It is a wonderful balancing act. Cost ~ Value, Work ~ Rest, Diet ~ Exercise. Here are a couple of great and timely, articles about the latter combination. I have always been appalled at the cost of eating well, and on a larger, more socio-economical level this fact has a great bearing on our national obesity problem. The old Budget ~ Food ratio. You have five bucks to feed three people. Mac's will cover it at the cost of high fat, while local, organic, nutritious produce won't. A perplexing dynamic.
This time of year (five days in) as people are already falling off the fitness bandwagon and trowing in the exercise towel, it is imperative that we do whatever we can to share, support and motivate each other. Here are a couple of my proven favorites:
1) Get a partner.
2) Join a group.
3) Set a goal.
4) Start & then don't stop.
With that on the table, let's again take a quick look at one of the balance issues a little closer. Diet. As in yours. You are going to have to make a commitment. You know this to be true. May I ask a few questions, then?
Are you still a slave to USDA?
Do you read labels?
Do you eat fast food?
Do have have ANY IDEA of what 2,000 calories LOOKS LIKE?
Do you think Jack in the Box commercials are funny?
Do you want to lose weight?
Do you super-size?
If you answered yes to any of the above, I have a suggestion. Pick one thing in your diet and improve it. Saturated fat from quarter pounders with cheese? So long. Artery cloggers in a bag potato chips? Gotta go. Pizza everyday? Ciao bella. German Sausage? Auf Weidrsehen. Beef enchiladas? Adios. A croissant with espresso? Au revoir. Need some celebrity (??) testimony? Looking for additional ways to lose that 5 I brought back from Kona, and running out of options, I quit the two teaspoons of peanut butter each morning with toast and coffee. Lost the 5 AND THREE MORE. Two months. A little change can do a lotta good. Here is a cool link with some refined food choice suggestions. I especially like the one about rye bread and Omega-3s. And since I only eat fish while in Hawaii, here are my favorite O3-O6 non fish substitutes:
Spinach
English walnuts
Eggs
Seeds
Olive oil
Hummus
Flax seeds
Soy
And this from Thunder Bear on the balance necessary to be a professional triathlete, parent and responsible citizen.
Lessons the Viking wants to pass on to his children
“The world itself develops at am amazingly rapid speed. I’m a parent now and have been so for a while. In my childhood, there was no email, no cell phones, no big Play Stations. There was a very different attitude towards life. In many cases today we consume a lot and just buy what we want. It is extremely difficult to stem that flood. It’s about teaching kids things have value and you must nurture, take an interest in what you do, practice and work hard to achieve things. We have to work all the time to step off the consumption train. At the same time, you are a part of society and in many cases the consumption train is something that is just going and you cannot step completely away from that without sacrificing social relations. So you need a combination, a balance of things and work a lot on your inner life to educate your children and motivate them to have good values and to value the world.”
The Small Is Beautiful Manifesto
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