Charles, who has an extraordinary memory, spent last semester coming home and reciting word for word his nutrition class lectures.
Things have changed around our household.
1-No more artificial food. If we don't know what the ingredients say, we don't eat it. So there went all boxed crackers and cookies. I rarely even go to the inside aisles of the grocery store. I go to FRESH, then MEAT, then DAIRY, then FROZEN and then I pay and leave the store. We used to love Grandma Sycamores Bread, and even though I've always been fairly healthy and knew white bread was bad, I was holding on to that last love. No more. Charles's nutrition teacher went off one day on the evils of Grandma Sycamores bread. Now I check the bread ingredients before I buy and it has to say something like, Whole Grain Wheat, Yeast, Honey. We've learned to like it. Cool Whip is a gonner. Pure Chemicals. So long all you delicious summer salads! If we see trans fats on the ingredients list we don't even go there. We eat cereals that have ingredients we can read, like Wheat Chex or Raisin Bran.
2-We are eating a lot more "power" foods. Almonds, Kidney Beans, Eggs, Tuna, Spinach, Bananas, Avocado, Carrots, Bison, organic yogurt, organic peanut butter. Along with our usual apples, oranges, pomegranates. Our kids have learned to make eggs, tuna, or peanut butter on wheat bread covered in sliced bananas for their after school snacks.
3-Water, water, water.
4-According to Charles's nutrition teacher you should eat granola, oatmeal or yogurt before you work out, drink Gatorade and water while you are working out, and within 5 minutes after working out drink chocolate milk (which will deliver the protein and sugar your muscles need, making them stronger muscles). I have seen my performance improve a ton since I started doing this, and I'm no longer tired the rest of the day.
5-Charles's teacher hates supplements. She says to get your vitamins from your food. But the one supplement she does recommend is fish oil, because it's just so darn good for you.
6-She says that all that talk about milk being bad is making women suffer with bone density loss. When someone goes off on their milk tangents (blah, blah, blah) I want to say, go to the bone density lab at the "U" and see all the girls who have bones that are as frail as their grandmothers and then talk to me.
7-If you don't eat within an hour of waking up, your body will eat anyway, your muscles!
8-Soda is evil, caffeine free, diet, doesn't matter...it sucks the minerals (that we already don't get enough of) out of your body.
I just can't bring myself to give up, no matter how terrible they are, homemade brownies and cookies. I tell myself they are better than the boxed kind and then I don't feel so bad. But I know they are heart rot. Still, I love them.
3 comments:
Yes, I think Charles and the nutrition class has changed our lives as well. I didn't hear the Grandma Sycamore lecture, and I probably need to. As for cookies and brownies: they are nurture foods, celebrative. Even eating absolutely perfectly, we're still going to die. Have a cookie now and then.
The trick to less-guilt cookies or brownies: use egg substitutes and instead of oil use applesauce (1 for 1 substitute). Nevermind the chocolate. Pretend what "they" say is true: chocolate is good for your heart.
Yay for good food! I recently read a food book that changed my life by changing my eating habits. I delight in feeling good after I eat, which is impossible when I eat crap.
I had no idea that chocolate milk could make me feel that way, though. I'll have to try that out.
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