Year 3: Day 58: Helpful Food Advice

Have you ever noticed that when you choose to start making healthy changes everyone and everything has an opinion on how to do it?

I swear, every time I strive to eat better there are more articles in my news feed - be it Yahoo! News or FB or articles in a magazine - and a ton of friends/family with great ideas! So many ideas, in fact, that I always feel completely overwhelmed.

I saw an article once that listed every bit of advice for new mothers with newborns...the list was long and very contradictory. It was this list (and darn it, I wish I remembered where I read it so I could link to it), that made me start looking at healthy eating rules....

High Fructose sugar is bad. All sugar is bad. Here is a long list of names for sugar. All sugar operates the same. Eat sugar in moderation. Avoid all processed foods. Make sure there are only 5 ingredients on the label. Make sure there are only 4 ingredients on the label. Make sure you can read/pronounce/understand all the ingredients on the label. Sugar can not be one of the top 5 ingredients. Sugar can be on the label, just at the very bottom. Yogurt is great for you. Greek yogurt is best. Added sugar to yogurt is bad for you. Add honey, fruit and other things to sweeten the plain (Greek) yogurt you are eating. Eat your calories. Have a smoothie. Cereal is bad for you. Cheerios is pretty good. Whole grains are best. Quinn is best. Brown rice is good. Raisin Bran is healthy. So is Special K. Drink skim milk. Drink whole milk. Drink only organic raw milk. Do not use any condiments, full of sugar. Mustard is okay. Condiments that are organic are okay. Make your own condiments to control the amount of sugar. Salads are great. Salad dressings are bad. Salads at restaurants are to high in calories. Eggs are an excellent source of protein. Eggs are too high in cholesterol. Eat meat. Don't eat meat. Eat complex carbs. Don't eat carbs. Eat apples. Make sure that the fruits and vegetables you eat are high on the glycemic chart. Make your food from scratch. Replace all your oils with applesauce. Olive oil is good. Canola oil is good. Canola oil is good. Coconut oil is good. Different oils are needed for different types of cooking and baking and at different temperatures. You need protein, fat and carbs at each meal. Fats are bad for you. Good fats are okay.

My head hurts, I am sure there are more...in fact, shout out the ones you've heard below!

Me? Starting today, I am making my own decisions on what is healthy...and you know what? It might change over time. Starting today I am eating Stonyfield's Low Fat French Vanilla yogurt. Why? Because I can't find the whole milk version. Because I don't like the last of yogurt, but I like the taste of French Vanilla. Because I like the Stonyfield company and what they are attempting to do (be a successful organic yogurt company). Because French Vanilla yogurt tastes better with Post Raisin Bran then the YoKids tubes I buy for my children. Why YoKids for my children? Because it has less sugar than other brands. Why Post Raisin Bran? Because a doctor once told my sister to eat Raisin Bran every day and Post Raisin Bran has one of the highest  amounts of fiber with one of the easiest to read labels. Why Post Raisin Bran with Stonyfield's Low Fat French Vanilla yogurt? Because I really like the combination and it stays with me longer than milk. But here is the thing - I eat like a snack. Yep, 1/4 cup of yogurt with 1/2 cup of raisin bran. Yummy and filling with lots of digestive benefits. Are there other solutions to make this meal healthier? Maybe...but I am not ready to go down that road yet.

And this what eating healthy should be all about. Finding a starting place, find what works for you and move forward. Ignore the advice and good intentions of others. Listen to your own body...you are the expert of you.

Happy Journey!