I wanted to write a quick little piece on the fact that it is pretty easy to get fat these days. There are so many influencing factors to help you gain weight these days it can get pretty frustrating.
The thing that sparked this trail of thought this week was that I was driving and I seen one of those huge billboards where one of the leading supermarkets was advertising some microwave meals for JUST £1.
Immediately I just found it a little bit frustrating for a number of reasons…
Firstly, just think of the QUALITY of the food that’s in there, it has to be made, packaged, stuff added to preserve shelf life, packaged, delivered AND be sold to make a profit. So, were probably taking 40-70p to make this thing, then sold to people to make a profit…all on £1!!!
Now, tell me that you already know that the quality of this food is absolute frickin’ horrible, right? I mean, stuff you microwave is asking for trouble anyway, but even if you put them in the oven (which probably less than 1% of people actually do) they are still have poor nutritional value. You would be better off eating the packaging it came in!
The second thing is that sure, many people will actually know that they are not good for you, some may even know the real truth and know HOW bad they actually are, but a lot of people may not have a choice because they just need to be buying it because its cheap.
I used to be the same! Back when I was in Uni I used to be a student meal freak…while studying my Sports Science Degree…not too good right? But, that was back in the day…I don’t do it any more!
You wouldn’t put chip pan oil in your car to run it would you? In fact, if anything goes wrong with your car most people would panic and want it fixing straight away…nothing but the best for your car! So why is your body any different?
Sure, I know it comes back to cost again, and most people think its expensive to eat healthy, but think about it for a second…your putting a price on your health. CRAZY!
Anyway, you can be surprised on how cheap it can actually be to eat healthy if your smart about it.
Now, that’s just one thing that makes it easy to gain lots of fat, cheap ready made, easy to ‘cook’ food.
Thing about some of the other obvious things like:
- The amount of added junk to foods, things like sugar, preservatives, things you cant even pronounce
- The fact that many foods which are promoted as being ‘healthy’ are actually not too good for you…things like cereal, milk, wheat etc.
- The lack of physical activity because of sedentary jobs being sat down all day
- The lifestyle that does not match our bodies, we get physically or mentally stressed, release cortisol to deal with the stress, which ultimately makes you store more fat around your belly
- Big companies are telling us their products are good for us when actually they are really bad! (It is beyond me how they are able to get away with it)
- Same thing goes for the training side too, things like those REDICULOUS ‘tone up’ shoes
- The lack of education about health and fat loss within the general public. That’s not anybody’s fault as an individual, but more the message that people get from the media etc. Most people want to lose weight, so they just reduce calories and then go jogging/Zumba. That’s probably the best way to either stay the same or put on more weight!
That’s pretty much it from me for now. I’m going to stop before I go on a serious rampage!
But, I hope it has opened your eyes a little, start making those small changes if you have not done so already.
I know its coming up to Christmas but do you really want to be gaining a huge amount of fat for the next 5 weeks and then just think its ok because come New Year you can set yourself that resolution of losing weight, just like most other people…and then not actually getting anywhere with it?
Or do you want to burn fat, prepare your body so you don’t pile it on over the holidays, have some treats over Christmas without gaining lots of fat and then having to worry about it so much?
I know which one I would do!
Keep it awesome!
Ben
