Everywhere you look, obesity is there. I am not advocating to be a food policeman, but we need to start making a voice in our land. People do not like being overweight. But certain foods are addictive and the public needs to be educated on proper unbiased nutrition. Meat and dairy products and foods that are fried are absolutely in no way beneficial to the human body. The human physiological system is completely adaptable to a total vegetarian diet. But with the refined sugars and fatty foods that poison our body and cloud our minds, addiction sets in deep and becomes 'nearly' impossible to break the bonds.
I am challenging every nurse to take up the baton on this one. If we, health care professionals cannot make the first stand on the nutrition value of America, then the general population have little to no hope.
The thing that I find that works for my family is pretty simple: spending actual time in the kitchen, and not stockpiling boxes of brownie mix. We like healthy food, but that means someone has to cook it.
For the last two years I've had my daughter take her lunch to school, and about once a month I give her money to buy a school lunch. She doesn't mind routines (autistics thrive on routines) so the relative "sameness" of her lunch is perfectly fine with her. Hence two veggie/fruit portions during lunch, we buy good high fiber bread for the sandwiches and occasionally treat her with organic peanut butter. Any type of fruit she wants to try, I'll buy it just to keep some variety going. It takes a whole ten minutes to give her a decent lunch. For dinner she usually gets something out of the freezer and microwaves it. (That'd be because I have to work!)
I do my cooking by the week. If I don't cook for a particular week then I eat $20 more frozen food and by the next week I'm ready for some good food. I make rice and veggie dishes... I like to eat meat but for some reason don't really enjoy cooking it. My husband will eat what I cook if I put it in the fridge. He brings me take-out occasionally, and I supplement my protein needs with nuts, beans, protein bars, and smoothies.
For eating out, we have a "list" of places we go. Burger joints are NOT on the list. Taco bell is, but mostly 'cause it's my daughter's treat. We do salads in place of fries for the most part, and my hubby's sworn off sodas altogether.
My daughter has slimmed down a bit, but I think it's also due to a late growth spurt, 'cause she's grown an inch or so vertically. My husband's weight is about the same. I run my tootie off at work and I count that as approximately 20-30 hours a week of pure cardio, and I'm maintaining just fine.
I won't discuss what other people should do, since I am perfectly aware that everybody's metabolism is different. Many people make an effort, in some way, to either lose weight or eat healthy, as they define healthy. But there is a trend to want everything we do, to be convenient. I really believe that if it's worth doing, we'll do even if it takes time and can't be done instantly. I also think a lot of my patients don't listen to my advice on diet, coming from a little gal; just like if I tell 'em to quit smoking, 'cause I don't identify with them easily.
It's interesting to see my posts of four years ago on this thread.
I've kind of gone full circle. I was kind of like katlynn's husband above a "junkitarian" even though I didn't eat meat. Then as I was indicating about ten pages back, I was switching to a meat eating lowe glycemic way of eating. That didn't work for me and I'm back to vegetarianism.
Personally I can't fast, but I do know there is a definate difference in how I feel and look when I'm eating healthy (whole grains, beans, nuts, fruits and veggies, tofu and soy products, along with occasional organic eggs and some dairy) than when I'm being a junkitarian.
Detoxing by fasting, etc. doesn't have a lot of scientific evidence behind it. But there is a lot of verbal reports from people, such as Mercy above, that it has a definate effect on how they feel physically.
Personally I can't fast, going junk food free and eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking lots of water for a few days leaves me feeling "detoxed" as well. Eating highly processed and fatty foods leaves me feeling toxic. I have been feeling toxic lately.
Like Indy above, it's enough for me to take care of myself. I know what works best for me and my body and thats vegetarianism for now. I don't talk about it unless asked.
Honestly, my two prime motivators are that I like to feel good, and fear. Fear of being like my mom who can't sit for over 30 minutes without her tummy cutting off circulation to her legs. Fear of my metabolism that once was hypoglycemic, betraying me and saying hello to diabetes. Fear of being the patient in the bed with the MI who has to rethink every single food and lifestyle habit in order to live well and avoid CHF. Fear of my family history and fondness for cheeseburgers at 2 am catching up with me. (night shift is wonderful except for the food.)
It sure was nice when I was much younger and just thought about eating what tasted good!
Honestly, my two prime motivators are that I like to feel good, and fear. Fear of being like my mom who can't sit for over 30 minutes without her tummy cutting off circulation to her legs. Fear of my metabolism that once was hypoglycemic, betraying me and saying hello to diabetes. Fear of being the patient in the bed with the MI who has to rethink every single food and lifestyle habit in order to live well and avoid CHF. Fear of my family history and fondness for cheeseburgers at 2 am catching up with me. (night shift is wonderful except for the food.)
It sure was nice when I was much younger and just thought about eating what tasted good!
While it may be fear based, it's still preventative medicine to take care yourself by not wanting those kinds of complications.
I don't care how long I live, but I'd like my later years if I live that long not be 60 years old gasping for air or clutching my chest with angina just by walking to the bathroom.
There are no guarantees, and there are some exceptions, but I'm thinking about my future too.
If it doesn't affect your job performance I really don't care. Weight,tats, piercing whatever. I don't care if they ate a snickers for lunch. My primary doctor is a hippy and a recovery alcoholic. No complaints.
Nurses aren't above addiction. Their just people ya know.
I realize my last post sounded a little negative. Not my intention. I'm a waitress so i feed people 4 days a week 6 hours a day. I've just seen a lot of things that trouble me especially when it comes to kids. Just venting
Oh and....I'm a vegetarian but I'm not a member of PETA. I have better things to do in my spare time than throw paint on people's furs and get arrested.
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
If people aren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat??:chuckle
Seriously.........As I approach the half-century mark, things have started happening to my body that have made me think long and hard about using food as a crutch, which is what I've done for most of my life. It's not easy changing horses in mid-stream, but I'm doing it because I've got more reasons to live than ever before, and I want some QUALITY of life as well as quantity. When you're 354 pounds, as I was up until this past autumn, you have neither. I hated getting up in the morning and panting like a dog just putting my clothes on. I hated not being able to get down on the floor and play with my grandson. I hated feeling like my poor heart and lungs were literally getting the life squeezed out of them by all the fat surrounding them. Most of all, I hated knowing I'd done it all to myself---no one ever held a gun to my head and forced me to eat an entire bag of Oreos in one day, or stuff myself until my eyes were ready to pop out of my head.
Luckily, God---or whatever one calls the force of nature that turns things around when you're at your wits' end---decided to work a miracle with me. I got cellulitis in my face and right ear in late November, was sicker than a dog, went off my feed...........and have never gotten back on. Something crossed over in me, and since then I've seldom felt the urge to eat when I wasn't actually stomach-growling hungry. At first I still ate a lot of sweets, because that was what I was used to and I thought they filled a need, but I seem to have lost my craving for them over the past few months and rarely eat more than a few bites of dessert. For some reason I've also stopped the mindless eating, and instead of sitting on the sofa with a bag of chips, I've found myself taking a handful, putting them on a plate, and eating them with a sandwich for supper.
Now I've lost almost 30 pounds, effortlessly, and suddenly I feel the need to do more physical things..........I'm still dangerously obese, and I'm dealing with a lot of aches, pains, strains, and other sequelae of weighing over 300#. But I feel so much better, both physically and psychologically, that I've started working in the garden again and doing heavier chores around the house. It's like my body is crying out for exercise, and while I'm not ready to undertake a formal activity program---yet---I can foresee a time when I will be. Again, it's a quality-of-life issue.........I'm still only middle-aged, I should have many more years left in which to enjoy life, but the weight is just getting in the way now. I don't need it any more, and evidently I no longer need food to cope with life.
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
Thank you, Tweety. I appreciate the kind words, they do mean a lot to me!
Yes, I do take responsibility for my fat problem. I blamed my mother for my compulsive eating for probably the first 15 years after I got fat, but now that she's been gone for the better part of 20, it's hard to make a case for putting it all off on anyone but myself. She certainly didn't help me, but as a part of the 'diet culture' of the 1960s when it seemed every female past infancy was on a diet, she didn't know better---all she knew was that she didn't want me to go through what she'd been through as an overweight woman.
I, unfortunately, saw her concern over my food intake as just another way of controlling me, and I rebelled outright........much to my own detriment. I wasn't overweight as a child or teenager, but I got that way when I started having babies, and I continued to eat and eat, many years past the time when adolescent rebellion was an appropriate description of what I was doing.
I have a long way to go in terms of eating nutritiously; but for the time being, I simply refuse to eat ANYTHING that doesn't 'wow' me. Right now, I'm probably eating too much bread and Grape-Nuts for good health, but they are what I seem to need at this point in time........fruit doesn't sound particularly appealing, and about the only veggies I'm eating regularly are salad greens, green beans, and corn. I'm eating a fair amount of fish and drinking a good deal of milk---another thing I seem to crave lately.
But I figure it's more important for me to learn WHEN to eat, and what my body wants, rather than force myself to eat foods that don't appeal to me. I don't have enough appetite anymore to do that---my stomach will not accept more food than it can handle just because my mind says "Eat the apple, eat the broccoli, it's good for you". If I don't want it, I don't eat it---period. There's nothing dumber than craving a food, resisting the urge, eating a bunch of stuff you don't want, and then finally giving in to the craving and eating what you wanted in the first place. I don't even want to think of the calories I've saved by just eating the darn bagel I want in the afternoon, rather than having the big lunch and then going and eating the bagel anyway.:stone
And another thing about this routine: Sometimes, I want a few bites of cake frosting. So I eat just the frosting and leave the cake. It might look a little weird, but who cares? It's my hips that are going to wear that cake---why eat it when I'm not hungry for it?
So yes, my diet is not the best. But I feel better, and I'm sure once I have this body-listening habit down, it will start telling me it wants more fruits and veggies and fewer bagels and Grape-Nuts.
My reason for losing weight (lost about 65 lbs this past year or so) was because I didn't want to be a "5-person sheet transfer" LOL and my hubby was getting that "hmm is diabetes around the corner" look. We did it together. Have a ways to go still I think, but we're keeping it off so more.
Everyone kept asking us what "Diet" we were on but honestly, we aren't on any diet, per se. We cut out ALL the fast food and quit buying junk food - if it's not in the house, I'm too lazy to go buy it! It was really really hard at first, #1 cause I really don't like to cook much and I had to, obviously. I still don't like to cook. 2nd, because we'd been eating fast food soooooo often, it wasn't easy to just turn it off. But after a while, we lost the craving for it. So, yeah it was doable, but now comes keeping it off. I hover between a certain 5 lbs back and forth, but I'm trying.
I guess my point, and there is a point, is that we're an example of folks who did lose weight, but it was NOT easy, let me tell you. We did discover lower fat choices in the grocery store that it turned out we really liked, but we did a lot of experimenting to find those things. The words "low fat", "diet", etc are a big turn off, the perception is they taste like crap. It'd be a lot easier if healthier, lower fat things were the NORM in the grocery store, not the exception you have to go look for.
The other thing is, we don't exercise. And we know we should. Heck, after 3 or 4 12-hour shifts, the LAST thing I want to do is go running, walking, biking, or whatever. I'm TIRED.
So this whole wieght thing in our country is a huge, difficult muddle - it's NOT easy to lose weight you have, or keep it from accumulating. All the EASY to make/eat things are high fat, high calorie, lousy for you. But this isn't the 1950's where mom was home with nothing to do but nap the toddlers, vacuum the house and plan 6 months of home-cooked meals.
And kids today? When I was a kid, the ONLY kid shows on TV were on Saturday morning - they were a TREAT. The rest of the time, if we wanted to be entertained, we went down to the park, built tree forts (and fell out of them), played on the jungle gym (over the nice asphalt ground), played dodgeball in the street (and dodge-car I guess). If we had research for school, we went to the library. We had recess in school - a time designed specifically to get out and run around, blow off some of that steam (and by extension, were better behaved in the afternoon in class). And we had that recess 30 minutes TWICE a day. I certainly don't feel my education suffered for it.
Ok this turned into a rant but I guess my total point is.. our lifestyles in general now are very different. Adults are MORE busy, with less healthy options for getting it all done (and still working to pay our bills), and kids have no incentive for getting out and running around and playing - they can be entertained anytime, 24-hours a day, right in front of a screen.
We can get specific about who's healthier - veggies, carnivores, joggers, whatever - but it's our culture that has become less healthy in recent decades. And that's going to take some major kinda change, gradually over time (like it went the other way) that will maybe ease our culture back in a healthier direction. The nation as a whole will not go cold-turkey.
Incidently, just so you don't think I'm playing holier-than-thou because I lost some weight. My next goal is to quit smoking but I'm thinking they'll have to legalize free xanax at work first. So, perfect I am NOT!!
Specializes in Accepted...Master's Entry Program, 2008!.
The other thing is, we don't exercise. And we know we should. Heck, after 3 or 4 12-hour shifts, the LAST thing I want to do is go running, walking, biking, or whatever. I'm TIRED.
So...is running around during 3 or 4 shifts not considered exercise? 'Cause I think it is....
One thing I don't see on here is portion control. I bet 9 out of 10 people have no idea what a portion is. I started dating again a while ago and that involved lots of going out to eat. You can make healthy choices in a restaurant, but I've noticed that you are on your own as far as portions.
I've never seen a restaurant that served "1 serving" of anything. The ones that were close to that got complaints for being "too chintzy" ("They are so cheap with their food!") People would rather have the 18 servings of pasta from the place down the street. It's just absurd. And certainly no help to the population.
Once you get used to that serving size, you don't know anymore. Soon you serve 6 portions of pasta, or chicken or whatever while you are home, not realizing that you're doing it. I think that's a big deal.
And of course what all the previous posters said about lack of exercise. I've never had a problem with that, and I'm not sure why but I attribute it to my parents. Both of them kept very, very active (and they still are today) and I guess I learned it from them. They are now in their 60s and are still the same size they've always been.
I think it's a shame that parents don't or can't instill values in their children like that. I'm happy that my parents did. It makes a huge difference.
Indy, LPN, LVN
1,444 Posts
The thing that I find that works for my family is pretty simple: spending actual time in the kitchen, and not stockpiling boxes of brownie mix. We like healthy food, but that means someone has to cook it.
For the last two years I've had my daughter take her lunch to school, and about once a month I give her money to buy a school lunch. She doesn't mind routines (autistics thrive on routines) so the relative "sameness" of her lunch is perfectly fine with her. Hence two veggie/fruit portions during lunch, we buy good high fiber bread for the sandwiches and occasionally treat her with organic peanut butter. Any type of fruit she wants to try, I'll buy it just to keep some variety going. It takes a whole ten minutes to give her a decent lunch. For dinner she usually gets something out of the freezer and microwaves it. (That'd be because I have to work!)
I do my cooking by the week. If I don't cook for a particular week then I eat $20 more frozen food and by the next week I'm ready for some good food. I make rice and veggie dishes... I like to eat meat but for some reason don't really enjoy cooking it. My husband will eat what I cook if I put it in the fridge. He brings me take-out occasionally, and I supplement my protein needs with nuts, beans, protein bars, and smoothies.
For eating out, we have a "list" of places we go. Burger joints are NOT on the list. Taco bell is, but mostly 'cause it's my daughter's treat. We do salads in place of fries for the most part, and my hubby's sworn off sodas altogether.
My daughter has slimmed down a bit, but I think it's also due to a late growth spurt, 'cause she's grown an inch or so vertically. My husband's weight is about the same. I run my tootie off at work and I count that as approximately 20-30 hours a week of pure cardio, and I'm maintaining just fine.
I won't discuss what other people should do, since I am perfectly aware that everybody's metabolism is different. Many people make an effort, in some way, to either lose weight or eat healthy, as they define healthy. But there is a trend to want everything we do, to be convenient. I really believe that if it's worth doing, we'll do even if it takes time and can't be done instantly. I also think a lot of my patients don't listen to my advice on diet, coming from a little gal; just like if I tell 'em to quit smoking, 'cause I don't identify with them easily.