Well, here it is, at least until we’re done designing the site ourselves – Grumblecakes. I hope to post daily or at least a few times per week, and I hope to see some readers and comments at least that often. ;)
And on to the rant. Cut to the chase.
I’ve been doing research recently about nutrition and dieting. I’m sure some of you have gotten wind of an annoyed post or two I’ve made on Facebook about it. It all stemmed from a conversation I had with a friend of mine about obesity being so prevalent in the United States. We are, of course, the #1 hot spot currently for obesity and diabetes in the world, based on percentages of the population. Not really surprising.
But WHY? What causes obesity? My friend insisted that it was carbs. Well, I doubt that carbs alone are causing people to become so unhealthy. I eat them, and I know people who eat them, and they are not 400 pounds or diabetic, and neither am I. So I delved deeper. I researched some very common fad diets and “life plans” for weight loss, and came to a relatively quick and simple solution: people are LAZY.
Everyone wants to lose weight without effort. They don’t want to walk more or get outside more. They want to sit on their asses and watch the pounds fall off! And, logically, there are some people who take advantage of this factor consistently. Cut out all carbs and you’ll lose weight! Cut out fat and you’ll lose weight! Eat only spinach and you’ll lose weight! Take this pill and you’ll shit all the weight off!! But unfortunately, these premises all adhere to the same principle – if you cut something out of your diet, you will lose weight. Well, d’oh. Of course you will. But are you ready to cut that something out for the rest of your life? Because as soon as you put it back in at the rate you were consuming it before, you will gain the weight back. Hasn’t anyone noticed that MOST people who try fad diets continue to try different ones in succession? Could it be that THEY’RE NOT WORKING?!!
People want to lose weight FAST. They don’t want to portion themselves, watch what they eat, and exercise daily. Are you kidding me? Laziness is what made you fat in the first place, you know. Continuing to be lazy is only going to cause more issues.
I challenge all of you to try just six things –
1 – Drink a ton of water and stop/limit drinking soda. You might as well drink some sweetened battery acid. Mmmmmm.
2 – Exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes daily (speed walking, sex, gym, jogging, DDR, calisthenics, etc)
3 – Cut your portion size down to about the size of your hand.
4 – Eat 4-6 meals at that size instead of two or three huge meals.
5 – Eat only one “dessert” per day and amp up consumption of fruit whenever you crave sugar.
6 – Make your own food. Stop eating out, or when you eat out, stick to the portion size rule and bring half of it home.
And yes, amazing, those six things take some work. They require some changes. But you won’t get sick, you don’t have to purge or binge, and you actually end up feeling BETTER from the daily exercise. Seriously. Try it.
Get off your ass.
Son of a bitch…here I was hoping to drop those extra pounds by some magical means! Who knew you actually had to work to stay healthy.
It is rather amusing that the masses rely on these snake oil merchants for instant gratification.
It really is!! It makes you want to slap a whole bunch of people upside the head, too. :)
I should be slapped, because I tried the south beach thing before. I lost quite a bit, but gained it all back and then some because, like you said, I can’t eat that way forever. Plus I was told by my doctor that cutting way back on carbs is hard on my kidneys. So these fad diets are not very healthy.
I have to travel for work, so eating fast food and not getting enough exercise comes easy for me. But that’s not really the case, is it. What I really mean to say is excuses come easy for me. That’s the real issue, I think. How not to rationalize and excuse myself for poor eating habits and sitting on my ass. And that its ok to feel “uncomfortable” once in awhile. Its comforting to drink 3 or 4 mountain dews during the day instead of water. Yet if I start drinking water more than once a day, I crave it. It’s almost as if my brain gravitates toward being lazy, but if I would start a new, healthier routine, it would gravitate towards that.
Your post made me psycho-analyze my eating habits!
I’m glad you commented and have tried one! I am so frustrated lately with how fad diets are propagated.
That’s not to say though, that it isn’t really hard to get out of a bad routine. I used to eat way too much per sitting, and you get into a physical and dietary mindset where you get cravings and don’t want to ignore them. I definitely still crave sugar daily and am working on trying to eat fruit instead of a cookie when I do crave it. x)
Exercise is also tough. It’s SUPER SUPER easy to stop exercising and stick to not exercising. You have bouts of laziness and then feel guilty and then that kind of makes you sad, and then that makes you not want to exercise even more!
As to fast food – what I would do if you’re travelling alot, which does make it tough – stick to restaurants with healthier options, or try to go to a grocery store and pick up stuff for meals. Sometimes the hotel you get doesn’t have a fridge and you’re forced to do restaurants, but places like Applebees actually have some pretty damn tasty stuff that you can eat half of the first day and half the next day by portioning yourself and still be relatively healthy.
I think the key is having a positive attitude about it, which is still difficult but does help. Telling yourself all the stuff you’re doing will be really good for you in the long run. Making it an actual lifestyle change versus just a fad of a month or two. It’s changing to a permanently positive attitude about it that really really helps. And now I sound like Dr. Phil. >_>