One of my favorite indulgences during the fall is pumpkin flavored food and drink. I can't seem to get enough of it. And what's funny is that the stuff is available year round. We can buy canned pumpkin every day at the supermarket, but during the fall the product is marketed as fresh, in season and ripe for the picking so we take the bait; hook, line and sinker. Enjoying a holiday treat once or twice during the month is acceptable, but using the entire fall and winter seasons to overeat sweets and comfort carbs will leave you looking at an extra 10 pounds on the scale, trying to figure out how you gained the weight. Maybe that's why so many New Years' resolutions involve diets. Consumer advertisement is often created to emotionally trigger a response and therefore our purchases and consumption attempt to satisfy those desires. How do we defend ourselves from these enticing, entertaining exhibits that bombard our brains on television, radio, at the grocery store and gas station? Isolation isn't an option for most of us and honestly if you alienate yourself there's another problem set that will surface. Let me offer a 3 step solution and expound briefly on each recommendation.
1) Education: Understanding the consequences and rewards reaped from eating different foods is a great motivator that can empower people to make healthier choices. Americans are experiencing insurmountable health problems and a severe obesity epidemic due to the current condition of our food industry. The present fast paced information age has fewer and fewer people taking the time to buy fresh foods and cook healthy meals. Instead we fall victim to convenience, carryout and packaged products that are full of toxic preservatives. Let's get back to the basics of growing gardens, eating fresh produce and teaching our children how to cook with real food. You've got to take some time to watch the new movie Fed Up. This movie illustrates how misinformed this country has become about proper nutrition and how the youngest generations are suffering from the consequences. There's an old proverb that says, 'give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; show him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime.' Are we teaching our children how to eat for a lifetime or how to eat for a couple decades from a fast food drive-thru?
2) Encouragement: Create an environment of support for yourself and your loved ones. Be vulnerable and let people know that you are making a change and need their help. By having the accountability of friends, family and fitness minded fans you will create a community of support that will offer encouragement as you make health and nutrition a priority. Changing the unhealthy habits and distancing yourself from the negative people is no easy feat, but I assure you that the effort is absolutely worth the result. If you take the first step towards change, become a leader in your home, workplace and community I assure you that people will follow. Criticism and critiques will come, so get ready to stand your ground and inform others about your commitment to better health.
3) Exit Strategy: It's the weekend before Christmas and you're hurrying around the mall in an attempt to find that perfect gift for the last relative on your shopping list. The one person you struggle to buy for every year. While roaming the stores you can't help but enjoy samples of peppermint candy, hot chocolate, pumpkin scones and gingerbread cookies. Before leaving with the back massager for Uncle Bill you've consumed an extra 800 calories and only burned 200 of those while walking around the store. If this cycle repeats itself you'll be carrying around an extra 5-10 pounds before Santa Claus comes to visit. Now a decision must be made: do we create a calorie counterattack with hours of vigorous exercise or do we war game a plan to avoid the free holiday treats? Chances are you don't have hours of extra time to invest in working out. It's hard enough getting to the gym for an hour just three times a week before/after your day job. Now you factor in the office party, visit to Grandmas and the church choir performance so the likelihood of any exercise is reduced to a Turkey Trot or Jingle Bell 5K. Let's just decide not to eat the treats. Walk away from the dessert table, avoid the sample booth and evacuate the area. Flee from the temptation. If you develop a course of action now, then when you get ambushed with holiday cheer in the form of calories it will be easier to resist the urge to indulge and instead execute the exit strategy.
I want to invite you to join me in the Fed Up 10 day sugar detox. My goal is to start with 10, keep it up for 30 more and then embrace a new lifestyle. We will start on the 28th, right after Thanksgiving and end on Christmas. Then after enjoying some rewards for our hard work on Christmas, just pick back up and take the new, healthy habit into 2015. A New Years resolution is quite cliche, but this is so much more than that. We are committing to change the way we eat so that our children don't fall victim to childhood obesity and we ourselves can lead healthy, long lives and enjoy as many years as God will give us here on planet earth.
Check out the website below for details about the Fed Up 10 day Challenge. And let me know if you're in so we can hold each other accountable, track our progress, celebrate the victory over temptation and freedom from sugar ;)
http://fedupmovie.com/#/page/fedupchallenge
