Check the Label

So Hubby is in school right now getting his B.S. in Physical Education and Health.  As part of his practicum hours, he has to teach a high school class.  The lead teacher wanted him to do a lesson on reading food labels.

Hubby is not the world's healthiest eater.  He loves red meat and starches in a box.  One of the first changes I made to my diet was to start looking at the protein and fiber in my foods.  Making sure I get enough of those nutrients is as important and keeping the fat and calories down.

Hubby seldom reads labels himself, so going through and creating the lesson plan has been eye-opening.  I've been telling him for months how there's "no food in your food," but he has just blown me off.  But I swear after this exercise, I can see the wheels turning in his head.

So the first part of his lesson will be taking about the different nutrients and the recommended quanties of each.  Then he has them look at sample food labels and fill out a questionaire about the different foods and their components.

The last part was my idea.  I pulled the following items from our pantry (sorry for the crummy pic):  

 From left to right we have ramen noodles, red lentils, brown rice, Kraft Macaroni dinner, red quinoa, and rice a roni noodles.  The lesson calls for spliting the students into six groups.   Then, as a group they would need to determine whether or not they thought the above was a quality food or not and why. 

I was big on the use of the word "quality" vs. "bad."  I mean, I like some Kraft dinner.  But I know it's not a quality food, so I don't eat as much or as often anymore.  I think we should think about food in its varying levels of quality, rather than "good" or "bad".  "Bad" implies that you should never eat something, but good, REAL nutrition seems to be about making quality choices overall so that you can have some less quality indulges. 

For me, sometimes nothing but a real Dr. Pepper will do.  And you know what?  I indulge because that's what it is.  An indulgence.  Not part of my regular diet.

My True (Food) Love and A Goal

I think that salmon is probably my most favorite food.  I like it served every way - raw, grilled, baked, smoked, or fried.  I like it fresh, frozen, or from a can.  Hubby can almost always "guess" what I'll be ordering when we go out to eat. 

Tonight, it was simply baked with nothing on it but a little sea salt.  Quinoa on the side and some steamed broccoli.  Yum.  And super clean.

When I decided to clean up my diet, I knew that I could do it because I like healthy foods.  Tonight's dinner is really very tasty to me.  But I think some people have really narrow palates and only like the pre-packaged or fast foods they grew up eating.*

We grew up eating a fair amount of processed food, but a lot of whole foods too.  My mom did cook dinner just about every night (or we had leftovers), but we rarely ate pre-packaged (think Stou!ffer's Lasagna).  We did eat out a fair bit, but the fast food was pretty limited.

So I realize that changing your taste buds can be really hard for some people.  But my challenge is in the preparation/planning/TIME issue.  I'm trying to cook meals to bring to work or cook something healthy when I get home, which is so hard.  Hubby almost always cooks since he gets home earlier and he doesn't cook how I'd like him to.  I don't feel like I can dictate what he makes if he's the one doing the actual work.  So I've been making myself separate meals which is really annoying. I gotta find a solution to that. 
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No workout today since I forgot my bag, but my goal is to walk in the morning and do weight training in the afternoon at the office.  Healthy Ashley had a great bunch of posts about dealing with shin splints, so that's been really encouraging because...

I'm going to run a half-marathon.

Which may sound kind of odd considering that I'm not running at all right now.  But actually, I think this is a great plan.  I don't plan on running it until March or May, so I've got forever to train.  Knowing that, I can make a very long term plan, building my runs by only 10%.  That will work, right?
*Hubby is like this.  He would probably choose to have potatoes au gratin from the box rather than the real thing.  You can imagine how frustrating that is for me.  Oh, and he HATES salmon.  Urgh.

Weekend recap

Pretty good weekend.  Very low key, but that's how I like 'em.  I did weight training on Friday, ran IN THE RAIN on Saturday, and we went for a hike with the kids on Sunday.  "Hike" is a little bit of an exaggeration, but we did go to the Red Mountain State Park.  That's a good hike for kids who are 2 and 3 1/2.  Besides, yesterday was gorgeous and we were just trying to get outside. 

But yes, I did run in the rain on Saturday.  It's so hard to find time to squeeze in a run with the kids.  I had gotten them bathed and the set up in our room for pre-bedtime Dora.  I changed clothes and grabbed my ipod, but I got ten feet down the road and it started sprinkling.  I came back in and though that I'd just skip it, but hey, a little rain never hurt anyone.  So I left the ipod behind.  It was actually kind of fun.  I haven't been out in the rain on purpose like that since I was a little kid.  I only did two miles, but it was really enjoyable.

The shin splints are still lurking though.  I'm not hurting, but I can feel them, which is why I haven't increased my mileage even though I could probably run double what I'm doing now.  I probably need to quit for a while and then come back with a reduced mileage, but geez, I'm only at two miles 2x week.  Maybe if I'm super vigilant about stretching, warming up, and iceing afterwards, I can avoid having to quit completely.  Besides, this time of year is the BEST for running - probably the only time of year we have down here in the Deep South without 1000% humidity. 

Nutrition this week was so-so.  The Hubby is really not very helpful on this front.  He wants to eat out all weekend or at least cook yummy stuff that's not really friendly to me.  I think I'm going to need to cook/plan ahead better on the weekend.  That and a little heart to heart about what he can do and how if I choose not to eat the food he makes, it's not a reflection on him.  Sigh.