Thinny Thursday Tip 1- Eat Real Food

EAT REAL FOOD

Hi everyone! You might recall from this post here that you all inquired about how one stays thin while eating desserts. I’ll repeat that I’m not a nutritionist and diet was never meant to be a focus of my blog, but since so many people have asked, I am sharing my personal tips on Thinny Thursdays.

My first tip is to EAT REAL FOOD. This might seem like a pretty basic demand of human survival, yet in this day and age of so many chemicals, additives, powders, bars, flavors, colors, GMOs, and artificial “foods” (often times tricking people into thinking that they’re “healthy”) it must be stated.. Eat real food.

Before I elaborate, reflect for one moment, on the bodies you see in images from the ’50s, ’60,’70s,and  ’80s. These were fairly innocent days before the Fat-Free, Sugar-Free, Carb-Free phases descended upon us (for which I was at Ground Zero for each trend). In fact, we have a photo of my Dad in the 1960s at a breakfast table with a milk carton that advertised “Made with 20% more cream!”-  Can you imagine?!

Also, remember when “Chunk” was the fat kid in The Goonies? He now looks like a typical kid!

What happened? Brands found great ways to turn a profit by introducing “Fat Free”, then “Carb Free”, followed by “Sugar Free” “foods” that started making us over-think eating in the first place. We lost touch with what our bodies wanted, real nutrients and having us stop when we’re full and eat when we’re hungry. Instead we ate boxes of Fat Free devils food cookies because we could, because they were fat-free. 

Then the Low-Carb phase flipped the the fat-free phase topsy-turvey, and a whole new line of artificial “foods” emerged, like this lovely “meal-replacement” bar below (bhleck).

And yes, as I speak in the general sense of “we,” I guess I really mean I. I completely observed these fads as I was becoming of age when they hit the market.

Thankfully I was never too obsessive and my metabolism worked hard for me through the trends anyway (tips on metabolism later, but in short- EAT). What shook me out of this twisted vortex of food fads and over-thinking my every meal, you might wonder? Falling in love.

Ok, that’s the cheesy version. What really happened was, yes, I fell in love and I fell hard, right when I was in the trenches of a Sugar-Free phase. I could chomp a whole pack of pink Extra gum and demolish 8-inch towers of Carbolite frozen yogurt back then.

Problem was, sugar-free items made me bloated and gassy and.. eh hem, I did not want to have an incident with this super hot guy. I wanted to avoid embarrassing pit-falls at all costs, so I immediately cut out foods with artificial sweeteners.

Then, I wanted to be that cool girl who could hang. So when we went to a Dodger game and he got Nachos to share, well of course I’m a girl who eats Nachos! Look at me not caring! I’m eating Nachos! And peanuts and popcorn, oh my!

The funny thing was, the more I just ate whatever made me happy in the moment, the less of a game food became, and the leaner my body started looking. Because I was now allowed to eat the pizza, I didn’t over-think it and then cave and eat 20 of something else to make up for the fact that I had to avoid the pizza. Get it?

And once I stared eating real foods, despite their fat content, real and wonderful foods like avocados, nuts, and olive oil, my body felt nourished, and no longer craved a thousand of whatever new snack items were on the market.

For some people obsessed with calorie, fat, carb, or sugar counting, the concept of throwing all caution to the wind and not even thinking about numbers as you eat can be unfathomable. But let me suggest that you try it. Just try it. Go one week eating what you want to eat, while listening to your body. It might just be the “diet” you’re body’s been looking for all along.

ps: Since writing this post in 2010, I have learned about GMOs in our food and how they are making our nation sick and fat. Consequently, I tried to eat Organic foods as much as possible and avoid processed, packaged “foods.” For more info on GMOs, click here.