You are what you eat - and your body don't lie!

I was reading the February edition of Oxygen magazine this morning and two things really stuck out to me...

1) You are what you eat!

This is so true in so many ways! I used to LOVE McD's fries - I mean really love them! The hotter the better, and a little bit of salt - finger-clicking good! Oh wait, that's a different place lol, but I did lick my fingers... Yeah, you can "save up" some calories in your day to "enjoy" these little morsels, but really what are you getting from them? They're still bad for you - REALLY bad! So you can eat crappy food and stay within your calorie ranges, but not reap the other benefits of healthy food like better skin, shiny hair, more energy, etc. I say skip the "treat" - is it REALLY a treat if it's so bad for you?? - and eat something healthy, the results of which will not only be visible in weight loss, but in your general appearance, energy, mood, and well-being, too!

Some healthy alternatives they recommended:

Craving something sweet? Try dried apricots!

Craving something crunchy? Grab a handful of almonds!

Craving something salty? Have some shelled edamame with a little kosher salt sprinkled on top!

2) The body doesn't lie!

How many times do you hear your friends say that they are eating right, working out 2 hours a day, but still aren't losing weight? Well, barring some medical issue, there's something else happening there that they're not being honest about!

Did you log that cookie you ordered with your low fat latte in the morning on the way to work? Do you acknowledge you ate the WHOLE bag of fat free jelly beans while watching Titanic for the fifteen millionth time? Did you REALLY run 5 miles or was it more like 3?

Little things here and there are going to add up. I LOVE ice cream - more than I ever loved those McD fries by the way! I ate it twice last week - the little tub that has about 1100 calories in it because it's just plain impossible to only eat one serving. So that was an extra 2200 calories in one week - from something that took about 10 minutes to eat and gave me a belly ache. I did not enter it on my nutrition tracker - who wants to look at THAT?? - but I did acknowledge it in a thread. Now I know I should have put it on my tracker. If I end up gaining this week and go back and look at a tracker minus the evil treat, I'm going to wonder where the weight came from. I'm doing everything else right, so why isn't the weight coming off?? Well, because I ate that flippin' ice cream - that's why!!

You have to be honest with yourself, particularly if you're not seeing the results you want. You may be working out like a fiend, but treating yourself to an extra helping of creamy mashed potatoes "because you worked hard for it" is just going to counter the effects of all your sweat and effort working out!