Buy Walking VideosEating Healthy Can Be Fun
Lofty title, huh? Considering all my struggles with eating healthy, I can understand if you’re skeptical. In fact, I’m sitting here right now thinking, “How can I explain this?!”
The truth is, eating healthy CAN be fun. I KNOW this because I see it in other people all the time. I’m talking about those people that you know. None of us want to admit it, but we hate them sometimes because they purposely make us feel bad about what we’re eating.
I’m talking about vegetarians.
Not the vegetarians that live a quiet life and eat healthy without imposing their beliefs on anyone else. I’m talking about the rabid vegetarians. I’m talking about the vegans. I’m talking about the raw food enthusiasts. These people have made eating healthy like a video game. There are stages for you to achieve and you get to feel more and more justified at each one. Vegans are “better” than vegetarians and raw foodies are “better” than vegans. All of them are “better” than us.
They piss me off and I sometimes wonder if their ideas are truly healthy, but the fact of the matter is, they have made healthy eating fun. Even though it’s not fun for us, it’s obviously quite fun for them. So the question is:
How Can Eating Healthy Be Fun?
What if eating healthy was like a video game? What if each time you checked off a box for vegetables, you got a score? What if you could display your score to the whole world and they would know that you’re a “fifth level eater”? What if being able to announce that you’re a “fifth level eater” felt as good as saying, “I’m a vegetarian”?
There HAS to be some way to quantify eating healthy. There HAS to be some way to get a high score in eating healthy and the scale isn’t it. The scale is a cumulative score. You need a score for every day.
I don’t know the answers yet, but there HAS to be some way to harness the feeling of accomplishment from eating healthy.
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May 14th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
I have been reading your blog for several months, and for the first time, have felt really alienated by its content. I am not a true vegetarian because I eat fish on occasion, but I have chosen not to eat red meat, chicken, etc and avoid by-products of these foods (like chicken stock). I’m fairly quiet about it, only speaking up when I’m going to get thrown into a situation that will make my eating habits difficult. There’s been several occasions where I would learn that someone that I had been friends with for a long time was a veg*n. The point is- there’s a lot of vegetarians that don’t make that aspect of their lifestyle known. It isn’t a tiny subculture. I made this choice because it complemented the way I look at the world- and yes, I do feel like I’m doing a good thing. There are infinite ways you can do something to impact the world, your health, and make you feel good, this is just a choice I felt worked for my life. You do something similar by writing a blog, for example. And we, the vegetarians and other kinds of restrictive-dieters, have enough to deal with without carrying guilt on our shoulders. You would sympathize with someone who is giving up a binge-trigger food, even if it made others who still ate it uncomfortable, right? How is this any different?
May 15th, 2006 at 6:50 am
I am not particularly video game oriented, but it occured to me that one could keep score based on something like recipes or spices. That is, one could add up points for actually MAKING something from the collection of Indian recipes that one had been collecting for years, or for making a (self-defined) healthy recipe from one of those mysterious spices and herbs that you’d bought with good intentions and never actually used.
Perking up the menu with interesting meals is one way to keep up one’s interest in healthy eating. It’s not just a matter of avoiding certain foods, but more a matter of making sure that there is fruit and/or veggie in each meal, and finding new ways to perk things up.
May 15th, 2006 at 7:53 am
Abby,
You’re right. I’m sorry this entry left you feeling alienated. That wasn’t my intention and my words were too harsh.
What I was trying to highlight is that there is an entire group of people who REALLY are able to make healthy eating mean something more than just being healthy or losing weight. Vegetarians, vegans and raw foodies have made their healthy eating more about saving the world than about individual health.
Quite frankly, it seems like the truly vocal people with restrictive diets have made eating healthy FUN and I think I am a little jealous of their fervor.
I have trouble eating healthy to help myself and I wish I could be part of something bigger.
I’m sorry I made you feel alienated. It wasn’t my intention. It was just my unguarded jealousy coming through.
Thanks for your honesty, Laura Moncur.
May 16th, 2006 at 12:13 am
I think that the answe rto this is easy, your high score is displayed simply in the body you have and everytime someone see you and think wow that person looks great then you score. You are always competing with those around you, and to get a jump on the body part of competition you have to eat right, right?
Gregg Nieten
May 16th, 2006 at 5:38 am
Greg,
I wish the answer was that easy. The body I have is a cumulative score. It takes months and years to get that score. I need a DAILY score.
I haven’t figured this out yet, but I’m working on it…
Laura
May 16th, 2006 at 8:42 am
Gregg, With your scoring system “I WIN !” I look great in a pair of jeans, but I would be seen as a cheater with Laura’s system. There would be no medals won in my house.
A great deal of my eating is still used as “support” than for nourishment. I could kick butt with the following games but would not be proud to wear the medal: – “Emotional Eating Video Game” – “Crash Video Game-Chocolate induced nap” – “The Punisher Video Game-Rise of the scale” – “Fantastic 4-Chocolate, Fries, Bread, and a Teaser” – “DodgeFood Video Game-Low score wins !”
Thanks for your website Laura.
May 19th, 2006 at 7:12 am
Daily score?
Mmmm, what about:
I woke up this morning, and instead of eating a POP-tart (or two or three…), I ate strawberries with yogourt and I FELT GREAT because I felt energised all morning. (I felt great? I win)
It was sunny outside, so I dropped in my colleague office and invited her for a walk at lunch time. I was energised all afternoon (plus, if I do this everyday I might get a tan, that’s always a bonus no?) (Felt great? I win)
I went to bed and didn’t feel bloated and I slept well? I win.
I do not believe we need a divine quest to score each day. What about forgetting the scale for a while, the bikini and all those tiny models on the cover of Victoria Secret? What about just doing it to feel great and have energy to live the life we have in front of us? I know that when I had that excessed 35 pounds I felt awefully bad, I couldn’t stand my couch potato self. Now, this feeling of well being is how I keep score to myself and why each day I go to work biking, I go jogging and I started cooking food I love.
Not sure, this is what you are looking for, but this mentality has worked for me so far =)
May 23rd, 2006 at 10:15 pm
As a vegan, from what I’ve experienced many meat eaters are way more vocal and forceful about their diet and absolutely love trying to make me feel bad for my choices than any other vegetarian I’ve ever met.
And any vocalness on a vegetarian’s part is usually not out of self-righteousness, but out of concern.
But it’s okay. I’m not trying to attack you. And those that are rabid about it are kind of embarrassing. I just often feel like many people do not know the treatment vegetarians get for eating… vegetables.
August 6th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Is vegetarianism healthy? Good question. And it deserves a good answer, too! 🙂
I recently read a book, the focus of which was not nutrition, that told of possible negative consequences (for women especially) which could result from eating any kind of meat. It suggested that the hormones fed to animals to fatten them up quickly can adversely affect our own natural hormone balance. Massive amounts of antibiotics are routinely used to keep animal diseases under control. Over time, we can develop resistance to antibiotics, which can work against us if we need this sort of medical treatment. All this from repeatedly ingesting meat.
Is this just one person’s opinion? I don’t know. But it made me rethink my eating habits.
Good luck in your continued quest!