Common Sense Living

I was surfing some weight loss sites today to see what kind of information is being peddled out there today.

I had to shake my head. A well known health publication was still blasting banners about cholesterol – even though current reasearch indicates that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease. What’s up with that? Oh yeah – they’re advertiser supported. Duh! Big pharma runs a zillion ads in this publication.

Another ad for a popular information site asks, which is lower in calories – and shows a glass of orange juice, and a glass of pop. Ounce for ounce, juice does have more calories. But your body doesn’t see it that way. This simple comparison does not account for nutrient value, or how your body responds to the chemical additives and unnatural sugars.

That’s why calorie counting as a diet aid is usually misguided. It’s why people are guzzling gallons of zero calorie pop and not losing an ounce. But this very popular information provider gives you the impression that it’s better to drink the pop than the orange juice.

From here, I was led to one of their weight loss blogs. This blog stated ‘weight loss since 2000′, but the picture of the author showed a definitely overweight woman. Should you be taking advice from someone who doesn’t know how to lose weight?

From there, I clicked on a link that led to one of the bogus ‘how I lost weight using 2 free products’ sites. Sigh….

You’ve got to be tired of chasing your tail. Aren’t you glad you found me? Listen. There is one proven way to lose weight and keep it off. It’s called a healthy diet, and exercise. That sounds like a death sentence, doesn’t it? Actually, it’s quite the opposite. It’s your ticket to living life.

See, that same diet that will help you lose weight will also keep your blood pressure down, cut your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and a whole slew of other chronic diseases, protects your vision, keeps you thinking clearly, keeps you looking and feeling younger longer, and in general will keep you out of the nursing home longer.

OK, now do a search for healthy eating. Now that sounds like a death sentence! Vegetable juices, greens, seeds, tofu, soy, Special K. I especially love the raw foods people. Are you serious? I did actually find good articles here -  http://www.helpguide.org/life/healthy_eating_diet.htm and here – http://www.helpguide.org/life/healthy_weight_loss.htm

Ellie Krieger’s Healthy Recipes on the Food Network look really good. I have to try that cherry vanilla oatmeal. I wish we could get rid of the big soyjoy commercial – since you and I both know that soy has turned out to be a bad thing.

Have you noticed that I don’t run ads here? You know why? I don’t want ads running here for somethng I do not believe in, and do not endorse. My article might be about how bad soy is, but because the word soy is used – ads for soy products would show up. How confusing is that?  On one side I would be talking about how bad it is, and over to the right, there’s links to go buy soy products.

Oh, and you might notice that Ellie uses salt in every recipe. You might be shocked. The truth is, most people do get too much salt, but those of us who do not eat packaged foods may not be getting enough salt. Salt is actually one of the 4 electrolytes that our bodies need to function properly.

Low salt? Low carb? Soy? High protein? Raw foods? Vegan? No wonder everyone just gives up.

The real solution is simple. A balanced diet of real foods.

Of course to do that, you have to make your own food. But don’t get scared here. It’s really easy. Just hop on over to Rebel With a Fork, sign up for your 10 day free trial and try some of the brain dead simple recipes for yourself.

Tasting is believing.

The proof is in the pudding – so to speak…

I just watched a talk on nutrition and weight loss, and I’m banging my head against my desk…

Did you know that broccoli is less calorie dense than Oreos? Duh.

Did you know that people who eat the most fruits and vegetables have a lower calorie intake overall? Um, Duh…

Or how about the fact that people who eat the most fruits and vegetables have a lower incidence of obesity?

And they spend millions on these studies. You have to be kidding me.

How about the fact that much of the calorie dense processed foods weren’t available 30 years ago?

OK, a lot of people may not realize that we didn’t always eat this way. I still don’t. And that’s what I’m trying to teach you at Rebel With a Fork. How to eat the way we used to eat, only a lot faster and easier.

In a previous life, good food took all day to prepare. But who can do that now? And I think that most people think that’s what it takes. Believe me – it’s not that hard at all. You can make truly great tasting meals in no time.

Why don’t you make a promise to yourself to hop on over to Rebel With A Fork and try something new this week?

Every day I get emails about some NEW way to lose weight. The newest ones claim that you don’t have to give up the foods you love.

Now, if you happen to love Hamburger Helper, McDonalds Fries, Doritos, and pop (did I cover the biggest unhealthy favorites?) to say that you can eat these every other day is just ridiculous, don’t you think? But that’s the kinds of deceptions these ads feed you.

Now I agree that once in a while you can indulge and eat anything you want. I don’t think expecting someone to eat carrot sticks on Super bowl Sunday is realistic or humane. As a matter of fact, Rebel  With a Fork members will be getting great appetizer recipes, and the Ultimate Chicken Wings recipe collection to help make their parties a smashing success, no matter who wins

I also agree that you’re not going to last very long on any diet that requires you to eat food you don’t like. Even if you have the will power of a saint, you’re eventaully going to die of boredom!

But what if your diet was 90% healthy all of the time?

What if you could learn to make 90% choices that you actually like to eat?

Wouldn’t that make losing weight pretty easy? Wouldn’t you solve a great many of your health problems?

That’s why I’m a rebel. I don’t believe in diets, or cutting out any natural food groups, or any of the other nonsense hype. You don’t need a diet. You need a healthy living lifestyle that you will actually enjoy sticking with.

Is there anything you really need to cut out?

Sure – packaged and fast foods, and pop.

People seem to have this big fear of cooking thier own food. It’s not hard. It tastes better. It’s better for you.

I share my best secrets at Rebel With a Fork. You don’t even have to pay to check it out. You can explore for 10 days and try some of the recipes. Find foods that you and your family already like to eat. There’s a whole new world of food out there for you to experience.

And to make it even easier, the site is now mobile friendly. You can access the site and the recipes from your phone (if you have internet service) while you’re in the store.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink. Right? The rest is up to you…

Healthy Eating make easy >>> Rebel With a Fork

I was a little nervous when I came across this video. Here we have an esteemed researcher from Stanford. He begins his talk saying that he’s been a vegetarian for 25 years, and has done studies on Soy – and I’m thinking “oh boy”.

It turned out to be very enlightening. And he turned out to be an interesting speaker too, which is great since the video is over an hour long…

Here’s some points from the video that I’ve stated all along -

None of the diets worked all that well. Average weight loss after a year was 30 pounds.

The diets are all very hard to stick with.

Higher grain intake doesn’t work.

You do need water.

You do have to get some sort of exercise, but it doesn’t have to be at the gym.

They talked about how people from a naturally healthy culture would start having health and obesity problems when exposed to a ‘western’ diet, proving that it’s not genetic. I scored again! That’s already in High Energy Eating.

He said that nutritionists sell nutrients, but people buy food. That’s one of the biggest components of High Energy Eating – all of the great food you could be eating and how it helps you.

I’m serious, if you could have seen me watching this, you would have thought I was watching a football game – that’s how excited I got. Not to sounded conceited – but I’m right! 

But what made me really joyous is when he admitted that being a vegetarian might not be the answer, and that soy is not the answer they thought it was.

And, he talked about future studies that they are working on – I’ve already covered those topics in High Energy Eating too. Anti-oxidants, sleep, got it covered!

You have no idea how happy I am right now.

But what would make me even happier if if you would apply all of this in your life and get thin, healthy  and happy.

If you can carve out the hour and 16 minutes to watch this video – you will learn a ton. And then grab a copy of High Energy Eating and start living it yourself. I’m here to support you every step of the way.

No matter how you choose to do it, get yourself started on a healthier diet. Your life really does depend on it.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

So, in my quest to gain a few pounds, we went to UNO’s tonight. A famous Chicago Pizzeria. We ordered the Chicago Classic which is a pan pizza loaded with cheese, sausage, and tomatoes. The crust has a buttery corn bread sort of flavor. My daughter said I should order a beer, but I felt that probably wasn’t a good idea.

We polished off all but one piece. My daughter wimped out. Then we topped it off by sharing Bananas Foster.

My stomach feels stretched to the limit. I have no energy, and can hardly even think. If I would have had a beer, I don’t think I could have stayed awake long enough to drive home.

This is not working.

Usually after we eat I have energy. This stinks. It tasted good going down, but the after effects are no fun. I can’t do this.

I guess body building is the next best option.

How about you? Are you ready to ditch your low energy diet?