Weekend Musings

For all those who say they don't have time to cook from scratch: a recent article in the LA Times informs us that buying prepackaged, pre-washed, or pre-cut food doesn't actually save us any time cooking dinner.  The study came out of UCLA.  You can find the article here.  While it does mention that buying prepackaged goods may save you more time buying groceries, I think we should ultimately be encouraged to cook from scratch -- it doesn't have to be creative or fancy to be convenient, healthy, and tasty.

The other day, as I was out shopping, I stumbled upon the Women's Health Kettlebell, which was available in your choice of five pounds or 10 pounds.  When I saw this, it made me incredibly angry.  Why?  I think it insinuates that women can't be strong.  It's the message that I've received my entire life from different gym and media outlets: use the three or five pounds dumbbells, because that's all women can and should handle, especially if they are afraid of "bulking up."  It's just ludicrous.  Since I began weight lifting, I can bench press 110 pounds, and I've lost inches off my arm.  I'm strong, and I'm physically fitter and tinier than I've ever been, with the muscle to prove it.  I look a lot better than I did this summer.  But I still question and doubt my own strength.  I constantly feel like I'm fighting against the message that women cannot and should not be strong.  It's a stigma, an oddity for a woman to deadlift and front squat more than 45 pounds.  But it's a stigma that I will continue to fight.

No matter how hard I exercise, it will never make up for a bad diet, which is clearly a problem for many Americans.  Check out this scary chart on obesity in the United States:

Even scarier?  In 1991, no state had an obesity rate higher than 20 percent (find the information here).

And last, we shouldn't underestimate the power that reading can have over our health: check out this article from Mark's Daily Apple on Bibliotherapy.  In short, reading (and writing) can be therapeutic for our mental health.  And on that note, I'm off to finish reading Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin.   

Me, fat?

This was precisely the question I asked myself when I stepped on the scale the summer between sophomore and junior year of college at the gym.
How could it be?  I occasionally worked out, I walked over a mile to get to work, and while I frequently indulged in the Starbucks mocha and the brownie, the exercise should burn that off -- right?  Calories in, calories out, or something like that.  Besides, I bought a lot of my groceries from Whole Foods, so didn't that mean I was automatically healthy?
Clearly, my denial and justification of my poor eating habits hurt me in the worst way, with a weight gain of nearly 25 pounds.  I was now considered overweight.
I'm apparently not the only one who's dealt with this dilemma.  According to msnbc.com, while 68 percent of Americans are overweight or obese, only 11 percent believe they are.
Part of the problem, the article cites, is that between the granola bars, 100 calorie packs, and fat free ice cream, we aren't eating healthy, even though we think we are.
One of the biggest problems is that we're eating too much sugar.  Sugar is measured in grams, and Americans (myself included) really have no idea how much a gram is.  Women aren't supposed to consume more than 40 grams of sugar in a day.  Hm.  Perhaps too much sugar contributed to my significant weight gain in college (although I'm sure other factors were involved).  But how am I doing now?  Do I still eat too much sugar?  To get some clarity, I decided to look in my fridge.  I've already made some steps to switch over the foods I eat, but I honestly don't check food labels the way I should.  So here goes a look at my Chobani yogurt...

Nine grams doesn't seem awful -- but given I put about a teaspoon of honey in my morning yogurt (which is about 8 grams of sugar), that's nearly half my sugar consumption at breakfast -- and that doesn't include the sugar in the fruit I add to it.  Yikes!
Wake up call.  I know I'm addicted to sugar, and I've been trying to cut back for the past six months.  Last week, I finally made the commitment to not put any sugar in my coffee.  I'm not going to lie -- I miss the sugar, but it gets easier every day.
Help me continue to cut out sugar!  Words of encouragement or thoughts on SAD (Standard American Diet) welcome.