Friday, January 24, 2014

Food as Fuel… an Update

This year I have not made any resolutions, as such, but have decided to choose a theme for each month… an area of particular interest to me, or an area in which I think I need to put in some extra effort. 

For January my focus as been on Food as Fuel… fuel for my body, which, to me means good nutrition to compliment the workouts I am doing and give my body what it needs for optimum health and performance. I believe that the food we eat either contributes to our health or detracts from it. And I believe what I eat should also taste good, and be visually appealing, too. 

Do you agree?  Or do you eat just to get it over with?

I used to have a friend who ate the same thing EVERY night for dinner because it tasted okay to him and it was easy... Baked potato with butter, BBQ'd beef steak, and green peas. Even if we went out for dinner, he always ordered the same meal.  He ate cause he was hungry and for no other reason, so it didn't matter to him what he ate.

But back to me.

I thought I would follow a Whole 30 Paleo Plan for the month, keeping it within the guidelines of the new Weight Watchers Simple Start program, and watching my macro nutrient percentages too.  Big goal it was… and I have not followed through 100%.  I did stay with it all for the first couple of weeks… but  then I enjoyed a couple of chosen indulgences which were not on the Whole 30 approved list.  I confess, it was red wine.

But overall, I am happy with the way it has gone. I am not looking to lose any weight, so you may wonder why the Weight Watchers program.  Simple Start is comprised of whole, real, nutrient-dense food… fruits, veggies, lean proteins… and, if you eat them, whole grains, and fat free dairy products, along with some ‘treats’.  I think it is the best program I have seen from Weight Watchers, by far… no weighing, measuring, tracking, counting… just good wholesome food, and as much as you need to be satisfied.  I work out, and I run, and I am active, so I get hungry… and the program supports that, and I eat as needed.  Wonderful. Sensible. Healthy.  HURRAY!

But I do love to read about nutrition and am always curious as to how what we eat affects our bodies and our health so I have these books out of the library right now.

Jan 24 Books 001

There are so many different points of view as to what one should eat… and although I certainly don’t follow them all or even agree with them all, (how could you when so many of them contradict each other) I do like to see what is out there. 

Do you like to read about nutrition?  What is your personal food philosophy?

7 comments:

  1. I love the food as fuel philosophy and totally agree with it. I also enjoy reading about nutrition but sometimes I wish I had someone who would just spell it all out for me and I didn't have to think about the balance of protein to carbs to fats.

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  2. I am a nutrition teacher so of course I love reading about nutrition! I don't have any dietary restrictions so I just try to eat what I think is healthy!

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  3. I love to read about nutrition too. But, then I get information overload and just go back to focusing on eating real food, and eating when I'm hungry and stopping when I'm full. Sounds like the Simple Start program :-)

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  4. I wrote about this Wednesday - my philosophy for many moons has always been to find what worked for me & especially what I could be happy with long term. I never followed any specific program even when I first lost weight.. it was always about what I could live with & be happy with AND fit into my life schedule for any point in time. :)

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  5. I think I'm kind of in the middle here. I'm not really a foodie, and I like fairly simple food. I have a huge sweet tooth though, and that's a problem. Sometimes I really enjoy a meal I've made because it's from scratch and it's beautiful food. But most of the time, it's just food.

    To answer your question about my car: my mom opened the back door to get out of my car just as my husband was pulling into the next space over. Her door caught on the handle of his passenger side door, tearing the handle off his door, bending my Mom's door in two places and pushing it back on its hinge, thus also denting the driver's door (mine) on its back edge. We just got my husband's car back from the repair shop. It alone was $1800, and the damage to my car is much worse. Thank goodness for insurance!

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  6. I LOVE to read about nutrition. And I love to read cookbooks too...more than I like to actually cook! ;)

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  7. I am interested in that Coconut oil book. I love coconut so much! I like reading about nutrition too.

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