Why is losing weight so hard? It seems simple enough, right? Eat less and move more. Yet for many of us, it’s just not that simple. When it comes to losing weight, there are many roadblocks affecting our success. Maybe becoming aware of those blocks may help us exert a more conscious effort to overcome them. Let’s look at a common barrier to weight loss. America’s Infamous Fast Food.
Fast Food
Fast Food — it’s quick and easy, yet we all know just how calorie-heavy most fast food selections are. When a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, small fries and small Coke yields a hefty 869 calories and little nutritional support, is it any wonder we are gradually becoming sicker and thicker each year? Besides that, the human body is smart. Don’t give it what it needs and it will continually hound us to feed it.
Our brains, trained to reach for convenience foods, will interpret that nagging to mean, “A Frosty! Yes, that’s what I need!” When the Frosty didn’t satisfy the need for nutrition, our minds may think, “No, it must be a Chalupa!” You get the point. But you see, the body can never get satisfied by empty calories, so it will go on craving for years and years. If we don’t give it what it needs, the body will speak to us in another language, this time with symptoms of disease. Symptoms are merely the body’s way of getting our attention and alerting us that changes need to be made.
Our Basic Design
Have we considered that the more fake foods we put in our bodies, the more we are working against our basic design? You can’t put pancake syrup in your gas tank and expect good results, right? The vehicle will cough and sputter and simply break down. It’s against its design, for it was made to run on gasoline. Fast food consumption is a habit much like smoking. We know it’s detrimental to our health, yet we may feel stuck in an orbit of our own poor choices. Ask the Supersize Me documentary star, Morgan Spurlock, who restricted himself to a McDonald’s diet for an entire 30 days. As wise and knowledgeable as this man was, he found himself craving the very foods that caused him to vomit them out minutes later. Be aware, these foods are chemically designed to be addictive.
So what about committing to a FAST FOOD FAST for a month just to see how you feel? Get a little rebellious and boycott those places that offer you chemicalized, fat-creating, disease-producing, wallet-robbing and nutritionally-empty garbage. Who knows, you just might like finding your lunch ideas on Pinterest after all. Check out this edition’s healthy spin on Chinese take-out.
EGG ROLL IN A BOWL
Serves 6 to 8
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 – 16-ounce bag coleslaw mix (shredded carrots and cabbage)
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon ginger, minced
- ⅓ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- Green onions, for garnish
DIRECTIONS
- In a small bowl, combine the garlic, ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, brown the pork over medium-high heat.
- Add the shredded cabbage and carrots, and stir to combine.
- Add the sauce mixture to the meat and veggies. Stir and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes, until the cabbage has just begun to wilt but is still crunchy.
- Serve over rice, garnished with green onions if desired.
Simple, delicious, and a little more guilt-free! What do you think of this “Egg Roll In A Bowl”? Are there any other ways you can think of to make egg rolls a little healthier?