Fit by 14 {week 3} Stop Eating Crap!

 It's TUESDAY!  That means it's my weekly Fit by 14 post.  This is the start of the 4th week in!  That leaves 8 FULL weeks left until 2014 comes rushing in!  8 more weeks to kick some bad habits and start the new year fresh!

Last week I talked about the benefits of drinking water, and why it is a must!!!!  I'll be honest, before last month I was not drinking enough water.  I might get in a glass or 2 a day.  I feel SOOOOO much better now that I'm getting enough water.  Sure I have to use the bathroom a LOT more & that gets kind of annoying, but the benefits outweigh that one negative!  I didn't drink enough water yesterday when we were out running errands and by the end of it I had no energy, I had a headache, and my stomach hurt.  After I got some water I started feeling a lot better! 

Weekly Tip:

In my opinion, one of the most important, most crucial things that I think we can do for our health is eat REAL food.  I don't believe in the concept that says, "I can eat whatever I want because I work out".  When I read the book It Starts with Food, one of the things that the author said really stuck with me, "The food you eat either makes you more healthy or less healthy.  Those are your options."  It's fairly simple.  Before you get all up in arms and say "everything in moderation is ok", just think about what they are saying.  Anything that you put in your mouth is going to make you MORE healthy or LESS healthy, period.  While that snickers bar isn't going to make you fall over dead, it is in fact making you less healthy.  I'm not taking that you should never indulge, or that you should feel guilty about enjoying a snickers bar every now and again, but I DO think that it needs to be a rare exception and not the norm! 

Basically I'm saying....

I am not here to try and convince you to  become gluten free, or paleo, I think that those are personal choices that each and every person needs to decide for themselves what is best for them and their families.  I'm not here to get into Organic, Free-range, grass fed, and GMO free...I do however think that you need to eat REAL food.

What do I mean by real food?

I mean the food that is on the outside parameter of the store.  Fresh fruits and veggies, or even frozen!  Fresh is best, then frozen, then canned.  Let's be real.  Frozen Vegetables are a lot cheaper most times than fresh vegetables, and they don't go bad in a week.  I typically shy away from canned vegetables (other than tomatoes) because I don't like how they taste. 

Another rule of thumb for REAL food...read through the ingredient label.  If you can't make some of the ingredients in your own kitchen, then you don't need to be eating it.  If you can't pronounce and have no idea what an ingredient is, then you don't need to be eating it.  If it has more than 5 ingredients, it's probably not REAL food.  If it has high fructose corn syrup in it - avoid it like the plague.  If it is loaded down with sugar you probably need to ask yourself what is in this that they need to cover up with sugar!   If it's labeled low-fat, you can guarantee that they are making up for the flavor with some form of sugar or artificial flavoring.  If it is made with artificial sweetener, don't even think about eating it.  You'd be better of drinking a real Coke rather than a Diet Coke!

So basically I'm saying, cut out the processed foods!  Homemade food does take a little longer to make.  Homemade Mac & Cheese is more expensive than a box of Kraft, but at least you know what you are eating, and it sure does taste a whole lot better!

Do you always seem to run out of time in the morning and end up stopping by McDonald's?  Try making your own homemade Egg McMuffins & freezing them.  It takes a little work on your part, but they will make you want to never go back to McDonald's again!  AND it's all REAL food, that you made in your OWN kitchen!  Omelet muffins are just as delish!  I'll have a post coming for them in the near future!  And they are SO easy to make & then freeze!

What about Bread & Lunch meat.  Here is a GREAT Article on how to navigate the bread aisle.  There are some healthy alternatives for Bread!  And there are some lunch meats out there that are "less bad" that some of the other ones!  Hormel Natural Choice is one of my top choices.

Here is a good article on how to navigate the lunch meats.  To be honest, we don't even buy sandwich meats anymore.  If the MR. is feeling like a sandwich, I usually roast a chicken on Sunday for Chicken Sandwiches, or make chicken Salad or Egg Salad.  Most of the time we just eat left overs for lunches!  My MR. actually just had food poisoning (Listeria) from eating store bought pimento & cheese while we was camping at the races last week.  With premade foods like that, that you can make at home in your own kitchen, you are SOOOO much better of just making it from scratch.  The possible consequences just aren't worth the convenience of buying it! 

Why continually buy expensive Spaghetti Sauce when you can so easily make your own that is DELICIOUS!

I understand that people are on budgets, and I understand the money is tight.   But a bag of baby carrots is less expensive than a bag of chips.  And you can make homemade ranch dressing for less than you can buy a bottle of ranch dressing for! 

Have you ever tried substituting out Mayo & Sour Cream for Greek Yogurt?  Try it!  It won't disappoint!  How about lettuce wraps instead of white flour tortillas?  There are of course healthy tortillas out there, and I can attest that homemade ones are the bomb.com!   

With all of the social media outlets out there today there is a plethora of information to pull from about eating REAL, CLEAN, food!  Pinterest is full of healthy, real, clean recipes, and there are tons of blogs out there dedicated to this very topic!  I highly recommend 100 days of real food, the green plate rule, Eating Rules, & Simply Clean Living to name a few.  I follow several other blogs, so if you are interested in some more reading, just let me know!  And of course my blog is full of yummy Recipes!

If this is a whole new concept for you, I know just how overwhelming it can be because I have been there!  Just take it one step at a time.  But most importantly, you have to research it out yourself.  Don't just take my word for it!  If you don't believe it and make it your own then you will never be able to follow through and you'll eventually give up slide back into your old ways.     

It's not easy.  Some days preparing homemade, real food just makes me want to pull my hair out and head to the frozen food aisle for dinner.  On the days when I am tired, or the weeks when I am in over my head, the last thing I want to do is prepare lunches and start dinner, but I know that it's worth it.  I know that I am responsible for what my little family of 2 eats.  Those weeks are the weeks when I'm thankful for freezer meals! 

My Weekly Stats:

Current Work out: C25K 3 days a week (Working on week 4 this week), Elliptical workout & 
Weights 3 days a week, Either Yoga or elliptical on Sundays. 
# of work outs: 7/7 (today will be 10 days in a row!)
Weight Loss: -10 lbs from start of Fit By 14, (but a total of -20.4 lbs) 
Inches Loss: I keep forgetting to measure on Monday Nights! 
Best workout this past week:  I ran 5 minutes straight this past week.  That was a pretty huge 
accomplishment for me.   
Thoughts towards running/working out:  Running is still a serious struggle for me.  My favorite part is still the end.  I'm getting to the point where I'd rather to 40-50 minutes on the elliptical over 30 minutes running!

My schedule is about to change pretty dramatically again.  The past 2 weeks we have been leaving the house around or before 6 so that I could get my work out in before work.  Well, the MR. decided that he wants to start working out, and we are getting him some sessions with a Personal Trainer to start him off, so we now are going to the gym after work 3 days a week!  I WAS going to go in the morning and do my strength training in the evenings, but that is just too much time away from home on those days!  So 3 mornings out of the week I'll do my workouts in the morning, and then 3 nights out of the week I'll do them in the evenings! 

So what do you think?  Are there any websites that you love to read and learn about real foods?  Is there any processed food that you think is just too hard to give up?  Do you think that making small steps to changing your eating habits over time is the way to go, or do you think that you should just jump in head first?  How are your workouts going?