For weeks now I’ve been seriously rethinking this obsession I have with food and my weight. Specifically it’s occurred to me that for almost all of the past decade, my obsession with controlling (unsuccessfully I might add) what I eat and don’t eat has centered primarily on weight loss. This focus on weight and not on health has caused me to become unhealthier. Yo-yo dieting, pre-packaged diet meals, low carb, low fat, sugarless…you get the idea. My quest to lose weight devolved into me eating man made substitutes for food and came at the expense of eating food the way it was intended to be eaten.

It’s time for a change, a real change – an “I’m about to turn forty so I’ve got to start taking this seriously” change. I’ve been heading in this direction for years now, but eating for health was far down on the list, somewhere behind carb and calorie counting and fat monitoring. And while I’ve never been a lover of junk food and have always preferred fresh fruits and vegetables over sugary desserts – when it comes to food, the choices I make every day are made unconsciously, out of habit, and with very little regard to health and where my food is coming from.

In a nutshell (pun intended), clean eating is consuming food in its most natural state or as close to it as possible. It means eliminating as much processed foods from your diet as possible, and it means being conscious of the source of your food and the impact its production has on the environment. Militaristic clean eaters might have an issue with my definition, but that’s the definition that sums it up for me.  The Gracious Pantry has a great resource page about clean eating that you can access here. The turning point for me came when I watched the documentary Food, Inc. I’d absolutely recommend it to anyone curious about the source of their food – you will not be the same after watching it.

A year after test-driving my clean eating experiment I can say that I’ve adopted clean eating as a way of life.  A way of life differs from a diet in that it’s not something you ever “get off of.” So, on the (now increasingly rare) occasions that I don’t eat clean I, 1) enjoy it a lot less and 2) don’t belittle myself or consider it a diet catastrophe.  It’s not just a healthier way to eat, it’s a healthier way to think. Really, it’s a return to to the way my parents and grandparents used to cook and eat, before advertising and big business began convincing people that they had it all wrong.

Although I haven’t stuck to the $25 budget, I have been more conscientious about how much I purchase and what I’m paying for things, and in the long run that’s helped my overall budget.

So, what’s left is the weight loss. The good news is, the number on the scale is lower. The bad news is, not by much. As a child and teen I struggled with compulsive and emotional eating, and as a 41 year old woman I still do.  Like any habit/compulsion/addiction, it’s been a hard one to shake. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor apparently 41 years. Thankfully, I am a work in progress, not regress, and as long as I’m able, I’ll approach each day with the determination to become a healthier version of the person I was the day before. Anyone care to join me?

Grace

While there are a lot of great things about turning 40, rogue joint poppage, mutinous facial hair and decreased metabolism aren’t any of them. So here are a couple of suggestions for managing the post- 40 metabolism slow down:

• Drink 8 glasses of ice water every day – We’ve been hearing the “drink water, drink water” mantra for years, but did you realize that making it ice water forces your body to warm it up, burning calories in the process?
• Consume 25 grams of fiber a day – Beans, steel cut oats and brown rice are all inexpensive foods that add valuable fiber to your diet. Also, check your supermarket shelves for pasta and bread with added fiber.
• Cut 100 calories from your daily calorie consumption. That doesn’t mean you have to start tracking calories. This can be accomplished by doing simple things like skipping the cheese on the burger, using mustard instead of mayo and removing the skin from chicken.
• Use your major muscles – Dr. Oz suggests doing things like plank exercises and squats during commercial breaks.

On Friday, I’ll share five tips from the show for boosting metabolism, adding fiber to your diet and monitoring serving sizes. See you Friday!

Have a tip for being Fit at Forty? Share it in the comment section or on our Facebook fan page.

Editor’s Note:

This is a topic that is dear to my heart. You see, my mother, Marion Kane, is a food writer. In fact, she was the Food Editor of two major Canadian newspapers for a total of 17 years. So while most kids spent their evenings playing outside, I was busy dining in the finest restaurants of Toronto ordering lots of dishes to help my mum in her “tasting” ceremony which would either make said restaurant into the latest “hot spot” or else put it out of business within two weeks.

My mother, unlike me, doesn’t appear to struggle with what to eat, how much to eat, or knowing when she’s full. But still, I have managed to learn some important things from her when it comes to eating joyfully. In my mother’s house, eating is a celebration: a time set aside to painstakingly prepare and enjoy a good meal.

In my mother’s words:

We all have to eat. Most people prepare some of their own meals. Many of us are passionate about food and cooking. All of which explains why I love being a food writer: It so easily connects me with individuals of every age, colour, social status, shape and size. I’ve written about where and what Toronto taxi drivers like to eat- a story that led me to burger joints, an African take-out, South Asian eateries and a Jewish deli. I once checked our city’s cops’ top spots to nosh and, for another article, visited favourite haunts of local truckers. In a different vein, I talked to chefs who man high-end kitchens atop downtown skyscrapers for CEOs, and penned a feature about those who prepare the fare at local spas and health clubs. Food is the great equalizer and, from my experience, there’s no better way to lift one’s spirits or create a bond than sharing it with others.

My mother’s dearly departed friend, Julia Child, agrees:

“Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal.”

A recent survey showed that Americans are eating more but enjoying it less. Just 39% of adults in this survey say they enjoy eating “a great deal,” down from the 48% who said the same in a survey in 1989. Also, the survey found that the decline in enjoyment of eating has been greater among those who consider themselves “overweight” than among those who consider themselves “just about the right weight.”

In other words, when you’re not happy with your body, you’re not enjoying one of life’s greatest pleasures- eating.

For homework, I’d like to you to write answers to each of the following questions on a piece of paper or in your journal:

Describe an ideal eating experience. Describe in detail the atmosphere, table setting, location, type of food you’d be enjoying, and whether you would be alone or with others.

Think about how you eat your meals now. Now write down some things that you can do to make your day-to-day eating experiences more enjoyable.

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Esther Kane, MSW, RCC relocated to the Comox Valley over two years ago from Vancouver. She is in full-time private practise as a psychotherapist in Courtenay. Esther has over a decade of experience counselling women and their loved ones with a multitude of presenting problems. Her main focus is helping women to become free of barriers which keep them stuck so that they can become all that they dream of being. You can learn more about Esther on her website www.estherkane.com.

This article was originally posted on www.estherkane.com. It is reposted with the author’s permission.

Today begins day one of my $25 good food challenge. For those not in the know, last week, after being inspired by Oprah’s Food, Inc. episode, I challenged myself, during the month of February, to eat only healthy, whole foods all on a weekly budget of only $25. I’m fortunate to live nearby to a great farmers market, a Trader Joe’s and even a vegan food co-op, so finding whole foods wasn’t going to be difficult, but getting everything for $25 might prove to be.

Well, I’m glad to say that after sketching out a menu for the first week of February and going shopping this weekend, I came in at a grand total of $23.22 for my first week of shopping. The list of items I purchased includes fresh fruit (even some organic) like apples, bananas, cantaloupe and honeydew – organic chick peas (hummus anyone?), brown rice, six grain bread, tofu and soy milk. That’s pretty much it. Including the rolled oats I already have in my pantry, that’s 14 items. Let’s see what I can do with that.

I learned a few tricks while shopping this week. I went to the farmers market first thing in the morning. Since they bake on site without preservatives, they discount much of their baked goods 20% – 50% the day after they were made. If you buy and freeze them, they’re almost as good as fresh. I was able to get a $3.29 loaf of whole grain bread, without high fructose corn syrup (you’d be surprised to learn how many products have corn syrup in them,) for only $1.65! The one surprise I did get? I’ve been drinking soy milk for years, but I didn’t realize until this past weekend, how many of them include many more ingredients than soy and water. Because part of this challenge is only eating foods with 5 ingredients or less, I had to scour the shelves to find a soy milk that met that criteria. Fortunately I found Edensoy’s Organic Plain Unsweetened. It was more expensive than the others and there’s no telling what it tastes like, but I’m willing to give it a try.

I’ll add another post at the end of the week to keep you updated with my progress. Something tells me there’s going to be some Beano involved…

Are you taking on any personal health and wellness challenges in 2010? Share them with other Women at Forty – email us at contribute@womenatforty.com.

Grace is a blogger and Women at Forty editor who lives outside of Atlanta, GA. She shares her weight loss challenges and experiences weekly in our Health & Beauty – Fit at Forty section.