Where were you when breakfast happened?

I tend to think about food a lot and encourage others to as well. I think about things like where did the food come from? How was it produced? How did it get to my table? What types of foods should I be eating? How much and how often should I be eating certain types of food? (As in I’d like to eat bacon every day, but I know that wouldn’t be a good idea.) And it is a dynamic process, one in which I try new things, make changes, and see what works for me and what does not. I am not unique in this as there are a lot of people who are thinking more and more about their food on many different levels- beyond “should I get a #1 or a #4 value meal today?” 

But there is one area where I, and a lot of other people, tend to fall short when it comes to thinking about their food, and that is while we’re eating it. One of the casualties of our fast paced modern lifestyle has been the act of sitting down to eat our meals, and only focusing on the eating of said meal. How often do we go through a drive-thru and eat on the go, or gobble up our lunch while sitting at our desk in front of a computer, answering emails? With smart phones and tablets we can now read and post Facebook updates while we’re eating our breakfast.  And let us not forget the classic TV tray- designed to make our lives easier by allowing us to say “No she didn’t!” with a mouth full of spaghetti.

I’ve been guilty of doing all of the above-( well, except maybe the “No she didn’t” part- I think I just said “Nah-aaah!”). It’s an old habit, and we all know how easily those die, but it is one that I am working on changing. And the reasoning isn’t just because it’s the cool, uppity-yuppy, pretentious thing to do. The reason for doing it is for better physical, as well as mental, health.

One thing I had not given enough thought to when it comes to food is how we digest it. All of this thought about food up to the point it gets in front of my mouth, but not much thought about what happens to it between my mouth, and, um, where I eventually get rid of the food. So let’s take a look at it. (The process of digestion, that is.)

It is important to appreciate that eating is a process that involves all of our senses. Vision: we see a big juicy burger, and now we want a big juicy burger. Smell: we walk by a place that is grilling big juicy burgers, and man do we want a big juicy burger. Sound: we hear the sizzle of (I’m just going to start using BJB), and we want that BJB. Touch: this is more where the tongue comes into play- the texture of our food. Think of when we’ve put something in our mouth and gone “YUCK!” due to texture (octopus)- or “YUM!” (crispy bacon on that BJB). Taste: pretty obvious- that BJB tastes amazing. (Sorry to my readers who are now craving a big juicy burger. See how powerful suggestion is when it comes to eating?)

So what happens when we’re not mentally present with our food while we’re eating it? We tend to do a few things that are a detriment to healthy digestion and nutrition. One, we tend to eat too quickly and not chew our food enough. Chewing (mastication) is one of the most important aspects of digestion. People may not realize it but there is only one thing that actually gets digested in our stomachs by the acids in it, and that is protein. Carbohydrates and fats go elsewhere to be processed, and when these carbs and fats are in larger pieces, it is harder for the body to process them. Two, we tend to overeat, especially if we’re watching television while eating. In one study that evaluated the caloric intake of children watching TV, the researchers found that children watching TV took in an average of 228 more calories. Do that twice a week for a year and you’ve consumed 6 ½ pounds worth of extra calories.

Besides the physical reasons for being present with your meals, there are also the mental and spiritual aspects of eating to consider. Food really should be celebrated and enjoyed. I think that we too often look at a meal as something of a chore- something we have to find time to get done. There is so much joy to be found in eating when we take the time to savor the experience. When was the last time you really thought about how great the crispness of a fresh apple is? Or how intense and savory the smell of roasted garlic is? When we are distracted from the process of eating by electronic gadgets and pending tasks, we miss out on one of the very best things about eating food- namely the eating of the food! When we take the time to appreciate our food and think about how it nurtures and sustains us, we realize that the act of eating really is sacred. I look at it this way: I am sacred, and I am what I eat; therefore what I eat is also sacred. (Might not pass mustard in a college logic course, but it works for my purposes).

So I encourage and challenge all of us to be more mindful in our eating. The next time you sit down to eat, put aside the distractions and do the following. Look at your food and appreciate the color and the shape of it. Smell the food and savor its aroma, however strong or faint it may be. (I was smelling an apple the other day, and this apple wasn’t particularly pungent, but I still enjoyed it).  Feel the food, the weight of it on a fork, the texture of it in your mouth. Notice the variety of textures a food or dish may contain. Hear the sounds of eating; the crunch of an apple, the sizzle of a steak being grilled. And of course taste the food. Really notice the flavor and appreciate it as it is happening.

Think about how something as simple as an English muffin with crunchy peanut butter becomes so magnificent when we take this approach. It goes from something quick and easy for us to make and eat while we check the morning’s emails, to a beautiful golden-brown, nook-an-cranny filled, peanut smelling, warm, crunchy yet soft and creamy, absolute bit of delicious enjoyment!

Hmm, now I want an English muffin with peanut butter on it to chase my big juicy burger.

Be well,

Seth

It All Matters.

One of my co-workers at a local gym is a young lady working on improving her eating habits. We’ve had a few discussions about diet and nutrition, as she has asked me for information from time to time. The other day she told me that she had been really good during the week, 6 days of good eating- then she ate a bunch of junk food on the 7^th day. (“And on the 7^th day, God created Gummy Worms.”) She asked me, “So…does that count?” As in, does it matter that she ate well for the week, if she ate crap at the end of it? This struck me as an odd question at first, but in the end it illuminated some vital points.

Illuminated Point #1: People are really confused about what to eat and nutrition in general.

It seems odd that we should have so much confliction over something that we have been doing since the dawn of mankind. We’ve been eating FOREVER, for obvious reasons. We do it every day. We’ve done it our whole lives. But somehow we have made it overly complicated and confusing, especially in the context of the modern Western diet. Some of the typical noise I hear around nutrition sounds like: “Are those Lean Cuisine things healthy?” or “How much carbs should I eat?” or “Do I need to eat more protein if I’m exercising more?” Etcetera, etcetera. What should be simple, we have made complex and confusing.

Illuminated Point #2: Everything matters.

One thing I stress to my clients who are trying to lose weight or improve their wellness is this: our state of wellness is the culmination of many choices we make on a day to day basis over many years. We don’t go on vacation and gain 50 pounds- (though it might feel like it at times). Likewise, we don’t exercise and eat well for a week and lose 50 pounds. Every day we make choices that affect our health and wellness. Do I put cheese on this sandwich? Do I exercise today? Do I go out for ice cream? Do I go out for ice cream again since the first one was amazing? (I think I ask this question more than most people). Every one of these choices matters. So that answer to her question of “does it matter that I ate well for a week, if in the end I ate a bunch of junk food one day” is… YES! Absolutely it matters! How much better is it to have 5 or 6 days of healthy eating and one day of bad, than to have 7 days of bad eating? It is a lot better. Everything matters. If someone normally drinks 3 bottles of sugary soda a day, and they cut it down to drinking 1, that matters! It all adds up. It all counts. It all matters.

Illuminated Point #3: Avoid TMTS Syndrome.

TMTS Syndrome is a condition that afflicts millions of people every year who are trying to make changes in their life: they do Too Much, Too Soon (TMTS). If we are looking to make significant and wide scale changes in our life, it is best to do it incrementally. If our goal is to exercise 6 days a week, lose 30 pounds, reduce the amount of red meat we eat, increase our vegetable consumption, and stop drinking alcohol , then… WHOA! Slow down. Start by exercising a few times a week. Maybe cut meat out of one meal, replace it with more veggies, and have one glass of wine instead of two. Start with a weight loss goal of 5 pounds. But don’t try and do everything all at once, because we are humans, and we will hate it, and we will bitch and moan, and we will say “this sucks”, and then we will stop doing it. Completely. Change needs to be adapted to so that it becomes sustainable. As evidence of this, I asked the young lady at work a week later, “How is the eating going?” Her response: “Crappy. I’m eating junk again.” So I talked to her a little bit about moderate changes, as she had gone for the “flip-a-switch” approach previously. And I also pointed out that we make changes when we’re ready to.

So what should you eat? I don’t know- it’s too confusing. (I’m kidding, but I’ll get to that another time.)

Be Well.

Seth

Gotta problem? Take a pill.

I just read an article that has made me furious. No, it wasn't the Olsen Twins revealing their $39,000 backpack, which by the way, I hope comes stuffed with $38,900 of cash. It was the report that the FDA for the first time in 13 years has approved a new weight loss drug. Why would this make me furious? Well, first of all I don't believe that pharmaceuticals are the answer to many of our health problems, and a look at this article exemplifies why. All sections in bold below are quotes taken from the Reuters news article on the approval of the new drug, Belviq.

Due to safety concerns and deaths in the past resulting from previous weight loss drugs, the FDA has set the bar higher for its approval process of such drugs. But since America is getting more and more obese, the FDA has been under pressure to approve a new drug to combat obesity. Seems like a good reason to lower your standards, right? Peer pressure?

"It appears that the agency's view has officially shifted towards 'not treating obesity is a risk in and of itself, so we're willing to put drugs in the market in order to help people lose weight, even if there's risk associated'," Cowen and Co analyst Simos Simeonidis said in a research note.


I could see this line of reasoning if there was no other way for people to lose weight. The thing is, there is already a way for people to lose weight and combat obesity, and it is extremely low risk. Actually, doing it lowers your risks for multiple other factors, like heart disease, high cholesterol, and diabetes.


Wall Street sees a successful new diet drug raking in billions of dollars.


Bingo. Money talks in this country, and much more loudly than the voice of reason. Pharmaceutical companies spend a gazillion (give or take a dillion) on marketing and convincing the public, and doctors, to use their medications. 


Belviq is designed to block appetite signals in the brain to help people feel full after eating smaller amounts of food. In large clinical trials, patients on average lost about 5 percent of body weight. The drug's FDA-approved label says Belviq use should be stopped if a patient has not reached 5 percent weight loss after 12 weeks of daily use.


I read this and my jaw hit the floor. The results of a large clinical trial were that people lost about 5% of their body weight? Are you kidding me? Lets look at the numbers on that. Take a woman who is 5' 5" and weighs 250 lbs. Her BMI would be 41.6 and she would be considered obese, which is who this drug is targeted towards. Now if she took the pill and lost 5% of her body weight over a 12 week period, she would have lost 12.5 lbs, or about 1 pound per week. Hmmm, this is EXACTLY how much weight one would lose if they were doing the thing I mentioned above- you know, the one with low to no risk? The one that, when done, lowers your risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol, to name a few? 


Arena will have to conduct six follow-up studies, including a long-term study of whether Belviq increases the risk of heart attack or stroke, the FDA said.


This is great. How about we find that out before we approve the drug and put it on the market? I'm fine with this approach if we're talking about an experimental drug for people with a terminal illness, sure, what have you got to lose. But a weight loss drug? This is the whole reason the FDA has been reluctant to approve these types of drugs, because of the risks involved. But I mean, it is well worth the risk, right? Possibly greater risk for heart attacks and strokes, but you could lose 5% of your body weight! (Note: I'm being sarcastic in that last part).


This is what is so wrong with our approach to our health in this country. That magical thing I alluded to above, the one that has equal if not better results than this pill can muster, and does so without needing any follow up studies to see if it will kill you? Guess what it is? Diet and exercise! (Surprise, right?) And by "diet" I don't mean some wacky restrictive fad diet, that doesn't let you eat carbs, or eat all the ice cream you want and still lose weight, or any of that other bogus crap the "diet industry" comes up with every year. No, I'm just talking about what you eat. The foods that make up your, well, diet. Eat well. Run a reasonable calorie deficit. Exercise. Repeat. 


Unfortunately people think that is too difficult, or that it won't work. I've heard countless people say "I've tried every diet out there and they don't work. I lose the weight but then I just put it back on." Yes, that is because, and let me be very clear about this: DIETS DO NOT WORK. You know why people put the weight back on? Because they didn't change their behavior. They didn't change their lifestyle. All they did was follow a program for a few weeks, then go back to their old ways. 


Why would it be any different for someone taking a pill for 12 weeks? It wouldn't. 


There are no shortcuts to wellness. There is no easy way to go from being unhealthy to healthy in a matter of a few weeks. If you see some diet or product that says you can lose 20 lbs in 20 days, or some other such claim? Run in the other direction. Immediately. And keep running, because running is good for you. 


Think about it: if there was an easy solution to weight loss out there that actually worked, wouldn't everyone know about it? Wouldn't that stop the endless cascade of new diets and products that flood the market every year promising amazing weight loss results? The diets and products keep coming out because they don't work, and they also happen to make the people who sell them a ton of money. Funny how that works.


It takes many days, that turn into months, that turn into years, of us making bad health choices that lead to us gaining weight. The only thing that will undo that is many days, that turn into months, that turn into years, of us making good choices for our health. That is how you lose weight. I know this. I'm one of the rare people who lost the weight (61 pounds as I write this), and kept it off. And I did it without the aid of any gimmicks or diets.


Belviq is not medicine. Food is medicine.


Be well.


Seth

The Golden Rule

As part of a course I am currently enrolled in, I have been spending a lot of time contemplating physics and philosophy. I'm going to focus on the philosophy in this post, as I am not smart enough to tackle the physics. But I will say this: that Einstein guy was pretty smart.

One theme that was central in some recent class material was the idea often referred to as The Golden Rule, commonly recited as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In short, be nice. But the more we peer under the surface, the more we see the far reaching implications of The Golden Rule.

So what does it really mean? Well, first off, let us acknowledge that The Golden Rule is not special to Christianity. It is a theme that is central in many different religious teachings:

Judaism: "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowman. That is the entire law; all the rest is commentary." -Talmud, Shabbat 31a.

Buddhism: "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." - Udana-Varga 5:18.

Islam: "No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself." - Sunnah

So in essence, don't do something if you wouldn't want it done to you. But why? Why do so many different religions make such a point of stressing the importance of this? I believe that this philosophy drills right down into one of the most important aspects of existence, and that is that everything in this universe- every man, woman, child, dog, frog, blade of grass, molecule of oxygen, and speck of star dust, is connected to everything else. You know the saying "we're all in this together"? Well, we really are all in this together. The religions understand this, and that is why The Golden Rule is so critical.

The reason that it is so important we do not dump our garbage over our neighbor's fence and into their lawn isn't so that they will not turn around and do the same. No. It is on a much greater scale than that. The reason is that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. (Ok, I admit, this is physics, specifically Newtonian). What this means to us though is that we get back what we put out, AKA- karma. If we do bad, we're going to get bad back. If we do good, we get good back.

Think about a world in which everyone adhered to the Golden Rule. If people acted with integrity, respect, and compassion, what would we get? We'd get justice. If people and corporations adhered to these principles, would we have rampant corporate malfeasance in our society? Would we have dog fighting rings? Would we have 24-hour cable news networks? (Well we might, but their content would be completely different.)

You  might be saying, "Seth, what the heck does this have to do with health? I want to know what carbs are good carbs, and which ones to avoid." Well, this has everything to do with our wellness. The better we are as individual people, the better off the world we live in becomes. If we are self-centered and concerned with only what is best for our individual situation, we promote a world that is self-centered and focused on ego. If we take into consideration how our interactions and actions affect others, then we help to create a world that reflects these values. This is what the various religions were getting at. The more positive energy we put out, the more positive energy there is in this universe.

I'll use myself as an example, specifically two things that I am working on as a person. The first is that I am trying to be less judgmental of people and situations. It is difficult, and it is something that I find myself working on every single day. Many of us have a natural inclination to quickly judge a new person or situation based on certain cues that we associate with our past experiences. This is a one-dimensional way to view a person, and does not have the integrity, respect, and compassion that I seek to treat others with. Also, I don't want to be judged by others, so it sort of flies in the face of that whole Golden Rule thingy that is so important.

The second thing that I am working on is speaking more from my heart and being more honest and forthright in my interactions. Being more authentic. This blog post is a great example of that. It isn't the easiest thing in the world to come out and talk about the belief that everything in the universe is connected to everything else. For one, it is very personal and intimate. Secondly, it is the kind of thing that some people might read and think, "That Seth guy is nuts. Plum loco. All foam, no beer." You know, judgmental stuff. Well, I could play it safe and just talk about good carbs and bad carbs, but then I would be one-dimensional. I wouldn't be authentic, and I would most definitely not be working towards fulfilling my personal mission.

I would encourage all of us to work towards being more self-aware of our actions and how they stack up against The Golden Rule. The actions we are putting out there- are they actions that we would like to see coming back at us? Because eventually they will.

And full disclosure, I am not perfect. Nobody is. And I am not better than anybody else. I am just working on being better than the one person on this planet I can be better than- me.

Be well.

Seth

What does it mean to "be well"?

Hello there. So yeah, I fell a bit off the radar here. I got a little distracted with work and studies, and in doing so neglected my blog. But I've missed writing long enough, so I'm back at it.

You may have noticed I sign off each post with the message "be well". And if you live near me and have seen me driving around, you'd also see that my license plate encourages people to "be well". So what is with all the well wishing? What does it mean to "be well"?

In short- a lot.

When I think about our health, I think of it in terms of wellness. And when I think about wellness, I see it as a continuum. Picture a line with a center and two end points. At the far right of the line we have optimum health and wellness. At the far left of the line we have illness and premature death. In the middle we have neutrality- no obvious illness or wellness. Each one of us is somewhere on this line, and we're heading in one direction or the other. We are either heading towards premature death, or we are moving towards a higher level of wellness.

What does a high level of wellness involve? First of all we need to define what wellness consists of. Being well means more than having good "stats". It is more than the number on a scale, our blood pressure, or our cholesterol levels. All of these measurements can be indicators of our health, but they alone do not determine our wellness. Our wellness is multifaceted. It is a combination of many aspects of our being: accountability, love, feeling, thinking, what we eat, our sex life, how we communicate, etc..

Since wellness is a complex and deep combination of multiple factors, it can also have many different forms and manifestations. You know the old saying 'Never judge a book by its cover"? It applies to people and their wellness. We might look at someone who is in great physical shape next to someone who is 50 pounds over weight and say, "It is obvious which person is well". But really, it isn't. We can't tell by the exterior alone where someone is on the continuum of wellness, and in what direction they are heading. Let's look at two men as examples.

Guy A is an avid triathlete. He runs, bikes, swims, and strength trains religiously. His body fat is 6%. Blood pressure and cholesterol levels are optimal. He is extremely conscientious of what he eats. He is what many people would consider the picture of health, and his "stats" definitely back this up.

Guy B is severely overweight. His Body Mass Index (BMI) puts him in the morbidly obese category. He has struggled with his weight for years, and continues to struggle with his diet. Guy B has made the decision though to reclaim his health. He has lost 75 pounds on his own, and he has now hired a personal trainer to help him lose more weight and make greater gains in his quest for wellness.

Oh, and here is the other thing about Guy A. He berates his young daughters at the local health club when their "dilly-dallying" interferes with his training schedule. He tells them that they are taking away his time, that he should be out on his bike instead of waiting for them to get out of the locker room. He also criticizes his daughters when they are "goofing around" or not taking their work-outs seriously enough. He is consumed with himself and his needs, and begrudges anyone, even his young girls, if they dare interfere with his goals.

Guy B is the kind of guy who will talk to anyone, and will spread joy and smiles when he does so. He knows he is overweight, but he is supremely confident in the directions he is going, and absolutely revels in the progress he has made to this point. He encourages others in the health club in their workouts, and compliments many of his fellow members on their physiques and dedication to taking care of themselves. He approaches every day and every workout with a sense of humor and goodwill.

(DISCLAIMER: Guy A and Guy B are fictitious characters created to make a point. If your name is Guy A or Guy B, well, I'm sorry your parents gave you such an awful name. But this blog post isn't about you. It is a coincidence.)

Now tell me, which one of these two is "well"? The answer is, they both are, but in different ways and for different reasons. One may score highly in the wellness areas that concern physical health, but score very low in the areas that concern relationships, awareness, love, etc.. The other may not score highly in physical areas, but very highly in others concerning awareness, love, etc..

It also highlights one vital fact about wellness: It is possible to be at any point on the wellness continuum in regards to current health, and to be moving in either direction- towards optimum wellness, or towards premature death. It is entirely possible for a person with stage 4 cancer with 6 months to live to be moving towards wellness, because of their attitude and mind set. Likewise, it is entirely possibly for someone in great physical condition to be moving towards premature death, because of their attitude and mind set.

So when I say "be well", it may seem like a simple directive or request, but in truth it is a complex challenge I am issuing. I am asking people to examine themselves on many levels; to become more aware of the many facets and ingredients that constitute their wellness. Being well isn't just a matter of getting to the gym, eating the right foods and being a "healthy weight". These things are part of the puzzle, but there are so many more pieces to it.

If you find this way of thinking about wellness intriguing and would like to explore it in more depth, I would encourage you to read Wellness Workbook- How to Achieve Enduring Health and Vitality, by John W. Travis, M.D., and Regina Sara Ryan. This book has been very influential in helping me clarify and articulate my own feelings and beliefs around health and wellness.

For now.....

Be well.

-Seth

Everybody's Working(out) for the Weekend...

Aaahh, weekends. They are beloved, and rightly so. For most of us the weekend is our little two-day oasis of fun. Time uninterrupted by the demands of work, that we can spend with our families and friends. Time to watch our favorite sports teams, or be weekend warriors ourselves at a local 5K. Also, time to go out to dinner, have some drinks, and eat all the foods we love so much. Because calories don’t count on the weekends. That’s right, we can eat and drink anything we want starting Friday night without any repercussions. Our weight, cholesterol, and overall health freezes at 5pm on Friday, and waits patiently for us ‘til Monday morning.

If only it worked that way. Obviously it doesn’t, and I am being a tad more than facetious here. But for a variety of reasons, many of us behave in a way that would lead one to think this was the case. We’re really good during the week, watching what we eat, avoiding fried, fatty foods, and going to the gym. Then Friday rolls around and all bets are off. “You know, I was good all week, I need to let off some steam. It won’t kill me to have a couple beers”. Or eight. Oh, and a bag of Doritos to go with.

Yes, the topic is self-destructive weekends, and how people trying to make positive changes in their health tend to undo 5 days of hard work in the course of a couple evenings. This is especially prevalent on my mind as within the past 24 hours I have spoken to two different friends about this exact issue.

I am intimately familiar with this topic, as this used to be me. Really, really fun weekends (with really not-so-fun headaches the next morning) were a key component of me getting to my heaviest weight. When I decided to dedicate myself to losing weight, I started working out religiously. I would hit the gym 4-6 days a week for at least an hour. Then the weekend would come around, and I still would make sure that I had a really, really fun time. I did manage to lose weight, about 22 pounds. That sounds good, except that I was still a good 30+ lbs. overweight, and I had hit a plateau.

I will use one of my friends I spoke with yesterday as an example. She asked me if I had dropped weight when I reduced my booze intake. She has been getting up at 4:40am and getting herself to the gym, eating healthier, but still drinking, and she is not seeing the results she wants. She said that she drinks wine on the weekend, and typically will have a bottle over the course of the evening. Multiply this by two evenings + Sunday, and she estimates she has 1.5 to 2 bottles of wine a weekend.

Let’s look at the weekends mathematically, using some made up (but very realistic) stats about a 150 lb. female. First, let us assume that she is working out 4 times during the week, doing 30 minutes of cardio by running 6mph. A 150 lb. woman will burn about 350 calories doing this workout. So that will total 1,400 calories burned for the week. Let’s also assume that during the week she is mindful of what she eats and runs a net-calorie deficit of 500 calories per day. So for the 5 day period of Monday through Friday, she has accumulated a net-calorie deficit of 2,500 calories. One pound is roughly equivalent to 3,500 calories, so, so far so good for the week. Our female is on track to lose about 1 pound for this week, so long as she runs a 500 calorie deficit over the weekend as well. (This, by the way, is a healthy rate at which to lose weight. Also, you notice that I don’t add the calories burned from the work outs- the person would simply have an extra 350 calories to eat on these days, as we should not be running too large a deficit, and we need to properly fuel ourselves for an active lifestyle.)

But then something happens. The whistle blows on Friday and Fred Flintstone slides down the back of a dinosaur saying “Yabba-Dabba-Doo!”. And everyone knows that the proper translation of “Yabba-Dabba-Doo” is: “It’s officially the weekend, so you are free to eat and drink whatever you like, regardless of your health and wellness goals. See you on Monday.”

How do a couple bottles of wine affect all of the week’s hard work? One 750ml bottle of wine will have about 600 calories in it. So two bottles and we’re at 1,200 calories. Now our 2,500 calorie deficit is down to 1,300, and we’ve gone from being on track to lose a pound, to losing about 1/3 of a pound. Now let’s add another favorite weekend past time, which is going out to dinner. Eating meals out is a surefire way to rack up some calories in a hurry. Chefs are fully aware of what flavors get the most mileage out of humans, and those are fat and salt. Restaurant meals are prepared in a deliberately more decadent manner so that our mouths respond by saying, “Wow! This is friggin’ awesome!” (Or if in a more upscale establishment, perhaps “Eek gats! This meal is pure ambrosia. Why, I was so moved by its delectable nature that my monocle fell clear out of my eye. Harrumph Harrumph.)

Eating out can easily add 1,000 extra calories to a meal. Let’s look at one of America’s top ranked casual dining establishments as an example: The Cheesecake Factory. Someone goes there and decides they’re going to be good, so they get the miso salmon (also happens to be one of The Cheesecake Factory’s bestselling dishes). Salmon is good for us, right? 4 oz. of baked salmon at home is a mere 110 calories. Well TCF manages to get their miso salmon dish up to 1670 calories. And so long as we’re there, we have to have a piece of cheesecake! How about a piece of the chocolate mousse cheesecake? That will run us another 940 calories. So even if we get the “healthy salmon” and split the cheesecake, we’ve put down 2,140 calories in one meal. Assuming we drank water and had no appetizer, either.

Now where is the weekly calorie deficit? It is lying on the floor of The Cheesecake Factory, rocking back and forth, crying. That’s where it is. What started as the beginnings of a 1lb deficit on Friday at 5pm is now more than likely a wash at best, and a weight gain at worst, by Sunday night.

This scenario is not outrageous at all. I know it isn’t because I used to do the same self-destructive thing, weekend after weekend. But I wasn’t eating at The Cheesecake Factory and drinking wine. I was drinking beer and eating at Chili’s. The results were the same though: I would work out all week and be mindful of what I ate, would get from square one to square three, let loose on the weekend, and Monday morning I would find myself back at old familiar square one.

Weekends count. More than we probably realize.

So much of weight loss and being healthy comes down to adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors and habits. To a large extent losing weight is about budgeting: calories consumed vs. calories burned. Weekends are also very much about behavior and habit, and a lot of those behaviors and habits lead to a lot more calories being consumed than burned. Once I figured this out for myself and took a more whole health approach to my wellness, and incorporated my healthy choices every day of the week, I saw tremendous results.

It comes down to priorities and the choices we make. This is definitely a situation where we cannot have our (cheese)cake and eat it, too.

What about you out there? Are the weekends a struggle? I’d be interested to hear other’s experiences with this topic.

Be well

Seth

Pleased to Meet Me

Happy New Year! I hope that everyone enjoyed (and survived) the holiday season, and wish you a year of love, prosperity, and personal growth. I am personally very excited for what lies ahead.

For the first blog entry of 2012 I am going to talk about a familiar concept- the old saying "you are what you eat". First of all yes, we are what we eat. Secondly, most of us don't know what we're eating. Hmm, see a potential problem here? I do.

Now you might say, "Seth, I know what I'm eating. I'm eating baked chicken, a baked potato, and some carrots. Ha! See, I totally know. AND I think it's pretty healthy. So there." Well, to some extent you'd be right. This is how I used to think about my food. I tried to buy non-processed foods (shop the perimeter of the store), and would focus on lean meats and vegetables. Sounds good, right? Well, sort of.

The more I have learned about where our food comes from, how it is raised and treated, and how it gets to us, the more I find myself looking for local options. In fact, my wife and I have made the decision that we will only buy our meats from local farms. We've decided that as much as we possibly can, we want to shake hands with the hands that feed us. AKA, "know your farmer".

That is what I mean by the title of this post, "please to meet me". If we are what we eat, "meeting" the food we eat is in essence meeting the nutrients that sustain and nourish us. We're looking ourselves in the eye. Eye of the potato, as it were.

I'm going to go into a few reasons why, and I am also going to recommend a couple of documentaries which deal with the subject of nutrition, health, and the food industry in different ways. One thing I am not going to do is go into some of the disturbing details about the meat industry. These details have changed the way my wife and I look at and consume meat, but this post is not the place for that in my opinion. If you want that information I can point you in the direction, or you could use something called "Google" I've heard about. But my intent is not to turn any stomachs here in this blog post.

Some advantages of buying local:

• Environmental concerns. The commercial food industry uses a lot of energy to produce its, um, produce. The typical carrot in a grocery store travels 1,838 miles to reach your table. There is also the amount of energy used in packaging the food. However, the biggest consumer of energy in commercial food production is the chemicals. Mmmm, delicious, man made chemicals. Yes, up to 40% of the energy used in the food system goes into the production of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. Sounds appetizing, no? Buying local, well, you can see how it takes a lot less fuel to get a carrot to your table from one town over. 
• Supports local economy. When you buy from a local farm, more of your money stays within and supports your local economy. Local farmers buy a lot of their supplies from local businesses. The farmers also retain much more of your dollars spent. A farmer selling goods at a local farmer's market will retain between 80 and 90 cents of every dollar. A large commercial farmer, depending on the crop, may retain between 20 and 40 cents. 
• You're getting food. What? "Um, Seth, pretty sure that the stuff at the grocery store is still called food". Yes, it is. But why is it that produce grown in California by big agribusiness can be in transport/storage for up to two weeks before it hits the supermarket, then sit on display, then get bought, then can hang out in my refrigerator for another week or so? But the same type of produce I buy at my local farm stand starts to rot in less than a week if I don't use it soon enough? Because one is a lot closer to its natural state than the other, and has been treated with a lot less chemicals. (Guess which one). 

These are just a few of the many reasons to try and eat as local as possible. My goal in this post is not to list all of the reasons why and try and convert as many people as possible. (For a longer list of the different issues, click here). My goal is to get people to start thinking about their food choices beyond the nutritional label. What are the implications to your health, the environment, animal welfare, and local economies, when you purchase ground beef at a supermarket? They are profound and numerous. 

One book that I highly recommend to anyone who eats food, (hint, that is all of you), is the book In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. It is a fantastic read. Seriously, if you are a carbon based being who eats food, you should read this book. 

Two documentaries that I highly recommend that deal with this subject on some level. The first is Forks Over Knives. This documentary is less about the "eat local" philosophy and more about examining the traditional Western Diet. The information it contains changed the way both my wife and I eat. A lot of the traditional foods and meals in this country are killing us. Literally. Heart disease, obesity, etc.; guess what, they're not caused by our fashion choices. (Though some outfits are to die for, I know.)

The second documentary I highly recommend is Food, Inc.. This documentary examines the agricultural business in this country. Parts of it are disturbing, but here is something that I find really interesting about that. I will ask people "have you seen Food, Inc.?" and I commonly get the answer, "No. I've heard of it, and it sounds good, but I don't think I want to know what's in it". Wow. Think about what that statement is saying. It is saying, "I know that there is information about the food I eat that, if I knew it, would most likely change the way I eat. But I would rather just ignore it." Wow. Would we ignore it if it were cruelty to children? No.There would be tremendous public outcry. But cruelty to animals and detrimental to OUR OWN HEALTH??? Yeah, I'll just turn a blind eye to that. A little cancer or arteriosclerosis never killed any.....oh, wait. 

Don't put your heads in the sand on this one. Take an interest in your health, the health of your country, and the health of your environment. Doing the right thing is never easy. Important significant change requires courage and sacrifice. But every dollar you spend on food is a vote. It's a vote that says you either support or don't support a particular system that got that food to you. At least know what you're voting for. 

Best wishes for 2012.

Be well.

Seth