It's Crazy Out There

It's amazing the way we kid ourselves sometimes, absolutely amazing.  That point was brought home a couple of days ago when I was watching a cooking program on TV while I got ready for my day.  The program, and the cook, will remain nameless to protect the innocent, or guilty, as the case may be :-).

< Warning:  I'm going to talk about food, so if this could be a problem for you, you might want to skip the rest of this blog! >

The theme of the program was bananas and the cook took a minute to explain how healthy bananas were, full of potassium and very heart-healthy.  Immediately after telling the audience how heart-healthy bananas were, the next words out of the cook's mouth were, "Now add 6 tablespoons of butter . . . " and the cook went on to roll the bananas in the butter and then in a mixture of other definitely not-healthy things.  After baking the concoction for a few minutes, the cook concluded this segment by telling the audience that they could feel good about feeding their families something "so healthy." 

It's no wonder that the obesity rate continues to escalate!  For those of us on Take Shape for Life/Medifast 5&1, our commitment to lose weight and pursue a healthy lifestyle gets more counter-cultural all the time.  There is a lot of lip service in this country about healthier eating, but when we look around, it's hard to find.  Restaurant portions are out of control, TV cooks promote high calorie, high fat dishes, and I read about a Denver eatery that challenges patrons to devour an entire 28-inch, 11-pound combo pizza in under two hours and win $1,000.  There seems to be a new level of insanity when it comes to eating, and there is a real disconnect between the growing concern about the health of our citizens and the habits that are driving obesity.  For so many people, knowing what to do just doesn't translate into doing it.

That's why what we're doing now is so important.  This is a time of not only losing weight, but also creating new, healthy food habits that will enable us to KEEP it off.  Getting those healthy habits in place now, and also changing how we think - and feel - about food is key to successful maintenance.  The popular culture is going in a direction we don't want to go, and there are no signs that things will turn around any time soon.

Learning to make healthy choices now, one day at a time, will help us make healthy choices later.  It may not be easy now, and I can promise you that it won't be easier later, but it IS possible.  Focus on what you want, then choose wisely :-).