Is a calorie just a calorie?

If the rule of thumb for weight loss is fewer calories consumed and/or more calories burned will result in pounds lost (3500 calories per pound) can you in theory eat anything you want as long as you end up in a calorie deficit?  Hello cookie diet, cabbage soup diet, grapefruit diet etc?  The similarities between all "diets" are they restrict calories.  So in theory for a certain amount of time you can lose weight eating what ever low calorie food you want.  But there will come a point, and it will come quickly, where your body will be nutrient deficient, calorie deficient and you will crave more food and you will binge on more food.  That is why I hate diets.

We need a mental adjustment people!  We are bombarded with images of food 24/7 and we live in a society of instant gratification. Yes you can have a burger with the buns deep-fried and a ham, wrapped in bacon, stuffed inside a turkey, Oreos crumbled on top of ice cream covered in chocolate sauce and whipped cream.  Here is the point, we want all these things but we don't need all these things. 

When we see a child throwing a tantrum at the grocery store we call them spoiled brats...well folks we are a generation of spoiled brats. I can walk to the corner store in less than a minute and buy a huge assortment of candy, soda, chips etc. there is no one to tell me I am not allowed, I can eat fast food at every meal, who is going to stop me?  We don't think about long term effects we want instant gratification, we order what we want to eat and it better arrive in less than 30 minutes, we want a magic diet pill which will shed 100 pounds in a month, we resort to invasive surgery to reduce our stomachs to the size of peanuts to stop ourselves from over eating!


Here are the top excuses I hear:
1. I don't have time to cook
2. my kids/husband won't eat healthy food
3. I don't know how to cook
4. healthy food doesn't taste good

Let's address each.

1. No time to cook:  It is 2010 there are thousands of short cuts when it comes to cooking. Pre-cut veggies, salads in a bag, healthy frozen foods, healthy take-out options. Spend half an hour on the weekend planning your weekly menu. Make a big pot of chili on Sunday night, use that chili on Monday in whole grain tortillas for "bean burritos", eat the chili on salad instead of chips, freeze it in smaller containers so it thaws faster.  When you are cutting up veggies for the chili cut a few extra peppers and onions so you are ready for the next recipe. Make a big stir-fry with frozen veggies and some cut up chicken, serve it on brown rice. Use the extras to make fajitas, sprinkle on a whole wheat pita with a dusting of cheese and you have a great pizza! 

2. Your kids/husband won't eat healthy food.  They wouldn't know healthy food if it hit them over the head.  Put extra veggies on your homemade pizza, reduce the amount of cheese, switch to milk or water at meals instead of juice and soda, have air-popped popcorn on movie night instead of chips. You don't have to sit them down to a table of lettuce and tofu, make lifestyle changes they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.

3. You don't know how to cook.  Take a class, ask your mother, grandmother. Make your husband cook! Buy a cookbook and learn. It's not difficult. Master a few recipes and you are set.  Watch the Food Network its not scary.

4. Healthy food doesn't taste good. Ever bitten into the first big ripe strawberry of the season...perfection and healthy! Eating healthfully doesn't mean its all salads all the time, it means making choices to buy natural products as they occur in nature, vegetables, fresh or frozen preferably, fruit is like healthy candy, whole grains, lean meats, low fat dairy...so many options!

Each time you go to eat ask yourself, how will this food benefit me? Is it food or is it chemicals? How will I feel after I eat it?  I'm not talking about the feeling while you are eating, we all get a little endorphin rush when we eat fatty calorific foods, they taste good! I'm talking about after, is the sugar going to make you crash in 30 minutes, is the heavy pasta and cream sauce going to make you tired, is the caffeine laden soda going to keep you up tonight making you irritable tomorrow...these are all physical effects of the foods we choose to eat.

Bon appétit!