\u00a0Ah, Martica, Martica, Martica…<\/p>\n
There are times when I think that maybe I pick on\u00a0Martica Heaner\u00a0a little too much: after all, she\u00a0gives out lots of\u00a0sensible advice, too.\u00a0 My problem with her,\u00a0however, is that even the sensible stuff is\u00a0conventional and unimaginative…\u00a0 She writes well enough, but her “Expert Advice” column sometimes reads like she’s just phoning it in.\u00a0 This is true for a lot of “experts” I suppose, but her high-profile gig at MSN.com sorta makes her a target.\u00a0 When people write in, looking for guidance – and then don’t get the care and attention they deserve – it kinda sets me off.<\/p>\n
Today’s featured column is a perfect example.\u00a0 Here’s the question:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Q:<\/strong> I try to avoid all junk food and eat “clean.” But the more I ban bad foods from my diet, the more I seem to want them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now Martica\u00a0does an ok\u00a0job with this, at first…she explains what “clean” eating means; then discusses the possibility that the questioner might not be eating sufficient calories.\u00a0 But her preferred explanation is what she calls the “I-want-what-I-can’t-have compulsion”, and suggests the questioner needs to a) not be so rigid about her\/his eating; and\/or b) work on retraining her\/his tastes for\u00a0“clean” vs. junk\u00a0foods.<\/p>\n
Now, there’s nothing particularly wrong with either of these answers – they’re just fine, as far as they go.\u00a0 But\u00a0she misses what I think is the Number One Problem that wanna-be healthy eaters\u00a0create for themselves\u00a0when trying to eat “clean”.<\/p>\n
In a nutshell, they equate “clean” with “booooorrrrrring”.<\/p>\n
Seriously:\u00a0 I’ve reviewed a TON of “clean” diets over on the forums I mod, and the menus look like stuff\u00a0served\u00a0to prisoners or hospital patients: plain, pasty\u00a0oatmeal; dry, water-packed tuna; plain steamed vegetables; baked chicken breasts; boiled brown rice, nonfat cottage cheese…well, you get the picture.\u00a0\ud83d\ude41\u00a0 Needless to state, this sort of food makes meal time the culinary equivalent\u00a0of walking for an hour on the treadmill, day-in and day-out.\u00a0 It’s no wonder\u00a0folks give in to cravings…they’re dying for some sensory stimulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Martica comes close to figuring out the problem\u00a0when she acknowledges:<\/p>\n
“What makes junk foods so attractive is often their sweet or salty fat content. Humans are hardwired to be attracted to calorie sources such as these.\u00a0 But you may be able to develop an appreciation for other aspects of foods, and to turn off the appeal of bad-for-you foods.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In other words, she grasps that “junk food = interesting”.\u00a0 But then she punts the ball by reinforcing the “clean = booooorrrrrring” assumption, rather than challenging it.<\/p>\n
If you can master the art of appreciating nuanced aspects of healthful foods and learning more about the distasteful aspects of so-so foods, then you may get as excited over an arugula salad topped with tart lemon juice as someone else might get over a cheeseburger.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
S’cuse me???\u00a0 She has GOT to be yanking us on that one.<\/p>\n
In my humble opinion, it would take a saint to develop an appreciation for “an arugula salad topped with tart lemon juice”…that’s about as appealing as chowing down\u00a0on the weeds in my flowerbed.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s certainly no match for a cheeseburger – even I can’t stretch my imagination that far.\u00a0\u00a0Needless to state,\u00a0trying to pretend that “booooorrrrrring” = “interesting”, is NOT the best way to go about resisting cheeseburgers…or any other greasy, junky foods, for that matter.<\/p>\n
The better path is to\u00a0make eating “clean” as interesting – in its own way – as\u00a0eating \u00a0junk.\u00a0\u00a0For example,\u00a0I’d happily trade that cheeseburger for\u00a0an arugula salad…topped with marinated grilled chicken, a sprinkle each\u00a0of bleu cheese, dried cranberries and\u00a0toasted walnuts – plus a light, tangy\u00a0raspberry vinaigrette and freshly ground pepper.<\/p>\n
The key for beating junk food cravings while eating “clean”\u00a0is to\u00a0“dress up” healthy foods,\u00a0so they provide\u00a0a range of interesting, more complex flavors and textures – like my arugula salad does.\u00a0\u00a0Contrary to the usual assumption, “clean”\u00a0can equal\u00a0“interesting”.<\/p>\n
Now, this does mean having (or developing)\u00a0some rudimentary cooking skills, and doing some advance preparation.\u00a0 Let’s face it, part of the appeal of junk food is also that it’s easy to grab.\u00a0\u00a0The time to\u00a0create a healthy meal is NOT when your stomach is growling.\u00a0 The way I solve this problem is to cook in bulk and put the ingredients for my faves on my shopping list – so everything’s good to go, right\u00a0when I want it.\u00a0 If I have a pile of marinated, pre-cooked chicken breasts and other, ready-to-use ingredients in the fridge (such as bagged greens, grape tomatoes, bleu cheese crumbles, etc.), then that salad can be ready in 5 minutes.\u00a0 This is true for other healthy meals too.\u00a0 Lord knows there are tons of recipes on the internet for dishes that are\u00a0scrumptious as well as nutritious.\u00a0 With the aid of marinades, herbs, spices…and a little creativity, you’ll never miss the junk.<\/p>\n
So let’s leave appreciating the\u00a0nuances of\u00a0arugula with lemon juice to Martica…the\u00a0point here is to come up with “clean” foods\/dishes that you truly do love, vs. trying to force yourself to appreciate\u00a0stuff that\u00a0you don’t – and probably never will.\u00a0 Sure, there will be some trial and error involved (not to mention a few junk food slips), but if you work at it, eventually you’ll get there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0Ah, Martica, Martica, Martica… There are times when I think that maybe I pick on\u00a0Martica Heaner\u00a0a little too much: after all, she\u00a0gives out lots of\u00a0sensible advice, too.\u00a0 My […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,19,28],"tags":[561,973,1072,1130],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7682,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions\/7682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}