Day 3: Health Tip - ReThink Moderation

Hello dear readers!

It is Thursday.  Woofta - we almost made it to the end of the week.  So put on a smile.

That's better.  Here is your health tip for day 3... enjoy!

Mod·er·a·tion:The avoidance of excess or extremes.

A big problem in our society today is the concept of moderation.  Since 1980 our obesity rate has tripled.  TRIPLED!  If this trend continues, by the year 2040 over 75% of the United States will be overweight or obese.  That has huge implications as a society.  Why has it tripled?  There are many, many reasons.  One of them is that our view of moderation has changed.

Thirty years ago, moderation would be considered having an ice cream cone maybe once a month, roughly.  Today, our idea of moderation is having a bowl of ice cream once a week.  We have this attitude that "we deserve it."  After a long day at work, we deserve that bowl of ice cream.  After a tough week, we deserve to order pizza (and eat 3/4 of it, plus breadsticks, and two glasses of soda).  After a long day of studying, we deserve to go out and eat appetizers at 10pm at night.

Don't you deserve to treat your body right?  

In my "home town" of Willmar, the popular thing to do was grab 1/2 price apps at Applebee's at 9pm.  It was really the only thing to do (no offense Willmar).  Most of us ordered wings...you know, juicy, boneless buffalo wings.  With ranch, or blue cheese.  Yum, right?  Did you know that just A SINGLE order of wings with sauce is roughly 1,200 calories and approximately 50 grams of fat??  

I-N-S-A-N-E.  And its bad enough we're eating them, let alone at 9pm at night.    

And we view eating Applebee's appetizers (or insert any restaurant) once a week as moderation.  This is not moderation.  

I'm not saying don't go out with your friends, or don't ever eat ice cream...no no no.  Just rethink how often you eat certain foods.  

A handful of M&M's...or what we consider a handful of M&M's... is 300 calories.  That will take you thirty minutes of running (at a steady pace...) to "burn" it off.  

Eat two handfuls of M&M's a week?  600 calories.  Consume this for a year, gain approximately 15lbs.  

Same with a glass of juice.  Keeping your exercise routine the same, your eating habits the same, just adding ONE glass of apple juice once a week?  Yep, 10 lbs.   

ReThink Moderation.  

Stay tuned.  Enjoy your Friday!