Mindset - Part II
Oct. 18th, 2010 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenWhy is it that when we want to give ourselves a "treat", it's almost always something that we know isn't good for us? Why is that a treat?
I know, most of us (here in the U.S. anyway) grew up with candy, ice cream, burgers and fries, etc. Then we're told it's bad for us, that we have to eat boring non-tasty healthy food.
Why is eating something that compromises your health a treat?
Why is healthy food not tasty?
Don't let the marketers for Big Ag, fast food chains, and all the processed food companies pull a fast one on you and your life. They'll drug you into a sugary, super-caffeinated, chemical-laden stupor if you let them.
Yes, I do have some caffeine and some sugar, just not in the huge amounts marketers try to cram down your throat, and I try to choose healthier sources of sugar. Because we do need sugar in our diets, just like we need some fat in it. Fat and sugar are methods of energy storage after all. In fact our bodies need a certain amount of fat to be healthy -- you need some for daily living, some for emergency use (when you're ill, for instance), and there are small amounts on some organs as protective padding when you're moving. We just don't need as much as is in most processed foods.
Even before I started really working on changing my diet this year, I never followed cookie recipes to the letter -- they all use too much sugar. No, I don't use substitute sugar, because I have even more problems with those than regular sugar. I do substitute honey for cane when I can though...
Anyway, I just think that's something worth thinking about... why is treating ourselves badly a reward? If we learned to eat healthy foods that we love, prepared in ways that are delicious, we can treat ourselves every day!
I know, most of us (here in the U.S. anyway) grew up with candy, ice cream, burgers and fries, etc. Then we're told it's bad for us, that we have to eat boring non-tasty healthy food.
Why is eating something that compromises your health a treat?
Why is healthy food not tasty?
Don't let the marketers for Big Ag, fast food chains, and all the processed food companies pull a fast one on you and your life. They'll drug you into a sugary, super-caffeinated, chemical-laden stupor if you let them.
Yes, I do have some caffeine and some sugar, just not in the huge amounts marketers try to cram down your throat, and I try to choose healthier sources of sugar. Because we do need sugar in our diets, just like we need some fat in it. Fat and sugar are methods of energy storage after all. In fact our bodies need a certain amount of fat to be healthy -- you need some for daily living, some for emergency use (when you're ill, for instance), and there are small amounts on some organs as protective padding when you're moving. We just don't need as much as is in most processed foods.
Even before I started really working on changing my diet this year, I never followed cookie recipes to the letter -- they all use too much sugar. No, I don't use substitute sugar, because I have even more problems with those than regular sugar. I do substitute honey for cane when I can though...
Anyway, I just think that's something worth thinking about... why is treating ourselves badly a reward? If we learned to eat healthy foods that we love, prepared in ways that are delicious, we can treat ourselves every day!
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-18 04:48 pm (UTC)Me? One of my favorite treats is an apple. Just a plain old, freshly washed, eaten right out of my hand apple. But I had to get off of the dieting bandwagon and embrace HAES before I could feel hungry in the grocery store and say, "I want an apple" or "I want some grapes" or "Hmm, carrot sticks sound really good" instead of thinking in terms of the few junk food "treats" that I can eat.
OK, once in a while I still eat chips or candy, but seldom, and not in huge quantities, because they're not part of that "want --- cannot have" duality anymore.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-19 03:31 am (UTC)On the chip front I prefer corn chips, but today opted for roasted almonds -- stores can be a bit limited, but for me, even though the almonds are salted, they were lower in salt and fat than the chips, plus I don't feel like eating the whole multi-serving package in one go. Definitely going to have to work on bringing our own travel snacks more regularly, but we discovered that convenience store on our school-home route has green tea and some fruit and other real food as well, so it was nice to find that option. No more Dunkin Donut stops for me, thanks.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-19 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 10:36 pm (UTC)On the other hand, maybe either the policy has since been repealed, or is not consistently enforced...
no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 03:00 pm (UTC)Either that or the bag of almonds blended in with the bags of meds, pens & pencils, etc. I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen at the airport, so I put each type of items in baggies and might have overdone it a bit :D
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Date: 2010-10-21 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-23 01:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-18 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-19 03:45 am (UTC)