Time to Get Moving

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a week of work and writing. I’m working on my second WIP while I query my first one. I have to change my query to reflect the changes I made in my WIP, so I’ll be doing that today, but enough about that. Today, I’d like to talk about exercise.

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It is so important for your health to make time to exercise. I know everyone knows this, but I don’t think it’s sinking in with people. Did you know that being overweight or obese leads to many diseases like diabetes and cancer? When my doctor told me, I was close to being pre-diabetic, I knew I had to do something, so I made it a priority to start running again. I had to lose some weight. I did and got my numbers back down, but I have to keep this up to keep the weight off.

A study done in 2018 shows that 10.4% of the population has been diagnosed with Diabetes. That is disturbing. I believe part of the problem is because of the food industry. I’m starting to believe anything man made isn’t good for us. Food manufacturers add sugar to their processed foods, so they taste better which leads us to be addicted to sugar, but enough about that. To learn more about that click this link. https://lisaorchard.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/is-processed-food-poisoning-us/

Sorry for my digression. Now, back to exercise. I run but walking will also help along with any type of exercise. Did you know that a walk after dinner helps keep your blood sugar down? We just need to get moving again folks. Exercise is also a great stress reliever. So, it’s good for your mental health, too.

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Diet is also important. I saw a meme once that said, “you can’t exercise off a bad diet.” This is so true. However, I didn’t really believe this until just recently. When I was younger, I figured I could eat what I wanted because I was exercising. This may have been true back then, but now I pay attention to the carbs I’m eating, and I try to stay away from sweets. I do indulge occasionally because deprivation can lead to binge eating and that’s worse than an indulgence in my opinion.

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Writers need to be very careful because they’re work is so sedentary, but that can be said for anyone who sits in front of a computer for work every day. Get up and get moving, you’ll be glad you did.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. What do you do to stay active?

Is our Food Industry Making Us Fat?

 

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I have to apologize, I’ve been missing in action this last week. I’ve started a new job (in the library at the high school) and my kids have gone back to school, so life’s been a little hectic. However, as soon as we get into a routine, we’ll be good. I’m excited about the job. It should be fun, but it will take me away from my writing. Sob. Don’t worry. I plan to still write. I’m just not going to be able to devote as much time to it. However, it’s all good because I’ll be working with teens on a daily basis. I’m hoping it’ll help me create more authentic characters.

Photo credit: dhendrix73 via Visualhunt / CC BY-ND

Because my hours at the school occur during the lunch hour, I take my mid-day meal to school. I started out with sandwiches and by the first week I was already tired of them. I made egg salad and peanut butter and jelly. I’m sure I could make a more sophisticated sandwich, but who has the time? Certainly not me.

 Photo credit: Sakurako Kitsa via Visualhunt / CC BY-NC-ND

I’m also trying to watch my calories, so I’ve been buying these frozen meals for my lunch. At the grocery store, I’d check the total number of calories on the box and I was happy to find that many of them were within the three hundred to four hundred calorie range. So I bought them, thinking I’ll have this tasty lunch and be good to go. Wrong. So wrong.

Oh the meals were tasty all right. BUT they weren’t between the three hundred and four hundred calorie range.  What I’d forgotten about in my years back at home with my kids is, you also have to check the number of servings per package. This is what gets you every time. UGH!

It was glorious, this huge serving and only three hundred and fifty calories. I couldn’t believe it. Well. It wasn’t true. There are two servings per package. So I’m actually eating seven hundred calories. ARRGH!

How can you cook only half of a frozen dinner? So, I’ll be throwing half of it away or eating it, depending on how hungry I am.

I believe this is another contributing factor to our obesity problem. Not only is our food filled with added sugar, we’re eating double portion sizes and not even realizing it. I mean really, how many people would think there are two servings in one package? For all intents and purposes, it appears to be a single serving. They don’t label the front of the package saying two servings for the price of one, do they? NOOOO.

Photo credit: colros via Visualhunt / CC BY-SA

I feel this is misleading and I wonder why the food industry doesn’t label the front of the package. They also add sugar, and we all know that sugar is like cocaine to our brain. To read more about this click this link. Is our Food Industry Making us Sick?

I smell a conspiracy.  Don’t you? What do you think the food industry should do about this situation? Leave me a comment! I love to hear from you!

Is Our Food Industry making us Sick?

Hello everyone! I hope all is well with you. So sorry for my long absence, but I’ve been recovering from my bout with chemo and it has taken a while for my energy to come back. Therefore, I’ve had to pick and choose the things that I can spend my time on and of course, my first priority is my kids.

Anyway, since going through the whole cancer/chemo rigmarole I’ve been paying a lot more attention to my health. I’ve always exercised, but I didn’t always eat healthy meals. Now that I can taste what I’m eating, I’m paying more attention and making sure that I eat more fruits and vegetables. I’m convinced that our processed foods are causing many of the types of cancers we see today. Now please remember that I’m not a doctor, but I find it interesting that cancer is on the rise instead of the decline with all the information we have available to us.

My hubby and I watched a documentary recently titled, “Fed Up.” This movie reinforced my belief that processed food is making our population sick. Not only are the preservatives a problem, but the added sugar is also a danger to our health. The added sugar not only causes cancer and heart disease, but it also increases the likelihood of obesity and diabetes, both of which are on the rise in the United States.

According to the documentary, the food industry is removing the fat from the food they’re manufacturing, but then adding sugar to enhance the flavor. This sounds an awful lot like what the Tobacco industry did. Didn’t they add nicotine to their product so that consumers would become more addicted to it?

Did you know sugar has the same effect on the brain as cocaine? I find that incredibly interesting and it explains the struggle we have with weight and sweets. Did you know that more and more Americans join Health clubs every day, but the average weight of the American is on the rise? What this means is that more and more of us are exercising, but we’re still gaining weight.

That’s certainly cause for speculation, wouldn’t you agree? Now, there may be a variety of reasons like people are joining the gym but then not using it like they should; technology has allowed us to become lazy; I don’t have time. I agree these reasons factor into the obesity problem. However, the added sugar to our food is a much bigger culprit.
Here’s where you can watch a trailer of the movie and order a DVD. I believe it’s also available on Net Flix. http://fedupmovie.com/#/page/home

If enough people complain about the added sugar in our processed foods, maybe we can get the food industry to change the way it manufactures our food.

Until this change occurs, however, try to eliminate processed foods from your diet as much as you can. I know it’s hard to do with our busy lifestyles, but isn’t our family’s health worth it?

***photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons. Here’s the link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/