I'd Rather be Skinny

About a month and a half ago, while we were still in Alaska, I was watching Oprah on the television. Yes, I DO like Oprah. There was an author on her show talking about a new book that he just wrote about healthy eating. I was super intrigued because I agreed with everything he was saying. Halfway through the show, my sweet husband noticed how excited I was about it and took me to Barnes and Noble to get a couple of his books, “Food Rules” and “The Omnivores Dilemma.” Really really good books, and I recommend them to anyone interested in health. I LOVED “Food Rules” and am about to the last chapter in “The Omnivores Dilemma.” Once I read the first book, I vowed I would try and follow the rules he gives. The general idea of his books is to eat foods that are as minimally processed as possible. He talks about how the food industry is really tricky about how they advertize and how they make money. They can make sooooo many ingredients out of a kernel of corn it’s insane! It’s what surprised me the most. The food industry can buy corn for super cheap so they’ve been busy figuring out how they can make more and more ingredients out of it so they can make money off of consumers. Michael Pollan, the author of these books, believes it is making Americans sick. So I started researching it and decided once we got back from Alaska I would try and make as much of our food from scratch as I could. Amongst the obvious homemade bread, I wanted to make my own foods like ketchup, and mayo. Yeah, I was pretty ambitious and was determined it would be better for our health. I grew up eating margarine instead of butter because it didn’t contain as much fat, but after reading Pollan’s book I found out butter is actually better for you because its not processed. I know that’s hard for some people to believe, but I believed it. So.. after a couple weeks of trying it out, and eating real butter instead of margarine, this is what I told my husband:

“I know that this new way of eating is supposed to be healthier for me, but I don’t think it’s making me any thinner. Healthy doesn’t always mean skinny. I’d rather be skinny.”

I was just frustrated because I had been involved in a really good exercise regime and I wasn’t getting the results I thought I would get with the “clean eating.” For some reason, we’ve been going through a lot (a lot, a lot!) of butter within the last week or two and that just doesn’t seem to be helping. I went out and bought margarine today. Oh happy day! I agree with a good majority of what Pollan talks about in his books, rules that I will stick to, (like: “The whiter bread, the sooner you’ll be dead” and “Don’t eat breakfast cerals that change the color of milk.”) and I agree whole heartedly that processed foods are horrible for a person, but I’m not about to change some of my ways if it will make me go up a pant size. I don’t think most females would. So back to “regular” healthy eating.. we’ll see if I see the results I want this time around :)