It’s interesting to see the relationship between eating “junk” food and activity.  The reason I bring this up is that I have been on vacation for 6 days now, and have been staying in a rented house with lots of tasty, but poor quality food choices.   Fat, sugar, white bread flour and salt all taste very good in different combinations.  The more you eat these types of food the more you want them; almost NEED them.  And when activity levels are curtailed due to very poor weather conditions; you are stuck in the house.  Sitting around, on the computer, watching TV, doing extremely sedentary activities. 

Being someone that is always on the go, always active, always “living” vs. “watching other people live” (ie. watching TV shows 6 hours a day); I find long periods of home arrest to be very difficult to handle for more than one reason.  Lack of exercise, or outdoor activities cause me to get anxious and I build up levels of stress quite fast.  This is due to the mostly daily exercise in which I am able to diffuse most of my stress with a great workout.  That becomes addictive unto itself.  So when I’m sitting around doing mostly nothing I find that a very common phenomena occurs.  Boredom eating.  I think everyone on the planet has experienced this phenomena before; some of us do it daily.  A provocative thought occurred to me while on this vacation.  Here goes...

Truth: The more activity I do, the more food I need to eat.  That’s a near absolute rule of energy balance on a long term basis.  When trapped inside for days at a time, I still seem to think I can eat the same amount; or my body keeps looking for the same amount.  In just a few days of eating the “junk” food I have exhibited a lack of “will power” so to speak.  I have joined in on the food frenzy and now find myself remorseful that I have.  I ask myself “What if these food choices were always available?”  “What if I didn’t choose to keep the foods out of my home on a regular basis?”

I have noted that the more “junk” food I have eaten the less energy I have had to work or play.  The blood sugar spikes that have been created by all this sugar intake have simulated less energy.  This feeling makes me less interested in working out. 

Ironic isn’t it?  The cleaner I eat and the more active I stay, the better I can maintain a high activity level.  Also, the more exercise I do regularly, the more interested I am in eating clean.  But in just a few days of inactivity and eating less clean than normal, it seems to have caused me to eat more and more junk food simply out of boredom. 

the inverse correlation that I have found here is that the more activity you do, the less likely you will be sitting around to eat junk food.  And the more junk food you eat, the less motivated you are to exercise or engage in a physically demanding activity. 

How do we break this crazy cycle?  In my professional opinion I believe that the first step is to remove the junk food from your home.  Plain and simple.  But then what’s left to eat?  There are no “easy” grab and go foods to be found, are there?  Not unless you are into eating a protein bar or shake (which is a staple food in my home).  Breaking this cycle requires you cook your own food to plan ahead for your meals.  If you simply remove the junk foods from your house, you may find very little in the cabinets and fridge!    Then what will you do?  You go out and eat the calorically dense and non-nutritious foods!  Argghh!  What’s the secret?

There is no quick way around the fact that you must cook your own food to be most successful in achieving a nutritiously sound lifestyle.  Period.  No quick gimmick diets, no cookies for life, no weeks worth of foods frozen in a box; nothing at all like that.  It requires planning, shopping, and preparation on your part to be successful!  It falls directly on you to take care of yourself and your food is the FIRST place to start.  Not the doctors office, not the pharmacy, and not even the gym.  The kitchen is where all the magic happens.  It’s where it happened for my wife and I.  I’m sure you are no different. 

Moving forward simply requires you act.  And act well by heading out there and shopping and cooking and you can start living better today!  Confused?  Just drop me a line and set up an appointment for a consultation.  Check out my SERVICES page for a description of my services plus my current rates.  Best of luck!

Karl