7 foods you should never, ever eat!

I stumbled across this article today - the advice is from eDiets. Read on:

-- eDiets has compiled a list of foods that they advise you to never eat. What made the list? Doughnuts, for being high in fat and sugar and low in nutrients; Cheeseburgers and fries, for being high in saturated (and possibly trans) fats, cholesterol and refined carbs; Fried chicken for also being high in saturated and trans fats; Oscar Meyer Lunchables, for containing processed meats and cheese that are high in saturated fat, not to mention refined carbs, sugary treats and massive amounts of sodium; Sugary cereals, for being low in nutrients, high in processed carbs and extremely high in sugar; processed meats for containing the least appetizing parts of the animal (blech) and being high in carcinogens (yikes!); and finally canned soup (really?!) for being often containing trans fats and being extremely high in sodium

So, the doughnuts aren'ts a surprise. Nor are the chicken wings or fried foods. Lunchables? Canned soup? Dare I say... lucky charms? Ok, I knew Lucky Charms were bad. I know. I won't buy them anymore.

Since losing 30 lbs in the last 4 months (excuse me while I brag a bit, I'm totally proud..) I've already cut out all these foods. I buy whole grain/flax cereals (Zoe's O's tastes WONDERFUL and if you have kids, feed them this instead of the regular crap- see amazon.com to order if you can't find it in a store) and turkey EVERYTHING - and we stopped eating most processed foods. After reading this, we'll cut out processed lunch meats, as well. Even on the weeks I've not been to the gym I've lost weight.

I think the secret is to find the things you like to eat and tweak them a little bit. And I'm sorry, but if you buy pre-packaged convenience foods, regardless of the reason, you will have struggles with your weight. Here are my suggestions for working families.

1) Buy 7 bags of frozen vegetables a week. Every night, zap one, split the WHOLE bag between everyone in your family, and EAT THEM! Don't add Velveeta please, your heart will thank you.

2) Turkey bacon, Turkey ham, Turkey burgers, Turkey Pepperoni, Turkey Sausage, Turkey hot dogs. Get all the protein you need, none of the calories, and nothing fried!

3) Shop the perimeter of the grocery store. The fresher the food you buy, the better you will do.

4) Stop buying boxes of crackers, bags of chips, etc. Instead, spend ALL that money you're throwing away on junk and buy fresh fruit. Put it in a pretty glass bowl on the counter so it's easily accessible to all in the family and let them snack from that. Do you know anyone who hates fruit? Besides, if the crap isn't in your house, you won't eat it. Imagine that!

5) Buy Dreamfields pasta. For a coupon, visit www.dreamfieldsfoods.com. They have a wonderful pasta with barely any carbs, tons of protein, and it tastes the same as yucky processed pasta. You may leave the perimeter of the grocery store to buy this. :-)

6) If you positively can't spend 15 minutes preparing some type of healthy meal at the end of the day, make two or three large meals on Sunday and freeze or refridgerate. Your grocery spending will go down, even with buying healthy food that is supposedly "more expensive" and your whole family will add years to their lives.

7) Get moving. None of this matters if you don't get your heart pumping and healthy.