Committing to Healthier Eating

When I was a kid, I remember my mom not letting me drink soda for the longest time and when she did allow it, I could only drink a little. My meals were usually rice with meat and vegetables. Occasionally, we ate at fast food restaurants, but not everyday. I also rode my bike a lot and played outside with kids on the block. But I admit that when Nintendo appeared, it was easier to have fun playing video games than to do anything else. In high school, the school cafeteria usually served up something fried or fattening. The vending machines were mostly soda, chips and candy -- hardly anything healthy. In college, I spent two years in the dorms and ate dorm food, also not very healthy. There were two cafeterias -- one that served typical cafeteria food and the other served fast food like pizza, tacos, etc. Apartment-living was no better being further away from campus -- I found it harder to cook meals as often and chose McDonald's for dinner many times. And when I did cook, it was usually pre-packaged food like Pasta-Roni. Hey, it was easy and quick -- a key factor for college students.

I never gave a thought about eating healthy and exercising in college. Walking to class was considered my exercise. The sad thing is that for two of the years I lived in a dorm, I was right across the street from the health facility, but I had never seen the inside of it. My attitude towards my health changed about five years ago when I picked up a copy of Fast Food Nation at the bookstore. I was warned by the cashier that I may never want to eat fast food again after reading it, but I figured I'd take my chances. Well he was right. I swore I'd never eat at McDonald's or any fast food place again. It wasn't hard to do actually.

After watching Super Size Me last year, I decided that not eating fast food was not enough. With the news of the avian flu and mad cow disease combined with what I had read in Fast Food Nation and seen in Super Size Me about the meat industry, I became concerned about the meat I bought at the grocery store. I wasn't ready to give up meat and become a vegetarian so I decided to purchase organic meat. After doing some research online on organic food, I couldn't come up with any conclusive evidence that it is better for your health. It's a topic of debate and I've come across news that actually says it may be worse for your health. But nonetheless, I've decided to buy organic when it makes sense to me. Probably half or more of what I purchase is organic. Hard core organic enthusiasts would most likely say what's the point. It's all or nothing. Yeah, well...I'm not totally convinced.

I also started working out at the gym and doing Pilates. Although I admit I've fallen off the wagon, but I'll be jumping back on very soon. Eating healthy isn't hard for me, but sticking to the exercise routine is. But when I was doing it regularly, it felt great.

The Natural Ovens Bakery food program at Appleton Central High is a great example of how healthy eating has completely changed the behaviors of high schoolers. Since the inception of the program, the school has found no behavioral problems with any of their students where it was a major issue before healthy food was made available. It's amazing how simple it was to correct the major issues this school was dealing with like drugs, weapons and suicides just by changing the food these kids were eating.

Part of why I've decided to eat healthier is also because diabetes seem to run in my family. My grandpa had it and my dad was recently diagnosed with it. My dad isn't overweight at all, but he sure has a sweet tooth, which I've inherited. I haven't totally given up sweets--it's hard--but I have it much less than I used to when I was younger. I find I'm able to satisfy my sweet tooth now with lots of fruit and vegetables.