300-pound kid

A few weeks from my 40th birthday, I’m in the best shape of my life.  But if you looked at me as a kid, you might of thought I was destined for obesity.  I grew up in that blissful time after food had become exceedingly processed and before the general public really understood that wasn’t a good thing.  My childhood diet consisted of the four main food groups:  Twinkies, HoHos, DingDongs, and SuzyQs – washed down with Coke or Strawberry soda.  I seriously had a couple friends that were friends with me, I now understand, solely because they could go to my house after school and pour a big bowl of Frosted Flakes with a side of mini-donuts.  Another friend would come by and melt a huge chunk of butter in a pan and then throw in a bunch of sliced bologna.  We’d eat it on white bread and it would drip butter down our chins as we devoured it with Spaghetti-O’s with sliced franks.  Yes, you are correct I ended up with a ton of cavities, BUT I was also able to right the ship before I did too much weight/health damage.  

Not wanting to be the health police, I’ve allowed my toddler twins access to a reasonable amount of cup cakes and ice cream (primarily at parties).   My daughter really enjoys it like most kids do.  My son won’t touch the stuff.  He has zero interest in cake, ice cream, even pizza.  He eats tofu, fruit, and vegetables.  We have tried, begged, to get him to eat other things whether they are healthy or not but he just won’t do it.  Since I grew up on crap and became extremely fit and healthy, my fear is he will grow up on raw tofu and end up weighing 300 pounds.  And if he does, or even if he just needs to drop an extra 10-15 pounds, Fantasy Healthball will be available to him to get him there.  Of course, I’ll be an old man at that time, but since I plan on being in some sort of old man Olympics, I might still be able to keep up with him.  At least I think so now, I better get back to my fruit bowl and have a chance to digest it before I hit the gym later……

– Jim Ballard

Eat More to Weigh Less, Part II

In our last post we made the case for breakfast.  Let’s sum up:  don’t skip it.  Okay, that said, what to have?  Let’s think about the Fantasy Healthball Food Formation as it relates to breakfast.  Breakfast is a great time for some whole grain cereal.  Gone are the days when you had a choice only between Cheerios or Corn Flakes or some crazy concoction of chemicals, preservatives, sugar, and air known as Super Duper Sugar Fun Puffs.  Now you can find whole grain cereals at most any store.  And they taste good too.  There are now enough to choose from so you can find which you like best. 

Our favorite cereal of the moment is Nature Path’s Optimum Power Breakfast, which is found nationwide.  It has 2.5 grams of fat, zero saturated or trans fat, 10 grams of fiber, 0 mg cholesterol, 40 grams of carbs, 8 grams of protein per serving, and it tastes great.  You gotta love the double digit fiber count, nice!  Put some raisins and strawberries on top to boost your fruit intake.  I’m currently going through a phase where I fill up half the bowl with Optimum Power, and then I add a couple tablespoons of wheat bran, a small handfull of organic blueberries, a couple strawberries, a half banana, some apricot and raisins.  What a power packed way to start the day.  I wash that down with some orange juice.  Yum. 

If cereal isn’t your thing, you can use breakfast to get your “meats” group by having eggs or your “milk” group by having yogurt.  Whole wheat toast with a light spread of organic peanut butter?  I always use Oroweat 100% Whole Wheat bread or their new Double Fiber bread which has 6 grams of fiber.   Sounds good to me! 

Low fat milk…..fruit…..fruit juice…..yogurt……oatmeal……all great choices.  Happy breakfast.  — Jim Ballard

Eat More to Weigh Less

You’ve heard the advice on breakfast.  It is not too complicated.  It goes like this:  don’t skip breakfast!  But for heaven’s sake, that doesn’t give you carte blanche to order the Hungry Man Mega-Breakfast at your local greasy spoon. 

Breakfast is an easy victory.  It gives you the energy you need to move into your day.  And it is often at your home so you have complete control over what happens – as opposed to choosing off a limited menu at a restaurant.  Do it right and you just set the tone for the rest of the day. 

Eating a healthy breakfast is like running the opening kick-off back 70 yards to your opponent’s 30-yard line.  A great start and everything is a little easier after that.

A Harvard Medical School study showed that people who eat breakfast everyday are a third less likely to become obese.  Eating first thing in the morning, may help stabilize blood sugar levels, which regulates appetite and energy. 

According to the director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, one common trait of people who are successful at managing their weight is eating breakfast seven-days-a-week.  He says, “Eating a meal first thing in the day seems to help people manage hunger better. The typical pattern of obese people is to skip breakfast, have a light lunch, and eat a lot from late afternoon on.”  Does that sound like you? 

You get up having slept as late as you can.  In fact, you hit snooze a couple times.  Now you are in a rush to drop the kids off, get to work, whatever. You skip breakfast.  Grab a mug of designer coffee on your way somewhere.  You refill it at work. 

You are then starving at lunch so you order that big thing with all the bacon on it and supersize some fries.  After you awake from your food coma, you need a snack in the afternoon and rummage around your desk.  Not finding anything you hit the vending machine and get a candy bar and a soda  (or let’s say you eat a light lunch, and then mid-afternoon comes and the fistfulls of junk start).  Dinner is your more formal meal so you eat until you are past full and then hit some late night snacks before going off to bed to repeat the next day. 

The trick in avoiding the above is to plan for it.  Give yourself some time for a nutritious breakfast.  What to have?  We’ll cover that in our next post.  If you can’t wait until then, we’ll now give you a super fast executive summary in four words:  fruit, whole grain cereal.  — Jim Ballard