Why are packaged/frozen dinners so bad? (Part I)

As discussed yesterday I have come to the conclusion that one of the reasons I was overweight as a kid had to do with the packaged/frozen dinners that were staples in my family.  Sure these dinners were convenient, fast, and cheap, but at what cost?  Next we will look at the most harmful ingredients that come in these meals.  Just as a side note, I know that we need a few of these ingredients in our daily lives, but the amount that are added to these foods are way more than needed.

Salt
As many of you who know me know, I hate salt.  I do not put much of it on my food, if any.  I also try my hardest to avoid high amounts in any food.  To put how much salt is in these dinners let's think first of the fact that we are only suppose to have 2300 mg of sodium a day according to the FDA.  Although doctors and other researchers say you don't need more than 1500mg a day.  Now lets look at how much one serving of good ole Hamburger Helper has.

For just one serving (which there are four in the box) the amount of sodium is 913 mg, and to be honest who is going to be full on just one serving?  That is over 60 percent of what you need daily in just one serving of food! Did you know that most of us eat between 4 and 6 grams of sodium in a day?!?

So why is too much salt bad? First thing too much salt will do is allow your body to retain more water than what is needed, which adds weight to your body which in turn makes your heart work that much harder.  High salt has also been linked to higher blood pressure in patients.

Tune in tomorrow for ingredient number 2!  

A look into why I was so overweight as a kid

Looking back at my childhood I realize that I was already at a disadvantage.  I was born with congenital heart disease and was not able to do much in the way of cardio work.  With that exercising was something I did not partake in any where near as much as I should have.  I can't blame all of that on my heart disease, for some of it was my own fault and not knowing any better.  My life contained computer, video games, and television.  On top of all of this?  My diet and the diet of my family was horrible.

Boxed dinners were the staple in my diet as a kid.  We would have mac and cheese, some sort of meat with canned veggies and boxed pasta or rice, or we would have the good ole hamburger helper.  These would almost be our dinners nightly.  The fruit we ate would too come from a can.  I don't remember too often having fresh vegetables or fruit.

Boxed dinners are simply unhealthy.  They are highly processed, highly loaded with tons of sodium, and have ingredients in them that I couldn't pronounce on my best day.  In my next blog I'm going to go deeper into the evils of boxed dinners, but for now I can only look back and see just why I was so overweight.  Hopefully this gives you a chance to think twice before buying that easy box dinner, if not just wait until my next blog.  For now, have a great day!

I use to eat that... #3 Meatlovers

I remember one of my favorite meals for a long time was eating a yummy medium pizza.  It wasn't just a few slices of the medium pizza but it was the whole pizza.  Now I look back and it makes me sick to think I at one time was able to do this and did it quite frequently.  I can understand how I never lost weight now.

Medium Pizza Hut Meatlover (nutrition facts provided by pizzahut.com)

Calories...........................................2640
Fat..................................................144
Saturated Fat..................................56
Cholesterol.....................................320
Sodium...........................................6640


It is amazing that I didn't double over from this.  Coming soon, I'm going to start taking your favorite meals and making a new healthier recipes on a Cut the Crap cooking show to be shown on Youtube!  It's still in the works but coming soon!  If you have an idea you can either comment here or email me at adamhalverson@gmail.com!

The biggest surprise

When I started this journey I figured it was going to be just for myself.  I knew I needed to get healthy and finally become real with myself.  Not once did I think anything else would come of it.  In fact for a while I was not sure if I would even lose weight and become healthy like I have.  However, the more I have stuck to the path of healthiness, the more people that have joined me.

The biggest and best surprises I have received are my kids wanting to not just to eat healthier, but having my kids want to exercise with me.  In fact my oldest wants to get healthier so bad she asked me to wake her up a half an hour earlier so that we can work out together in the morning.  My other daughter is constantly wanting to exercise with me and go for walks as well.

Both of them love to know when they are eating healthy as well.  The eat veggies and fruit like crazy and get excited about eating these and other healthy foods.

This has been the biggest surprise I think I have gotten from my change in diet and daily life.  It has truly been a blessing to not just me, but my entire family and that has made all this even more worth it.

Lack of sleep can hurt exercise routine

While I was trying to exercise this morning I just could not get my body going.  I did not sleep well last night and I am trying to get use to have our new baby Daniel sleeping in our room.  I love being a father to my children and love taking on the responsibility of being a dad, don't get me wrong.  It was just a rough night.  So come this morning after I was able to get my warm ups in, that was too much and drained me of the energy I had.

Overcoming obstacles are always part of losing weight and keeping your body healthy, but I'm just glad that I was able to at least get my warm ups out of the way.  On top of that I have worked out pretty hard these past few days so I think my body can use a good rest.

The new workout that I have been doing in the morning is 100 crunches, a set of planks, pushups till I fatigue out and then hit the weights.  I'm hoping to add some cardio in the upcoming days as well.

It is difficult for me because I need a lot of sleep.  I wish I could be one of those who can run an entire day on just four hours of rest, but with my heart medication that I take, it's just not plausible.  I just hope to be able to get some sleep soon.  Then hopefully my exercise routine will be able to take off again.

New Baby

Over this past week we have been very blessed with a new addition to our family!  Daniel was born last Thursday and is doing well!  He should be home tomorrow as long as he gains some weight.  There were a few complications at first with his lungs, but all has been healed.  So far this has not caused too much of a weight gain.  I'm only up 3 pounds in the past week.  Hopefully everything will be able to calm down and I will be able to go back to my pre baby weight haha.