How Do You View Food?

My fitness idol, The Godfather of Fitness Jack LaLanne, famously said, "The food you eat today is walking and talking tomorrow."

It's true. You can tell what people eat just by looking at them, once you become attuned to how what you eat affects your body.

When I start talking about all the things I don't eat, people immediately start thinking, "Oh! I could never deprive myself like that. That's not really living."

What they don't understand is that humans develop and lose tastes for food. What you tend to eat a lot, you tend to prefer. What you don't eat, you eventually stop missing and may even come to dislike. When other people think it's deprivation to turn down a piece of pizza, my response is different. I think about how terrible I'll feel if I eat something loaded with fat from cheese, meat and the added oil poured on top and in the crust. Since my body is not used to it, I would be sick for hours, if not days. Why would I want to eat something that would make me sick? How could I look at the pizza and think, "Yum"?

The truth is that Americans eat foods that they wouldn't feed to their pets. Yet they somehow think that foods loaded with fat, sugar and salt somehow constitute the good life. Where did we get this notion in our society?

I wish I could tel you can eat all the foods you currently eat and get in terrific shape just by strength training. Unfortunately, I would be lying. What I can tell you is that you can learn to love foods that make you feel and look good.

My husband has a measure of the foods we should eat. His theory is that if he can eat a regular meal and then do a hard workout without feeling lethargic or sick, he's eating the right food. When he ate bad food, it was hard for him to work out. No more.

What should you be eating? Stay tuned.