Hungry for Change (and sunshine)

When you go to the weathernetwork.com, the first headline that comes up is "Another storm for Atlantic Canada." Sigh. I definitely spoke too soon on my last blog post. Spring is suffocating out there under the thick blanket of powdery snow and is shivering against the 60km/hr winds. 20-30cm of snow in less than 24 hours is not how I pictured the first week of Spring. Where are my flowers and chirping birds? I now understand why the majority of Islanders go south during March. You need the trip to remind yourself that temperatures above freezing do exist out there and will find their way in this direction sometime in the near future. The trip to Florida, Mexico or Cuba is that little boost to get them through the winter and give them that little extra oomph of warmth and relief from the relentless cold.

I spent some time this morning before work hiding from the storm and decided to watch Hungry For Change. This is a documentary that exposes the weight-loss and diet industry and focuses on how to create life-long weight loss (and maintenance) and how to make the right choices to live an optimally healthy life. Basically, everything that is white and processed is evil whereas fresh fruits, veggies, lean meats, good fats and whole grains are superb. It also goes into pretty good detail about how we are biologically programmed to love things that are full of fat and sugar and how our genetics are working against us when it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle in the world we have created for ourselves. You know, the over-stressed, over-worked, under-slept, under-exercised, food-on-the-go society we see all around us. Yeah that one.

Although I am quite familiar with all of the topics discussed in the film, I really enjoyed it because it is a great message to share with the world and helps me to reaffirm what I believe in health and hate in the Big Food industry. I think one of the best lines in the film is being able to say to yourself  "I can have it, but I don't want it," instead of "I can't have it so I want it." It's so true! As soon as we deny ourselves something then it is all we can think about! Learning to not deny yourself of foods but to truly not want them or need them is the key to successful eating.  I really liked the part on diet pop and artificial sweeteners. Pretty scary stuff.  If you go to the website http://www.hungryforchange.tv/ and go through the steps they lay out for you, you can watch the documentary FOR FREE for another 4 days, so I highly recommend getting on there so you can watch the film and learn some super important stuff about what you're using to fuel your body with.