Driving is why you’re fat?
Ok, here’s a cute web page showing the fittest and fattest states based on how much driving people do vs. walking, biking, or taking public 
transit: http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1008/driving-and-obesity-3/transparency.jpg
It’s cute, but is it true?
Well, the text at the top starts off with “It’s a simple equation. Exercise more and lose weight.”
Hold on a minute! I realize that for most of our lives we’ve been told that it’s simply the calories you consume – the calories you burn that matters. And exercise is certainly an important and even vital part of a healthy lifestyle.
But these numbers are a bit misleading. Texas (where I am currently residing), for example, gets horrible marks all around and shows a fat guy and a low rank for fitness levels. And, people are definitely car-lovers here, and there is traffic in the cities. But is this why they are fat? It could be a factor, but given that diet is 80% or more of the fit-or-fat equation, I have my doubts.
For example, there’s a motto here- “everything is bigger in Texas”, and this applies to food above all else! Just the other day I was asked if I wanted a “Texas-sized iced tea”! So this extends to other foods and drinks, and typically the ones that are not so good for our waistlines. I can imagine people are more likely to get Texas-sized Cokes and Texas-sized pizzas too, shooting their insulin levels through the roof and storing these calories as fat.
The driving and not walking definitely does not help, and spending lots of time in one’s car is not part of a healthy lifestyle. But the emphasis on graphs like these is in the wrong place. Instead, let’s take a look at the diets of these Americans and show them how they can even stay slim with a long commute if necessary.
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The Anti-Wrinkle Diet
I just saw a headline on digg.com for this Anti-Wrinkle Diet.
Here’s the premise:
“When dermatologists checked the skin and diets of 453 people from Australia, Greece, and Sweden, they found that while a healthy diet can’t erase damage done by years of unprotected sunbathing or smoking, it can help.”
I tend to agree with that. An unhealthy high carb diet can certainly accelerate the aging process.
Here’s what the diet consists of:
“Have More of These
Olive oil
Fish
Low-fat milk
Water and tea
Fruit and vegetables
Eggs
Nuts and nut butters Beans”
Not too bad, except the milk and beans may cause some gut irritation.
“Have less of these:
Butter
Red meat
Cakes and pastries
Soft drinks
Full-fat milk
Margarine
Potatoes”
Ok, I agree that cakes, pastries, soft drinks, margarine, and potatoes are good to avoid.
But butter can be okay, red meat for the most part is healthy, and if you’re going to drink milk, full fat is actually better for you than low or non fat!
The rest of the recommendations seem completely reasonable:
“1. Put more fruits and vegetables on your plate.
2. Order salmon when you’re dining out.
3. Have a cup of sugar-free cocoa.
4. Cut back on white bread and sugar.”
Absolutely.
I think “wrinkle-free” is a bit of a gimmick, but they have some of the basics down to avoid wrinkles. Generally, stick with a low carb, no grain diet, and you will be putting yourself in the “anti-aging zone”, and avoiding many of the problems that your insulin-spiked high carb friends are either running into, or will at some point run into down the road.
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Not being attached to the outcome
When you are attempting to do something big in your life, whether it’s to start a new business, lose 75 pounds, or simply being a more positive person, it is so important to not be attached to the outcome.
I know I used to have a huge problem with being way to attached to outcomes. Not achieving my goal times in swimming would bring me down. Not earning “enough” money would lower my self esteem. Not having the life I wanted would stress me out!
It is a hard thing to do, but once you accept this idea of non-attachment, life flows a lot more smoothly.
Let’s say you are the person that wants to lose 75 pounds. You jump on this new low carb diet full force, and you lose 3 pounds the first week. The next week you lose 2 more. The following week you don’t lose any weight. “That’s it! I’m going back to pizza!” you proclaim out of frustration. This is exactly why diets don’t work, and why they are always attached to an often immediate outcome.
Instead, a good way to look at it is- I’m changing my lifestyle to health. I am going to eat as healthy as I can most of the time, and I’m not going to step on the scale daily. If I change my eating lifestyle to a healthy one, I know I am doing the best thing for myself that I can. The results will show eventually, and I will be growing as a person and not be filled with stress and anxiety over it.
Try it out with some smaller things. Give someone a compliment today and don’t even worry about their reaction. Do it because you want to brighten their day! Non-attachment is one of the keys to maintaining a relaxed, happy life, as opposed to basing everything you do on someone else’s standard.
Paleo Food List part 2
Ok, we’ve covered a list of foods that can be considered “paleo”, or along the lines of what paleolithic man ate.
Now, we can move on to a much longer list- what foods are NOT paleo? To list everything would be like writing a book, and much of it is pretty obvious anyway (is there any question whether paleolithic man had access to donuts or cheetos??).
And then there is the breakdown of packaged foods vs. their actual ingredients.
So I’ll stick with the most questionable and relevant foods. What’s not paleo? Here are a few examples. Feel free to chime in with a comment below on what you would add to the non-paleo list!
1. Bread
2. Pasta
3. Cereal
4. “Whole Grains” (or any grains)
5. Tortillas
6. Ketchup
7. High Fructose Corn Syrup (or any corn syrup)
8. Rice
9. Soy- including soy sauce and soy protein isolate)
10. Pop Tarts (they probably ate Toaster Strudels ;))
11. Pancakes
12. Protein shakes
Put down in the comments below what your favorite (or least favorite) non-paleo foods, and ask a question if you aren’t sure!
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Paleo Food List
Eating “paleo” seems to be getting really popular these days. The Paleo Diet is basically the idea of eating more like our primitive ancestors as much as possible, as opposed to eating the traditional western diet of today.
If you listen to our recent interview with Robb Wolf, you will see that there is a lot to the paleo way of eating, and what is now being called the “paleo lifestyle”!
What can get confusing is, what is paleo and what is not paleo? I thought it would be helpful to come up with a paleo food list. Feel free to comment and add anything else you might consider paleo!
1. Meat- (beef, chicken, pork, game)
2. Fish- wild caught salmon is one of the healthiest
3. Eggs
4. Vegetables- stick mostly with the greens.
5. Fruits
6. Dark Chocolate- go for the higher cacao percentages, eat in moderation
7. Guacamole
8. Coconut/coconut oil/coconut milk
9. Coffee
10. Tea
11. Nuts (except for PEAnuts!)
12. Seeds
The paleo foods list is easy to create.
The non-paleo foods list is a lot harder! I’m going to work on that one, but if you can comment below with additions to the above list and questions about other foods, it would help a lot!
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