Be Free

In the pursuit of happiness we reach a point where we need to decide whether we want to be happy now or wait for the pursuit to be over.

This post is in reference to the many "free day" or "cheat days" posts about the foods people want, or are going to eat. If you are religious than being free may mean something different than if you are a 15 year old, and different still if you are family or friend of a veteran. However free day's, in and of themselves, make the point that you are not free every other day. The idea that one day a week you get to eat whatever you want, is that healthy? Does that mean that on those days you binge on what you can't have on the other days? Do we then pressure ourselves to eat what we can't have the other days because this is your only chance for happiness?

Why is it okay to be free to choose everywhere except our diet?

In the end, my qualms with cheat days can simply be understood as follows. If someone is chained up for 6 days and then free 1, eventually do you think they will go back to the chain. Can you live your life for 70 years hooking yourself back up to the chain after the free day?

You can still eat food, you just don't need to get a route 44 soda, or a large milkshake. It could be a small milkshake or a kid's cone depending on the place. And if you really just love food, show it the by enjoying it, not engulfing it.

What has helped you to have a healthy relationship with food?


- Eat Wise

Why be Healthy?

When I was really good at writing in a journal I did it because I thought that one day my kids would benefit from reading it and realizing that I wasn't always this cool, I had to work on it. That got me to thinking, is it easier for you to do things for yourself because you want to, or to do things for yourself because it will benefit someone else.

For instance, there was research that was done on hospital sanitation practices regarding those hand wash gels hanging on every wall. They wanted to know what the best way to help people use it. They kept data on how often they were used and discovered that doctors were more likely to use them if a sign was posted next to them saying something regarding how we are helping patients versus protecting themselves. So doctors were more likely to use hand gel when they thought they were helping someone else.

How does this relate to nutrition and more importantly, how does this relate to you?

Sometimes we need to look at something a new way for a reason for us to change. If the reason you want to be healthier is for your kids or so you can see your grand kids so be it. If it is to ride a boogie board or to run a road race that's cool too. If it's too not get sick from chronic illness that's good too. However, it's always to better to do something because you love it rather than you are afraid of the consequences if you don't do it. We all have our reasons for why we are who we are and some are more conscious than others. Don't try to lose weight, try to be healthy and if losing weight happens so be it. 

There is a famous quote from Hippocrates that says, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be they food." We have become pretty good at letting medicine become our food, but what about food being our medicine?

Nutrition was meant to be a preventative medicine, that's when it work. Rarely can you treat a chronic disease with nutrition. When that happens, you are managing. With insulin dependent diabetes (when you need insulin shots for your body to use the carbohydrates you eat) what you eat isn't fixing the diabetes if it has come to that point. What you eat simply makes it easier to manage the illness. With Celiac Disease (you have problems with gluten) or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, nothing you eat fixes it, it just doesn't make it worse. That's why in nutrition they try to work with kids. But in working with kids parents usually tag along.  For the most part kids don't by groceries, kids don't cook, and kids don't pack lunches.

I was always told it doesn't matter how fast you're going, it matters your direction. If you get off on a detour, just get back to heading the right direction. You will have set backs in life, but the great thing is that those set backs don't have to be break downs.

Let me know why you want to be healthy.

- Eat Wise

Clean Plate Club

I have talked a little bit about focusing on what you eat because of the connection you have between your food. Some people however are members of the "clean plate club." Those of us that have been inducted into this club may have been raised in a home where you had to finish your food before you could leave the table. You may feel that food cost money, and money is tight, so not eating that food is like throwing money in the trash. You could also have grown up in a culture where food is a way of showing love and friendship so you must eat to be polite.

Here are some simple ways to deal with the clean plate club.

1.) Use smaller plates, bowls, silverware, straws, and so on.

    When you go to drink a milkshake you have experienced the small straw that the crushed oreo cookie can't fit through and you get ticked. Perhaps you have gone to an event where there was professed to be food only to find they had the mini plates you can only fit 6 grapes and a croissant on without stacking and "looking greedy." This was all done on purpose.

    If it takes you longer to eat you will eat less. When you eat your body starts digesting in the mouth (a reason crackers turn to mush), there's more to saliva than just water.  It takes time however for your body to send those signals to your brain and if you are eating too fast to pay attention to your body it won't matter if you get the signal anyway. This will prevent you from loading a plate and then "having" to eat the rest of the food even if you're full.

2.) Start with smaller portions.

    This goes along with the first tip but some of us don't want to go out and buy new plates etc. There is research to show that their are visual cues that help you to check in and think about whether you are hungry or not. Leaving wrappers or shells of eaten foods visible is a great way to see what you've already eaten.

3.) Don't be a greedy eater.

  If you are full and you don't want to finish but that food "needs" to be eaten, offer a spouse, kid, or parent.

4.) Get a to go box.

  Granted this doesn't always work because some food is just not good reheated, but its a tool to keep in your box. If you won't eat reheated salmon, but reheated mashed potatoes are okay, eat what "can't" be reheated first.

What tactics do you use to get away from the clean plate club?

-Eat Wise

What if?

I just wanted to get a few perspectives on what you would do if you were "skinny"...

Would you wear your favorite outfit?

Go go-karting?

Run a marathon shirtless?


You can comment on this and leave it as anonymous if you'd like.

Let me know what you think!

-Eat Wise