Apples

One whole food that I love is apples. They have become part of my lunch every day. I like the variety and they fill me up. There are lots of different kinds, check them out: Apples The health benefits are good too Health Benefits I didn't eat fruit very often when I was young, but it's an important staple in my diet now.

Eating Smart

I found a nice short article worth checking out on eating healty in the USA Weekend section of my local paper - EatSmart by Allyson Dickman.

What I learned from Weight Watchers

It seems to me that they stressed the following changes in my eating and lifestyle. 1 - Less calories. 2 - Less fat. 3 - More fiber and 4 - More exercise. Maybe I should just say sensible eating and exercise. There is no mystery to this formula, it just makes sense. Less calories for storage as fat, more fiber to help me feel satisfied and more exercise to burn the fat that my body had stored up over time.

The other component that my counselor stressed was don't let yourself get overly hungry. When you're starving you tend to overeat. So, I tend to eat when I'm hungry, but I eat less because I know that if I'm not feeling satisfied, I can always have something else later.

OK, this is what I think I know about eating. I'm sure that I have a lot to learn about food and I know that I eat some things that sabotage my plans. I hope that I'll learn from writing about it and reading other people's blogs.

Why Whole Foods?

When I turned 51 I started a journey to improve my health. I started excercising in ernest thinking that would straighten things out. I got involved with a local group of cyclists that helped me gradually build up to riding around 125 miles a week. I felt much better, took off about 20 lbs. and really enjoyed what I was doing. Well, that was part of the picture, but not really enough to make a big difference. I was out of shape and overweight and ended up in decent shape but still overweight. I used to jokingly tell my friends that I was "riding to eat". Duh!

Finally a friend of mine asked me one day why I'd never really changed the way I ate. I think they recognized that I wanted to do better, but just hadn't committed to changing my bad eating habits. My wife had been on me for a long time, but I never listen to her, after all she's just the person that cares about me the most and is probably the smartest person I know.

Anyway I started going to Weightwatchers and believe it or not I decided to pay attention to what they were teaching me. I quickly got past their branded food marketing and just listened and learned what they were teaching me about food. Eventually I found that by simplifying my diet I was able to reduce the number of calories I was intaking and loose weight consistently from week to week. Going to a meeting and recording your progress, or lack there, of can be a powerful tool when you are trying to loose weight. In the meantime I stepped up my exercise regimine to include swimming and running to a point where I now do several sprint triathlons each summer.

This year I have been concentrating on what it means to cut processed food out of my diet. It may seem obvious to a lot of you, but I think this is a natural progression to a healthier life for me and my wife. As we have gotten more used to a simple diet it just makes sense to eat more whole foods.

I still have a lot to learn and would enjoy hearing from others on this subject. Thanks in advance for any helpful advice and comments that you might have.