Reclaim [my life], week 1

I am participating in a free nutrition class through my local yoga studio called "Reclaim Your Diet."  I'm personally calling it Reclaim My Life because I don't like the word diet, and the title really makes me feel like it's a "wonder-diet" only to stick around for a short while.  

I joined the class with lots of reservations, a lot of skepticism and generally a big 

? 

as to whether this was healthy for me or a right fit.  I finally decided to take a chance, as it was free and I already had yoga classes to my credit at the studio it literally cost nothing and I could drop out whenever I wished.  It is going to be what I make of it.

I'm almost done with the first week and I have to admit it is a very down-to-earth, reasonable way of talking about nutrition.  I was pleasantly surprised at how down to earth and realistic the advice is.  The dietician/nutritionist who led the classes had a very personal relationship with poor nutrition, which makes listening to what she says more meaningful.  It was really refreshing to learn about nutrition in an environment that was not telling you to completely give up any one thing and was encouraging more conscious "selective" eating than eliminating and omitting foods.

My main reason for joining the class was that I was feeling very unhealthy and felt that I needed to do something for myself.  I often put others first and really don't take care of myself first and foremost as I should.  When I do put myself first, I feel guilty and often try and back off or apologize for my decision or action.  Sure, I'm not perfect, some of those apologies were necessary, but a majority of them were not. 

I also wanted to be more in control of my life.  Right now my schedule is what my professors want it to be, anything I do outside of class is smooshed in around classes and forced to be second to every class and group meeting.

  

I needed something that I controlled, that I said: I'm doing this now because I want to do it now.

This week our challenge is to start taking out some of the processed food we have in our diet.  We were told to make a personal goal as to how many processed foods we can eat per day and aim to not go over that goal for this week.  

Only guideline: Do not say Zero.

The Unknown Doughnut

This past weekend my brother and I both made the trip home to visit my parents.  I was specifically going home to see the high school musical (Into the Woods) and my brother had some paperwork he needed to bring home and really wanted to see his sister (... or at least that's how I tell the story).  On his way home he picked up a dozen doughnuts to share with us from his local bakery.  These doughnuts are the real thing. Made that day,  light, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth kind of doughnuts. I don't think I'll ever have another doughnut from Tim Hortons ever again.  I definitely ate my fair share of doughnuts that weekend and brought one back to school with me for breakfast Monday.  I then decided I was going on a "doughnut diet" until next time some of those delicious doughnuts find their way home.

My friend posted this video on Facebook.

[Go watch it, it's only 5 minutes and really interesting... plus I have a few spoilers below so you should watch before reading]

It's called the Calorie Detective and the creator looked at the discrepancies of calories in the typical foods he might eat in a regular day.  He compared this discrepancy to big macs, hamburgers and doughnuts that you "ate unknowingly."  In his experience, he would have eaten 2 doughnuts worth of calories unknowingly!!!!

I was quite surprised at the large discrepancies between the companies' reports of the calorie count and what the calorie count actually was.  I've never been a calorie-counter but I do tend to make choices of snacks by how many calories are in a serving (Snack A has 300 calories, Snack B has 275? I'll take snack B... most of the time). So far in life I have been blessed with the ability to maintain a healthy weight without too much concern, but it is really an eye opener when you consider the amount of overeating that occurs in the United States. 

This video made me wonder: 

How many calories am I really eating? 

Can I really trust what the boxes tell me? 

He touches on how the law requires companies to put nutritional information on their food but that the calorie count is not actually enforced, creating these misleading reports.  

Does the information actually help if it's inaccurate? 

Should there be regulations on this? 

Is regulating this even practical/worth while?

This semester I have not been eating the healthiest or really exercising as much as I would like due to stress (which I know only makes the stress worse), and looking back it's scary how many extra "doughnuts" I may have eaten this semester without even knowing it.  I'm definitely a "stress eater" and I don't tend to eat the healthiest of things when I'm stressed.  I think I am going to make a conscious effort to eat a bit healthier so that instead of eating doughnuts without realizing it, I can have (and enjoy!) a doughnut or two next time my brother comes home.