Sunday, August 29, 2010

Food Ignorance

I am a researcher. This is what I do, day in and day out. Research is a large portion of my job. I research things in my personal life too -- reading reviews before I buy almost anything of consequence, making spreadsheets with my nerd friends to plan our Disney vacation. I am a born researcher.

It should come as no surprise that I like to read about weight loss, living healthy, and exercise now. Almost anything I do of significance, I research. While I don't expect or think it is at all reasonable for others to do this, it sometimes really shocks (and very much saddens) me when people who are trying to lose weight have no idea what is going on with their bodies or with the food they put in their bodies.

Commence rant.

I was at a restaurant the other day and I overheard someone talking about my gym. It caught my attention and I began eavesdropping. One of the ladies was also giving a glowing review of the gym to someone who was considering joining. The lady giving the recommendation was quite large, although not as large as I was when I started this journey (if I had to guess, she was about 250). While she did mention that the equipment was in good shape, the main reasons she gave our gym the thumbs up were the interior decoration and the smoothie bar.

"You should really try this one smoothie. It tastes like a Snickers bar! That way I can have something sweet and not feel deprived!" I wanted to scream! Those smoothies at the smoothie bar are probably delicious. I don't know, I have not had one. The reason why is because they have about 400-600 calories each. Even the "light" smoothie has 250 calories. No thanks. A snickers bar has 270 bar. I of course kept my mouth shut.

It just made me sad. I see people trying their darndest to lose weight with all of these misguided attempts! A 600 calorie smoothie won't really do you any favors in losing weight, even if it has protein added and is sold at a health club. Neither will limiting your entire daily consumption to 800 calories and pushing your body into starvation mode. I hate how society has made eating healthy something mystical. It makes simultaneously angry and sad how ignorant people can be (probably myself included) about living healthily and eating right. Although this is not really rocket science, we have made it so.

2 comments:

  1. Preach on, Sister!! Sorry I've been largely absent from commenting lately. I've been reading, just not taking much time to leave comments. I think I'm back!! Thanks for the comments you've left for me. They were much appreciated.

    Congrats on your loss this week. It makes no difference how long it takes you to get to goal. What's much more important is being able to stay there once your get there.

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  2. Ok I won't even get started on selling unhealthy food in a gym lest I find myself jobless, but I don't get how people don't realize that candy is candy even when you blend it with milk and ice. Mini rant over!

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