Here’s the deal

Surprisingly lovely succulent- Stonecrop

So, I often say that I am honest to a fault and sometimes it doesn’t win me friends, but here’s the deal:

Weight is an issue. Excess weight costs money in more ways than simply filling the refriderator every few days. Clinical obesity costs everyone big time! Sometimes I think about the Disney movie “Wallie” where the robot is left on earth to function while the people have lost their minds and bodies to excess weight and mind numbing monitor control (aka: computers, TVs, and other tech devices) and I can’t help but think about the scariness of that prediction. We have become a society so full of “feelings” that we don’t want to speak up for the right way to live. Healthy lifestyles full of good nutrition that fuels us to be active and productive and positive each day are what we should be striving for.

The latest survey about the staggering numbers of weighty trends in USAToday’s article, Obesity rate may hit 42% by 2030, should have EVERYONE thinking.  If company’s are falling prey to excess health claims tied to chronic conditions fueled by sedentary lifestyles and those companies can’t afford to help folks with their medical bills the way they used to, then what is going to happen to the largest employer in our country…the government, when they can’t afford this either.  Folks, we are all paying and we have to take control of the excess weight before it controls us.

On a personal level, lets think about your daily nutrition. If junk food is full of empty calories and you are consuming it often then of course you will still be hungry all the time and looking for more to eat. Your body needs nutrients that give it empowering energy. If you are a person who simply can’t stand vegetables I have a couple of ways to approach it: 1. Get over it and get on with it…you needs them. Drinking glasses of metamucil to poop and still continuing to eat fatty fried foods is not the answer to cleaning your system. Sorry, it’s true. You must intake valuable nutrition becasue, well, you are valuable and want to be full of life and comfortable as you age.  2. Understand that eating IS the issue. If you’re taste buds no longer “crave” good foods, it’s likely you have changed the nature of those taste buds yourself and it’s time to reverse and reteach yourself some basics.  When you eat refined, pure white sugars all the time then your sugar receptors are constantly screaming at you to get more sweets! A sugar withdrawl is much like a drug addits withdrawl only YOU have to coach yourself through it…you can’t be locked up in jail for too many snickers!  You have to understand that your body doesn’t “need” it, you just have conditioned it to want it all the time because of the sugar rush that “gives” you energy.

I was so sad the other day at work when a young mother was looking for a “snack” because she hadn’t eaten breakfast and was starved. I offered her a tangerine and a honey toasted granola. She honestly replied, “Oh, that’s not enough, I have a Snickers in my bag and that should satisfy me. It has everything I need.”  After talking about the actual nutrition in her bar, she learned that sugar is not a good calorie for fueling an afternoon at work. She also discovered that the tangerine was sweet and tasted refreshing, like juice.

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