It has been exactly a month today since I went for my routine physical that would later lead to a message from my doctor saying that my blood work showed I had extremely high Cholesterol levels and that I was at risk for a heart attack and/or stroke. Three days from now will be exactly a month since I embarked on this fitness frenzy and diet change of mine. The change in diet itself has not been hard for me. I have a goal in mind and adapting to change relatively seamlessly has always been something I’ve prided myself on.
All of the foods that I have been indulging in for the last month are foods that I always liked anyways; veggies, fruits, lean proteins and vegetarian options such as Tofu. As I mentioned before, cutting out red meat and butter and foods with high levels of Saturated Fats has been no problem for me either. To be honest, the thing that has been the hardest for me to get used to is the amount of time it has been taking for me to actually prepare the food. Fruits and Veggies require so much washing, chopping, slicing, dicing, mashing, roasting etc. It took me 45 minutes last week to make Mango salsa. It took me an hour to wash and chop six heads of Romaine lettuce, two bags of Spinach and one bag of Red Leaf lettuce.
Needless to say, I have started leaning on spending one day a week food prepping for several hours. These days are very tedious, I can’t lie. I feel surprisingly very exhausted by the end of the day, mostly mentally. I have been going to the gym every day as well which takes an hour and a half to two hours so I think that that only adds to the exhaustion I have been feeling on food prep day. But, spending this time prepping makes me feel like I’m setting myself up for an easier week and allows me to come home from the gym and just be able to snack on things quickly and easily.
On top of all of the prepping I am, in a way, learning how to cook all over again. Over the years I have mastered my super tender braised Beef Short Ribs and my slow roasted fall-off-the-bone Pork Ribs. I have perfected my slow-cooked Chicken thighs in creamy mushroom sauce and baked Chicken leg quarters, knowing exactly how to get the skin nice and crispy and perfectly seasoned. I can make my gravies blind folded. I can bake the chewiest, most delicious Banana Salted Caramel cookies. I know exactly how long each of these dishes take to cook, because I have been making them over and over for years. But I’m playing a whole different ballgame now.
I’m learning all of these new ways to make veggie dishes exciting, rather than just serving them as an afterthought. I am learning how to bake my Chicken breasts so they come out juicy and tender, rather than dry as fuck; and let me tell you, while I feel as though I have found the absolute perfect method that produces the same results every time, making sure those Chicken breasts come out juicy like they do is not a simple, straight forward method. It requires a few different steps and little tricks that I have been getting the hang of.
The other thing that took me a couple of weeks to get the hang of was grocery shopping. I found that it was taking me damn near 2 hours because I was going to different grocery stores and also reading the nutrition labels on all of the products I was interested in, in their entirety rather than just a quick glance over that I have always done. I was looking in to products that I have never in my life bought, like Farro and Quinoa, and I was comparing the different brands nutrition content and prices. Which leads me to the next topic of discussion. Prices.
Why is it that the healthy food items are so damn expensive? Anyone out there who is on a budget, like many of us are, is going to have a hard time keeping their fridges and pantries stocked with healthy products. I have found that shopping at multiple stores is helping. Thankfully for me, the Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Target and Safeway grocery store that I frequent are within a block of each other so I don’t waste too much gas hopping from one location to the other. I have found that doing this can actually save me quite a bit of money. For example, Trader Joes has wonderful, affordable prices for vegetables, fruits and lean meats. However, Safeway always has their bell peppers priced cheaper, they have a wider selection of products overall, and if I am lucky, the weekly sale specials that they constantly run may be for products that I am actually interested in purchasing. While Safeway carries my favorite brand of bread, Target in fact always has it priced a dollar cheaper. Target also has their Avocados priced significantly cheaper than any of the other three stores mentioned. Gosh, my fucking head is spinning just writing all of this. I can only imagine what you are thinking right now as you read this! But, this is my reality and I know that I am blessed to have the time to make these crazy grocery trips.
Which leads me in to the last topic I want to address which is having the time to actually do all of these things. Cooking for yourself at home is a sure way to have control over what you are consuming. You will know every single thing that is in the meal that you are about to eat. But, if you live your life on a time crunch and do not have the time to spend cooking or food prepping for the week, you are kind of stuck with limited options, most which don’t end up being the healthiest. Frozen dinners are always an option but I have to tell you, as the daughter of a man whom consumes frozen food products rather often, I have to say that even the frozen products that he buys that bear labels that suggest the product is healthy, are in fact not as healthy as they suggest. There are so many Saturated fats and Sodium packed in to these fucking things! Other quick options such as Top Ramen, Hot Dogs and even Deli meats to make sandwiches are SUPER high in Sodium and Saturated fats as well!
Fast food restaurants have taken over the cities and towns of America, more so than I think any other country, offering very quick, easy and cheap options for people who either don’t have the time to cook and/or are on a very tight budget. But the products that they are selling are SO incredibly unhealthy for you it is crazy! These fast food chains are thriving off of the green in our pockets, yet the only green we are getting in return is a wilted piece of iceberg lettuce on a burger. And why do they choose Iceberg lettuce? Because it is cheaper than lettuces that actually hold nutritional value. They instead are giving us our daily recommended 2,000 calories packed in to that one hamburger, loaded with Saturated fats and two days worth of the Sodium intake recommended to the average human. And we are quite literally eating it up!
The fast food ads that I see on TV are targeting the population who is living life on a time crunch and off of a tight budget, enticing them with dripping Bacon sandwiches and “loaded” french fries that can be at your finger tips and in your mouth in a matter of a few minutes. They are even using the youth in commercials to promote fast food taco meals that are “perfect” for College students on a budget, when the reality is College students would benefit far more from eating something healthy while studying. Why is it that there are no healthy, affordable fast food options? Because the reality is that healthy food can not really be done fast. It takes more time to prepare and the use of quality products costs more which means that the companies would be paying more in labor and product costs, resulting in higher prices for consumers which automatically cuts out the large portion of the consumer population who are on budgets, thus leaving the smaller population of consumers who can afford expensive fast food. But lets be real; that wouldn’t be profitable for companies in the long run. I can think of one fast food chain off the top of my head that serves healthy-ish food. One. But their product prices are much higher than the dollar menu prices that are offered by other fast food companies.
Don’t get me wrong; I LOVE me a juicy burger topped with oozing American cheese and crispy pieces of bacon. If I could eat one everyday and not have any bad consequences occur, I would do it. But that is not the reality and I have accepted that; and while I love all the bad foods, I love myself more. Rather than contribute to the monetary riches of these big fast food companies selling us consumers unhealthy, garbage food products dressed up in flashy ads that dominate our TV screens and highway billboards, I’d rather spend my money on food products that fuel my precious body in a positive way. I’d rather tire myself out spending my precious time chopping up bell peppers and washing lettuce and making my own salad dressing. While this whole healthy diet lifestyle is proving to be more time consuming and slightly more expensive, I keep reminding myself that I am worth every second and penny spent. Because life is priceless. Time is priceless. I am priceless. YOU are priceless. And that’s real.
Awake, Aware & Uncensored 