Fairly Realistic

I’ve heard the saying, “you are what you eat,” since I was a little kid growing up in Pennsylvania. We may be a bunch of farmers [PA] but we still catch on to snappy phrases such as that. All throughout elementary school, middle school, and high school, we were taught not to eat fatty or sugary foods. Whether or not we listened was another thing– why is that I wonder? Well, it probably has something to do with the kind of crap that they serve in school cafeterias. I can speak for Erie, PA and say that the food that they offered us was greasy and disgusting… but what was our choice?

I frequently packed a lunch but unfortunately the options my Mom provided were not exactly healthy. Growing up with my Mom was never a luxurious lifestyle. We got by just fine and were never in need per say but we did not have the best things to eat. I love my Mom very much. She did a great job with three crazy kids.

Why is it that the cheapest foods to eat are usually the worst for your body? Well, there is a plethora or reasons why the worst food is so inexpensive. Where do you think the beef you’re eating at fast food restaurants comes from? Check out Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. The book is an insightful look into the fast food industry and what the heck is going on. Schlosser has really done his research and elaborates through documented facts and interviews what the fast food industry is doing to our nation.

Did you know that Kraft “cheese” does not need to be refrigerated? I walk through Wegman’s all the time and see mountains of this so-called cheese not in the refrigerated section of the store. Gross.

When I got to college, my diet did not improve at all. RIT (and a lot of other colleges) provides for freshmen an all-you-can-eat buffet every every day of the week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This isn’t to say you need to eat there so often but when I started school the minimum (due to food credits) was fourteen times per week. Luckily, I was working near full time and frequently missed meals and the college let me have a debit only meal plan. Imagine having whatever you wanted every night of the week in unlimited quantities. Yuck. It’s a dream at first and that is where the “freshmen fifteen” come from. Then it’s about the third quarter (second semester) and you realize what the heck you’re doing to your poor body.

It wasn’t until my third year of college that I began to “eat right.” I began eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, and other good things. All of a sudden the amount of money I needed to eat each week nearly doubled. I gave up high fat and sugary foods and anything with lots of preservatives. By eating better and working out occasionally, I lost about fifty pounds. My max weight was 226 and now I hover between 173 and 178.