Before and After Pics

OK. Here is the before and after - or at least along the way to after. Not my finest moment.

Now that that is over I can move on to more pressing issues.

I was mildly taken to task for my "dumbing down" of the exercise calories thing. I knew I would be, but my goal was to illustrate approximately what I would get from about 4 hours a week of fast walking. We are bombarded by information on calories in and out and it is so much blather unless you can connect the dots.

One thing I learned along this journey so far is that the calories are not as relevant as what the calories are. 300 calories of white bread is not the same as 300 of whole grain bread or brown rice. 300 calories of fried chicken (probably a drumstick or maybe a wing) is not the same as 300 of grilled organic chicken breast. Even 300 calories of processed grilled chicken breast that you nuke is different than the freshly grilled organic breast.

While I am sort of on the subject, Organic does not automatically equal good for you. You can eat a fully vegan diet that is loaded with organic products that you should not eat. There is organic white bread and white rice. There are organic tortilla chips and potato chips. You can deep fry organic chicken in organic canola oil and it is still bad for you.

Most of us are getting a little older and may need to bring reading glasses when we go shopping, but you need to read labels. Don't just focus on the fat content either. The sodium is just as bad for you as the fat. That is where a lot of the "lite" and "low fat" and "diet" items fail as good food. They are regularly loaded with either sodium, MSG or sugar (in the case of the low-fat items).

This stuff isn't always easy, but it IS worth doing. There is nothing like the feeling of lightness that you get when you walk, or the lack of pain in your joints, or even simple little things like clearer skin.

More soon....