Does healthy = expensive?

Alright, months into my efforts to transform, and having had very little time to actually maintain the blog, I’m down a size (wheeee!) which may not seem like a huge success to most people, but in my long term outlook, it’s a major accomplishment.

The bigger accomplishment is that I am routinely cooking and eating healthier meals, eating smaller portions and making smarter choices over all. I’ve yet to get back into the regular exercise habit – my schedule has made that a huge struggle, but I keep trying. I am at least managing regular stretching and some yoga.

Now that I’ve been in this mode long enough, I’ve run into some interesting attitudes and realities.

One of those attitudes says that eating healthy is expensive. Well, let’s be real here, huh? Sure, opting for a vegetarian, truly organic, or other specialty diet is not “cheap” at all!

But that’s not what eating healthier has to mean. How about using more fresh fruits and veggies? What about giving up boxed meals and side dishes? Or choosing healthier starches?

Fresh fruits and veggies in season are not expensive items. In fact, for the most part, they’re pretty darned affordable.

Opting to give up the boxed convenience may seem more expensive at first, since you have to invest in things like seasonings you might not otherwise have bought. But you have to remember, those seasonings will be appearing in several dishes. Even that most expensive of seasonings, saffron, is not expensive when you consider how little of it you actually use in each dish. Meanwhile, you’re getting rid of a ton of sodium and preservatives, and eating foods that are far better for you – plus far better tasting – than anything that ever came out of a cardboard box or tin can.

Healthier starches is the one area where it does seem to be more expensive to buy the healthier “whole” grains as opposed to the processed ones. Brown rice is more expensive than white, sure. But guess what? It’s still downright cheap as a food choice! Whole grain breads aren’t inexpensive, but dust off that bread machine in the cabinet and head to the health food store – those whole grain flours are not expensive at all, and the bread you make is free of preservatives…

And a little digging into health food or “ethnic” groceries will often result in new nad interesting grain discoveries that are both cheap, and delicious!

So, finances are no excuse! Those claiming that it’s cheaper to eat junk simply haven’t realized the power of a little effort. Sure, it may cost more in time, but the benefit is a healthier diet – for life!

Oooo – salad! Healthy! But…

What’s the deal here? I’m trying to lose weight, not gain it!

I went out to lunch with some friends from work, and since I knew dinner was going to be less than light, and I was really in the mood for greenery, I figured I’d order a salad, it seemed a healthy alternative to the other choices.

Now, would someone tell me when restaurants stopped serving salads that at least vaguely resemble healthy choices and turned them into nightmares covered in fried chicken (yes, fried), cheese, nuts, gigantic “house made” toasted bread cubes dripping in grease, and a host of other things?

It’s not that I don’t understand the salad as a meal – I do. It’s not that I don’t enjoy a salad full of stuff other than just lettuce – I do. But holy cow, I was ordering a side salad and the choices (I kid you not) included stuff like:

~ Lettuce topped with toasted almonds, chow mein noodles, fried chicken strips, sesame seeds, and some specialty “Asian” dressing.

~ Lettuce topped with bleu cheese, candied pecans, cranberries, mandarin oranges, fried chicken strips and some raspberry dressing.

~ Lettuce topped with an assortment of cheeses, chopped ham and turkey, boiled egg and your choice of Ranch, Thousand Island, Italian or Bleu Cheese dressing.

And those were the “tame” choices. Their idea of “topped” and mine are obviously two different things as well. I’m thinking, a light sprinkle of whatever; they’re thinking, you can’t see the “bed” of lettuce for all the stuff in the way. Oh, and let’s not forget the gigantic and oily toasted bread cubes, huh?

I think I’ve already established that I don’t believe in making “diet” choices, that I don’t think eating low-cal, low-fat, low-whatever specialty foods is the answer to long term weight loss.

What I do believe is the answer is long term, healthy, smart lifestyle changes that are livable – things I can do for the rest of my life and things that are going to, hopefully, keep me out of the realms of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, morbid obesity, etc.

So, in my narrow little way of thinking, a nice salad – filled with lettuce, lots of veggies, maybe some fresh or dried fruit, and perhaps sprinkled with some nuts (certainly not candy-coated ones), and hey, if we’re having a meal, a little lean meat – grilled chicken, tuna, something – and topped with a light vinaigrette not only sounds appetizing, it sounds like a smart choice for a reasonable midday meal.

Meanwhile, back in realty, I was becoming one of “those” people (flashing back to When Harry Met Sally for some reason) ordering my dressing on the side, asking them to hold the cubes of bread, and could ya go a little light on the “toppings” if you don’t mind?

Dinner, on the other hand turned out wonderfully…

I made whiskey mushroom chicken with garlic pasta, then served it with a caramelized mix of onions, carrots and peas and a salad of sliced cucumbers and red onions marinated in a light seasoned vinegar.

Who said eating reasonable and healthy choices had to be boring and tasteless?

Sploggers Beware!

I am well aware that a blog about weight loss is going to gain attention. I’m also very well aware of the technique of splogging…

Note – all of my content is copyright protected, however if certain conditions are met, I am more than willing to share.

Anyone wishing to use any of my pieces just needs to ask… My requirements are simple:

Ask me first.

Credit me properly – wheresroxy or thegunchick are acceptable in most cases.

Link back to my original post.

Copy me a link to your post using my material.

Please note that Step One is asking me! Fail to do that and you’re nothing more than a thief, stealing my words without permission.

And yes, I get pissy about this topic. I make my living by my words and my ability to use them. I manage others who do the same. Protecting intellectual property is very near and dear to my heart.

But again – anyone who legitimately wants to use my material, just ask – I am more than willing to share when it’s done on the up and up. Everyone else – piss off. I can and will get nasty about it and there isn’t a blogging site on earth that takes kindly to plagiarism.

Healthier thinking = Healthier eating

The next step for me was thinking about what I was eating. Notice I haven’t discussed exercise yet? That’s because that one is the hardest one for me. We’ll get there, honest. Meanwhile, what kind of food was I stuffing down my throat?

I’ve always been a food junkie, and I’ve always loved good, rich food and comfort foods. I tend to think all those diet choices are nasty, and I’d rather have a tiny piece of real chocolate than all the low-fat, low-cal, icky diet choices on earth. And I’ve never fallen for that “if you’re craving potato chips, try a stalk of celery, it’s crunchy and a little salty.” Look, if I’m craving chips, I want chips. I don’t want some semi-tasteless fake version of them, nor do I want some other thing that isn’t them.

The popularity of the various 100-calorie packs of snack foods is a big sign. And at first, I thought they were cool. Then I tried them. Ew. Yuck. I decided right then and there I’d rather have one real Oreo cookie than 10 packs of those 100-calorie snack pack Oreo cookie like things.

At the same time, I started spending more time in the produce section at my local grocery. My goal was to increase the amount of vegetables I served at each meal. I didn’t grow up tied to the minimal vegetable variety habit but had fallen into it during marriage. Bad habit! Break it!

For those who don’t love veggies, it may be hard, but I happen to love the things, if they’re done correctly. Very few people relish sitting down to a plate piled high with steamed broccoli, but you don’t have to go the opposite and cover everything in cheese either. I started rediscovering veggies, and learning of new ones, and sautéing is probably the best method on earth for making most veggies more appetizing. It uses very little fat, and you can add all sorts of flavor by adding a touch of wine, vinegar, stock, beer or any variety of things – all of which add flavor without a lot of fat or calories.

The night that I sat down to dinner and barely picked at the meat while loving every bite of the steamed wild/brown rice and sautéed mushrooms, onions and peppers, I knew I had turned another corner in my weight loss journey. I was rediscovering what it meant to enjoy healthier foods.

Yeah, OK, so I’d had some success. A few pounds came off with relative ease. Big whoop. It was still a long process. I didn’t get the “instant” results anyone looking to lose weight wants. I wasn’t suddenly several sizes smaller. Nope, in fact, I was not any size smaller. I simply was looking better in the size I was in.

Still, a good start in my book.

You can’t spell “Diet” without “die”

I started on this particular leg of my weight loss odyssey without telling anyone my thoughts or strategy. There was no announcement of plans, no “I’m on a diet” proclamation and certainly no cleaning out of “forbidden” foods.

No. I wanted this to be personal, private and above all I wanted it to be real and long lasting. I know myself enough to know that I will not go through the rest of my life without eating chocolate, or chips, or other yummy munchies. So those things had to be incorporated into my healthy living and weight loss plans.

I started out simply – my first goal was to stop eating before I got stuffed, and if I knew I had desert coming, to stop eating before I got too stuffed to have some desert. My second, and perhaps most important, goal was to realize there would be days I would “fail” and I had to accept that, not let it stop or discourage me, and simply move on from there without judgment or punishment.

My first clue that something was changing was my boyfriend commenting on my eating habits. He asked if I was sick or something. He was worried that I was ill because I had, without even realizing it, and certainly without feeling deprived, actually cut my mealtime food intake nearly in half.

It wasn’t over night. I didn’t wake up one day and cut my portions in half. That might work for some people, but most would feel deprived. I didn’t want to feel deprived, I wanted to feel “healthy.”

No, instead I started by making simple changes. I served myself slightly smaller portions of each item. I chose the items I liked the least and ate less of those, leaving myself “space” to enjoy the things I truly loved. Sometimes that meant I was “filling up” on vegetables (I do love sautéed mushrooms!) and sometimes it meant grains, still others it was proteins. I reasoned I was getting a balanced diet overall, and my biggest concern at that stage was to reduce the quantity of food I was stuffing in my face.

That quickly became habitual – they say 21 days makes a habit. Getting used to smaller portions was easy. I had in fact, just kept slightly reducing the size of what I served myself until I felt comfortably “full” after eating about 90% of what was on my plate. Over time, I refined the process so I was getting a properly balanced meal. My brain was relearning how to look at food and portions.

By the time my boyfriend asked if I was feeling alright, I had reached a point where restaurant portions looked huge and I was uncomfortable if I ate too much. My clothes were fitting a bit better, things that had been just a tad tight were comfortable again, and I simply told my boyfriend that I wasn’t sick, but I was “trying to watch” what I ate.

I ain’t no weight loss guru

I’ve dropped a few pounds through various techniques. I’ve been in the lose 10, gain back 5; lose 5, gain back 4 cycle for a while now and the result is I’m still a few pounds lighter than at my heaviest, but no where near my goal.

Then I looked into my memory, and I started trying to recall how that woman I used to be worked. How did she eat. How did she exercise. How did she shop.

Guess what? Everything I remembered about being that trim and healthy woman was completely in line with everything we all “know” about weight loss and maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle.

I’m not offering the answer for everyone. I’m not saying this is the end-all, be-all of weight loss techniques. I’m not holding myself up as a fitness, weight loss, healthy food, whatever, guru.

In fact, I think we need a lot fewer of those running around telling us the answer to our weight issues is that we need to eat more protein. That’s the answer this week. Next week, protein is the devil and carbs are the saving grace. Until a week later when it’s going to be protein again.

Personally, I think we need to get OUT of the “zone,” toss all the charts, calculators, menu plans, schedules and shall-not lists and go back to some old-fashioned thinking.

Our grandparents weren’t a fat generation. They didn’t have all of our sophisticated knowledge of what was good and what was bad for us. Their grocery choices were, by comparison, limited. Oh, and they ate butter. Real butter. They didn’t drink diet sodas, eat low-cal, fat-free “chips” sugar-free cookies. They also didn’t Super-Size their burgers, and eating “junk” food was a treat, not a routine.

And when I look back on that time in my life when I feel I was at my healthiest, guess what? I ate real food, not low-cal, low-flavor imitations and I ate what I wanted without over indulging in things.

Rediscovering the skinny b*…

Strict diet regimes that were doomed to failure. Crazy exercise programs that would never last. Shakes, and bars, and calorie counting, and low carbs, and high carbs, and zero carbs, and grapefruit and lemon water, and this celebrity diet and that celebrity diet and this program followed by that program. I tried heaps of them.

And I failed them all.

But wait, I didn’t fail them… The reality is, they failed me. You see, no matter what program I tried, no matter what system, not one was giving me what I really needed. They weren’t reeducating me, weren’t reintroducing me to eating properly, cooking properly, exercising wisely, etc. They weren’t introducing a healthy lifestyle that would stick, they were offering instead the quick fix weight loss.

You see, you can only drink shakes for so long. You can only deny yourself so many times. You can only exercise so much before you start to burn out.  
 
Any extreme diet is doomed to fail because it’s not a sustainable lifestyle. Sure, the results are quick and impressive, but what happens when you go back to real life? You haven’t learned how to eat for real living, you’ve only learned how to diet “successfully” and when the diet is over, the weight comes back, usually in ever-increasing numbers.

Then this revolutionary thought occurred to me.

I know everything I need to know in order to lose weight and be healthy. Heck, most of us do. Unless we’ve struggled with weight all our lives, most of us can recall a time when we were at a healthy, feel-good weight.

I don’t need fad diets, special shakes, appetite suppressants and crazy-insane, killer exercise programs. I need one thing and one thing only – my mind.

Deep in the dark recesses of my little brain was a memory – it was a memory of myself as a trim, healthy, fit, active woman; a woman who didn’t use anyone else’s program to stay in shape but who simply lived a lifestyle that kept her wearing the same size year after year, even after Christmas, even after babies.

That was the woman I needed to be. And that is where my journey of weight loss has finally brought me.

The story begins… Getting fat

I wasn’t always plump. Heck, all throughout youth, I was downright skinny. Even in college and beyond, I was trim. Even after two babies, I lost the baby weight and was fitting in pre-pregnancy clothes within weeks. Once, I gained a few pounds during those post-nursing, staying at home with the kids days – Freaked at my too tight clothing, I quickly took them off, essentially doing nothing more than portion control.

It wasn’t until I had a car accident and the subsequent, and constant, pain caused me to go to my doctor. I couldn’t sleep. I hurt all the time. I was tired all the time. I was miserable. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and in those early days of treatment, the drugs of choice were a hefty combination of anti-depressants, sleep aids, muscle relaxants and pain medication. I packed on 30 pounds in just a couple of months.

 
That 30-pound gain was quickly joined by more as my metabolism, already slowed by the drugs I was on, went into complete haywire mode. I was still in pain, still not sleeping unless I was heavily drugged, still tired all the time and I was still miserable.

After a lot of study, a lot of soul searching, and a lot of begging God to just let me die (and the only things that stopped me from doing it myself were my kids) I hit rock bottom. I hit a point of depression so deep I wasn’t sure I’d ever crawl out of it.

And then it happened. I had begged to be healed. I had begged to die. I had begged for something, anything, other than what I had. I had reached a point where I was getting angry as well as depressed. And I took control.

One night, I decided I’d had enough. I was not going to live like this anymore. I would no longer let this garbage control me; would no longer allow this “disease” to steal my life from me.

That night, I dumped my drugs. Yep. I went cold turkey.

Did I have withdrawal symptoms? Some. If you count mild nausea, dizziness and headaches as “symptoms.” Otherwise, not really. It’s not an answer doctors will suggest because of the danger involved, and in truth, it was a stupid choice. But remember, I was at rock bottom.

I started doing research into diet and lifestyle choices, and started making the changes to redeem my life.

It took time, there were points when I questioned my sanity. There were points when the pain threatened to overwhelm me. There were times when I wondered why I was bothering. But I knew I had to end the craziness.

And I did. But one thing didn’t go away.

The pain is gone. The exhaustion and sleeplessness, gone. The misery is gone as well. But the one thing that stayed was all that extra weight.

So, into the weight loss morass I tumbled.