Eating Habits

Eating is something we need to do, but it’s kind of a habit. We were raised to eat the way our parents eat and they eat the way their parents did. In my home that was meat and potatoes. In some families it might be pasta or rice and vegetables. But in this new generation of adults, fast food has really taken a hold. The meat and potatoes diet wasn’t very healthy, but it did provide nutrition. A diet in red meat and starchy foods has too much cholesterol from the meat and dairy and not enough vegetables. That was the 1950’s and 60’s and now we know that a diet like that can cause heart disease and clogged arteries.

I think the increased popularity of fast food started with the increase of students working in fast food jobs during the 80‘s. Fast food jobs were about the only jobs kids could get in the 80’s and early 90’s. We sent them to work because the country was going through hard economic times and kids needed more spending money. Besides that the divorce rate was climbing and single parent families were becoming common place. The large employers were cutting back and Dads or Moms were losing those higher paying jobs and having to replace those jobs with lower paying retail jobs. For the first time in American the Retail Industry became the nation’s largest employer.

So during that time families were cutting their budget which meant cutting the food budget. That was the beginning of another trend, eating out. And the eating out trend was fueled by cheap food. I remember hearing people talk about grocery prices and how It’s just cheaper to eat fast food out than buy groceries.

Kids working after school meant that more kids didn’t eat dinner at home. Those kids of the 80’s are the adults, the Moms and Dads of today that have the over weight problems and their raising the kids of today that have the same problem. I’m generalizing, so what I’m saying doesn’t apply to everyone, but you can’t walk through the Mall or the Supermarket without seeing lots of people with a serious weight problem. All of this has happened in the last twenty or thirty years.

We’ve been rewarding ourselves with food. “Let’s go out.” That’s a common phase I hear much too often. But anyone with an office job probably eats out more than not. And how many times are you late coming home from work so you pick up some take-out food instead of cooking. I understand you have to run errands but someone needs to be home early enough to start some dinner. If there are two adults in the family, at least one should be home at a decent time to make a meal. If you’ve planned for a dinner ahead of time, you can prepare it in 30 minutes, and there’s lots of books to show you how.

Dieting is not always about starving yourself. It’s about eating healthy. And learn to avoid foods that don’t fit into your diet. I lost 50 pounds and kept it off for 20 years and you don’t lose weight permanently until you decide to change your eating habits forever. I like the Mediterranean Diet, it’s not a fad diet you go on for a few weeks, It’s the diet of the Mediterranean people for the past few thousand centuries. The great thing about following the pyramid is that you don’t worry about counting calories, just stay with the foods they suggest and you’ll stay full and get plenty of nutrition. You can find information about the Mediterranean diet on the internet with very little problem. This is extremely popular now, many doctor recommend this type of diet. You can eat from all the food groups with little restrictions. You eat in moderation, but if you follow the chart, you’ll see lots of choices. The foods are fresh, red wine and water are the only beverages but I did drink black coffee and ice tea plain in moderation.

You won’t lose weight right away because there is a tendency to overeat at first. After I got use to the diet, my stomach began to shrink and I started to lose weight. Just don’t give up.



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