Clean your plate… Kind of

June 3, 2013 / ktbuchs87

I am willing to bet that some of you (me included) have finished a meal even though you weren’t really hungry anymore. A lot of us have probably done this, as it’s really easy to just finish all the food on your plate even if you are already full. You might have heard about “starving children in Africa” and felt the need to finish a second helping of french fries for their sake (because that makes a lot of sense…). I would even go a step further and say that some of us don’t even recognize our own body’s signals for satiety, causing us to overeat at most of our meals.

This isn’t a new concept. In 2006, 6 of every 10 Americans said they ate more than they should. As a country, Americans know very well that they are overeating and that it is contributing to our ever-expanding waistlines and health problems. There have been countless studies and research that has gone into showing us that we are eating too much, but I think the more important question we need to address is when did we start overeating? I don’t mean as a nation, I mean you as an individual.

For the most part, you were not born eating too much food. In fact, if you look at children’s eating habits they are some of the best intuitive eaters. When they are hungry they will eat and when they are full they stop eating. If they don’t eat a huge lunch, they will usually eat more at dinner. They don’t obsess over certain foods or meal times. Trust me, they will let you know when they are hungry. I’ve worked as a nanny for the past two years and gotten to watch this first hand. It fascinates me how easy it is for a 2-year-old to grasp the concept of being full and being done with a meal. It doesn’t bother him if there are still five green beans left on his plate, or three graham cracker bunnies he didn’t eat. When he is done eating he is done eating and happily goes on with his day. Where did adults, the supposedly wiser and more sophisticated group, go wrong on this concept?

While there are many factors that contribute, one of the biggest influences is that of the parents, but I don’t think they are doing it on purpose. Most parents want their child to lead a healthy and happy life. They want to make sure that they are providing nutritious meals that will help their children grow. It can be really frustrating and even worrisome to have a child that seems to never eat. I know the struggle that can occur when you just want your kid to eat one bite of their meal because they haven’t eaten anything all day. But I also believe that sometimes parents need to be open to having their child guide their own eating habits. When parents stress over getting their children to eat, or force them to finish all their food on their plate, they could be setting their child up for future eating problems. Over time, if a child is cleaning his plate even though he is clearly not hungry, he will begin to lose that sense of satiety. He now knows that in order to be done with a meal, the plate needs to be empty, whether he is full or not.

Losing our sense of fullness can lead to other bad habits later on as well. Adam shared a study with me last week about teens not paying attention to how many calories they ate in a meal. While I am not a big supporter of religiously counting calories, it is interesting to see that most teens ignored the calorie count completely. I don’t know if there is a definite link between being aware of how much food you eat and our sense of fullness, but I think that they probably do affect each other. I know that there used to be many times I would be eating and I had no clue why. I wasn’t hungry, but somehow I was downing crackers like it was my business.

How do you regain your intuitive eating skills? It’s tough, but you can retrain your body to its childhood eating habits. Don’t expect the change to happen overnight and don’t expect to be perfect all the time. There will be days that you slip up and that is totally ok, just move on and do better next time. These are a few of the tips that I use to help me really tune in to my body’s signals.

Make sure you’re actually hungry. When you get the urge to grab a bag of chips or chow down on a huge meal, pause for just a second. Ask yourself a few questions, when was the last time I ate? Am I really hungry or am I bored/sad/depressed/around a bunch of other people eating? Will I feel better about myself after eating this meal or will I look back with regret? Once you answer those questions, you can better decide if you are actually hungry and ready to eat a meal. To take this a step further, drink a glass of water before you eat anything. Many times, we misread thirsty signals as hunger signals and immediately dive into a snack.

S L O W D O W N. When you are eating a meal, take your time. This can be a key factor in reading your “I’m full” signal. Sometimes we have a tendency to rush through a meal in ten minutes and not realize we had way more to eat than we really wanted or needed. Take a few bites, put your fork down, sip some water, and enjoy the flavor of your food. By giving your body those few extra minutes in between bites, you are letting it register the food you have already eaten and allowing you to know when you are full, before your plate is totally clean. Also, eat until you are pleasantly full, not bursting at the seams. No one likes that feeling of your waistband cutting in to your stomach after a huge chow fest.

Eat foods that will fill you up. You’re probably thinking, “Uh, Katie? Any food can fill me up.” Let me be a bit more specific. Choose foods that have a low density of calories, but high quantity.

400 calories of oil, from say your fried mozzarella sticks, will not fill you up as much as 400 calories of salad. You won’t feel full from that 400 calories of oil, so you’ll continue to eat until you do feel full, possibly taking in more food than your body really wants or needs. I am not saying that you have to ONLY eat vegetables in order to know when you’re full. What I am saying is that you need to choose foods that will fill you in the healthiest way. Including vegetables in your dinner of grilled chicken and brown rice is a very easy way to add bulk that won’t bulk you up.

Be patient, and kind, with yourself. Like I said before, it isn’t easy to retrain the way you eat or tune into your body. Don’t get frustrated if you slip up more than once. Realize that this is a process and it is OK to have setbacks, you’re human, not Superman. Just make sure that your slip ups don’t make you abandon everything and fall back into your old habits. Acknowledge that you had a setback and move on, vowing to make your next choice healthier. Constantly beating yourself up will not help you get to a healthier state.

Remember, we all started out as some of the best intuitive eaters out there. One way or another you might have lost that sense, but you CAN gain it back. I think that a lot of eating problems begin with our lack of awareness of our own bodies, at least that has been the case for me. Just because someone puts food on your plate, does not mean you absolutely have to eat all of it. I promise that eating every single scrap of food on your plate just because it’s there will never lead to a feeling of satisfaction. Knowing you have eaten exactly what you needed and the exact amount your body required will make you feel much happier and healthier!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

May 28, 2013 / ktbuchs87

I read a lot of health/fitness/nutrition blogs (shocking I know). I like to see what other people are finding out about their health, and I like to learn as much as I can. Plus it’s a good inspiration to see what other bloggers are doing, especially those that have been around for awhile. I have blogs that I follow regularly, but I also like to search new blogs. Lately I have noticed a sad trend among some health/fitness blogs: a lack of respect. That’s the topic I wanted to address today, as it is something that must be said.

So what exactly do I mean when I say that some blogs have a lack of respect? I am finding that more and more people are taking the “my way or the highway” approach to how they eat or workout. They believe that their particular lifestyle is THE perfect lifestyle and that if you don’t follow along then you are doing something bad for your health. How discouraging! I don’t doubt that whatever lifestyle they have chosen is perfect… for them. For them to say though that this is how everyone should be, however, is ignorant. They have no idea how another person’s body works or where a person might be in their health journey. SOme of these people will even go a step further with their convictions and make others feel that they are horribly damaging their health if they do not eat a particular way or follow a certain exercise program.

When I see this on a blog or in an article or even in a status update on facebook, it really upsets me. I feel that as a health blogger, I have a responsibility to encourage anyone who reads my blog to pursue better health, in whatever way works for them. When you alienate people by saying that eating Paleo or Vegan is the ONLY way to eat and doing CrossFit or yoga is the ONLY way to workout, you’re discouraging those who have tried those lifestyles and found that they don’t work for them. You’re essentially calling them failures, and no one wants to fail. Many would rather give up and continue with their poor health choices than feel like a failure for not being able to squat 350 lbs or eat only vegetable for every meal.

On the flip side, I am really excited that so many people out there have found something that truly works for them. I know that it can take a lot of trial and error to find that perfect balance. I know how exciting it can be to finally feel amazing both with your eating and your exercise routine. I know that you might want to tell EVERYONE how amazing you feel and how great it is. I have been there, and I have fallen into the trap as well. When I first started running, I thought to myself, “This is FANTASTIC!! Everyone should feel like this!” But I had to slowly realize that not everyone was as excited about running as I was. I had to learn that not everyone felt running 6 miles in 40 minutes was an accomplishment and that is OK. I realized that other people felt that lifting really heavy weights, or conquering a new yoga pose, or making it through a spin class was what gave them the feeling of great health. I learned that while I might thrive on a plant strong diet, other people couldn’t reach their optimal health without meat. We won’t all describe our ideal health in the same way and that is perfectly fine! The one thing that is important is that we do what we need to reach our ideal health. For me, I love running, kettle bell workouts and practicing yoga. I eat a mostly plant based diet and I am working on not beating myself up for having a treat every once and awhile. That’s my idea of a healthy lifestyle. It might not be yours, but I want you to feel encouraged to find what does make you feel the healthiest.

If you do run across a blog or article or even a person who makes you feel that you are a failure because you aren’t doing exactly what they are doing, please don’t feel discouraged with your own journey. Finding your optimal health is a very personal journey so try to understand that no one will be able to tell you exactly what to do. We (as in us health bloggers) can give you advice and tell you what has worked for us, but in the end you should try multiple diets and multiple exercise programs to find your perfect balance. And when you finally do and feel that rush of excitement, remember to channel that feeling into encouragement for others who might be struggling to find their way. A sense of community and support among the health world is what is going to help us get more and more people at their peak performance, not narrow-mindedness or alienation. Respect. Give it out freely and I can bet you will get much more in return!

Unique

May 20, 2013 / ktbuchs87

I am going to bet good money that you have been told at some point in your life that you are a unique and special individual, that there is no one else just like you. It’s a message that we hear a lot, we’re all individuals and we should embrace our own quirks and personalities. I think it’s a good message and I’m not writing today to bash sentiment, but rather extend it to other parts of our life, mainly eating (go figure).

It’s no secret that my big mantra for healthy eating/living is what works for me might not work for you. I have talked about it before, but more and more I think it is a message that we need to hear again. It seems that every day a new study comes out touting that a new diet is THE way to eat. More recently the Mediterranean diet has been in the news and folks are jumping on that eating bandwagon. I’ve fallen victim to diet hype many times, so I know how tempting it can be to start a new diet craze. We get drawn in by the people who have had amazing results (lost weight, have more energy, can do 1,00 push-ups in a minute etc.), the scientific studies proving that this diet is effective, and the doctors/nutritionist/celebrities representing the diet. Marketing people know how to parade their product/idea to get consumers to buy, that’s their job.

I’m not here to bash these diets either, although there are some fairly terrible ones out there that no one should touch with a ten-foot pole (cabbage soup diet anyone?). In fact I believe that these diets can be successful, but not for every single person. There is no possible way that one diet can meet the needs of the billions of people on this planet, and you know what? That is totally ok! For some reason, people tend to think that if everyone else is eating a certain way, they need to do that too. Take gluten-free diets. The number of people who have Celiac’s Disease (meaning they literally can NOT have any form of gluten) is about 1.8 million, with 1.4 million people out there undiagnosed. The number of people who are following a gluten-free diet? 1.6 million. Gluten-free has become a fad diet that people think will make them healthier, but there are a good number of people out there who have no need to follow a gluten free diet. It can actually cause them more harm than good, mainly because their body doesn’t NEED to avoid gluten.

What we really need to start pushing in terms of healthy eating and living is that it is a unique journey. Just like you yourself are a special individual, your body is a special individual as well. For me, I do well and thrive on a diet of whole fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and no processed food, preservatives, chemicals, gluten or dairy. Through trial and error I have found a way of eating that give my body the nutrients it needs to perform well. I would never say that every single person needs to eat the way that I do though. Case in point: My parents came over for dinner last weekend and I made sloppy joes with lentils instead of meat. Now my father is a meat eater, always has been. I think that if possible he would just munch on cow all day every day. That is fine and that is what works for him. He was receptive to my vegan sloppy joes and even said they tasted great, but they did not agree with him later on. He has a digestive system that thrives on eating meat and feels his best eating that way.

What do you do though to find your happy diet? Try. Yes, this seems like really stupid advice, but it’s the best way to find what will work. My best suggestion would be to do some research on a few different diets that interest you. Say you feel drawn to eating less meat, look into vegan and/or vegetarian diets. Once you have educated yourself on the basic principles of whatever eating lifestyle, start implementing those into your diet. When you have been eating a certain way for awhile, assess your health. How do you feel? Do you notice improvements in your life like more energy, better skin, healthier bowel movements (of course I am going to mention poop!)? Or do you feel the same or worse than before? If you feel better continue eating that way, and if not start the process over again or make some adjustments. I want to stress though how important it is to stick with a certain diet for a good amount of time before switching. You won’t be able to really assess your health after only a week of eating a new way. It could take up to a few months to really start seeing the benefits. Give your body some time to adjust and then evaluate your situation. Yes, this can be a long process and may seem tedious, but your health is worth it in the end.

Now bear in mind, I am not giving you license to justify junk eating by saying this is the diet that allows you to thrive. I still believe that eating whole and real foods like fresh vegetables and grass-fed humanely raised meat are much better for everyone than processed or packaged food. My main point is that we need to stop worrying about what our friends and neighbors are eating and start focusing more on what makes us feel great. For some that might be a mostly Paleo diet, others might do well on a vegetarian or vegan diet, still others might thrive eating gluten-free. It’s all about finding your perfect balance and not being nervous to step outside of the diet of the moment. I understand it can be difficult for some of us to go against the grain, I still get a little anxious about listing all of the things I don’t eat. I worry that I will be a hassle to others or they might think I’m just trying to get attention or that I am not eating the right way. But the longer I have eaten this way and been more open about it, I’ve realized I value the amazing way I feel rather than what others think about my eating habits. Don’t be afraid to stand up for what makes you feel the healthiest, because in the end that is what matters the most!

In other news, my little sister graduated from Valparaiso yesterday! I am so proud of all she has accomplished and can’t wait to see what she will do next! Congratulations to all graduates out there!

Congrats Jo!

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!