Today was my first Try It Tuesday with Lifetime Fitness' 90 Day Challenge. Tonight Mark, the nutrition expert at our club, gave a very interesting (and jam-packed) hour long talk about nutrition. He really focused on the social aspect of nutrition and eating patterns, which I got a lot out of. He likened us changing our diets to dancing - we have been dancing the tango with our partners, our friends, our families for so very long. One leads, the other follows. Now, all of a sudden, I want to start to dance the salsa. I either dance alone with no partner, encourage my partner to try and dance with me, or get pressured by the other dancers to get back to the tango. He talked about parties, eating out, office/workplace pressures, family issues... I know much of my issue with food is the social side to it.
But he also talked about the biological side to it. His general attitude towards food is JERF. Just Eat Real Food. By ax-ing out processed, boxed, jarred food, he claims you can eliminate cravings completely. By eating nutritionally-dense food, your body can get all its nutrition requirements satiated, and do it with lower calories. He issued a challenge to try and consume 1200 calories by eating only "real food." Meat, veg, fruit, nuts & grains. He said our bodies wouldn't even be able to get to that high a calorie intake because we would be full and satisfied every day.
It totally makes sense. I look in my own pantry at the chips, pretzels, breakfast bars, pastas and cereals. I know that if we got down to basics, we would be healthier and happier. I've got to start paying more attention to what my friend & nutritionist Natalie has to say!
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