One or 24?

I saw a cartoon the other day . . . it depicted a man in a doctor's office.  The man was sitting on the exam room table in his boxer shorts and no shirt.  The doctor was standing next to him, looking at his file.  The caption is the doctor saying, "Well, what CAN you fit into your busy schedule?  One hour of exercise each day . . . or 24 hours of being dead?"  Pretty clear choice there, don't you think?  And even though the cartoon showed a middle-aged, beer-bellied man as the overly busy culprit, my thoughts went to all the young "soccer moms" who say to me, "oh, I just don't have time to come to class."  They tell me about driving to soccer practice and games and tournaments in other states.  They tell me about all the homework their kids have and how they have to help create the projects that are due each quarter.  They go on to tell me that when soccer is over, football will start and then it's basketball and then it's baseball.  Their blood pressure and their voices literally rise right before me as they justify their reasons for not taking time for themselves.  I want to shake them.  I want to say "one hour . . . or 24 hours?"  Who will be there for your kids if you don't take the one hour?  It's not going to happen tomorrow unless you make it happen today.  How do you think your kids would respond if given the choice of participating in one more sport, or having their mom be there when they graduate? or get married? or have kids of their own? Take your hour TODAY.  Then do it again tomorrow.  And then after a month of taking 30 hours out of the 720 available, take a good look at your kids and tell me that they really are worse off because you took those 30 hours for yourself. And then look in the mirror and realize that taking care of yourself is the best gift you can give your family.

Labels - The Deception and The Truth

I just finished the 4th of 4 presentations at Allstate reviewing food and nutrition.  I covered the science behind how your body responds to food and why we want to eat lean protein, quality carbohydrates and good fats with every meal.  I taught them how they can create gentle waves of blood sugar release instead of tsunami's by eating frequently and eating all three of the macronutrients listed previously.  But the most interesting part of the presentation is the "label reading" portion.  As I lead into this part, I remind my audience that the food companies are not concerned with the health of their families . . . they are concerned with the health of their own bottom line.  They want you to purchase their product.  So it is up to each of us to learn how to read through the deception that the labels often contain.  Serving size is the first thing that companies use to create a picture that may or may not be reality.  When you pick up a bottle of juice or pre-made protein drink, be careful to note if the servings per bottle is 1 or 2 or even 2.5.  The rest of the values listed on that label are all keyed into the serving size.  If sugars are listed at 28 grams and the servings per bottle is 2 -  you will consume 56 grams of sugar if you drink the whole bottle (which it's really designed for you to do)!  My husband picked up what looked like a single size serving of cottage cheese - it was a cup, and it looked very much like a yogurt container.  But the serving size was 1/2 cup, so that little container was really 2 servings.  The sodium in the serving size was 350mg . . . so if my husband would have eaten the whole thing (which he would!), he would have gotten 700mg of sodium in that one little serving of cottage cheese.  Remember that you should try to keep your sodium intake to 1500-2000mg each day . . . so he would have had about half of his total intake in that yogurt-sized portion of cottage cheese!  If you look at a certain popular cracker, the serving size is 4 crackers.  Who eats just 4 crackers????  The first part of the label states that a serving size has 0 grams of trans-fats.  We all know by now that trans-fats are bad for you because your body does not recognize this man-made substance as food.  But then if you read further into the actual ingredient list, you see that these crackers have "vegetable shortening, partially hydrogenated soybean oil" - otherwise known as trans-fats.  Every single cracker you eat actually has trans-fat in it.  The label can say "0 grams" because the company is allowed to "round down" for the amount in the serving size of 4 crackers.  And be aware that the "non-fat" cooking spray you use is actually 100% fat.  The serving size is 1/3 or 1/4 of a second!  It really is important to become a savvy shopper and understand all that you are putting into your body.  Learn to read labels and understand what they are truly telling you.  Not all that is put on sale as food is good for you. And you really are what you eat!