Important things to know about eating

Meal planning is a word usually left for books: however, it is a great way to be in control. If a person sets out clothes for the next day, getting dressed in the morning is easy. It is the same idea for meals. Think ahead and have what you need ready to go. Doing this everyday is difficult. Starting with three days a week will help monumentally. For example: breakfast: small bagel, peanut butter, banana, and a small cup of milk. Lunch: slice of watermelon, sliced yellow pepper wedges, small tuna sandwich. Dinner: Small hamburger, stir-fried zucchini and a pear. Snacks: small handful of cashews, and a cup of orange juice. I have to cook the hamburger, mix the tuna, slice the melon and slice the pepper. Ready to grab. Be calmer and more in control with planning ahead.

Remember the food groups we learned about in kindergarten? It’s the path to making good meals. Stay with the plan that each meal contains fruit, vegetables, meats, milk, and bread servings. At least three food groups are needed per meal. Varied in nutrients, help with feeling fuller and adds variety to taste. It’s the items you find along the perimeter of a grocery shop usually. Fill your cart with colorful and varied fruits and vegetables when grocery shopping. If its in the fridge, it will be easier to prepare for meals.

Today I bumped into an acquaintence who looked thinner than ever. When asked about her weight loss, she mentioned her heart attack. It took a heart attack to get her attention. PAY ATTENTION. Food is a medicine for the body to work. Would you fill your body with bad pills?

Mealtime has become grab and go time more often than not. HOw and Who wants to spend an hour cooking and 1 cleaning up for each meal. It’s normal to be annoyed by this process. It takes planning to make it enjoyable. A regular schedule of events. A breakfast, A lunch, A dinner. Its the body’s best defense. Pow. How to accomplish this feat is rather simple in concept but difficult in pursuit. HAVE THE RIGHT FOODS AT HOME AVAILALBE TO GRAB.

With the delicious pull of soda, it takes a plan to control its intake.  Although no intake might be the best idea, it may be unrealistic for many.  A plan for consumption is needed.  LImiting soda intake to one day a week may be the best plan.  Without fail, that one day will be a celebration and shouldn’t be skipped.  If Friday is the day for soda intake, then on Friday soda should be available to drink.  The other days of the week will be used for drinking water or 100% fruit juice.  That is a plan of attack. 

Does the soda pop industry deserve to have our money?  They provide a product that keeps us coming back for more, causes serious weight gain, and provides nothing useful for our bodies.  Their pockets are filling fast while our bodies are enlarging even faster.  In the news recently, President Clinton has worked to keep soda out of our schools.  How about out of our cartoons or out of our heads?  There is no use for soda.  It provides no benefit to our health whatsoever.  It’s time we keep our money and find something better to drink, like water. 

As I drove home from a kids party this afternoon, I had to repeatedly tell myself one thing. “Have the strength” to pass on by the junk meals available. As quick and easy as it would have been to stop, it was just as easy to continue toward home. May we have THE STRENGTH to keep from the pull of the fast food funk.

At the grocery store yesterday, I had to decide if $4.99 was a price I was willing to spend on a seedless watermelon. I chose to purchase the piece after the advice of my 11 year old. The cost was outrageous to me. Would it be worth it? I was easily able to answer that question when the melon was half eaten before dinner started. While waiting, the children requested piece after piece. With only a quarter left at this mornings’ breakfast, I realized the benefit of the purchase. I could have spent 5 dollars on some fries at a drive through or a soda and chips snack at the vending machines. Instead, the delicious melon filled our stomachs with the joys of summer fruits. Well worth the cost.

When you decide to eat well, you decide to take control from the junk. It’s choices. Choosing to buy fruit and vegetables instead of chips and potato salad. Balance is the key. Todays meals should include something from each food group. Skip the food groups added by junk food companies.