Tips Tuesday!

Welcome to "Tips Tuesday!" 

Okay, through my Human Anatomy & Physiology class I'm taking online through BYUI and the superfluous amount of Netflix documentaries I've watched since I've been home, I've learned all of this cool stuff about the science behind health! Health takes so much discipline and consistency. However, I have also learned that progress occurs much faster through celebrating successes rather than focusing on failures. So here's some tips that I've gathered...


1. Don't judge a food by its nutritional facts. But also, judge a food by its nutritional facts.

Just because something says that it has 0g of trans fat doesn't actually mean it has 0g of trans fat!

So trans fat is terrible for you. We've all heard this, right? But WHY? Well here's a cool video that describes it on a scientific and molecular level, in simple terms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8WJ2KENlK0

Trans fats are rarely found in nature. Since nature rarely creates them, nature cannot break them down properly. Why use them then? Well, there are many things that have been created by man for convenience. For example, most peanut butters have trans fats in them (labeled as hydrogenated oil.) If you've ever seen natural peanut butter, you'll notice that gross looking oil on the top that separates. That is unsaturated fats separating from saturated fats. Peanut butter that has hydrogenated oil is made so that separation won't happen, which is nifty, and it tastes better most of the time, BUT most of the important nutrients that come from monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (the "good fats" found in nuts and avocados, etc.) are taken out.

The FDA requirement for food labels is that if something has <.5g of trans fat per serving, they can round down and just say zero. This explains why many serving sizes are so small. (I mean, who eats 7 chips, right?)
SO HOW ON EARTH ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT WE ARE PUTTING IN OUR BODIES??? Well, we can either not eat anything unless it comes from our backyard OR, slightly more realistic, we can look at the labels. If what you are eating has anything with the word "hydrogenated" in it, STAY AWAY. That is just trans fat. Being Mr. Sneaky McSneakerson. Or Mrs. Or maybe the whole McSneakerson family going by their hydrogenated nom de plume. Bleh.

For more on trans fats, here's some cool articles
https://healthyforgood.heart.org/Eat-smart/Articles/Trans-Fat
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/trans-fat/art-20046114
https://authoritynutrition.com/why-trans-fats-are-bad/

2. Don't eat vampire foods.


What I mean by this is, don't eat things that last forever. (Or sparkle, for that matter. Heaven knows what that does to your intestines...) Foods that are good for you generally die, rot, and decay after long periods of time. As much as I love my chex mix, not much is going to happen to it if I leave it in my cupboard for 6 months. It would sort of be like when you find a 5 dollar bill in your old pants pockets. Only this 5 dollar bill can lead to heart disease and obesity... ;)
General rule of thumb, eat more plants and things that you COULD grow in your backyard if your life were put together and you didn't live in Orange County. (I realize those are not valid excuses, just humor me, okay?)

3. REPLACE, don't RESTRICT!

Eating well has been part of my life pretty much always and forever, but I definitely still like unhealthy things. Why? Why do I crave Oreos when I know eating them won't help me out at all. This happens because our bodies are engineered to like lots of calories as conveniently as possible. #ThrowbackTuesday to when it was every man for himself and the more calories you could eat, the longer you lived. The problem is nowadays, high calories usually equals low nutritional value, and unfortunately very tasty. I would eventually love to be the person that eats 100% clean and cooks every meal and whose meal planning is on fleek. (Is that even still cool?) But realistically, it is going to be a while before I get there.
My mantra in the mean time is REPLACE, don't RESTRICT.

We live in the age of Pinterest and Google! There are so many recipes to try, my recipe board on Pinterest is literally called, "Food I'll Probably Never Make" because there are just too many things.

When I was living in Missouri as an LDS missionary, I remember one day my mission companion and I saw this really weird looking fruit and we just decided to try it! It was so fun! And delicious! Food can be fun. Mealtime can be an adventure! With a plethora of resources to help you, you can look at what you have in the fridge and then see what you can buy to add fresh fruits and veggies, and whole grains to your diet.

When you are excited to try something new, you don't even think about those Doritos you almost bought or the ice cream calling your name. It takes practice and time. Restriction just leads to binging and sadness. Replacing leads to a change of lifestyle. THERE ARE NO QUICK FIXES. Nothing lasting is yielded by anything instant.


Well, thanks for reading this! I hope this can help you. I don't want to be that health blog that makes you feel guilty for even breathing the same air as cows. Or causes you to look at yourself like you're one of those people in Wall-E who lives in space and just sits all day and can't walk. The point of this post is that things that matter take time, effort, and practice.