I may be showing my age here a little but do you remember the song that started "For those about to rock, we salute you"?
Well, my husband has been trying to lose some weight. In fact, we have a strange assortment of weight loss stories here in our family. I have a son who doesn't weight more than he should, but he has a round belly and lives a relatively sedentary life. I have a son who is active; he rides his bike to and from school; he plays soccer and practices daily; and he is a chubby little kid. I just finished nursing and weaned the 10 month old baby, and I am still carrying all the weight I gained when I first got pregnant..... 14 years ago!
What does this have to do with Food $ense you wonder? Because what you put in your body matters! My husband has been going to the gym for three weeks. He jumped back into exercise with both feet and has been working really hard. We have changed some family activities to include more active ones—we go to the park, go swimming, take walks, and perform spring yard work. But over the last three weeks my husband has not only not lost weight, he has gained over 10 pounds. Shhhh, I will tell you why... Because he assumes that now that he is working out, he can eat whatever he wants: girl scout cookies, cake, fried pickles, licorice, potato chips, and that just isn't so.
Now I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I paid attention in class, and I do want to take the best care of my family, so here is what I think and a few things I know. Junk food is not food; it is junk! And your body is going to treat it like the garbage it is. It isn't fuel, and it isn't nutrition, and it isn't nourishing in any way. Processed and prepared foods are also not food. Our bodies were made to be the machine that processes our food. If you buy something that has ingredients in it that you don't recognize or you can’t pronounce, then the work has already been done and your body is going to turn that Hot Pocket into giant jeans pockets on the back of your rear end.
I admire people who work out. All those moms with marathon stickers on the back of their SUVs—I salute you! That is amazing! But face it, that isn't most of us. I am currently in-training to chase a new crawler and hope some day to wash the Mount Everest that is my laundry. But I have been learning, and bodies need good food to function.
