I’m with Mark Bittman on the awesomeness of oatmeal, and especially with him on the notion of not overloading it with sugar, and, consequently, not ordering it from McDonald’s. But I wonder about this:

Others will argue that the McDonald’s version is more “convenient.” This is nonsense; in the time it takes to go into a McDonald’s, stand in line, order, wait, pay and leave, you could make oatmeal for four while taking your vitamins, brushing your teeth and half-unloading the dishwasher. (If you’re too busy to eat it before you leave the house, you could throw it in a container and microwave it at work. If you prefer so-called instant, flavored oatmeal, see this link, which will describe how to make your own).

If you don’t want to bother with the stove at all, you could put some rolled oats (instant not necessary) in a glass or bowl, along with a teeny pinch of salt, sugar or maple syrup or honey, maybe some dried fruit. Add milk and let stand for a minute (or 10). Eat. Eat while you’re walking around getting dressed. And then talk to me about convenience.

I often hear this complaint from people who cook directed at people who don’t. The notion basically holds that cooking isn’t as inconvenient as people make it out to be. I don’t know. I make my oatmeal in a pot at home–there’s something blasphemous about microwaving it–but I don’t own a dishwasher, and cleaning up actually is work. Moreover, I’m assuming people standing in that McDonald’s line can, text, tweet, e-mail or whatever while they wait.

The bigger thing here is understanding why people go to McDonald’s in the first place. I strongly suspect that the entire experience is comforting. In a day of constant work, pushes and pulls, you have this one clean place, which is the same everywhere, dispensing joyful shots of sugar and salt. That’s just me thinking about how I’ve eaten the past–and also how I eat when my brain is crowded with everything besides what I’m eating.

I think what Bittman urges in his writing is is consciousness. He wants people to think hard about what they’re eating. I strongly suspect that people go to McDonald’s for the exact opposite reason–to get unconscious. Understanding why that it is, goes beyond our food. It’s about how we live.

One of the reasons why I find the dialogue here, at BGG2WL, to be so valuable is because its an open and honest place for us to discuss our feelings about our own health, wellness and how our habits either contribute to or harm both. We are a collective of individuals actively concerned with our health, and we stand together to try to help one another by way of enlightenment. Take what you can use, leave aside what you cannot. We do that pretty well, here.

That being said… a very important element of emotional eating is brought up here, and that’s the issue of “someone else taking care of you.” That’s what he’s referring to, right? The idea that, in the middle of a long day, you can unwind and not worry about this one thing for this allotted time while these [trusted] people give you what you want exactly when you want it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with acknowledging and admitting to that.

Yet and still, you have to consider what you sacrifice when you make these kinds of decisions: you’re ultimately entrusting your health and well-being (and, ultimately, your weight) to someone else who does not care more about you than they do their profit margins.

I can vaguely remember reading a book and hearing about this kind of feeling – the feeling of liking someone catering to you – as a draw that restaurant companies use to their advantage. In fact, it was in reference to a… let’s just refer to it as a massive coffee (and pastry… and oatmeal?) chain that’s almost as prevalent as the golden arches. When asked why the chain was so successful, the response was “It’s about warm milk and a bottle; if I could put a nipple on it, I’d be a billionaire.”

I understand the feeling. It’s nice to “not have to do [something],” for once. It also serves the problem of leaving yourself open to having to deal with someone else’s standards in regards to what is acceptable to feed you when you ask for it. McDonalds’ fruit and maple oatmeal – which was actually sued in Vermont because there’s no maple in it – isn’t just fruit, cream and oats. It’s all kinds of stuff that isn’t, for our purposes here, clean:

Oatmeal
Whole grain rolled oats, brown sugar, food starch-modified, salt, natural flavor (plant source), barley malt extract, caramel color.

Diced Apples
Apples, calcium ascorbate (a blend of calcium and vitamin C to maintain freshness and color).

Cranberry Raisin Blend
Dried sweetened cranberries (sugar, cranberries), California raisins, golden raisins, sunflower oil, sulfur dioxide (preservative).

Light Cream
Milk, cream, sodium phosphate, datem, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sodium citrate, carrageenan. [source]

And looking at the details, the oatmeal in and of itself has almost as much sugar as the fruit blend, which should be the natural source of sugar in the list, anyway. At 32g of sugar total… 14g of it existing for very little reason… I question whether or not its worth it to take steps backwards from my goal just to “be taken care of for once.”

Food, no matter how much we try to emotionalize it – “it” being the preparation and intake of food – and no matter how much we try to simplify it, serves one primary purpose in our lives: nourishment. We can never forget that, because it goes right back to the last paragraph in that quote:

I think what Bittman urges in his writing is is consciousness. He wants people to think hard about what they’re eating. I strongly suspect that people go to McDonald’s for the exact opposite reason–to get unconscious. Understanding why that it is, goes beyond our food. It’s about how we live.

The bottom line, without question, is consciousness. Awareness is what grants you the ability to spot opportunities to correct your behavior. Awareness is what enlightens us to make better choices. Really, awareness is how you develop the ability to learn new behaviors and identify how the changes you’re making in your lifestyle are benefitting you. You become aware of the problem, you correct, you notice how your corrections change your life and you develop a new system that comes complete with the reward of a changed life and, ultimately, a changed body.

So yes, you do have to understand why that is – why you eat emotionally and desire to be taken care of in this way – and what you can do to fix that… but in the meantime, that oatmeal ain’t gon’ cut it.

The Comforting Side Of Food is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. The Side-Effects of Obesity: “Overweight Is The New Norm”
2. Building A Home Workout Routine: The Side Bend
3. No Myths Here: Food Stamps, Food Deserts and Food Scarcity

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: clean eating, emotional eating, Fast Food, fast food restaurants, mark bittman, mcdonalds, mcdonalds oatmeal, oatmeal, the atlantic

People are lovin’ this thing! I mean, OD’ing on it! Seems like the only ones up in arms about it are deskchair critics like myself, thumping away on our laptops and writing angrily on our blogs. I have to admit. The thing is well received. So much so, that there was a slew of articles written about how “The Double Down Is Less Calories Than The Average Salad… So Let Us Eat Our Two Pieces Of Fried Chicken With Pork And Simulated Cheese In Between In Peace!”

Anyone else hear the record skip? I did.

It’s bull.

Those of us who are calorie counting… I get it. It’s only 540 calories… it’s tempting. But think about it – if you’re really calorie counting, then you know full well what you can get for 540 calories. You know that that’s over 10 cups of broccoli. (Not that you’d actually eat that, but it leads into a larger point.)

Since I brought up broccoli, can we address the primary issue, here? You’re spending 540 calories on two pieces of fried chicken, pork, and a slice of “processed cheese food.” A primary point of calorie counting is the fact that since you are working to limit your intake of food, you make the most out of each calorie you’re ingesting. FiveThirtyEight offers up a pretty good explanation of what I mean:

Here, the Double Down’s credentials are more impressive. Those 540 calories contain 145 milligrams of cholesterol (more than twice that of the Big Mac and about half of the USDA’s daily allowance) — along with 1,380 milligrams of sodium (the USDA recommends no more than 2,400 per day) and 32 grams of fat (65 will keep you slim, says the government). So, for getting only about one-quarter of the calories that you need in a day, you’re exhausting about half your budget of “bad stuff”. [source]

So, let’s keep it real. For those 540 calories, you’re getting nothing but salt, oil, fat, a pickle and a chemical conglomeration that comes out something similar to cheese.

Thus… we come to the REAL problem I have with the food discourse, right now. Why are we comparing a sandwich made of chicken and pork… to a salad? Certainly, we’re ignoring salads with fried toppings and creamy high fructose corn syrup dressings in this conversation… but a salad with actual nutrients to offer the eater is compared to a sandwich made of sadness and skinny chickens? It doesn’t matter where your calories come from as long as the total amount of calories is relatively small? A calorie is just a calorie anyway, right?

Let me make something clear. A calorie is not, in fact, just a calorie. It absolutely does matter whether your calories are coming from sugar, fat or protein. It matters because your body does very different things with each. And there are far too many people profiting off of continuing this perception that calories are just …calories.

Don’t believe me? Check this out:

“If all consumers exercised, did what they had to do, the problem of obesity wouldn’t exist.”

Know who dropped that little tidbit of nutritional science?

PepsiCo’s Chief Executive Officer, Indra Nooyi. Yep.

It’s the eternal passing of the buck. It’s not that “people are eating too much of my product.” It’s not even “people need to exercise moderation.” The message is “if you exercised, you wouldn’t be fat.” The message is also “there is no reason to stop buying my products, because the problem is only that you don’t exercise!” Understand what that means – it completely absolves the company of their share of responsibility in the obesity epidemic. It says the problem is the fact that you don’t move enough, as if that is the only explanation for why people become overweight. It simply isn’t.

The food industry is great at this – guilting the public into feeling bad about exercise (since, let’s face it – many simply do not) and using that guilt to avoid accepting some of the blame. I start to feel like a conspiracy theorist sometimes when I talk about the marketing and trickery used in their language… but at least I’m not making stuff up or pulling it out of thin air.

Because I know this is confusing to many, understanding why a calorie isn’t simply “a calorie,” I intend to spend this week talking about this very subject. So now, the next time some genius tells you “my double down is better than your salad,” you can let them know exactly what they can – and will – do with that double down.

1. Comprehending Calories: The Basics
2. Comprehending Calories: The Role of Carbs In Your Diet
3. Comprehending Calories: How To Properly Read A Nutrition Label

Thoughts? Let’s hear ‘em!

KFC’s Double Down Reminds Us: All Calories Are Not Created Equal is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Double Leg Lifts
2. Weekend WTF: Would YOU Eat Lab-Created Meat?
3. How Many Calories Are You Drinking?

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: calorie counting, calories, dirty eating, double down, Fast Food, junk food, kfc, nutrition, pepsi, soda, soft drinks

And, so is the case with Aunt Jemima. As I was researching for the latest series for the blog, I happened to uncover this little beauty, retyped from The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink:

Aunt Jemima pancake flour, the first nationally distributed ready-mix food and one of the earliest products to be marketed through personal appearances and advertisements featuring its namesake, was created by combining advances in manufacturing and distribution with popular nostalgia for the antebellum south.

The self-rising pancake flour was created by a pair of speculators, Chris Russ and Charles Underwood, in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1889. The duo had purchased a bankrupt mill and planned to make it successful by developing a new product that would spur demand for their flour. Despite their lack of culinary expertise, or perhaps because of it, the two settled on developing a foolproof and less labor-intensive pancake batter that would require only the addition of water. They experimented with a variety of recipes in the summer of 1889 before settling on a mixture of wheat flour, corn flour, lime phosphate and salt.

The product was originally named “Self-Rising Pancake Flour” and sold in bags. In the fall of 1889, Rutt was inspired to rename the mix after attending a minstrel show, during which a popular song titled “Old Aunt Jemima” was performed by men in blackface, one of whom was depicting a slave mammy of the plantation South. The song, which was written by the African-American singer, dancer and acrobat Billy Kersands in 1875, was a staple of the minstrel circuit and was based on a song sung by field slaves.

The pamphlet, as included in the text. The sentence reads as follows: "New ways in which millions of women are using it to make delicious pancakes, waffles and muffins"

Rutt and Underwood sold their milling company to a larger corporation owned by R.G. Davis of Chicago. He transformed the local product into a national one by distributing it through a network of suppliers and by creating a persona for Aunt Jemima. Davis hired Nancy Green, a former Kentucky slave and cook in a Chicago kitchen, to portray Aunt Jemima in that city’s 1893 Columbian Exposition. She served pancakes from a booth designed to look like a huge flour barrel and told stories of life as a cook on an Old South plantation. Her highly publicized appearance spurred thousands of orders for the product from distributors. Davis also commissioned a pamphlet detailing the “life” of Aunt Jemima. She was depicted as the actual house slave of one Colonel Higbee of Louisiana, whose plantation was known across the South for its fine dining –especially its pancake breakfasts.

The recipe for the pancakes was a secret known only to the slave woman. Sometime after the war, the pamphlet said, Aunt Jemima was remembered by a Confederate general who had once found himself stranded at her cabin. The general recalled her pancakes and put Aunt Jemima in contact with a “large northern milling company,” which paid her (in gold) to come north and supervise the construction of a factory to mass-produce her mix. This surprisingly durable fable formed the background for decades of future Aunt Jemima advertising.

The Advertising Campaign

The basic story was fleshed out and brilliantly illustrated through an advertising campaign in North American women’s magazines during the 1920s and 1930. The ads were the work of James Webb Young, a legendary account executive at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in Chicago, and N. C. Wyeth, the well-known painter and illustrator of such books as Treasure Island and The Last of the Mohicans. The full-page color advertisements ran regularly in Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping and the Saturday Evening Post and told tales of the leisure and splendor of the plantation South, complete with grand balls, huge dinners and visitors dropping in from across the region. Not too subtly, Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, a labor-saving product, was marketed with comparisons to a time and place when some American white women had access to the ultimate labor-saving device: a slave. A line from a 1927 product display read, “Make them with Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour, and your family will ask where you got your wonderful southern cook.”

After aunt Jemima’s debut in 1893, her character was played by dozens of women in radio and, eventually, television commercials and in appearances at schools and country fairs. After Nancy Green, the original actress, dies in 1923, she was replaced as Aunt Jemima by Anna Robinson, a darker-complected and heavier (at 350lbs) woman. The image on the box and in ads was adjusted to resemble her more closely. Later, the actresses Aylene Lewis and Edith Wilson portrayed the mammy in some advertisements. Lewis also played the role at Aunt Jemima’s Pancake House in Disneyland, which opened in 1957.

However, the advertising icon, always a source of criticism in African American newspapers, came under increasing scrutiny in the 1950s and 1960s as first the civil rights movement and then the black power movement reached their respective crests. Local chapters of the NAACP began pressuring schools and fair organizers not to invite Aunt Jemima to appear. In 1967, Edith Wilson became the last woman to play Aunt Jemima in advertisements when the Quaker Oats company, which had owned the product since 1925, fired her and canceled its television campaign. Quaker Oats also took Aunt Jemima’s name off the Disneyland restaurant in 1970; Aylene Lewis was the last woman to portray Aunt Jemima on the company’s behalf.

Revising the Image

Throughout the 1960s, Quaker Oats lightened Aunt Jemima’s skin and made her look thinner in print images. In 1968, the company replaced her bandana with a headband, slimmed her down further and created a somewhat younger-looking image. She still appeared in print advertisements but without the heavy reliance on the southern plantation settings and largely without a speaking role. In 1989, Quaker Oats made the most dramatic alteration yet to Aunt Jemima’s  appearance, removing her headband to reveal a head full of graying curls and adding earrings and a pearl necklace. The company said it was repositioning the brand icon as a “black working grandmother.”

In 1993, Quaker Oats debuted a series of television ads for the pancake mix featuring the singer Gladys Knight as a spokeswoman and using Aunt Jemima’s face only sparingly. The ads had a very short run, and Aunt Jemima continues to
hold a low profile in the advertising world, even though she consistently ranks as one of the most recognizable trade names in North America. Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup remain market leaders in the United States, and in the
1990s Quaker Oats even licensed the use of her name and image for a line of frozen breakfast products manufactured by another firm. Despite the controversy surrounding her image in the late 20th century, Aunt Jemima remains one of the most successful advertising icons of our time.

Now, compare that to AuntJemima.com’s “History” page. Sure looks whitewashed to me.

My overarching point, here, is that marketing can – and often is – used to manipulate the facts. It’s used as a tool to convince you to give me your money and not the other guy. And that’s fine – but as conscious consumers, we like to have all the facts. I can’t say that I’d support Aunt Jemima anyway because (a) I’m pretty sure that syrup isn’t much more than high fructose corn syrup and caramel color anymore, (b) my pancakes taste way better and (c) I’m not interested in paying triple the cost for a poor quality product. However, I couldn’t even tacitly support a company like this.

Just consider this a lesson in “epic whitewashing,” and a polite reminder that marketing is almost always hiding something.

A Lesson In Marketing Magic: The History Of Aunt Jemima is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. The Body Magic Isn’t Magic After All
2. Weekend WTF: Weapons of Mass Marketing Deception
3. Q&A Thursday: Aunt Flo’ And The Cravings

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advertising, aunt jemima, black anthropology, blackness, culture, food, halo effect, high fructose corn syrup, marketing, pancake syrup, pancakes, waffles

Taken from Women’s Health magazine:

Here’s how this deviousness works: Human beings have what food-industry insiders call a “bliss point,” a nirvana of the taste buds triggered by particular amounts of salt, sugar, and fat. Menu scientists (yes, that’s a job!) at popular restaurant chains and packaged-food corporations use their knowledge of the bliss point to manipulate your appetite, adding salt, sugar, and fat to their products in combinations that are designed to create hedonism on a plate—a taste experience so intense that it kicks the brain’s pleasure system into overdrive. It’s like a drug. And like any drug, it leads you to obsess about that moment of pleasure so much that you’ll do almost anything to prolong or relive it. The result: a bigger bottom line for them—and a bigger waistline for you.

It’s just the way it is.

So, now you have one more piece of information telling you the chips – literally – are stacked against you. What do you do? Do you give in knowing that it will result in a bigger booty (and no, not in a good way) or do you start limiting and minimizing your fast food/restaurant food intake? These are things to think about!

Overeating: Why You Can’t Stop At One Nacho is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. Overeating: Comparable To Drug Use, Cause of Mental Illness?
2. The Three Stages Of “Full”ness: How To Stop Stuffing Yourself
3. Portion Distortion: Stop Eating Out Of The Bag

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bliss point, Fast Food, overeating, restaurants

This video basically explains the confusion that comes from the difference between the marketing on the box and the information on the side label. If you’re anything like my friends, the thought in your head is probably something like, “Dang, we can’t eat ANYTHING, then!” That’s not entirely accurate. You can eat whatever you choose, but you deserve accurate information to help you make those decisions. It’s only fair, I think.

How many people have made this mistake when glancing at the label? How many of us fall for the “fat-free” game?

Are The Fat Free Labels Lying To You? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Can We Really Trust Nutrition Labels?
2. The GMO-Free Eater
3. Supermarket Swindle: Fat, Low Fat, Fat Free?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: food labels, grocery shopping, myths

Look at that ingredients list... good grief.

This is awesome. But now, I have to address something a little less than awesome. The FDA.

For those of us who are calorie counting, this is of interest to us. I, really, have no words for this just yet. But trust me.. they’re coming.

For those of you who may not be able to watch the video, the transcript (provided by The Today Show website) is pasted below. Just… wowzers.

Matt Lauer: This morning on TODAY INVESTIGATES, exposing the truth behind diet food labels. Can you really believe those fat and calorie numbers? NBC’s Jeff Rossen went to find out. And I have a feeling this is bad news, Jeff. Good morning.

JEFF ROSSEN reporting: No. And we brought them out to show you.

LAUER: All right.

ROSSEN: You know, a lot of us are on diets, including one of us on the couch right now. We’ll let you guess which one. And that’s why we buy these frozen meals. They make the hard sell right on the front. I’m sure you’ve seen it, with the low-calorie and the low-fat numbers. So we took them to a lab and did some testing of our own. This morning, we separate the fat from the fiction. IN the battle of the bulge these companies say they have the secret weapon.

ROSSEN: They brag about low fat and calories, knowing consumers eat this stuff up. How important are these numbers to you?

Unidentified Woman #1: They’re important.

Unidentified Man: And that’s all I look at. First thing, even before price.

Unidentified Woman #2: People don’t buy it because it tastes good. They buy it because the calories are there. And that’s what they’re looking for. And they’re like…

ROSSEN: So if the calories and the fat are off?

Woman #2: Yeah, then it’s what’s the point?

ROSSEN: Exactly. So we bought meals from the top diet brands: Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers’ Smart Ones and Healthy Choice. We took the meals out of the packaging and put them into specially marked baggies, then sent them here to ESL, a top food laboratory. Scientists tested each sample for fat and calories. Would the numbers really match the labels? We found it was all over the map. Some were actually lower. Healthy Choice Roasted Beef Merlot, 17 percent less fat compared to the label. Lean Cuisine’s Grilled Chicken Primavera, 19 percent fewer calories than the label. And the rosemary Chicken, 60 percent less fat. But don’t start binging yet. Our tests showed many meals were packaged with higher numbers. Smart Ones Shrimp Marinara had ten percent more calories than the label. Healthy Choice Lobster Cheese Ravioli, 17 percent more fat than the label. And that Lean Cuisine Chicken Primavera? Twenty percent more fat. But the biggest gut busted of all? Smart Ones Sweet and Sour Chicken. It advertises 210 calories and two grams of fat. We found it really had 11 percent more calories and the whopping 350 percent more fat. While the company was “skeptical” at our results, they’ve now launched an internal audit.

Ms. SUSAN ROBERTS, PHD (Tufts University): It’s enough to make you cry. I mean, these – this is disgraceful.

ROSSEN: Susan Roberts should know. As a leading food scientist, she did similar testing in her lab and, like us, found lying labels.

Ms. ROBERTS: We hear all the time that people are not losing weight. They’re plateauing. They can’t understand why they’re eating almost nothing and not losing weight. Here’s one explanation.

ROSSEN: You may be outraged by this, but the government isn’t. In many cases, under the law it’s perfectly OK. Believe it or not, FDA regulations allow food companies to be as much as 20 percent off on their labels.

Unidentified Woman #3: That’s unfortunate, and especially at the same time when they’re preaching to us about obesity.

ROSSEN: The government allows these companies to be 20 percent off on their label.

Unidentified Woman #3: Why?

ROSSEN: Good question. The FDA declined our request for an interview, so we went to the group representing the food companies. Isn’t this deceptive?

Mr. ROBERT BRACKETT (Grocery Manufacturers Association): No, it’s not at all deceptive. It may be something that the consumers don’t necessarily understand. And this is a great to explain them.

ROSSEN: He says these labels are merely an average. Companies come up with the numbers by testing a dozen or so meals then taking the average. Portions vary so they say no one meal can be exact. Why not be more transparent on the label and say this isn’t necessarily 230 calories, it’s an average? It’s 230-ish calories.

Mr. BRACKETT: Well, you could but it really wouldn’t help consumers. The idea here is that if you see 230 calories, that that’s a food that you normally eat, some are going to be more and some are going to be less.

ROSSEN: So you’re saying it’s OK for one particular sample to be three times higher than it says, another sample to be three times lower, as long as it averages out?

Mr. BRACKETT: Well, it’s — a better way to say this is not it’s OK, is that it’s a fact of nature. It’s a matter of being practical.

ROSSEN: Tell that to the poor customer who ends up with our Sweet and Sour Chicken, packed with three and a half times more fat than the label claims.

Woman #2: That’s scary, actually, because I eat those a lot, like very often, and now I’m wondering maybe that’s why I am — my weight hasn’t budged.

ROSSEN: No, she still looks good. In fact, scientists say these variations could cause you to gain weight over time. We shared our results with the food companies. They told us their labels and their testing procedures follow all FDA regulations. And, Matt, the big question is if these are made on a production line, why can’t they be more exact? The food companies say we’re dealing with real food here…

Can We Really Trust Nutrition Labels? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Are The Fat Free Labels Lying To You?
2. How To Dine With Nutrition In Mind
3. Supermarket Swindle: Two Things To Avoid On Your Food Labels

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: calorie counting, FDA, government, healthy foods, myths, nutrition labels

Let’s use that to discuss Taco Bell’s latest swindle, the “Drive Thru Diet.”

Now, after you’ve watched that, before I can even break this down to you, Taco Bell already gets it poppin’ in the fine print:

Drive-Thru-Diet® is not a weight-loss program. For a healthier lifestyle, pay attention to total calorie and fat intake and regular exercise. Taco Bell’s Fresco Menu can help with calorie reductions of 20 to 100 per item compared to corresponding products on our regular menu. Not a low calorie food. For complete nutritional information please visit TacoBell.com

Oh, my heart.

See, to explain this briefly, the Drive-Thru Diet isn’t quite a diet in the same sense that Americans understand the term “diet.” To many of us, diet implies words like “temporary, quick, short-lived.” It leans more toward the understanding of “The Cabbage diet.” “The Lemonade Diet.” “The Cookie Diet.” Not as in “My regular daily diet consists of..” because that’s not what we’re all used to hearing. So when we hear “The Drive-Thru Diet,” it sounds more like “Oh, you mean I can eat cookies for breakfast and lunch and a regular dinner and still lose weight?” except replacing “cookies” with “Taco Bell.”

If you notice, the commercial says “Her experience is based on a 1,250 calorie per day diet.” Let me tell you – you can do a 1,250 calorie diet without Taco Bell. Actually, you can do it without ANY fast food. Is anyone going to tell you that, though? Of course not. Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, Nutrisystem, Subway, and now Taco Bell… they’re all going to tell you, “Use this system, but I’m not going to tell you how to make this system work on your own without me.. because that would be money I couldn’t make off of you.” (Those of you who stick fast to those systems, this isn’t a knock at you. No need to defend them in the comments.)

So let’s look closer at the questions I asked in the beginning. Right now, we’re all making New Year’s Resolutions to be healthier. To eat better. To cut out the junk food. To spend less money at fast food restaurants. Wait — spend less money at fast food joints?! This will not do!

Enter Taco Bell’s marketing team… searhing for a way to improve upon Subway’s “Jared” phenom. You know, the fella that lost a ton of weight eating Subway sandwiches instead of actual home-cooked meals… only to gain it back in late ’09? Yeah, that one. They come up with Christine. Actually, Christine in a bikini with a gut, then Christine in a bikini hiding in some grass, then Christine in a slinky dress, and NOW we get Christine in the pants. Why is Taco Bell paying to put this particular image in my face?

Are they trying to calm my fears about Taco Bell getting in the way of me achieving my weight loss goals for my resolution? (Especially since the site asks me to “Make a Frescolution” and all.) Are they trying to convince me that I can still eat healthily even though I’m getting fast food?

What are they trying to get me to do? I’m a person who would love to eat better in the new year and cut out junk/fast food, but am not sure of how to go about it. Would this commercial convince me to stick with what I’ve been doing, so long as I order “something else?”

Why does my reaction benefit them? Here’s why: Studies show that if I can get you at least in the drive thru lane, I’ve already got your money. Guess what else – I can also convince you to ignore the “healthy menu” and get what you’ve always gotten. Why? Because of habit! If you’ve always crept in that drive-thru lane and bought the same big giant nacho order, how easy do you think it’s going to be to get you in the lane, anyway? That “healthy menu” isn’t what’s on your mind when you pull in, anyway. If I can give you a reason to come back? I can keep you from resolving to stay away entirely, and then I can eventually convince you to stick around. Take a look at that menu – the “healthy” options aren’t the largest photos on the drive-thru menu. That’s for a reason.

Is it truly in my best interests to react to this in this particular fashion? Let me rephrase that for you – is it in your best interest to believe that a healthy diet (as in, the foods you eat regularly) consists of regular ingestion of Taco Bell? Especially when it says on the page, “For a healthier lifestyle, pay attention to total calorie and fat intake and regular exercise. Fresco can help with calorie reductions of 20 to 100 per item compared to corresponding products on our regular menu. Not a low calorie food?” They tell you basically everything you need to know to lose the weight without them, but they tack information onto it about how you can execute this with Taco Bell!

To put it mildly, the message that the viewer receives is “I can lose weight with this ‘Drive-Thru’ Diet.” Never mind the fact that she, apparently, lost the 54lbs over 2yrs – approx 27lbs per year – since she “…didn’t want to give up her fast food.” Is that kind of mentality one worth maintaining? I don’t think so. Personally, I believe it’s in one’s best interests to eat as far away from franchises as possible, but that’s me.

In closing (since I can’t say “In short,” ’cause this is anything BUT short), this is beyond stupid. It plays upon the insecurities of the consumer and treats them like marks, ready for the swindle – “You want to lose weight and not give up your fast food? We still gotcha back! Check out these tacos with no cheese or sauce!” – all while avoiding any claims of misrepresentation… because they told you to calorie count. They also told you these are not low-calorie foods, so take them at their word. Do your best to avoid it, and your body will thank you with more than 54lbs lost… and you’ll lose it in less than two years.

What are your thoughts about this? Have you seen the commercials? What did you think?

Taco Bell Thinks You’re Stupid: Try The Drive-Thru Diet! is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: No Meat In Your Taco Bell Taco
2. Photo Proof: The Stupid Scale Doesn’t Matter
3. Stupid Study: Why Black Women Are Fatter, Dumber, More Manly And Less Attractive Than Others

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fad Diets, Fast Food, mentality

I bought myself an iTouch. Just… because. I figured if I was going to throw myself into disappointment again, I’d at least do it with a new toy. Sure enough, I got hooked. Music? AND videos? AND apps? Wait… what are apps? After a little snooping around, I find out that I can keep up with news, play games, and do actual important stuff with these things. Neato.

So, I go lookin’, and lookin’, and lookin’… and I find an app called Lose It! that basically operates as a food journal. I once purchased a little black notebook where I’d write down everything I ate, but it quickly lost steam for me. LoseIt!, for some reason, was easier for me.

Using LoseIt!, I was able to input what I weighed at the start, what my goal weight was, and when I wanted to reach it. I added the foods I ate during the day – as honest as I could – and I added the amount of water and other drinks I drank.

When I tell you this was the most powerful thing I could’ve done for myself… believe it!

Now, mind you. I’m not necessarily advocating you go out and get the LoseIt! app (although, as of this writing, it is free and anyone who has an iTouch or iPhone really should look into it) because not everyone has or uses the iPhone/iTouch. The downside to the app, for me, is that it doesn’t allow you to input the time at which you ate. The LoseIt! app also, supposedly, mines data from our inputs as well, and some people might not be thrilled with that. (Yes, I AM usually the conspiracy theorist here, but the benefit outweighed the data collecting, to me.)

What I AM advocating, is the use of a food diary. My food diary showed me exactly where my problems were. I was eating too much of… well, everything. I had no portion control. I was partaking in a giant amount of fat and sugar. My carb meters were off the charts. I simply wasn’t doing what I knew in my heart I needed to do. Taking in over 2100 calories a day wasn’t going to help me lose weight. In fact, the only reason I didn’t gain astronomical amounts of weight was because of the 7-10 hours a week I was spending in the gym. After 6 months and only losing 20 lbs, something needed to really change.

The first two weeks of using my food diary were painful. I was able to track my carb, fat, sodium, fiber, protein, cholesterol and caloric intake. I spent lots of time researching what I was putting in my body in terms of fast food and restaurants, and the nutritional values for those meals. Seeing the numbers in front of me was painful. Painful! I used to LOVE tearing into a Checkers/Rally’s Fried Chicken Sandwich with large fries and a banana shake… until I started looking for their nutritional information.

That’s when it started hitting me like a ton of bricks:

An order of large fries from Checkers? 590 Calories, 38g of fat (20g of saturated fat, 2g of trans fat), 40mg of cholesterol, 1410mg of sodium, 7g of protein, 57g of carbohydrates.

The chicken sandwich? 740 calories, 41g of fat (13g saturated), 70mg of cholesterol, 2190mg sodium, 60g of carbohydrates (13g sugars), and 34g of protein.

And lastly, but certainly not least? The banana shake: 650 calories, 18g of fat (14g saturated), 75mg of cholesterol, 300mg sodium, 105g of carbohydrates (81g sugars), and 16g of protein.

What was I doing to myself? Don’t you know, I had to break out a calculator to tabulate how much I was putting into my body in ONE MEAL? 1,980 calories – almost the value of what’s recommended to take in over the course of one day. 3900mg of sodium. 222g of carbohydrates, about 40% of it being sugar. Seriously… what was I doing to myself? And why did it take me actually writing it down and committing myself to researching it for me to truly see it? Why didn’t I KNOW what I was doing to myself? (That’s another post entirely, but we won’t talk about that today.)

Slowly, I began to wean myself off of things that were doing me in. I no longer ate fast food. Sure enough, I lost almost 8 lbs immediately. Strange, huh?

A food diary highlights the weaknesses in your diet. It shows you patterns in your eating habits that you might not’ve noticed. Do you eat a lot of fried foods? How about a lot of bread? Do you have one heck-uv-a-sweet tooth? Maybe you eat a lot of foods that require TONS of seasoning? Variety, literally, is the spice of life.. and a food diary is the best way to show you where you could inject a little bit of just that – variety.

Make it a healthy day!

Considered Keeping a Food Diary? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: Have You Considered Trying The Poop Burger?
2. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Eating Disorders When Dieting Wasn’t Enuf
3. Food Diaries: A New Approach To Food Journaling

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: black girls guide to weight loss, Fast Food, overeating, restaurants

Then, I hear the salt shaker.

I kind of paused in mid-sentence. I said, “Wait. How do you know your eggs need salt if… you didn’t even taste them, yet?”

“I don’t know… that’s what Mom does.”

How many places do we sneak a little salt? Do you salt your food at restaurants because you just “know” it isn’t seasoned enough? Do you eat a lot of canned or boxed foods? What about your meats – do you check to see if they’re salted before you cook with them? Do you use things like “Garlic salt,” “seasoned salt” or “onion salt” on top of regular iodized salt or sea salt? Do you salt your canned soups, even though they already have – on average – a day’s worth of sodium in each can? And let’s face it – who really splits a can of soup? Not everyone.

When you make baked goods, how much salt do you use? Do you keep tabs on the amount of salt in your processed foods? I’m not even gonna ask about the amount of salt in your favorite fast food dish. I’m just gonna tell you… it’s probably a lot. Salt and sodium hide in places we’d least expect it, which is why consciousness is so important.

If the recommended daily allowance of salt in your diet is only somewhere around 2400mg, then having an order of chili cheese fries from Dairy Queen with 2,550mg of sodium in it seems excessive, right? Aside from having 1,200 calories and being a total fat bomb, slaughtering your daily intake of salt in one sitting does you no favors, trust me.

Our foods come full of salt because certain amounts of it trigger emotional responses in our bodies. Although the amount of salt that triggers the response depends on the kind of food you’re eating, the goal is always the same. To make you feel so good, that you keep coming back for more, because you want that feeling again.

I hate to say it, but that sounds like drugs. I don’t even really have to say it, because there are several studies that say the same. The principle in play, here, is pretty simple. To sum it up, it goes like this:

Our brains have chemical reactions to the food we put in our bodies. As many of us know, chemicals in the brain like serotonin and dopamine play a big part in our moods. Three key ingredients play a major role in the reaction our brains have to the foods we’re eating: sugar, fat, and salt. If a food has an excess of salt in it – without reaching the point where it is unbearable to taste – then your reaction to it will likely be a “good one.” Too much salt, however, can have drastic efects on our systems, regardless of how good it may make us feel.

Having said that, it’s easy to see why foods with excess salt usually come paired with excess fat. It’s all about making you feel good… except… we shouldn’t be eating for food to make us “feel good.” Enjoy eating, sure. But it is not our problem solver.

This excess fat/excess salt combination is how high blood pressure is created. The brand new “padding” that our fatty foods gave us needs blood pumped through it, too… and our hearts have to work doubly hard to make sure that happens. Vicious cycle, isn’t it?

So… how can we cut the salt? Here are 3 quick and easy ways to start off:

1. Skip the canned goods. If you’re buying canned veggies, buy frozen instead. If it’s soup you’re after, try to make it from scratch (here’s a tip: save your meat bones and boil them with veggies… save the water. That’s soup water!) Give up the canned meats altogether.
2. Drop the seasoning salts. Do you use garlic salt? Go for garlic powder. Onion salt? Onion powder. Seasoned salt? Sugar, paprika, turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder. Seriously, grab some different seasonings and play with ‘em. Try to use no more than a pinch when you cook – especially if you have a day where you have to eat something high in salt.
3. Double check your TV dinners. If you’re big on microwaveables, try to avoid the ones with too much salt in them. A single pot pie shouldn’t have 3,387mg of salt in it, alas… it happens.

I will admit it. I used to LOVE gooey-fat-nasty-juicy-salty foods. Me and my salt shaker were best friends. However, once I took the time to try to appreciate the natural saltiness in some foods combined with using different spices, I found that I couldn’t treat salt the same… and I haven’t ever since. Give it a try, and who knows – you might find something you like!

Anyone else out there run into this problem? Are you having a hard time with salt? Did you kick your salt habit? Let’s talk!

Identifying – And Eliminating – Excess Salt In Your Diet is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. The Realities Of Cooking With Salt
2. The Effect Of Excess Sugar On Children’s Teeth
3. Identifying A Scam: Religion-Based Weight Loss Scams

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

A big part of this is… you guessed it – fast food. I have a gripe with eating places where I can’t entirely confirm everything in my dish. I have a gripe with eating places where most of what they serve on the menu is shipped there pre-made, only ready to be dropped in a deep fryer or tossed in an oven somewhere (and that’s fast food or regular restaurant.) I’m sure there are some much healthier fast food joints out there, but that’s neither here nor there. I’ll get on my soapbox about fast food another day, but I did want to share this video that was the start of my research into what the hell we’re eating at fast food joints. I really dig this guy and the info he has to share, so I hope you like it too. : )

Re-Thinking Fast Food: Reading What You’re Eating is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Can Fast Food Ever Be A Part Of Clean Eating?
2. Does Your State Allow Fast Food Purchases On Food Stamps?
3. Q&A Wednesday: I Work In Fast Food And Want To Lose Weight! Help!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fast Food, kfc

Calorie counting helped me see... that this one pot pie is two servings. Yes. TWO.

I get so annoyed by people who say things like, “Oh, I don’t believe in calorie counting.” or “Calorie counting is silly.” I always ask them, “Well, why?” It’s almost always some dumb answer like, “Well, I don’t want to know how many calories my favorite foods are.” or “I’m not going to prevent myself from enjoying my favorite foods because of a few calories,” or even “I just think it’s stupid.”

Um, so that’s supposed to be enough to convince me – ME – to give up what I’m doing? Because you don’t like it?

Let me explain to you the reason why calorie counting is a practice that I believe in. I can sum it up in one word.

Awareness.

When I first started my journey, I believed that my eating habits were wholly unrelated to my exercise. I was told “Exercise, and the weight will come off.” I wasn’t told “Exercise and consciously limit your intake to reasonable levels appropriate for what your body needs, and the weight will come off.” I got incomplete advice, and that was to my detriment.

It wasn’t until months later that I realized that regardless of my exercise habits, if I wasn’t putting crap in my mouth on such a regular basis, my body couldn’t possibly keep putting on the weight that I was as quickly as I was. If I wasn’t eating as poorly as I was, I wouldn’t be overeating in search of that “belly full” feeling. If I wasn’t clinging to such poorly made foods, I couldn’t possibly overeat the way I was, and consume the amount of calries I was consuming.

That’s not the message you get every day.

And I’m not gonna lie – there are some people who don’t come from that kind of meager understanding of food. There might be people out there who understand that concept of “It’s ok to indulge, but you do it moderately.” There might be people who understand that the “true” definition of “moderately” means “a couple of bites, then push it away.” Someone like me, who had never understood the concept of “moderately” or never really embraced the concept of “limiting myself,” “clean eating” or even “conscious eating”… don’t take away the one thing I cling to – calorie counting – because you think it “sounds silly.”

Calorie counting empowered me. It taught me the true understanding of what each plate, each dish, each serving and each bite did to my body – this body, this temple that, although over the years has collected a few piercings and a tattoo or two, I have grown to love and appreciate and admire. It taught me that a handful of my favorite snack food was the calorie equivalent of a hearty lunch. It taught me that my favorite juice drink had the caloric equivalent of what I eat for breakfast. It taught me that it’s probably not a good idea to get a giant jug of said favorite juice drink and drink it throughout the day.

Calorie counting taught me to understand the relationship between how much I eat in a day, and how much my body burns in that day.

Calorie counting taught me the patterns for identifying “harmful” dishes (dishes harmful to my daily calorie count) when I have to dine out.

Calorie counting taught me, in a roundabout way, that the fastest way to fill myself without slaughtering my calorie count was to indulge on vegetables. Calorie counting taught me to come up with creative ways to cook those vegetables, lest I be bored to death by my 365th serving of broccoli.

Calorie counting gave me a basic foundation that I could use to develop my own understanding of food… a foundation that I could build from and one day not need to cling to calorie counting anymore.

There are people in this world who have healthy relationships with food. There are people who were born into families who helped teach them that. Considering the number of Americans who are currently overweight, and the number of us who have eating disorders on either extreme of the continuum… I’m not sure there are more people with healthier relationships than there are people without.

So, as this challenge draws to a close, I say this:

If you truly participated in the challenge, I hope you re-read this post, take the numbers you collected and really evaluate your eating habits and start trying to identify your patterns. If you started, became discouraged and stopped… I implore you to start again, because it may be you who needs to develop this kind of understanding more than anything. If you chose to not participate at all, and find the things I’ve written even remotely intriguing, perhaps giving it a shot for a few days may get you what you desire.

The awareness that I received from calorie counting is invaluable. It’s not about nitpicky numbers – it’s about the ability to know and identify. It’s about an awakening and understanding that I never had before. And someone who doesn’t understand that or just has that “naturally healthy” understanding of food will never get that. But I know my needs, and I know my weaknesses. Calorie counting helped me cure that, and I hope it could do the same for you.

Why Am I Calorie Counting? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Understanding Calorie Counting: What is it? Calorie Counting Defined
2. Understanding Calorie Counting: Creating Your Calorie Goal and Being Honest About It
3. Understanding Calorie Counting: The Payoff – Why Am I Doing This To Myself?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: calorie counting, Challenge!, habits, Healthy Eating, overeating

An adorable journal, but a painful entry.

After asking the Facebookers what kind of challenge we should host next, two things became abundantly clear:

First, y’all are dying for some information on how to exercise at home and looking for motivation to get it in regularly. For seconds, there’s a strong desire for accountability. I see y’all out there!

I’d love to toss out two challenges back to back: A food challenge, and then follow that up directly with a workout challenge. I’ll explain why.

In the interest of accountability, I’d like to offer up a calorie counting challenge first! Over the course of the next 12 days, from June 22th to July 3rd, resolve to write down every single thing you eat, and how much of it you take in. If you have time, write down the nutritional information (or take a photo of it with your cell phone – let’s face it, almost all of us have phones with cameras on ‘em) or look it up once you get home.

What does this have to do with accountability? If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the course of my progress, it’s this: in order to hold yourself accountable for something, you have to know how far-reaching the problem is. For me, calorie counting helped me realize exactly how much I was taking in at each meal (something like 800 calories each meal!). I learned just how many calories I was scarfing down during my “snack times” (almost 400 calories!) I got to really understand how many calories I was drinking. (upwards of 300 calories a day? Good grief.)

If, on an average day, I was taking in 800 calories per meal at three meals a day, that’s 2400 calories a day. Add in the snacks, that’s 2800 calories. Include the juices, and I’m at 3100 calories of intake each day.

Bananas.

You cannot hold yourself accountable for what you do not see. What does this accountability have to do with exercise? Easy! You cannot burn off a bad diet. I don’t care what you say or do. You can eat more calories in 20 minutes than you can ever burn. Let me say that again. You can eat more calories in 20 minutes than you can ever burn. That means that all it takes is 20 minutes to ruin an absolutely amazing-sweaty-funky-nasty-gross-smelling-yet-I-feel-like-I-can-fly workout.

Knowing the goals you have in mind and knowing the limitations of exactly how many calories you can burn working out for an hour doing your favorite or most challenging workout… comparing those two against your daily calorie intake is an empowering message. It lets you see exactly what might be getting in your way, what you can “afford” to eat or give up, and where your excesses might be coming from.

You don’t have to change your eating habits to participate in this challenge. I know, I know, that sounds counterproductive.. but the goal is to see exactly how harmful and unhelpful our current habits are to our current goals, and how certain situations cause us to eat a little more than we might be used to. With any luck, it will compel us to make changes.

What will you need for this challenge? For starters, a notebook and some measuring cups!

You’ll need a dedicated notebook for keeping track of each day’s intake, and measuring cups to measure out your portions.

You’ll also need to make a promise: promise yourself that you will document EVERYTHING you put in your mouth – from the glass of water to that handful of sunflower seeds you got from your co-worker, to the $0.50 bag of doritos you ate on the commute to work, to the taste testing of your dinner, to the bite of your loved one’s donut, to the liquor you drank at happy hour, to the glass of wine you had with dinner, to the little spoonful of baby food you ate to show your little one how good her strained peas are (I remember those days… won’t be revisiting those ever again.) Every-single-thing.

This challenge promotes consciousness. Awareness. You have to know how “bad” it is in order to know how to make it better, and we’ll start that tomorrow with the calorie counting challenge!

Looking for resources on calorie counting on A Black Girl’s Guide To Weight Loss? Check these out:

• Understanding Calorie Counting: The Basics
• Understanding Calorie Counting: What is it? Calorie Counting Defined
• Understanding Calorie Counting: Creating Your Calorie Goal and Being Honest About It
• Understanding Calorie Counting: The Payoff – Why Am I Doing This To Myself?
• Understanding Calorie Counting: Preparing Yourself For Success
• Understanding Calorie Counting: A Final Word

So… let’s hear it! Who’s in? If you’re going to blog your info, drop your blog link in the comments so that we can check you out and offer our support!

Edit: Are you on SparkPeople? Check out the BGG2WL SparkTeam!

Introducing… The Calorie Counting Challenge! is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Understanding Calorie Counting: What is it? Calorie Counting Defined
2. Understanding Calorie Counting: Creating Your Calorie Goal and Being Honest About It
3. Why Am I Calorie Counting?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 30 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: calorie counting, challenges, food labels

Let’s talk about breakfast for an example. If you think about the average day, do you know how many decisions you make when it comes to food? Think about it. Within at least an hour of waking up – whether or not you’re going to eat breakfast, whether or not you’re eating cereal, which cereal you’ll choose, how much you’ll eat, whether you’ll add sugar, how much milk to use, whether or not you’ll have a second bowl – you’ve made at least 7 decisions, and usually those are all bundled up in a 3 minute time frame. How often do you stop in between each of those and think about what each choice will do for your health?

Let’s consider lunch, next. The average work day includes what kind of decisions? Whether or not you’ll drink the office coffee, whether or not you’ll add sugar, whether you’ll add cream, whether you order lunch with your co-workers, where you’re going for lunch, whether you’re going fried or baked, meat or no meat, carbonated drink or juice (or water.) Again, another speedy set of decisions.

How much forethought do you give to the choices you make each day when it comes to food? Are you mindlessly ordering “what sounds good?” If so, do you consider what makes something “sound good?” Is it usually the fattening, creamy, fried, or junk-food filled option that “sounds good?” Is it something “exotic?” Is it something that’s going to set you back in your weight loss goals?

And before you say, “A little potato salad can’t set me back that much, can it?” Let me tell you – walking for an hour (approximately 263 calories) doesn’t burn 1 cup’s worth of potato salad. And just so that we’re working off the same understanding of what “1 cup” is, the average American coffee cup holds well over 1 cup of coffee. Just sayin’.

Really, the important thing here is to simply stop and think. We’re such an automated society, that we forget that some things simply should not be automated, because those shortcuts wind up shortchanging our collective health. When you wake up in the morning, check to see if there’s any grapefruit, or get out of bed the first time the alarm goes off so that you can spend a little time making breakfast. Don’t simply put yourself on auto-pilot throughout the day.

Once you’re thinking about what you’re putting into your body, use those new opportunities to make healthier decisions. Opt for something baked instead of fried. Skip the morning cream and sugar in your coffee, and maybe opt for a blend with a flavor that might not need it. Those three changes right there can save the calorie counting conscious consumer about 400 calories.

So I say to you, give yourself a little time to think about you. Think before you pour that drink, before you grab that soda, before you grab that cereal box, and before you pull up to that drive-thru. Just ask yourself, “Could there be a better option right now?” That alone is a wonderful start.

Be Conscious: No More Mindless Eating is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. The Difference Between Enjoying Eating and Emotional Eating
2. Q&A Wednesday: Is Clean Eating An Eating Disorder?
3. What, Exactly, Is Emotional Eating?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

Get BGG2WL delivered wirelessly to your Kindle! Click here for more info!

© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: calorie counting, overeating

I’m always getting people asking “Well, what if it says [this] on the box? What if it says [that] on the box? Doesn’t that make a difference?”

I’m here to state… for the record… no. It doesn’t. I can even prove it.

The best part of this? "Spoon inside!" As if to say, "You can even eat me in the checkout lane!"

Case #1:

Indie ice cream pioneer Ben & Jerry’s will be dropping the phrase “All Natural” from some of its ice cream and frozen yogurt cartons, it announced today.

The flavors containing alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated soybean oil particularly irked the folks over at the Center for the Science in the Public Interest, who had asked the company to stop using “all natural” claims last month in a letter to parent company Unilever.

That leads us to wonder, if Ben & Jerry’s — Insert catchphrase “Peace, Love and Ice Cream” here — isn’t natural, then what is?

Apparently, the USDA allows meat and poultry to be labeled “natural” if they don’t include artificial colors or ingredients, and are not more than “minimally processed.” But the rest of the food supply’s definition of natural is up for grabs.

The FDA doesn’t define the word “natural,” so it’s used by a variety of food manufacturers in an effort to imply their products are somehow better for us. We’ve seen it on everything from potato chips to cereal boxes.

“The Food and Drug Administration could do consumers and food manufacturers a great service by actually defining when the word ‘natural’ can and cannot be used to characterize a given ingredient,” says CSPI’s Michael Jacobson.

[source]

Case #2:

Federal regulators filed complaints on Monday against the makers of Pom Wonderful Pomegranate Juice, saying that there was no science to support claims that the products treat or prevent diseases like prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction.

The Federal Trade Commission said that Pom Wonderful, its parent company the Roll International Corporation, its creators and an executive violated federal law by making false and deceptive claims about disease prevention and treatment.

The agency’s complaint named the president of Pom Wonderful, Matthew Tupper, and the company founders Stewart and Lynda Resnick, a billionaire California couple whose holdings include the florist retailer Teleflora, Fiji Water and companies that produce Wonderful Pistachios and Cuties clementines.

PomWonderful is seen as starting the Pomegranate craze that has spread to everything from tea to smoothies, hitting ice cream, martinis and salad dressings on the way. The company’s health claims are a hallmark of its advertising.

Regulators said the ads were misleading in saying the research shows the juice or related Pomegranate supplements prevent or treat certain diseases.

“Any consumer who sees Pom Wonderful products as a silver bullet against disease has been misled,” said David Vladeck, director of the F.T.C.’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. He said companies using scientific research in their advertising must have research that supports the claims. [source]

But wait! There’s more!

Now here’s something you wouldn’t expect. Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company’s vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims. No surprise there. But how do you think the company is defending itself?

In a staggering feat of twisted logic, lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the lawsuit by asserting that “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.”

Does this mean that you’d have to be an unreasonable person to think that a product named “vitaminwater,” a product that has been heavily and aggressively marketed as a healthy beverage, actually had health benefits?

Or does it mean that it’s okay for a corporation to lie about its products, as long as they can then turn around and claim that no one actually believes their lies?

In fact, the product is basically sugar-water, to which about a penny’s worth of synthetic vitamins have been added. And the amount of sugar is not trivial. A bottle of vitaminwater contains 33 grams of sugar, making it more akin to a soft drink than to a healthy beverage.

Is any harm being done by this marketing ploy? After all, some might say consumers are at least getting some vitamins, and there isn’t as much sugar in vitaminwater as there is in regular Coke. [source]

So… let’s get this right:

(1) Ben & Jerry’s waits until they’re harassed by a consumer watchdog group before they admit that the “all natural” sticker on their label is a little misleading.

(2) Coca-Cola, makers of VitaminWater – a product with, arguably, a misleading title and particularly misleading marketing – defends itself against a lawsuit by proclaiming that you’d have to be unreasonable to believe “vitaminwater” is a healthy drink.

(3) The makers of Pom Wonderful Pomegranate Juice just all-out decide to pull health claims out of the sky… presumably since they couldn’t present the FTC with any proof for what they’ve claimed.

Why do we think we should trust health claims on food labels, again? Why do we think it’s best to buy things because of claims people make regarding what the product can do for us… especially when it’s in their best interest to tell us whatever it takes to make us buy? Why, again, is it smart to leave ourselves open to being taken advantage of?

It’s just like buying a pair of shoes because the sales person hounded you about “how amazing they make your legs look” and how “all the men will be drawn to you.” C’mon – the only difference is the fact that the salesman isn’t a person – it’s a little sticker on a box that says “Now with fiber!” [and leaves you wondering why it didn't have fiber in the first place.] The only reason we don’t go home with buyer’s remorse about the food is because we often don’t know just how we were swindled.

The interesting thing about the pomegranate product is that while pomegranate may very well aid in fighting cancers or providing a little boost to the gentlemen – much like many other foods out there – it has to prove them… to an organization… and their findings have to fit their standards. And, well, we all know how reliable and honest and foreward-thinking the FDA is.

The reality is… you can’t trust any of this stuff. Nothing is guaranteed. Except, well… the fruits and vegetables (with occasional meat) we’ve been eating for forever. If you insist on buying something in a package, don’t let yourself get suckered in by a health claim. As you can see, they aren’t worth much.

Rule: If It Makes A Health Claim… It’s Probably Lying is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. The 80/20 Rule… Fitness Style
2. Are The Fat Free Labels Lying To You?
3. Q&A Wednesday: Working Out Makes Me Hungry! Help!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2010. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advertising, ben and jerry's, coca cola, FDA, ftc, government, health claims, marketing, natural, pom wonderful, vitamin water

I was a server – even pinned as one of the best they had, thank you very much! – who occasionally donned a cape and tights and helped out the kitchen staff by handling some tasks they were too busy to manage. One of these, was plating the cheesecakes. That’s just taking the cheesecake out of the box (You didn’t think the cheesecake you paid only $7 for was made from scratch right there, did you?!), putting it on a plate, covering it with saran wrap, and setting it on a cold shelf.

At this restaurant in particular, the cheesecakes came from The Cheesecake Factory. And this box in particular had the nutrition information on the side. Apparently, 1 slice of cheesecake had.. oh, 954 calories and 56 grams of fat. Did your head explode? Mine did. I think I spent the rest of my shift picking up my face… and moving twice as fast through my tables to burn off that cheesecake I ate earlier that day.

Needless to say, you’re not thinking about any of that when you order, but is it the reason why you might be packing on the pounds? Below, I’ve listed things I’ve learned from being on both sides of the table, from franchise to fine dining.

Hey, it paid the bills.

Don’t dine out. You might think I’m kidding, but I’m not. I betcha five dollars your parents, at your age, didn’t eat outside of the home anywhere near as often as you do. Just take a moment to remind yourself that you DO have food in the house. Even though you may feel like eating a six course meal yet still don’t feel like COOKING a six course meal, this isn’t an excuse to hit the nearest sit-down restaurant. It’s a reason to drink a glass of water, and think of something quick and filling to cook at home.

Have the server bring you a to go box WITH your dinner upon arrival. Why? Split the dish in half, put half in the to go box, and put the to go box AWAY. Trust me – you won’t need to eat all of it at once.

Drink water – yes, water – throughout your time out. It takes about 20 minutes for your mind and body to connect on whether or not you’re full… so drinking water gives your body time to make this determination without it resulting in you being OVERstuffed. All bad.

Don’t order appetizers as dishes. I know, they feel like suuuuch a bargain – inexpensive in comparison to the rest of the menu, lots to offer, super yummy.. I know. They also carry enough calories for more than one person. Add to that the fact that almost all of ‘em are fried, creamy or coated in oil? You’re better off going back to #1 up there.

Skip the table breads, chips or crackers. The stuff they give you to tide you over until your order comes? Yeah, ignore that. You might even be better off asking them to take it away. By the time your appetizer has arrived (if you ordered one), you’ve eaten around an additional 300 calories. Restaurants do this because they know there’s sometimes a long wait time, so to keep you from ticking off the server they give you this. Not an awful idea, but definitely a hazard to someone trying to cut down.

Avoid the creamy and fried dishes. The creams and frying oils are nothing but an abundance of heavy excess unnatural fat. Be real with yourself – if you can’t split the dish in half and ONLY eat one half of it? Make some changes. Go for the red pasta sauce, or no sauce at all – skip the pasta altogether and find something else. Skip the chicken fingers or fried egg rolls, and opt for something lighter.

Drop the dressings and sauces. I know this ties into the previous point, but in a lot of cases, the additional dressings and sauces are just as many – if not more – calories as the dish itself withOUT the sauce. In many places, you can ask them to drop the sauce or the cream. I’m good for ordering a pasta with no alfredo (and I LOVE alfredo) and just getting noodles, chicken, a little butter, and lots of spices. Hey, it works for me. You might not need to be that drastic – you could opt for the tomato sauce, instead – but don’t feel bad or weird if you do.

Don’t dine alone. Go with friends, chat, enjoy yourself. Tying in with an above point, this gives your body time to process that food is being put inside of it, and if you let go of the “I must clean my plate” philosophy while really listening to your body, you’ll be surprised by how little you’ll actually eat.

If this seems logical-yet-way-too-restrictive for you, be sure to see point #1 again.

All jokes aside, you’ve got to be vigilant about being a healthy eater. So it means yes, you’ll need to be conscious of when your hand reaches for something you have no business eating. You’ll need to spend a little longer thinking about what you’ll eat. You’ll need to take some time  And considering how much assistance you’ll need from your waiter, be sure to tip them nicely for helping you make it through the night without gorging yourself. If you’re careful to avoid ordering the rough stuff on the menu, you might notice the healthier dishes are among the least expensive (no outrageous ingredients to justify the cost), so you should have enough money left over to drop something nice for the waiter.

How To Dine With Nutrition In Mind is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. Pole Dance For Jesus? Don’t Mind If I Do!
2. Can We Really Trust Nutrition Labels?
3. Comprehending Calories: How To Properly Read A Nutrition Label

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: restaurants, saving money, social eating

I won’t lie – to the novice health nut or someone flirting with the idea of being a more health-conscious shopper, the odds are stacked against you. Why? Look at it like this. A bagel with cream cheese (which, according to my nutrition tracker, weighs in at 647mg of sodium; 57g of carbohydrates; 12g of fat, 7g of that saturated; and a lovely 390 calories) can, nowadays, cost considerably less than a single grapefruit (which – again – according to my tracker, has zero grams of fat, zero grams of sodium, 2 grams of protein, 12 grams of fiber, and 32 grams of carbohydrates). To the person trying to save money – and trust me, that makes a world of sense in this economy – it simply makes sense to buy as inexpensively as possible without sacrificing too much in the way of quality (especially on the things that are important to us – Philly cream cheese vs generic is a BIG one for me, lol.)

Now, let’s talk about why this is the way it is. A bagel runs cheaper than a grapefruit because, quite frankly, a bagel can be made anywhere. It doesn’t need to come from a certain climate in particular. It doesn’t need the same level of effort to create. I know some may be saying “Duh!” but do we all really make the connection of why it seems we may have priced ourselves out of eating healthier? I know that I, personally, didn’t realize that I had effectively priced myself out of eating healthier simply because the cost made me uncomfortable.

How do we fight that feeling? Here’s what I do. The next time you go grocery shopping, look at your cart. Is there anything there that you like, but is unnecessary for you to buy THAT brand in particular? Let me tell you a secret. Generic foods/store-brand foods are often just as good as some of the better name brands sold on the same shelf. They’re less expensive because the grocery store wants to make sure that you can still get what you want even though you’re not paying as much as you might for the name brand. This way, they can ensure that you’re not pricing yourself out of owning the product entirely, and they can still squeeze a couple extra dollars out of you.

Now, let’s talk about generic and store brand foods. Most store-brands, regardless of the store, are made at the same production plant and then shipped to the production plants for these stores for labeling. Guess what else – did you know that MANY national name-brand manufacturers also produce those same store brand products? Which means… yes – Reynolds’ Wrap might’ve made that store brand aluminum foil. Yes, Mott’s might’ve made that store-brand applesauce. Don’t believe me? Ask MainStreet:

Many of the national brands actually produce store brand products, so besides the packaging, you may not even notice a difference between generics and their brand name counterparts.  For example, Alcoa, the maker of Reynolds Wrap Aluminum foil, produces store brand foil. McCormick produces herbs and spices without its signature label, and Birds Eye, known for its frozen vegetables, produces a number of frozen and canned vegetable products, according to Consumer Reports.

One major reason for the deep discount on store brands is they “don’t carry heavy product development, advertising and promotion costs,” says Tod Marks, a Consumer Reports researcher who blogs by the name “Tightwad Tod” on ConsumerReports.org.

Having said all that, yes. It is more expensive to infuse your shopping cart with healthier alternatives like fresh produce and minimizing the processed foods. However, now knowing that you can save up to $2 an item in some cases by buying store-brand, you can easily accommodate the cost. It’s up to you to do your own taste testing to see if there’s a difference that you simply cannot live with, but for the most part a lot of these things can be accommodated. I buy certain store-brand cereals (because again, not everything can be replaced!), ketchups and mustards, and the like. The money I save (almost $2 per box of cereal) goes toward my ability to buy fresh ingredients. Score one for my wallet, my pantry, and my body.

I know, I know. It’s hard to swallow – giving up our beloved brands for… store brands. Generic. Some of us are cringing right now. Look at it this way – we can’t swap out everything (a friend just notified me that there’s no way in the WORLD he could purchase anything other than ONE brand of apple juice in particular), but we can certainly take it one step at a time. Remember, we shoot for progress over here!

Priced Out: Too Expensive to Buy Healthy? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Why Healthy Food Is So Expensive: The Price vs The Cost
2. Is Healthy Produce Really More Expensive?
3. 101 Revolutionary Ways To Be Healthy

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: grocery shopping, saving money