Five Must-Reads For Maintaining Your New Healthy Self

You made a commitment to yourself to eat better, lose weight, get in shape and/or just feel healthier.  It is a beautiful thing to do for yourself, but I know the hard work that really is! If you are feeling overwhelmed, out of ideas or just plain unmotivated, here is a list of some helpful reads to get you moving back in the right direction.  

1. You Are How You Eat

What you are eating is a very important part of the equation, but too often the how part is overlooked. This first read is a  reminder from Mark Sisson that what you eat isn't the end of the equation. Take a moment to read this post to see how you should be eating for the ultimate healthy meal. 

2. 13 Health Foods That Aren't

This is a really important article to check out if you recently started making changes to your your food purchases in favor of "healthier" options. Very often we are lured into buying things that are not so healthy, or at least not much of an improvement based on some wisely selected marketing tools. Check out this list by Michelle Madden of The Sweet Beet to make sure you are eating what is best for you!  

3. Bob Greene's 5 Ways to Keep Weight Off

How many amazing weight losses have you had? I have a number of acquaintances that can tell me exactly what they need to do to peel off 10 pounds once they "get back on the program." If it were just talk, I wouldn't bother mentioning it, but I have witnessed this happen year after year, season after season, whenever they "need" it, but I am always left wondering - why did they need it again?! As a recent guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Bob Greene came to present what he believes are 5 keys to success in maintaining weight loss. Luckily for us, the show decided to post the list online so we can continue to garner its wisdom.

4.  How To Afford Healthy Food  

One of the things that often has us all turning our backs on our healthier lifestyles is the damage is does on our finances. Unfortunately, it always seems that the unhealthy eating options are the more economic ones! We end up sacrificing our physical health for the sake of our financial health. Well, thankfully, Sophie Uliano of the Gorgeously Green blog has eight easy to implement tips to help us all afford to eat healthy.  After this, we are simply running out of excuses!

5. Check Out FitBlogger!

OK, this is cheating, kind-of. I really wanted to find one or two resounding blog posts from FitBlogger to send you to, to get you motivated in your workout, thinking about nutrition or just to keeping you running through the winter, but I couldn't pick! And, honestly, there is always great stuff going on over there, so whatever day you decide to finally check this out, I believe there will be something timely for you.

There you have it. I feel stronger already, don't you?
  

Did any one of the recommendations above resonate with you more than the others?

 What other ways do you keep yourself healthy and motivated all year round?
Do you have any tips you would like to share with fellow readers or myself?   

Taking Action

In this blog I have written a lot about food choices I have made personally, what I have learned about the food industry through some media at my fingertips (books, movies, web sites, et cetera), but I am not sure I have written enough about taking action.

I was born in 1976, I was a child of the eighties, took on high school and college in the nineties and stepped into my career on the cusp of the new millennium. I will not venture to say that the society around me was not steeped in great changes, amazing innovations and sweeping culture shifts, however, I do believe something really quite important might have been missing and maybe still is. Where is this generation's sense of power?

I learned of the battles my grandparents and great grandparents went through to become Americans, I learned of women getting the right to vote, the battle over prohibition, the civil rights movement - I learned all of these things not only from my teachers, but from my family - they lived in these times, they made things happen. They embraced the American spirit and took action when things needed changing - they sat-in, or marched, or petitioned or rallied - and the powers that be had to listen because the actions and the voices of the many were cacophonous.That is the American way to make change, that is how we take action -we the people get organized and speak our piece loud enough to be heard. We, as Americans, have the right to speak of our discontent and work in a civil manner to make things better. I sometimes fear that branching out into the world wide web has ripped out our grass-roots.

I would like to plant some grass seeds with my blog and help out some organizations that I think are doing a fantastic job of getting the word out in terms of saving our sustenance. It is high time we gather together as our American rights allow us to to fight what I believe to be the great battle of my generation: the people vs. Big Business.

• Food & Water Watch - This is my #1 go to source for news related to my sustenance. I have added their RSS feed to this blog for their "Take Action" page so you can check in on whatever particular court case, petition or issue needs your support at the moment. If you do nothing else, join their mailing list.
• Natural Resources Defense Council (NDRC) - An environmental group that also has a large "Take Action" section of their web site to keep you up to date on their current cases and issues being brought before congress.
• Certified Humane - I am always popping this site up on my iPhone on the way to the grocery store to make sure I am buying the right brand eggs and chicken because, along with their "Take Action" section they also have a nice link for you to "Find Stores" around you that sell "Certified Humane" products.
• The Center for Food Safety - Another great site I have written about before (this is where we got our shopping list for avoiding GMOs!), that has the "True Food Network" which is always looking for more support for their causes in the great food fight.

*Note: all of these sites have facebook pages as well, if that simplifies your screen time.

Here's the deal... at some point we are all going to have to admit that something has gone horribly wrong with our food selections. The food I am exposed to when shopping is not the same that my mother or grandmothers were exposed to - we can blame video games, computers, television and whatever other screen time you can add up for the increasing obesity rates in this country, but that is only ONE PIECE to this puzzle - we should not allow agribusiness to  shield our eyes from the truth for the sakes of their pockets! It is time to take action. It is time to become more knowledgeable. It is time to stop accepting and start QUESTIONING so we can LEARN the TRUTH.

P.S. - If you have a favorite "taking action" site you'd like me to know about, please add it in the comments section! Thanks!