Blog Post 4:
Hello my fellow healthy junkies!
First things first, I must give myself credit when credit is due. I have not only been eating the right foods and excising to lose weight, but I have truly made it a life style! Yes, I've said it, I haven't been on any "diets"! no weight watchers, south beach diet, or anything else you could possibly think of. I have adopted this new lifestyle and have made it my own. This all started with portion control, educating myself on the do's and dont's of food consumption and exercise. Its paying off, so why not reflect?
Here's the interesting part about reflection, you learn that everyone wants to lose weight as a short term goal. Nothing that's worthwhile is easy and nothing happens overnight. Starving yourself is far from healthy, eliminating carbs and all that nonsense will just put your body in a worse predicament that you started out in, in the long run. When I did my two day diet and presented you all with my post-analysis diet, I was starting out on a healthy note. I slipped up here and there, but I was slowly working on it by drinking more water, not skipping meals, and I was sticking to my goal of taking baby steps. I enjoy my progression to the point where I would take the time out to prepare a healthy meal for myself instead of eating at a fast food restaurant.
There things that I like about my diet are:
1) I consumed more water instead of soda and juice.
2) My consumption of fruits and veggies were at a all time high. My plate was definitely colorful!
3) For the first time in a LONG time I didn't overdose on sugar!
On the other hand, three things that I am not to proud of that I need to change about my diet in order to improve are:
1) I didn't balance out my consumption of food and exercising.
2) I did not consume enough calcium.
3) I'm consuming too much sodium.
But, nonetheless, it has been a working progress.
3 Things I am proud of:
The three things that I am proud of blow me away. The old Elaine would pour packs and packs of sugar into her caramel frappuccino or tea. I would drink lots of coke (my favorite soda) not realizing how many bottles I would go through in one day. In addition, even though I love fruit and vegetables, in the past I wouldn't consume it as much unless someone placed it on my plate. "Any vegetable or 100% vegetable juice counts as a member of the Vegetable Group. Vegetables may be raw or cooked; fresh, frozen, canned, or dried/dehydrated; and may be whole, cut-up, or mashed" (myplate).Eating fruit for breakfast helped me feel refreshed. It didn't even take up too much time to the point where I had to skip a meal. Trust me, when I was in my schools cafeteria, I had to fight myself to not get a bacon, egg, and cheese. It was extremely hard, but for the most part the unhealthy foods are the ones that we have easier access to. When I think about it, my Contemporary Nutrition class has opened my eyes to, why I was making the unhealthy choices I was making. My choices were based off of: food availability, cost, knowledge, beliefs, routines and habits. I couldn't tell the difference between hunger and appetite. Most of the time I was eating it wasn't because I was necessarily the food was just in my face! "Food marketing-particularly for unhealthy foods-has been increasingly recognized as a problem that affects the health of young people. This has prompted both a scrutiny of the nutritional quality of food products and various interventions to promote healthy eating. Frequently overlooked by the public health community, however, is the symbolic and social meaning of food for teenagers. Food has nutritive value, but it has symbolic value as well-and this qualitative study explores the meaning of non-branded foods for teenagers"(Elliott, 2014).
I've been eating fruits and vegetables since its easy access in my school. The benefits of doing so are more than I knew before taking this class! It protects me from: stroke, heart attack, heart disease and much more. It has nutrients also, the essential nutrients that may be under consumed such as: vitamin c, fiber, potassium are then placed in my body. "Vitamin C is important for growth and repair of all body tissues, helps heal cuts and wounds, and keeps teeth and gums healthy" (myplate). I'm doing great in the department. Consuming water is also a plus because it maintains my body's fluids, it has helped maintain my healthy body weight by increasing metabolism and regulating appetite.It has helped my digestion, has cleared my face, and has also helped me lead to greater health. Sugar is something I never took into account until taking my nutrition class as well, I could have been setting myself up for diabetes without even knowing it! I learned to think more about my body's health in the future, instead of just here and now.
3 Things I am not too proud of:
Food and exercise go hand in hand. You should not have one without the other. When you learn to eat healthy by consuming the right foods, you give your body the energy it needs. With this energy it is a great time to workout! For me I relieve stress, tension, and burn fat at the same time. Of course its hard at first because your muscles aren't use to working themselves out. You have to build your stamina of course, but all of the hard work you put in will lead to a great outcome. Now that I am working out, I see the different between the time I wrote my day 1 and day 2 food journal entry. I didn't have any energy, but was trying my best to slowly make my way to the gym, go for a jog around campus, or even go for a swim. I have been working on this flaw and I'm feeling great. Our bodies were meant to move! Working out improves quality of life, stamina, controls weight, strengthens, tones and so much more. It's a slow process, but i'm getting there.
Calcium! Growing up I always would hear my mother telling me to drink calcium to build strong bones! Ugh, it was so annoying because I HATE drinking milk, but happily that's not the only way to add it to my diet, and its something that I must remind myself. My favorites, such as: beans, salmon, kale, almonds, even different cereals have calcium. I know I had kale and salmon during my 2 day diet journey, but I need to consume more! "choose sweet dairy foods with care Flavored milks, fruit yogurts, frozen yogurt,and puddings can contain a lot of added sugars. These added sugars are empty calories. You need the nutrients in dairy foods—not these empty calories"(myplate).
Lastly, I'm consuming to much sodium and I need to stay away from it! Salt is of course something I love. I use it for flavor and sometimes don't realize how much i'm using. I learned in my class that f you eat too much salt, the extra water stored in my body could raise my blood pressure. The more salt I eat, the higher my blood pressure. The higher my blood pressure, the greater the strain on my heart, arteries, kidneys and brain. This can lead to heart attacks, strokes, dementia and kidney disease. That is something I definitely do not need in my life! That is why staying healthy is extremely important!
Citation page:
"ChooseMyPlate.gov." ChooseMyPlate.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.
"Result Filters." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
