I know why Americans are fat

[Moxie]

Because we're all so dang busy!!

 

The last two weeks have been crazy and our dinner every night has been a giant serving of carbs! Spaghetti cooks faster than frozen chicken, kwim? Ugh, my pants are so tight.

[Guest]

The busier I am the worse I eat, it's true. It's harder to be intentional about good nutrition when money and time are tight in equal measure!

[Amy in NH]

True story.

[AnnE-girl]

Yep. Especially kids' athletics that practice or have games right at dinner time. We ate so much convenience food during baseball and softball season (two kids, each two nights per week) and now soccer will be starting soon. I need to plan better.

[Liz CA]

The lack of home cooked meals is likely a factor. I have observed that there are less overweight people in societies that value and have the time for home cooked food.

The busier we are the more rushed and behind we feel and the more we reach for comfort foods like the cozy carbs.  ;)

[Pegasus]

Eggs cook as fast as pasta and most vegetables can be served raw. I think eating patterns are mostly habit and custom. It does take a concerted effort to change but once in a new groove, it doesn't actually take any more time.

[Guest]

Eggs cook as fast as pasta and most vegetables can be served raw. I think eating patterns are mostly habit and custom. It does take a concerted effort to change but once in a new groove, it doesn't actually take any more time.

Oh sure, it can definitely be done! I can maintain low carb whole foods when I'm busy too, but it takes a lot more work and planning. Crockpots are my friend, as are nutritious finger foods. It's easy to default to more processed and more junky because oftentimes those are quick.

 

But certainly there are other options, it can just be hard to think of them when you're exhausted and stressed.

[Guest]

Eggs cook as fast as pasta and most vegetables can be served raw. I think eating patterns are mostly habit and custom. It does take a concerted effort to change but once in a new groove, it doesn't actually take any more time.

But, all the planning in the world won't help you when dance auditions go two hours later than you thought they would, kwim?

[lovinmyboys]

Eggs cook as fast as pasta and most vegetables can be served raw. I think eating patterns are mostly habit and custom. It does take a concerted effort to change but once in a new groove, it doesn't actually take any more time.

But eggs and veggies are perishable so you have to have time to go to the store to get them. When we get busy, unfortunately we run out of eggs and veggies sometimes. I can stay stocked up on granola bars and frozen corn dogs and other things that don't go bad.

 

We try really hard to eat healthy, but I agree with the op that when we are extra busy it is much harder to eat healthy. Sometimes I think what we do is crazy. Sign kids up for sports so they stay active then feed them fast food on the way home because we have no time to cook.

[maize]

Lack of sleep also contributes significantly to weight gain.

 

I haven't figured out a workaround for that with babies in the household :(

[Pegasus]

I do understand what folks are saying and it DOES require focus and planning but I still argue no more time.  Even if you have to eat fast food, there are low carb options - ask for a low carb burger at Hardees or an unwich at Jimmy Johns and your sandwich comes wrapped in lettuce instead of bread.  Even McDonalds has a "no bun" option on their registers. Pair a protein with a small salad and a no-sugar drink.

 

[GailV]

Stress causes hormone changes that causes your body to use and store calories differently.  So does lack of sleep, as Maize pointed out.

 

So, not only are the home cooked meals better nutritionally (not full of weird chemicals that your body doesn't process well and that cause your body to store more fat, eg, corn-based sweeteners, msg), but they're probably a barometer of your stress level -- running around so wildly that you can't pause to eat properly.

 

Plus it all becomes a downward spiral -- crappy food breeds more bodily stress and disrupted sleep patterns, causing you to reach for more junky stuff to eat to try to stay awake.

[Pegasus]

But eggs and veggies are perishable so you have to have time to go to the store to get them. When we get busy, unfortunately we run out of eggs and veggies sometimes. I can stay stocked up on granola bars and frozen corn dogs and other things that don't go bad.

 

 

 

It takes a shift in thinking.  Why not stock up on nuts and frozen salmon patties instead of granola bars and frozen corn dogs?

 

[Kassia]

The bigger problem for me is being sedentary.  I spend so much time sitting and hate it!  I exercise a lot, but then the rest of the day I am stuck sitting.  It makes me crazy.  I don't like the feeling of sitting so much.  I just put my laptop up on a ledge and am standing and using it right now but I'm usually too lazy to do that.

[Guest]

Eggs cook as fast as pasta and most vegetables can be served raw. I think eating patterns are mostly habit and custom. It does take a concerted effort to change but once in a new groove, it doesn't actually take any more time.

I'm a defender of eggs (especially because I have my own chickens), but honestly? A lot of times when I have, say, cereal instead of eggs it's because I don't want to clean up from it. It doesn't take long to scramble two eggs and I do often opt for that, but seriously, it's the thought that I will have to clean more things up that often disuades me!

[creekland]

Interesting.  I've always blamed my weight gain when visiting family (either side) because our exercise tends to consist of walking from our game table to the dinner table and back.  If we're really exercising that day we walk to the car to the restaurant table, then back to the car and the game table.  Phew!  I get tired even thinking about it.   :lol:

 

At least at home we need to walk from the upstairs down to the kitchen, then back up if we want to use the bathroom.  Right there we have twice as much.   :tongue_smilie:

 

And when we travel without visiting family I tend to blame milkshakes and ice cream... and/or tasty specials at local restaurants.  Even walks on the beach (or wherever) have a tough time combating those tempting items.

[Pegasus]

I'm a defender of eggs (especially because I have my own chickens), but honestly? A lot of times when I have, say, cereal instead of eggs it's because I don't want to clean up from it. It doesn't take long to scramble two eggs and I do often opt for that, but seriously, it's the thought that I will have to clean more things up that often disuades me!

But cleanup can be even easier with eggs. You can hard boil a dozen eggs in one pot for 10 minutes, remove eggs, dump water and air dry pot. No dishes!

[Guest]

But you still have to peel the eggs. I have big kids and tiny kids. By the time we are home late from a practice someplace, I can't cook. My little ones are bonkers, and my big ones are starving. Time's up. And I could stock up on salmon and nuts, but the quantity they will eat is insanely expensive. My budget allows for fast cheap filling food, or slow cooked quantity of healthy food.

 

My best luck so far is to fill the crockpot, and take it with us. I still feel like I have to figure out another meal of some kind when we get home because they are all hungry again, though. Some days, I feel like all we do is deal with food.

Amen!! Where are those dang replicators?!? Menu planning, shopping, cooking food and cleaning the kitchen, food is a huge part of my life!

[Anne]

And honestly, my kids, to say nothing of my dh, do not want to eat large quantities of hard boiled eggs!

 

I get what you're saying, Pegasus - there are other ways to tackle the problem, but many of them require buy-in from our families that is just really hard to get.

 

Anne

[gardenmom5]

carbs are also cheap.

[Zinnia]

 

 

My best luck so far is to fill the crockpot, and take it with us.  I still feel like I have to figure out another meal of some kind when we get home because they are all hungry again, though.  Some days, I feel like all we do is deal with food.  

 

This is the worst!

 

You take food with you, all the planning and schlepping and what-not involved in that, thinking, yes, I am on it!  And then when you get home, they still want more food.  So now you get to cook AGAIN.  Yay?  

[frogger]

We need a dog food type pre-made pellets. Like cereal but it needs to have ground up veggies and some kind of protein in them.

 

If it was all we had in the kitchen we might lose weight fast. :)

[TechWife]

I actually think you are on to something with this. There are other areas of the world where mealtimes are slower and centered a good deal on the experience of sharing food and companionship with one another. Some of these areas don't have the weight problems the US has. Please don't ask me for references, though. This is something I've heard so often it's just entered my general knowledge base. I don't think it would be hard for anyone to do an internet search if you want to though. 

 

Culturally, the US places value on being busy. If we actually thought it was worthwhile to plan a healthy meal and consume it together, we would consider that when we are doing that, we are busy - we are busy nurturing our bodies and our families. Busyness doesn't have to take the form of speeding around. It's okay to tell the children, the neighbors, the coaches, and most importantly, ourselves, that there isn't time for a crazy soccer schedule, for example, because we need to eat well and that level of busyness doesn't allow for it. To say that we can't go somewhere because we are busy with our family and that busyness consists of cooking a good meal and spending time together eating it. Families really don't have to go in twenty different directions at one time, they really don't. 

[TechWife]

We need a dog food type pre-made pellets. Like cereal but it needs to have ground up veggies and some kind of protein in them.

 

If it was all we had in the kitchen we might lose weight fast. :)

 

:eek: - I thought we had a vomit smilie?? 

 

Seriously, that might nourish our body, but not much else. I can just imagine... 

 

[Ali in OR]

Agree with OP. To eat well, cook well, put thought/planning into the body fueling process, I need time and space to think. I need to be relaxed, be on top of my commitments, and ideally have time somewhere near the dinner hour to bring it all together. There are a couple of months a year where I have my youngest doing both soccer and running and older sister doing ballet, school musicals, and band performances and pretty much all of that either starts or ends at the dinner prep time of day (not to mention carting around disabled dd to all of this and caring for her needs). Last year's schedule was particularly bad--I had days that had 8 hours of short driving trips from 1:30pm-9:30 at night. There is no space in my brain, no calmness, to be able to think rationally about how to prepare and serve a healthful meal that everyone will eat. I'm not even in my house with one spare minute to put food together. This is not an everyday situation, but there are a few exceedingly busy times of the year where it is very hard to have a healthy eating plan and stick to it. It's definitely a choice we make--we'e got 5 more years of kids at home, we love their activities, and we do our best to make it all work.

[happypamama]

Yup.  Pasta and beans/rice dishes are cheap and quick, especially with the Instant Pot.  Or if you get take-out food (and I mean pizza, subs, or fried chicken, not McDonald's-type meals -- those are way too expensive for my family of seven-plus), it's carby too.  Even frozen quick foods like buffalo chicken strips and fries are carby.

 

(And fwiw, DH and I eat eggs every single morning, and the kids eat them sometimes.  Not really interested in eggs for dinner much.)

 

Yes, yes, planning ahead, using the slow cooker feature on the IP, freezing meals, all of that is good.  It just takes a lot of mental energy, and my brain, don't know about anyone else's, is half scrambled a lot of the time, LOL.  The eight million little tiny things that MUST be done every day really add up.

[momacacia]

This is what I just prepared for my mom's dog's dinner (because she hurt her wrist and im helping). Seriously, it eats better than my kids most days. Some kind of dehydrated veggies and meat, rehydrated and warmed, added to exactly 4 oz of canned tune to come to about 9 3/8 oz. Truly, I had to weigh out the dog's food. 😠But the animal is a bit whacky, so maybe that's part of it. Lol.

 

Fat or sanity, some of us have to choose. 😄

[frogger]

:eek: - I thought we had a vomit smilie??

 

Seriously, that might nourish our body, but not much else. I can just imagine...

 

You know I was joking around, right? I guess a winking smile may have given it away more.

 

Although some things I have seen around don't seem that far off from the idea.

Edited August 26, 2016 by frogger

[Anacharsis]

I always thought it was how the carbs were prepared, rather than the carbs themselves that were the culprit. Growing up I ate a lot of "al dente" spaghetti, cooked by the pound to fit proportionally on my family's super-sized plates; a deceptively large pile of chewy spaghetti unencumbered by fluid or fiber can really pack a lot of calories into a single meal without seeming to. :)

[Guest]

But cleanup can be even easier with eggs. You can hard boil a dozen eggs in one pot for 10 minutes, remove eggs, dump water and air dry pot. No dishes!

Hard boiled is not a hot seller in the household. If it's eggs for me, they're scrambled. Other people in my family also like them fried or poached. Also, my stove is black ceramic and it needs constant cleaning.

 

Also, I would still wash the pot after hard boiling.

[creekland]

I'm not doubting that food choices increase our weight at all (see my milkshake and ice cream quip above), but one thing that is helpful (and sad) to remember is that as we age, our metabolism slows (nasty turn of events).  We can eat the same things that we used to, but still gain weight.  Our kids can eat the same things and be as thin as twigs.  (I've warned mine that they have about 15 more years of bliss.)

 

Then, the killer is that as we eat less trying to manage our weight, our body is nasty enough to adjust to that new level of calories and adjusts our metabolism (remember that Big Loser thread?).  Once we adjust down, we can't go back up again without quickly gaining.  For many of my IRL friends, this means never ending hunger and longing.

 

I've experienced both of these personally - getting older and adding that "typical" 3 lbs per year - and losing my sense of hunger from radiation and being able to use that to lose 30 lbs relatively quickly once I set my mind to it.  Then it leveled off.  It's stayed there, BUT add in my travels and the adjustments needed from eating with family and temptations and I've gained back 6 pounds already - without eating nearly as much as I used to prior to losing (either at home or traveling).  I've lost my appetite and can still gain weight (and yes, I've had my thyroid tested thinking that would be the culprit - it isn't).

 

It's (sadly) almost a "can't win" situation.  If we eat less, our body adjusts to less, then can gain weight.  If we don't, our body gains weight anyway.  I'm not sure what the answer is.  When it comes up in discussion in my IRL circles, folks are gravitating to the 5:2 way of eating (almost a fast for 2 days out of 7).  It's still in the "trial" phase, so I've no idea how it will work out for them.

 

As for me, I allow myself to have those temptations to try to induce my body back into thinking more calories are normal.  It hasn't worked yet.  As my nerve issues progress, I'm finding myself able to eat far less than before (comfortably), so I often try to eat more calorie dense things to not have my metabolism shift down again.

 

We're all aging.  If one wants to maintain weight, one needs to look at this whole thing carefully.  It's not as simple as cutting out one thing or another.  Healthy eating can be a different story, but in the Blue Zones book, the main common denominator in eating was less meat and less processed foods along with ample socialization and continued "work" (of some sort - not necessarily paid job).  There was no single "miracle" food or food group.

 

Just thoughts as I contemplate whether I want eggs or my usual veggie saute this morning.

[Guest]

I actually think you are on to something with this. There are other areas of the world where mealtimes are slower and centered a good deal on the experience of sharing food and companionship with one another. Some of these areas don't have the weight problems the US has. Please don't ask me for references, though. This is something I've heard so often it's just entered my general knowledge base. I don't think it would be hard for anyone to do an internet search if you want to though.

 

Culturally, the US places value on being busy. If we actually thought it was worthwhile to plan a healthy meal and consume it together, we would consider that when we are doing that, we are busy - we are busy nurturing our bodies and our families. Busyness doesn't have to take the form of speeding around. It's okay to tell the children, the neighbors, the coaches, and most importantly, ourselves, that there isn't time for a crazy soccer schedule, for example, because we need to eat well and that level of busyness doesn't allow for it. To say that we can't go somewhere because we are busy with our family and that busyness consists of cooking a good meal and spending time together eating it. Families really don't have to go in twenty different directions at one time, they really don't.

Yes; I haven't been there, but I have heard this about France. The French do not carry around food and eat everywhere. They eat "real" meals seated much more often than most Amercians. Smaller portions; more emphasis on the food being delicious and attractive, as opposed to typical American dishes where quantity is emphasized. The French also walk all over the place, I hear.

 

I make every effort to provide a family dinner most every night. (Even though I am SICK to DEATH of it as previously discussed. :D ) We often eat very late by American standards because of it. We had dinner last night at 8:30.

[Guest]

Posted Today, 07:01 AM

I'm not doubting that food choices increase our weight at all (see my milkshake and ice cream quip above), but one thing that is helpful (and sad) to remember is that as we age, our metabolism slows (nasty turn of events). We can eat the same things that we used to, but still gain weight. Our kids can eat the same things and be as thin as twigs. (I've warned mine that they have about 15 more years of bliss.)

True about aging and slower metabolism. It is one reason that I am a big believer in weight-bearing exercise for all women. (Men too, of course, but men often think of lifting weights when they want to be fit; women less often.) Having a favorable muscle-to-fat ratio keeps your metabolism higher than otherwise. Weight-bearing exercise also helps women not lose bone density as menopause rears its ugly head.

[DawnM]

We need a dog food type pre-made pellets. Like cereal but it needs to have ground up veggies and some kind of protein in them.

 

If it was all we had in the kitchen we might lose weight fast. :)

 

Wasn't that on the Jetsons?  

[DawnM]

Instant Pot.  Dump and go.  I am refining my dump and go techniques.  

 

I just started back to work full time.  I have to come up with something EASY or I won't cook at all.

 

The boys and DH are helping out right now too, but I want as many dump and go meals as I can get on my calendar.

 

I don't mind some jarred sauces if the sauce is too difficult or time consuming, but I try to come up with easy sauces to make myself.   Canned coconut milk with curry, salt, pepper, powered ginger, dry onion flakes, and powdered or jarred garlic, and some chicken......bam!  I have a rice maker so that helps.  I can ask a child to put that in or dump myself.  

 

But a jar or two of Trader Joe's sauces works too.

 

I have a kid make a salad or I put a tray of frozen veggies and olive oil and salt in the toaster oven.

 

If I can't put together dinner in 10 min. or less when I am super busy, I won't do it.  But it takes 10 min. to go through the drive through, so I need a 10 min. meal.

 

Here is what I am working on:

 

Make DOUBLE meals and freeze half.  OR, have a leftover night or two during the week.  

[DawnM]

Instant pot also has all in one meals you can do.  Pasta, sauce, and meat, all dumped in.  Rice, meat, and veggies, all into a one pot meal.   Potatoes, meat, and veggies into a one pot meal.  

 

Minimal work, 20-30 min. cook time, and your meal is done.  

 

And it would sure be a lot cheaper than take out, it would prob pay for itself within a week if you can get it on sale.

[Soror]

I think it is certainly part of the problem. It does take mentally energy to plan and cook meals. Mental energy most of us don't have, especially w/ multiple kids, activities and roles. I think if you are a proficient cook(no matter how you define that) it will be easier for you, when you already know how to do something you have to devote less thought and energy to doing it. 

[frogger]

Our kids can eat the same things and be as thin as twigs. (I've warned mine that they have about 15 more years of bliss.)

 

.

Although this is true in some cases I have to say that my daughter started gaining weight at 9 and eats dramatically less than I or my 3 boys. I can eat ice cream, peanut butter, and doughnuts all day long and not be overweight although I try to keep pretty much healthy stuff in the house so I haven't tested this recently. 2 of my boys lucked out but the other is going to have to start being careful despite that fact he runs and wrestles and bikes pretty much all day if not being made to do school work.

[Guest]

.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Arctic Mama

[creekland]

Although this is true in some cases I have to say that my daughter started gaining weight at 9 and eats dramatically less than I or my 3 boys. I can eat ice cream, peanut butter, and doughnuts all day long and not be overweight although I try to keep pretty much healthy stuff in the house so I haven't tested this recently. 2 of my boys lucked out but the other is going to have to start being careful despite that fact he runs and wrestles and bikes pretty much all day if not being made to do school work.

 

I definitely believe there are differences in either body types or bacteria involved in the gut (or both) accounting for these differences (and similar differences among similar aged people at any age group).  I expect science to find out more now that they are researching such things.

 

But there's still the "individual" change as one ages (for the majority of us).  That's mainly what I was trying to get at.  We can look at what's happening to "us" now (as we age) and blame it on food choices, but it's not solely food choices we need to be looking at.  It's that and more.

[Supertechmom]

Hmm....  When it is busy super time for us, I make a menu plan in my quiet time (usually while waiting at the practice) I cook what I can during the day and then when we get home, I warm it up if needed and finish cooking.    It isn't quick but it is faster than normal meals.    I make the kids wait. I'm mean I know. They need baths so they hit the door, put their  stuff up and get in the bath.  I finish dinner.  We can't eat out due to food issues so we have to do home cooked meals usually all from scratch with little to no already prepared food.  So I have been forced to make home cooked meals work.  It can be done. I just have to plan and organize and make it a priority every day like brushing teeth.  To get a meal on the table in a hurry requires sometimes the night before prep, am prep, afternoon prep and then finish when we get home prep. :scared:  A lot starts at grocery shopping...... I come home and prepare the meat (cut up chicken for nuggets, marinate meat, portion out hamburger meat for meals, make patties, get veggies ready, put ingredients together for meals so they are easy to grab and go......

 

Meals take time...... you either stand in the kitchen and do it one meal at time (30 mins to an hour) or divide it up and do bits along and along....

 

Meal making really does kinda suck most days  :svengo:   How  in the crap our grandmothers found time to cook 47 side dishes , a couple of pies, several cakes, and biscuits breakfast, lunch, and dinner every freaking day, I'll never know.

[Ms Brooks]

I am gone four nights a week for swim practice. We do not get home until 9:30pm or later. One of the things I found that packs the pounds on is carbs. like pasta, bread, and burritos after 6pm. I make a mini breakfast and a larger lunch with a lite snack after swim practice. The take-away meal from home is what I am working on this year.

[TX Native]

But you still have to peel the eggs. I have big kids and tiny kids. By the time we are home late from a practice someplace, I can't cook. My little ones are bonkers, and my big ones are starving. Time's up. And I could stock up on salmon and nuts, but the quantity they will eat is insanely expensive. My budget allows for fast cheap filling food, or slow cooked quantity of healthy food.

 

My best luck so far is to fill the crockpot, and take it with us. I still feel like I have to figure out another meal of some kind when we get home because they are all hungry again, though. Some days, I feel like all we do is deal with food.

I am not meaning anything judgemental in this response, but this is my experience of hesitantly switching to high cost "healthy" foods. I started stocking up on the nuts, salmon, and such and got afraid of my grocery budget. I started buying Ezekiel bread at double the price, but found one piece of that with PB and J filled my kids up compared to 2 pieces of white bread with PB and J that left them still hungry. These more expensive higher nutrient options keep my kids full longer. At first they ate large quantities of the nutrient rich things I switched to, but once their bodies adjusted to the higher nutrients, they started eating less amount because their bodies started telling them when they had enough. The processed, packaged cheap carb heavy stuff does not send a message to most brains of when to stop. The body still craves nutrients after these foods, and that is why the body feels hungry a short time later. The cheap food is cheaper for me, but my kids get hungry again so fast and need more cheap food. It becomes an endless cycle. Granted, we do eat granola bars, chips, hot dogs, etc...so again there is no judgement in this post. However, buying more of the "fast food" things that Pegasus is trying to promote did not increase our grocery budget at all after my kids' bodies adjusted to naturally eating the smaller amounts required to feel full after a nutritious rich meal or snack.

 

Our favorite fast food on the go options besides boiled eggs are baby carrots, apples, bananas, grapes, nuts, hummus with veggies or chips, cheese sticks, nut butters, fruit and spinach smoothies, grape tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, raisins, cubed chicken breast, and whole grain bread. We do get pizza take out, fast food burgers, and all other such foods often enough to not brag about healthy diets. I just want to defend Pegasus point that it just requires a change of mindset, discipline, and planning to make choices that don't leave us with junk food or no food as our only options when busy. It is just as easy to put EVOO, salt, and pepper on Salmon fillets with chopped veggies and bake a few minutes than to whip up a quick batch of Hamburger Helper. When really busy, I get prechopped, prewashed veggies and I use foil on the pan for less clean up. Somewhat expensive yes, but I likely won't be having hungry kids raiding the pantry for our stash of chips and granola bars an hour or two later.

 

I confess that we had those precooked frozen meatballs for our main course last night only for my convenience. This post is half hypocritical, lol.

 

Edited for errors darn autocorrect!

Edited August 26, 2016 by TX native

[Guest]

Instant pot also has all in one meals you can do. Pasta, sauce, and meat, all dumped in. Rice, meat, and veggies, all into a one pot meal. Potatoes, meat, and veggies into a one pot meal.

 

Minimal work, 20-30 min. cook time, and your meal is done.

 

And it would sure be a lot cheaper than take out, it would prob pay for itself within a week if you can get it on sale.

We reaaally need an Instant Pot recipe thread. I am enjoying my IP but I want more ideas! I joined FB IP group but I seriously do not understand how that helps. I want to learn what Hive IP users are calling their go-to IP recipes; the recipes that have become integrated into your week. :)

[SparklyUnicorn]

We reaaally need an Instant Pot recipe thread. I am enjoying my IP but I want more ideas! I joined FB IP group but I seriously do not understand how that helps. I want to learn what Hive IP users are calling their go-to IP recipes; the recipes that have become integrated into your week. :)

 

I'd go for that!  Or how about an IP social group? 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Well and then there is that whole issue of picky eaters.  I've got a TON of easy healthier meals, but one of my kids won't eat any of it.  At least now he just makes his own food, but it's a pain when you have a big family and you are trying to juggle all of these factors while stressed and tired.

 

 

[Guest]

I'd go for that! Or how about an IP social group?

Social group is an excellant idea. I put up a thread, but if it sees a lot of interest, sure maybe a social group would be best.

[AMJ]

Because we're all so dang busy!!

 

The last two weeks have been crazy and our dinner every night has been a giant serving of carbs! Spaghetti cooks faster than frozen chicken, kwim? Ugh, my pants are so tight.

 

 

Exactly.  Being overbooked means being over-stressed, which also adds to weight gain.  It also tends to lead to too little sleep, which adds to weight gain and a tendency to strongly crave carbs.  Too much stuff we must constantly keep track of and deal with leads to too few opportunities (and of too short a length when they do occur) to relax, regroup, and reassess.  As a result we are wiped out mentally as well as physically and can't think things through, and we cook "insta-meals" (quick and easy suppers, generally shelf-stable or able to go from freezer to microwave) because it's easy to keep them on hand for when we simply can't think through meal prep but need to eat NOW.

 

The nasty part is I now have diabetes and hypertension because of exactly this (recently diagnosed).  Now I have to add in meds, serious dietary changes, and plentiful exercise into days that were already too full.  The cost is too high for me to neglect this any longer, so other stuff has got to give (and I've got a battle on my hands to make that happen).

 

I recommend that everyone pause to consider:  if you are too busy now, how will you handle the added burden of a health condition that likely could be avoided?  Several years ago I ate and exercised my way out of a pre-diabetic condition; had I managed to just maintain that I never would have had to deal with all that is on my plate now.

 

Please take time to assess how you live now, and find the time and resources to eat decently most of the time and exercise -- deliberately exercise -- for at least a half hour a day (10 minutes here and 10 minutes there, if need be) at least 4 days per week.  I can tell you from direct experience it can truly matter.

[AMJ]

But eggs and veggies are perishable so you have to have time to go to the store to get them. When we get busy, unfortunately we run out of eggs and veggies sometimes. I can stay stocked up on granola bars and frozen corn dogs and other things that don't go bad.

 

We try really hard to eat healthy, but I agree with the op that when we are extra busy it is much harder to eat healthy. Sometimes I think what we do is crazy. Sign kids up for sports so they stay active then feed them fast food on the way home because we have no time to cook.

 

 

There's also the prep time required to clean the veggies and prepare them for eating.  Having good foods ready at hand to grab and go takes as much work as having prepackaged snacks, AND the work has to be done more frequently (so it all adds up to more work and more interruptions in the schedule).

 

 

That said, put the work in and get it figured out.  This is better done now that later.  I had it figured out somewhat a few years back but I let it slide a bit as life happened and things got crazy and everything just spiraled down, and I was too busy all along to get back to the better that was once familiar to me.  Now I HAVE to get back to it at a time when I am even busier and a LOT less healthy, a LOT less able to tackle new and demanding projects.

 

My routines are shot.  I have to rebuild them from the foundation up because that's what it will take to accommodate the life changes I must incorporate now to handle my condition and not get any sicker.  The health and education of my kids and family (nuclear and extended) are non-negotiable, but for some reason MY health was negotiated away (by me) for the sake of covering other bases.  No longer.  My health has now become a screaming priority, so the housework, extracurricular activities, volunteering, even some (not all!) leisure time are all being adjusted or dropped to give way.

 

Where I am now is entirely my own doing.  I could have avoided it had I simply stayed on the better eating and 2- or 3-times-per-week exercising I had been doing.  Instead I now have even stricter dietary instructions from my doctor, and I must exercise daily for longer than I did before.  I put it off, and now the related work load has exploded into far more than it ever would have been had I not neglected ME.

 

 

Please, everyone, learn from my experience.  Find the time to eat good foods.  Get deliberate exercise frequently and regularly.  Get enough sleep.  Don't neglect these.  Tend to them NOW.

[AMJ]

It takes a shift in thinking.  Why not stock up on nuts and frozen salmon patties instead of granola bars and frozen corn dogs?

 

 

 

Frozen salmon patties cook up differently and require more care (and more time) than corn dogs.  I, for one, am under strict instructions to watch my fats because of hypertension, so nuts are an infrequent treat and NOT a go-to pick-me-up snack for me.

 

It takes more time to find the healthier options in the stores.  It takes more time to prepare them at home.  What each person and each family CAN eat differs greatly.

 

I agree wholeheartedly on the importance of finding better options and really encourage people to work at it, FIND the time.  But I know from direct experience that it does, indeed, take more time.  Part of my downward spiral was trying to get along with "healthier" quick grabs which proved to be not as healthy for me as they had promised.