As a fitness professional, I’m always amazed (and puzzled) with the conflict people seem to have with losing weight, yet they refuse to stop eating junk food. An interesting thing I have noticed over my many years helping people to lose weight is that almost every single person that has told me that they are “attempting” to lose weight, almost always has their house filled with all sorts of junk food instead of whole unprocessed natural food.
It is not uncommon for people to tell me that they are trying really hard to lose weight, but I will still notice boxes of apple jacks and fruity pebbles on their counters, cakes, candies, and chips in their cupboard, and sodas or syrupy juices in their refrigerator.
So the question that always stumps me is that if all of these people honestly wanted to lose weight so bad, why in the world do most people still have their houses filled with junk foods instead of healthy food?
Interestingly, the answer usually is that they do not want to give up their favorite foods because they think that eating this junk food allows them to “live a little”… if you ask me, it sounds more like dying a little with each bite!
My take on it is that eating junk foods has nothing at all to do with enjoying your life… In reality, when you give up junk foods you actually enjoy life more because you feel better and are more energetic every day. In addition, getting into better shape by not eating junk food can obviously help improve the way your body looks (and therefore increases your confidence), thereby making you enjoy life even more.
One thing that many people fail to realize is that eating healthy does not have to mean eating bland and boring food. Instead, when you learn to enjoy natural unprocessed food and start exploring all of the varieties of natural food that this planet has to offer us, you learn that you can enjoy the natural flavors of real foods more than overly processed aggressive tastes that are so common with excessively sweet and salty junk food.
An example of this is that the other day I wanted an unsweetened iced tea while out on the road, but all that the store had available was these bottles of heavily sweetened iced tea. Well, I have not bought a fully sweetened iced tea in probably at least a few years now… I have actually gotten used to drinking unsweetened iced tea and have learned to appreciate the natural taste of tea without needing sugar or other sweeteners.
Whe I drank this bottled sweet tea, I almost gagged because it was so syrupy sweet, it was absolutely nasty.
A similar example… I used to need a lot of sugar in coffee, but after a slowly reducing the amount of sugar I would use in coffe, I can now actually drink black coffee and enjoy the natural flavor of it without needing sweeteners (although I rarely drink coffee).
These are just a couple examples of how once you start appreciating the natural flavors of real food, you find that you no longer need the super-aggressive salty, sugary, or artificial flavors that have been ingrained in us by the food companies and all of the junk food they push on us.
My belief is that everyone should actually enjoy what they eat, and can do it without eating overly processed junk food… Actually, people are often surprised to hear that a lot of the foods that they think are junk food, I have healthy alternatives that they never thought of.
A few examples:
Junk food: a chocolate candy bar, a chocolate donut, or a piece of chocolate cake
Healthier alternative: a couple pieces of extra-dark chocolate (greater than 70-75% cocoa content only)… this is higher in fiber and much less sugar than milk chocolate or even dark chocolates that are less than 70% cocoa content
Junk food: Deep fried and breaded chicken fingers and fries on the side (loads of nasty trans fats)
Healthier alternative: grilled chicken breast strips with peanut dipping sauce and vegetables on the side
Junk food: a cheap fast-food burger on a processed refined white bun
Healthier alternative: A grass-fed burger (higher in CLA and omega-3 fats) with raw grass-fed cheese on a sprouted grain roll
How about that for eating healthier yet still very tasty foods!
I hope that what you get out of this article is that there is more to life than eating junk food, and eating junk does not necessarily mean that you’re “living a little” as so many people say. Instead, I feel the opposite is true.
Eat healthier and discover the natural flavors of real foods (not processed) and you’ll soon discover that you no longer need junk food. Enjoy!
THOMPSON STEPHEN
http://www.articlesbase.com/nutrition-articles/avoid-junk-food-or-eat-healthier-junk-foods-688969.html
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Becoming Vegetarian, how do you avoid junk food?
I am contemplating becoming vegetarian (no meat at first, then hopefully all Vegan).
I can eat a non-meat diet for my main meals, but I love chips, chocolate, pizza, french fries, etc.
As a vegetarian, how do you avoid these foods? What healthy snacks do you eat, and generally, how do you stay away from unhealthy foods?
have some self control , its not hard just dont eat it
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there are alot of healthy snack foods out there. my favorite snack is sesame sticks. check u’r grocer for low-fat snacks.
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Being a veggie doesn’t mean you can’t eat pizza, chocolate, chips, or fries.
Try making healthy choices like salads, fruits, veggies to dip and tea!
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Oh wow, I hear you. I was an unhealthy vegetarian for a few years. Then, I converted to veganism, and I’ll tell you, you’d have to jump through leaps and bounds to become a junk food vegan. They do exist though, but require a lot of work.
Yeah try to stick with non-convience foods as they tend to be more unhealthy. It may take a little work but there are always plenty of healthy options for the choosing. Like other people mentioned, salads are a good start.
Truthfully anything with a lot of vegetables is a good way to go. Try to stear clear of fried foods, for a majority of the time. Though we know nobody’s perfect, and its nice to treat yourself sometimes. Try to supplement a majority of junky snack foods with fruit, regular or even frozen (thats a real treat). And if you get a chance try to talk to a registered dietician. Because right now you are recieving advice from an aspiring one.
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Self control.
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Who said I gave up chips, chocolate, and fries?
There are plenty of vegetarian and vegan snack chips out there. I find chocolate that isn’t made with milk (usually organic and fair-trade companies make dark chocolate without dairy), and I find fries at places that don’t use animal fat. With many things, it boils down to reading labels. I don’t eat at most fast food places (maybe Chipotle once a week), and the one time a week I have fries, I have them from a place I know uses vegetable oil.
As for pizza, you can either have cheeseless pizza or make your own with one of the many vegan cheeses out there. Or if you’re ovo-lacto vegetarian find a rennetless cheese.
Everything in moderation.
I’m also a big fan of Luna Bars, Nectar Bars (made by Clif), and Alpsnack Hemp Nut bars. Hemp is really good for you–has omega-3 fatty acids. I usually bring a piece of fruit to work and have it mid-morning because I can’t have anything heavy in the early morning.
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just dont buy those items, while i was planning my vegetarianism, i gave all my meat-containing foods to canned food drives. i restocked with healthy foods. i had no choice to eat junk. its pretty simple when you get in the groove of things
good luck
when i want to much ill munch on whole grain cereals, bananas, dried fruits, baked chips or pretzels. all of these are easily acessible, and affordable. im a poor vegetarian, so im all about prices!
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The easiest thing to do is not buy it in the first place.
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You can eat healthy snacks like an apple and keep doing that until it becomes second nature to reach for an apple or other healthy snack instead of reach for chips..pie and so on. This takes a good amount of self control in the beginning though.
OR you can do what most people do…..eat fatfree versions of whatever food or eat the regular versions in moderation.
Tip if you can make your own do it….homemade potatoe chips are always heathier than the kind you buy in the store. They aren’t that hard to make either…slice a potatoe really thin season then bake or fry.
Tip make the "bad" things as good for you as possible….like pizza…pile on as many different veggies as possible on….that way they aren’t so bad for you. Chocolate brownies…pile some nuts on top. You get the idea.
Me….it kinda comes naturally. I don’t like many of the things that are "bad" like chocolate cake. I make my own chips when I want them. I bake my french fries not fry them….I like them better that way. The main thing I do is eat hardy meals…that way I don’t want to snack. I also don’t keep things like chips out on the counter so they can stare me down every time I go through the kitchen. I keep them in the cabnet. IT’S so much easier to have self control with "bad" things when they aren’t in the cabnet or frige. Not having a choice between chips or mixed nuts because all you have is mixed nuts helps out worlds.
By the way….just because you are a vegetarian doesn’t mean you can’t eat chips brownies pizza and so on anymore. There is NO reason you HAVE to avoid them….just eat them in moderation is all. Everyone should eat junk in moderation though not just veggies.
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You can eat the same junk food as long as it doesn’t have animal ingredients. You don’t have to eat all health food just because you are veg.
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Don’t cut them completely out of your diet! That will only make you want them more! As you become healthier, you’ll find yourself reaching for more healthy foods and wanting the junk foods less and less. However, from time to time a small portion of the "junk" foods is okay. You can also give these foods a healthy makeover and enjoy them guilt free! Eat dark chocolate (at least 70% real coco). It has many health benefits. Make a healthy pizza on a whole wheat pita shell and load it up with lots of veggies. Make your own french fries by cutting potoatoes into wedges, tossing them in a little olive oil and seasoning salt, and baking them in the oven. Get ahold of the "Eat Shrink and be Merry" cookbooks. They makeover popular recipes to be healthy and people love the results.
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You don’t have to avoid junk food to be vegetarian/vegan. You can make your own versions, and might be able to buy some in the shops.
For chips, you can make your own Dorritos with vegan tortilla chips, lime, and seasoning… You just mix it all up in a bag!
You can make your own vegan pizza (some stores even sell vegan pizza shells which is such a time saver).
You can buy vegan chocolate chips. I’ve heard about vegan sweets – I don’t know a thing about them though, since I have never liked sweets.
A good replacement for French fries is yam fries – you just peel and chop up some yams, then cook them with a bit of vegetable oil in the oven. They are heavenly and healthy!
I stay away from them by simply saying "no". If you’re the kind of person who caves easily when you’re hungry, carry a pack of vegan trail mix in your bag or some vegan chocolate chips, etc.
Going vegan was one of the best things that I ever decided to do. I went from eating a meat rich diet (I used to do a carb-free diet) to a vegetarian one the next day, and about a month later I decided to cut out the only non vegan thing I was eating – dairy. Whey is in pretty much everything, so it was a bit hard at first, just because I had difficulty finding bread without whey. (I make my own bread now and I found one brand that is vegan.) You won’t regret it! It gives you so much energy, and you become, well, healthy.
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I’m a vegan.
Hm… well, once I started eating *real* food, junk food just became inedible for me. I just couldn’t stand the taste.
Snacks we have around the house… popcorn (with air popper, put flax oil and nutritional yeast on top), nori seaweed, whole grain crackers, I make cookies in 40min from scratch to my mouth, fruits, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, rice cakes, … the snacks are mainly for the kids… I’m usually too busy to snack much, but do love peanut butter on crackers etc. too.
Once you start eating/living healthy, your body will say, "Hey, finally!! What took you so f*ck’n long?!" and will start telling you things it has always wanted to say… like, "Hey, this tastes like crap, yuck, don’t eat that…" There are things I used to eat… simple things, like regular potato chips… man, I have a chip now… they are rancid — gross, disgusting. Really, I can now taste it. That’s just the oil… the flavour, salt… man…
You can get good quality chips, chocolate, etc. at any health food store… almost anywhere these days actually. Pizza is easy to make a home. So are fries — and 10x better than fast food fries… pan-fried or baked… yum!
Once you get healthy, your tastes change, you literally cannot eat junk food anymore. At first, when I quit junkfood, things like plain veggies… tasted like nothing to me. They had no flavour at all. I literally couldn’t taste my food. But I knew, from talking to others, that did not grow up like me in N. America eating a horrible diet, they had totally different taste buds, so I knew eventually I’d start to change. It took about a year of going almost totally off of any kind of sauces, salt, sugars, (I say almost, because I later found all sorts of hidden stuff.. salt, in my instant oatmeal, corn syrup and salt in my spaghetti sauce… all the low quality stuff is loaded with crap, fillers, etc.).. one day I tried some herbal tea… and wow… it tasted totally different than a year + ago when it just tasted like water. It was full of all sorts of subtle nuances. I was amazed, really amazed.
Now I hear people say, "How can you drink that herbal tea stuff, it tastes like water?" and I just laugh… they are like I was. It’s also the reason you will see lots of females consuming such things; they have way more taste buds than men do. Women, I believe, are the ones that would traditionally taste foods before giving it to the children, they are the taste-testers, they can detect things men cannot, mainly poisons, rancidity, etc. To digress even more, I notice that men and women both can smell and taste different things more acutely, it’s very interesting.
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