This week's topic is brought to you by
my being accosted in the grocery store by an old man who thought his
peanut butter was better.
So I was walking down the bread and
peanut butter aisle at the Hannaford because I wanted english muffins
and peanut butter. This older gentleman was standing in front of the
peanut butter, eyeing them all intently. I know what kind of peanut
butter I like... I eat JIF Natural. It's the exact same stats as
regular JIF, but all of the ingredients are things that you can
pronounce. Like sugar. Molasses. Nothing hydrogenated.
Peanut butter is one of those things
that I've really had to learn how to use sparingly. I measure it.
I've actually gotten so good at measuring it that I can tell what a
tablespoon of peanut butter looks like from memory. I definitely can
tell when I'm eating more than a tablespoon of it. It's high in fat,
so I try to be careful.
The old man grabbed the “Simply”
JIF, which is 33% less sugar. He looks at me and my peanut butter
decision and says, “You know, this is better for you.” I
honestly didn't want to get into the argument of “it's still peanut
butter... none of these are 'good for you,'” nor did I want to get
into the fact that just because something is “less sugar” doesn't
mean that the processes involved in making it less sugar make
anything “better” for you.
It brings up the idea of what is really
“good for you.” There's a lot of things out there that give us
benefits with consequences. It's part of creating a healthy
lifestyle; balancing those consequences to do what is really good for
you. Some examples:
Protein bars. I used to have about 4-5
of these a week. They're low in calorie for the amount of protein
you get out of them, so that's nice. They're also quick and easy to
throw in your bag or in your desk drawer at work. Unfortunately,
they're packed with so much sugar it's insane. Are they “good for
you?” No. They're artificial and essentially protein packed candy
bars.
Protein shakes. There's two different
kinds. I mix my own whey protein at home. It has 2 grams of sugar
and loaded with all kind of nutritional stuff. I mix it with milk or
juice. There's also the premade kinds in the bottles in the
refrigerated section near the salads at the grocery. Those are
delicious. Some of them do have tons of good for you stuff in them.
They're also packed with sugar.
Diet soda. Light yogurt. “Diet”
food. Most of it's processed. But yea, it's low in calories. And
weight loss is all mathematics. Calories in, calories out. But at
what cost?
Try your best to get the most for your
calories. Eat things that fuel your body and that give you the
nutrients you need. Not to say that if you have calories left over
at the end of the day, you can't treat yourself. There's a reason
that it's taken me so long to lose the weight. It goes by many
names. One of those names is “cake.” Don't fill up your day
with empty calories. Yes, you will lose weight, but through taking
these processed foods out of your diet you create habits that will
make your weight loss last longer. To be honest, I had a piece of
cake last weekend, and I couldn't finish it. Just kind of lost my
taste for it.
How'd my weight loss go this week?
Oh. I guess it went okay.
I MADE MY GOAL WEIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!
Not only have I made it, I've
maintained it for 3 days! Yea, impressive, I know. But here's the
proof:
I wanted to make it to 145. Now I'm
working to get down to 140 and then I'm on maintenance.
The celebration was all in my head. I
have no idea what I expected. Frankly I had always believed that my
goal weight was unattainable. I never dreamed about what it would be
like. And though it's taken so long, I still feel like it sneaked up
on me. It came without my being aware. All of a sudden my clothes
are smaller. I'm smaller.
And I'm so happy.
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