Eat to Live...Eventually
Recently I have been very in to reading about nutrition. I've been gaining a lot of weight, as one does during a pregnancy, and I told my mom that after I gave birth to my baby girl, I wanted to do a boot camp where I would be super careful about what I ate and I would workout everyday. However, right after I said that, I realized that it would actually benefit my baby if I were more careful about what I ate now instead of waiting for her to be born. So, I got to work doing research on why sugar and processed foods were so bad for you, so as to give myself motivation to eat healthier.
Thus began the interest in nutrition. I am currently reading a book called Eat for Life by Dr. Joel Fuhrman and I am loving all of the information I am learning! I haven't quite gotten to the point where I am applying everything I read, as I go back and forth between eating healthy and eating like garbage, but I am hoping that as I continue learning about (and writing about) nutrition, I can be better motivated to eat to live, and to better feed my body the nutrients it needs.
Something I have learned through my experience of deciding to cut out sugar and processed foods (I lasted about 2 weeks, but I am determined to start that again) was the truthfulness of this statement from the book: "Yes, it takes time to learn a new way to cook and prepare foods, and yes, it takes time for taste preferences to change and taste buds to become more sensitized to foods that have less salt and sugar. But if you stay with this plan, you will find that your taste buds and your sense of smell actually get stronger and adjust such that you prefer healthier foods." When I was living this nutritional plan, apples became more sweet and healthy snacks became more delicious. After going back to eating donuts and candy, these same foods that I was enjoying, all of the sudden became lesser.
As I get back on the wagon and allow myself to have a small treat here or there (instead of telling myself never), then I can better stay on track and teach my taste buds to prefer the healthier option! The first 4 days without sugar are the hardest, but from what I have read, if you can stick with the nutritarian diet for 6 weeks, it is no longer difficult and your body starts to crave salads.
Am I there yet? Not even in the slightest. I had cold cereal for breakfast and peeps for a snack this morning, but I as I continue learning and sharing what I know, I hope to be able to get back on track and someday learn to love salads more than candy. As the book says, "This Nutritarian program works well for those people who gain an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the science and logic supporting it, and it takes time and effort to learn this body of knowledge. However, once you have learned and put into practice this information, you will become a nutritional expert."
Here's to hoping I can study this book, learn more and more about nutrition, and then apply it in my life to be able to life a longer, fuller life, free of disease and also to be able to be a good example to my daughter.
