This is one cost of a poor diet that might not be looked at as much, but it is a very important one. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health and often the two go hand in hand. There is an increased occurrence of self-image issues in obese individuals. These include eating disorders such as binge eating, body dissatisfaction, poor self-esteem, and overall dissatisfaction with quality of life. As mentioned earlier, mental disorders are also higher among overweight individuals. So not only is eating poorly attacking our bodies, it is attacking our minds and even our sense of self worth. In 2010, researchers conducted a study about the effect of public health advertisements on obese individuals. Many reported that instead of helping or motivating them to be healthier, they often felt attacked and stigmatized. So even things that the general public believes are helping spread the word about being healthier are in fact causing more stress and hurt. Believe me I know how it feels to be unhappy about your weight or your body image. I have struggled with self-image issues from a very early age and it is a tough thing to overcome completely. But one of the things that is helping me everyday is the fact that I can take control of that with the way that I eat. Again, I am in no way saying that food is the magic cure-all for every problem I have listed and not listed, but it is a very powerful aspect of our lives.

There are so many more costs that occur from the way we eat. If I were to talk about them all, we could be here for days and while I would love to believe that you would thoroughly enjoy reading my every word on the subject (I never said I wasn’t just a tad disillusioned), I don’t want to sit here and beat a dead horse. Like I said at the beginning, we all have heard that eating bad is not good for us, it isn’t rocket science. I hope that some of the information I have presented to you today has helped you see just how big of an impact the way you eat can affect your life. I know it may seem like a huge step to totally change your eating habits, but it is worth it. Not only to just feel better but to live better! I hope you have a fabulous Monday and talk to you guys soon! Remember to follow me on Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram to get more updates, facts and insights into eating better!