Sometime Food & Everyday Food

I went to a buffet for lunch yesterday and as usual, i got the same comments from the group i was with "Apa ni, fitness instructor eating ice cream and other unhealthy food?" I know they meant it jokingly and didn't mean it in any hostile manner. But it got me thinking that lots of people out there think that fitness instructors are like monks who refrain from the pleasures of life. So i thought i would like to set the record straight.

Yes, i am into fitness and YES i do like to take care of my body, but that does not mean that i go overboard with it. Yes i drink alcohol from time to time, eat roti canai every once in a while and even the all sinful KFC ever so occasionally. My point is, what i advocate to people is doing things in moderation and not going to either extremes. To be honest, it irks me when i read articles written by so called fitness gurus who advocate no salt, no sugar, no this and that 24/7. I can't live like that, and neither do i expect anyone else to do that as well. If you can and you like that sort of thing, then go ahead. But for me, i advocate a path of moderation that is easier to follow and stick with. anyone want to follow me on this? you are more than welcome to join the fun side of fitness.

Hence there is the concept of sometime food and everyday food which i absolutely love and would like to share it with you guys. In short, its important to identify what is it that we eat most of the time, and what is it that we eat some of the times.

Sometime food - These are the foods that you eat occasionally to celebrate or just to indulge. Think of an expensive bottle of wine or champagne. You save it for that special occasion and it should not be taken with your dinner every night. For that, you would use dinner /table wines which are more affordable. So the concept here is similar.

Everyday food - Now this the food you are going to be eating most of the time. How often? At least more than 70% of the time. This is just everyday foods like bread, rice etc.

Now in order for this concept to work for you, you need to be clear on what foods you put in your sometime food category and what foods you put in your everyday food category. its simple, your everyday food, should be all that healthy stuff - Fruits, raw vegetables, lean meat, brown rice, chappati, thosai. You get the picture. Sometime food, is the food that you go out an indulge, not all the time, but some of the time. In here, you are going to throw in all the so called unhealthy foods such as you fast food, roti canai and anything else that is sinful. The problem i notice with most people is, that their everyday food is unhealthy and when they feel guilty (maybe after that annual medical check up) they decide to go on a diet or go healthy for awhile. Because they can't sustain it, they end up swinging back to their old habits of eating unhealthy food again. Most people's everyday food is unhealthy, and their sometime food is the one that is healthy. You need to turn it around.

If you are one of the people like i mentioned above, then you clearly want to take action and start changing your sometime food and everyday food. I would suggest that you do it slowly and progressively. Just like you can't run 10km on your first day of training, similarly you can't switch your diet overnight just like that. start slow and keep changing more and more things as you move along.

So back to my buffet story... why is it that i was eating everything under the sun? Well i don't eat buffets everyday. At most, maybe once in 3 or 4 months. So this is really something that is sometime food. when i do go to the buffet, i am going to eat as much as i can... or indulge, because i don't do it all the time. If you work in the hotel and eat the buffet everyday, then you will need to be more careful and you can't indulge in everything like i did... because then, the buffet has become your everyday food... and everyday food should be the healthy stuff, not the other way around.

Now that you understand this concept, your will also understand how it is you see slim people eating unhealthy food, and yet they stay slim. They don't do it everyday, they do it some of the time. So what is your sometime food and everyday food? Once you understand this concept and use it properly, you will be able to see great results. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.