Eating Healthy or Dieting…..its basically all the same

When I was a child I remember my Mom and her sisters talking about different diets.  As I got older I remember older cousins talking about diets.  It was always something.  The Cabbage Soup diet, Apple Cider Vinegar, Grapfruit, Atkins, HCG, Paleo, Low Fat, Low Carb, Zone, South Beach, and Slim Fast.  The list could go on and on and on. I won’t even go into weight loss drugs and supplements.

When I was younger I could eat anything I wanted and never gain a pound.  I remember going through Jack In the Box and getting a lemon pie and a coke for breakfast.  That was my breakfast.  That was also the beginning of a problem that has plagued me my entire life.  Poor food choices.  That’s what it basically all boils down to.  It doesn’t matter what diet you are doing, what book you have read, what supplements you purchase.  If you aren’t making the right food choices nothing will ever change for you.

I know people that have had life threatening illnesses and have seen them make remarkable turn arounds just by their food choices.  This is sort of the point I’m at.  I don’t have a life threatening illness, unless you consider obesity life threatening.  We all know that it is.  My weight has impacted my life in numerous ways.  I have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, atrial fibrillation, head aches, constipation, joint pain and a host of other things.  Some of these are brought on by age.  A few are hereditary. But a large part of them and the extent that they play in my life are brought on by my own poor food choices.

I posted early that now I have a liver problem.  It hasn’t been nailed down yet.  I’m still waiting to go to the gastro guy.  But more than likely it was brought on by my poor food choices.  I’ve been over weight for years.  I’ve always thought I would have more time.  But time slips away and before you know your doctor is having a serious conversation with you.  That’s when you realize that the time is now.

I’m not doing any particular diet.  I don’t believe in a cure all pill or supplement.  From time to time you hear about a new weight loss drug.  But normally a few years after these hit the market you start hearing about the side effects.  You can have the lap band procedure or maybe gastric bypass.  Yet it all boils down to eating less food.  Not only less food, but better food.

So I considered Weight Watchers, but even that seemed a little too gimicky for me.  I know it has worked for lots of people, but so has a lot of other things.  So a little over two weeks ago I decided to start counting my calories.  There are a lot of free websites and some of them have apps you can use on your phone.  This a pretty simple idea.  You enter your weight along with some other data and it tells you what you should weigh to be healthy.  It also tells you how many calories you need to lose weight.  I am using Everydayhealth.com.  It alows me 1477 calories.  It also tells you what your daily allowances are for fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbs, fiber, sugar, and protein.

So I’m back to reading labels, buying more fresh fruits and vegetables.  I’m eating more fish and chicken and less red meat.  For lunch I’ve been eating a small salad and 4 ounces of grilled chicken.  It satisfying and I enjoy it.  But it does take effort to cook the chicken for the week.  I know its better to cook my own chicken.  The chicken you get at restaurants just have way too much sodium.  So much stuff is put into fast foods and prepared foods to make it taste “good” and also to make it have a long shelf life.

My mother was in charge of my diet for most of my early life.  Probably at least until I was 15 or 16.  It was when I took over the responsibilites that I started down the wrong path.  Its a long way back to that point in the road where I veered off.  But I really am making an effort to get back there.