The Journey: More Eat This, Not That

I mentioned in my last post I'm a big fan of the Eat This, Not That people. So I thought I'd share some more stuff from them.

Every one talks about how healthy green tea is, but not if there's a bunch of sugar in it. The SoBe Green Tea pictured below, for example, packs as much sugar as in 4 slices of Sarah Lee Cherry Pie. (article link)

 Are you running late, so you're just going to have a muffin for breakfast? If you grab a Otis Spunkmeyer Banana Nut Muffin you are looking at 460 calories and 32 grams of sugar. That's the same sugar as a 3 1/2  Rice Krispies Treats. You are better off grabbing a Vitalicious Apple Berry Muffin which will only be 100 calories. (article link)

Are you looking for something easy for dinner, so you grab a Marie Callender's Creamy Parmesan Chicken Pot Pie to throw in the oven? You are looking at 1,060 calories, over half of what you should get in a day. Plus you get sodium equivalent of 8 small bags of potato chips and the fat equivalent of 23 strips of bacon. Instead you can grab a Marie Callender's Oven Baked Chicken and only consume 360 calories. (article link)

Are you thirsty and looking for something healthy? Snapple Agave Melon Antioxidant Water sounds like it's a good choice. Except that it has 33 g sugars which is like eating 3 bowls of Honey Comb cereal. Your better choice is Dasani Plus Orange Tangerine Vitamin Enhanced Water. (article link)

Salads are healthy, right? Maybe some spinach, a little chicken? IHOP's Chicken and Spinach Salad contains a staggering 1,600 calories!! You could snarf down six pancake short stacks and still take in less fat. (article link)

Okay... One final comparison. Headed out to Chili's with your friends? You want something with some spicy so you order the Big Mouth Bites with Jalapeño Ranch. Those four little sliders will deliver 1,540 calories. And that's without the french fries. That's more calories than two Burger King Whoppers.

Bottom line: before you consume, take a look at the details behind what you are eating.

The Journey: Eat This...

I've become a big fan of the Eat This, Not That people. I haven't read any of their books, but I follow them on Twitter and have read quite a few of their articles from there.

I like that they go beyond the obvious in their analysis. Any idiot knows that having green tea is more healthy for you than a soda. But they go much deeper into it...

For example... Let's say you've got a hankerin' for a bowl of cereal. You look in the cupboard... You've got a box of Frosty Sugar Sweetness, a box of Cheerios, or a box of Quaker Natural Low Fat Granola with Raisins. Which one is better for you? Obvious the sugary stuff isn't. And Cheerios doesn't sound nearly as healthy as the Quaker stuff. I mean it's got raisins. And it's low fat. And it's got granola. It's like it was designed by Richard Simmons!! Surely the Quaker cereal is the way to go!

WRONG!! The healthy soundimg Quaker Natural Low Fat Granola with Raisins has 315 calories in one cup. For comparison, a Snickers candy bar only has 275 calories. Yeah, you'd be better off enjoying the candy bar for breakfast.

Oh, and the Cheerios... Only 100 calories for one cup. For reference, here's the link to the article...

And speaking of granola bars... Have you ever thought about what holds them together? That's right, it's sugar. How is that healthy? Okay... what about dried fruit? I mean, it's fruit. How can you go wrong with fruit?!? Well, often times the makers add a bunch of sugar to it in the process. And bran muffins? Made with sugar & refined flour and can have over 400 calories. Lot's of things that we have been told are "healthy" aren't necessarily so. You can read more here...

I've probably depressed you by now, so I'll end it here. But in future posts I'll highlight more fun stuff from the great folks at Eat This, Not That.

The Journey: An Update

It's been over a month since my last post... And almost two months since the I've been to the gym or stepped on a scale. I'm still not drinking soda, and I'm still being somewhat careful about what I eat.

Well, I did go to the gym on Friday. I was only there for about 40 minutes, and did that time on the elliptical machine. I've got a spot in my neck where a nerve gets pinched and it was killing me, so it was a short work out.

And I'm headed to the gym after I finish typing this post for a couple of hours. I've still got at least 120 pounds to lose. I don't watch what eat closely enough to do it just through diet. So I've got to exercise.  Before going to Hawaii back in late April I was going about 5 days a week. In July I went three days a week for 3 weeks.

Work has been busy and I've been working some overtime. But it's not so much overtime that I don't have time for a good work out.

I'm not at a point where I'm ready to declare The Journey a failure. It's only a failure when I give up. And I haven't given up. Not yet...  I've got some ideas for some good posts in the future, so now I just need to get consistent again on blogging.

The Journey takes quite a bit of focus and the past couple of months my focus has been on other issues. But now that those have cleared up, it's time to get back on track.

The Journey: Gym People, Part 2

As I mentioned in part 1, to keep my mind off the misery of working out, I spend my time at the gym observing those around me. I've begun to label & categorize some of them...

Smelly Guy: I don't say this to be cruel... But dude, you stink. How can you not smell that? It's like a skunk ate a bunch of garlic and then set itself on fire. And then hopped on the treadmill. I'm struggling to catch my breath, and I haven't even started working out yet.

The Fashion Diva: They're not just here to work out... They are here to look good. From their shoes to their head band, they are color coordinated & shiny. And it's not just limited to the ladies... There are some guys there that are sportin' the look too.

Rebels Without A Clue: This is the three teenagers running around. And for some reason, it's always three of them. Not two, not four. They'll spend a few moments in the weight lifting area trying to see who can lift the most. And then they spend the rest of the time running around acting like idiots. There's an upside though. The dumber they act, the less likely they are to ever get the chance to breed & reproduce. So it works out.

The Mixologst: I'm not sure what these people are all about. They've got 55 gallon drums of a powder mix in their gym back and they spend a lot time mixing up these protein drinks. They say their goal is to get bigger. Shoot, I think a few Big Macs would do the job faster...

People Like Me: We range from chubby to really chubby. We are just there to erase the guilt of the donut binge from the night before. And we hope all of the work will show some results. After all, we are having to put up with these Gym People all around us.

The Journey: Retrain Your Brain

I read this great article the other day on retraining yourself on how you look at food and eating. You can (and should) read it here.

The article says that are brains are hard wired to eat fatty foods... "To avoid dying in a famine, the brain is wired to pick up on signs that calorie-rich foods are nearby, which helps explain why that piece of cake on the plate in front of you is so irresistible, or why seeing a sign for a doughnut shop draws you in even when you know you need to watch your diet."

 But more than that, it also says "that while we're born with certain cravings, there's also evidence we start to crave whatever we eat in large quantities."

So in the sort term, dropping the junk food in favor of healthy fare is hard, but in a short amount of time we can retrain the brain to crave the healthy food. And that's important to remember when you fighting the craving for a bag of M&M's. Those feelings will soon subside. You won't have to live in denial forever.

The article goes onto to suggest some tricks to help the process along, which include cleaning the junk food out of the house so it's not as accessible and keeping plenty of healthy snacks on hand.

Financial Peace University in Wasilla

I've locked in the details for my next Financial Peace University.

This time around the class will be held at the Working Place in the Meta-Rose Square on Yenlo Street, near Carrs in Wasilla. The free preview is on August 23rd at 6:30 pm.

The classes will be on Tuesday nights from 6:30 to 8:30, starting August 30th and going 13 weeks to November 22nd.

The cost of the Membership Kit is $100. Kits may be purchased from me. If you purchase from www.DaveRamsey.com, the cost is generally higher.

Class size is going to be limited, so if you are interested, go to www.DaveRamsey.com/FPU to register.

This class will teach you everything you need to know about dumping debt, building wealth, and changing your family tree. More than one million families have attended FPU with amazing results.

We also invite you to join us on facebook.

The Journey: Best Idea EVER

My little brother is a GENUIS! He recently posted this idea on Facebook:

Someone should open a donut shop named The Gym. That way I could post everyday on FB "at The Gym" and feel good about myself.

They could name their maple bars "cardio" - then I could say "at The Gym for some cardio". or "I hit The Gym hard today and am really feeling it in my abs."

Of course, this is coming from the guy who when in Bible College named his bed “prayer”. That way when he was tired in class he could say that he was tired because he spent all night in prayer.