“What Are You Thinking?” (if Anything at All!) – by Marco

“What Are You Thinking?”
(if Anything at All!) 

– by Marco

Marco has lost 160 Lb. and maintained over 10 years.
Marco has lost 160 Lb. and maintained over 10 years.

The commercial diet programs now advocating “no calorie counting, no weighing and basically no thinking,” these are the companies who do not want us to think for ourselves. They just want us consuming their product. Permanent and safe weight loss requires thought and knowledge. Take it from me, you do not drop 160 Lb. and keep it off for 10 years by not thinking.

Don't just eat something because it's in a diet or weight loss program you are on. Many of the prepackaged diet system foods contain trans-fats and HFCS, among other harmful ingredients.
Don’t just eat something because it’s in a diet or weight loss program you are on. Many of the prepackaged diet system foods contain trans-fats and HFCS, among other harmful ingredients.

We blame the fast food industry a lot. Yet, I have never seen someone magically be pulled into one of those establishments by force while walking down the street. We make choices and these companies, whether fast food or “diet” meet the consumer demand based on that. If we “tell” these companies: “I don’t have time to exercise, nor figure out what I need to eat, weighing myself once in a while bugs me, I don’t want to know how many calories will help me gain/lose…

I just don’t want to do this and and…” Well, those companies are going to give us exactly what we are looking for! The QUICK, NO THINK FIX! It will be customized to makes sure that they address all of our peeves.

Let me ask you; do you run any other part of your life just guessing like that, or just the part about what you are putting into your body?

Look, I realize that the allure of a lot of the “commercial diet” programs is the support group piece, and I am all for that. I am talking about taking control and being as aware as possible of what we are eating.  If I were to ask you a question like; are you eating 7000 calories a day, or 700, do you have any idea? It would really be good to have a slight idea, don’t you think?

When I first started out to lose weight over 10 years ago, I would just stand in the shopping market aisles for hours reading ingredients, trying to understand what it all really meant. It was a daunting task which sometimes bordered on frightening however what was really frightening was finding out just what was in the stuff I was eating. Trust me, it’s not just the obvious junkier food, a lot of the so-called “health-food” is just as bad if not worse. 

Commercial diet programs don’t want you to think for yourself because they want you to buy their products and services, it’s that simple. If, for example, you are using a point system, or a card or color-coded system I understand this is based on caloric intake, but what if you actually knew what the ingredients in these foods were? Are the calories then all that important, isn’t it more about the quality of the ingredients of those calories? I’m often said in presentations that I believe turpentine has zero calories as well. So if I put a bunch of sugar into turpentine and told you it had zero calories because I used sweetener and told you it may help you lose weight, would you buy it? The answer is probably yes if it tasted good and you thought it would help you lose weight and it fit into a “quick fix, no think” diet. “They just told me I could have that, so I did.” 

Oh boy.

There’s no substitute for knowledge. However, it seems to all come down to the quick fix, doesn’t it? Everybody wants it as fast as possible, but very few want to do the work that is involved to get there properly, even though it’s going to take them a little while longer. If you’re not in the habit of reading labels, it’s pretty simple to start. 

Here are some tips to get you, umm… thinking!

  • Start reading food labels more carefully. Pay close attention to the serving sizes
  • Perhaps more importantly, it is all about INGREDIENTS! Read the ingredients list. If there is something you do not recognize, DO NOT blindly assume it is okay to eat it, ‘cus, after all, “they” allowed it. Copy the word down and FIND OUT what it is! What you discover may shock you!
  • Stop “free pouring” “lite, light, low cal…” (whatever “sell it to you” terms the company is using to lure you) salad dressing! Did you know there are over 100 different types of and names for sugar?
  • Realize that many people plan their TV time and what shows they will watch, how to PVR and time shift so as to not miss them. They will program their recorder for an entire week, BUT… do they give a moment’s attention to what to eat when, or do they just show up and see what’s available at any given moment in the fridge or the food court?

Once you get into the practice of reading food labels you’re going to notice what I call the usual suspects, or, the repeat offenders. They seem to show up everywhere in the form of hydrogenated fats and oils, high fructose corn syrup, or what I like to call the “ose’s,” just about everything that ends with an “OSE” is a sugar! Have a look around the house right now and in your cupboards. Pick up a few bottled or boxed items and read through the ingredients. There are a few things that you may notice immediately, 1) you probably need a science or language degree to get through the pronunciation of some of the ingredients and 2) that you’re going to see the same names over and over again.

If you’ve got any of those so-called gummy vitamins in the house, you should really have a close look at those as well because they are some of the worst offenders.

Then again, you wouldn’t know that unless you have knowledge as to what the ingredients are.

Don’t you think it’s worth the investment in time to do some learning?

Getting in the habit of reading food labels a few minutes each day is definitely one way to getfitfaster!