I love Dr. Pepper. Seriously. It might be hard to tell you in words how excited I get when I pull into a Chick-Fil-A drive-thru and order a large Dr. Pepper with light ice and how delicious that first gulp is. I love Chick-Fil-A Dr. Pepper the most because CFA's styrofoam cups retain the carbonation the best. I love the way it burns and tingles in my mouth and throat as it goes down and the taste is incomparable. I know you may think I am being dramatic, and I may be--just a little. But seriously, I love Dr. Pepper.
I've never been a huge fan of McDonald's or Burger King. The meat, while good, just had too much of a questionable texture and taste. So these two fast-food chains have never been big traps for me. But I love Chick-Fil-A. I worked there for 3 years and ate their food almost every day. It's the best. Its all I can do to say no when its available.
So, now you know my downfalls. When it comes to food and nutrition, I want to be healthy. I like eating healthy food, I like to go to farmers markets and natural/organic restaurants. Its generally not incredibly hard for me to make good eating choices, but these two things are my vices and they ruin almost every attempt I make to be healthy.
I am just going to get over myself and share something with you. When I came to Liberty University over 4 years ago, I weighed about 135 lbs. Now, almost a year after I graduated, I weigh 170 lbs. at 5' 6". That is too much and there is no excuse. Obesity related illnesses are one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. We are the fattest nation in the world. Thankfully, while my metabolism isn't the best, it also isn't the worst, and the number of calories I intake haven't resulted in a massive obesity problem. But that still doesn't mean I'm healthy. And I'm still overweight.
While I have a lot of health-conscious people in my life, and I myself care a good deal about being healthy, I am really starting to gain so much motivation. I have been reading lots of articles and blogs lately about how to achieve my goals, cutting out healthy recipes and exercise tips in magazines and keeping a little "stickie" on my Macbook desktop with important health/nutrition points for me to remember. (For some really great guidance on being healthy, check out a friend of mine's site: www.puregoodness.com). Then, tonight, Luke and I rented Food Inc. and I have just been watching the movie Super Size Me that came out back in 2004. These movies have really heightened my sense of awareness about just how awful so many things that we put into our bodies are.
I think the biggest thing for me to overcome are the positive thoughts and memories that come with so many foods that are so bad for us. I mean, just the other day Luke and I were walking out of Food Lion and there was a display of General Mills cereals by the door, 2/$3. I pointed to the Lucky Charms and said "Oh, I love Lucky Charms! It was always my favorite cereal. Look, its on sale...should I get some?" Thankfully, I opted out. In reality, I don't even really love Lucky Charms. I actually prefer in taste my delicious Cascadian Farms organic Cinnamon Raisin Granola cereal, which is much healthier, but looking at the box of Lucky Charms and the idea of eating it makes me feel like a kid again. The idea of getting to stop at a fast food restaurant is an exciting prospect. Stocking up on all the treats (that my mom rarely bought) in the snack food isle at the grocery store is so much fun. There's something about walking through the grocery store, now as an adult, and putting whatever I want in the cart. I could never do that as a kid. Its like a sense of entitlement and something I don't want to give up. I wish I could put into words all the feelings that all these foods and drinks evoke. The feelings that companies spend all those advertising dollars to achieve. It all worked.
Now, it's my task, to care more about feeling good than having "good feelings". I want to put things in my body that increase energy levels, provide me the proper nutrients and vitamins that I need and don't cause health problems down the road--maybe even sooner than later. I even want to make sure that the things I am buying more than just look healthy (like a tomato in the produce section that may have been shipped while still green from halfway around the world and ripened with chemical gasses) but that they actually are healthy. I want to buy fruits and vegetables that are grown locally without pesticides. I want to purchase free-range chickens and grass-fed beef. I want to support farmers that produce foods in healthy ways. Most importantly, I want to do all this before its too late and I want to create healthy habits that I can pass on to my own kids one day so that they can be healthy too.
