Today, February 22nd is the beginning of the Lent period, which runs for 40 days starting on Ash Wednesday.  Many Christian religions celebrate the Lenten period, from Catholics to Methodists. Other religions also have periods of time where they abstain from certain foods or behaviors.

Even though we are not in a religion that traditionally celebrates or observes Lent, I find the thought of giving something up or sacrificing something for a period of time to be potentially beneficial.

Among my friends here, I know several who are not trying to lose weight, but are giving up something meaningful to them. I have one friend who is giving up caffeine, another who is going to not purchase any shoes, another who is drinking only water in lieu of soft drinks or coffee, and yet another who is not really giving anything up, but rather going to try and eat healthier.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past week, and decided that I do see a lot of value in giving something up, or incorporating a new behavior into my life – even if it is only for 40 days.

Potential Value

The potential value is threefold in my mind.

1) You challenge yourself beyond what you may think you are capable of.  If I decided to give up coffee for 40 days (and you’ll have to read to the end to see what I chose) that would be difficult for me and challenging as I am one who loves my coffee.

2) It helps you focus a particular behavior. Oftentimes we get so caught up with trying to do everything right, that we may lose sight of the fact that small changes really can make a difference in our lives. For example, just cutting out refined sugars can make a difference in your cravings, your weight, and even your energy level.

3) It lets you practice self-discipline in a new area of your life. Perhaps you find it difficult to exercise regularly, and know in your heart that early morning exercise would work best for you. Your 40-day challenge to yourself could be to give up 45 minutes of sleep each day to make time for that exercise you know you need.

My Challenge

I’ve decided to challenge myself over this Lent period as a way to try something new, to reflect on parts of my life, and practice self-discipline. I wanted to use these next 40 days to give something up and to add something positive to my life.

For the next 40 days, I’m going to commit to strength training three times a week and I’m going to give up caffeine.

I would like to invite you to either give something up for the next 40 days or include something healthy and new for you during the next 40 days.

Do you see the value in giving something up for a period of time, and are you thinking about giving something up or adding something new for the next 40 days. Diane

You may have read about this last week, but I can’t get it off my mind, so I thought I’d write about it and see what you all think.

In Hoke County, a preschool child had her home-prepared lunch taken away by a state worker who was inspecting all the lunches of the school children for healthfulness. The worker decided that the girl’s lunch, which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, a container of apple juice, and a small bag of chips did not meet state standards. She took the girl’s lunch away from her and replaced it with the lunch provided for that day by the school cafeteria. That lunch tray had chicken nuggets and corn, among other things. The girl ate three chicken nuggets and nothing else.

The mom indicated that her child eats vegetables at home while the mom watches, but that she had not put a vegetable in the lunch box because she knew her child would not eat it, according to an article in the Carolina Journal.

There are so many issues here that it is hard to know what to focus on. I’m all for the elimination of childhood obesity and for children to be eating healthy food, but when a lunch that a parent prepares is deemed not good enough and replaced by a meal that has fried nuggets in it – something is wrong here.

The article in the Carolina Journal  also indicates that upon further investigation, the child’s lunch did in fact meet the USDA standards outlined for school aged children. A healthy lunch, according to our esteemed USDA should include one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables. The girl’s lunch apparently met that standard, even with the chips.

What saddens me is that this child is probably now confused. Who is right? Her mom or the school official? What message does this send to children and parents everywhere?

What are your thoughts on this? Is the right way to handle a child who has a relatively healthy lunch packed from home to not allow her to eat it and give her a less healthy meal? Diane

Although salt is a naturally occurring substance, and your body needs some sodium, too much salt can be detrimental to your health, often contributing to an increase in blood pressure.

A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 90 percent of people consume more salt than they should on a daily basis. Ninety percent. That’s a huge number.

How much is too much? Well, it depends on who you ask.

The American Heart Association sets a maximum daily value for all adults at 1,500 mg, while the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans has a range between 1,500 and 2,300 depending on your age, ethnicity, and medical conditions. The CDC study found that most adults eat 3,300 mg of sodium in their foods, not counting any salt they add to food from a salt shaker sitting at the kitchen or restaurant table.

Where Is It?

Salt is abundant in most processed foods. Here are a few numbers to give you a perspective:

Canned chicken soup, chunky: 867 mg in 1 cup (which is less than half the can)

Lunch meat: 429 mg in 3 thin slices

Fast food biscuit with egg: 891 mg per biscuit

Little Caesar’s Cheese Pizza: 440 mg in two slices

Bagel, small 3″ size: 407 mg per bagel.

Pretzels, 1 oz.: 486 mg

Baking powder: 488 mg per teaspoon

Source: USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference

How to Avoid Overdoing It

Although even vegetables have sodium, with celery being one of the higher sodium vegetables (51 mg per 1 large stalk), eating mainly whole foods like I talked about in my Attune post (Please visit if you missed it!) on Wednesday gives you a huge leg up on making sure your sodium intake stays within a healthy level. (If you missed the post – please take a look!)

One tip I have, which some of you undoubtedly do, is to remove the salt shaker from your own kitchen table, and train your palette to appreciate vegetables, main dishes, and side dishes that have no added salt. Even in our family, where I cook fairly healthy dishes, I heard some complaints from the older crowd about the lack of salt. Now, if they go out to eat they are amazed how salty everything tastes. Too much salt seems to dull our taste buds, making it difficult to fully appreciate the flavors of foods.

How are you doing? Are you one of the 90 percent? Diane

Image:pakorn/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Have you ever been tempted to just eat whatever you want to lose weight?

If you have, you aren’t alone. There are a lot of people who think that the most important aspect of weight loss is reducing calories and you can eat foods like this with abandon and without consequence as long as you are creating a calorie deficit.

Today, I’m doing my monthly post over at Attune foods, and I’d love for you to click over and read whether or not eating real food really matters. (The picture clicks too!)

Comments are closed at Fit to the Finish today, but open at Attune. Please, please come on over and read the article or comment so I can see what you think and catch up with you!! Diane

Photo Credit

Way back in the day, when I was trying Weight Watchers for what seemed like the millionth time, I had a really great leader. Although I don’t remember her name, (probably because I only lasted about three weeks) I do vividly remember one illustration that she used to challenge the attendees.

She held up a Kit Kat bar, a few cookies, and a brownie. We all laughed nervously, maybe because many of us would have liked to eat one or all of them. I know I did.

The brownie was hard as a rock, the cookies appeared very dry, and the Kit Kat bar was a little bit grey.

She explained that these foods were her challenge foods. She had these foods in her house when she had first begun her quest to lose weight, and did not throw them away. Instead, she decided that she was going to put each of the foods in her refrigerator and see if she could not eat them.

Instead of these tempting foods being a temptation that drove her to eat, she decided to use them as a challenge to her willpower. I remember thinking, “Wow, I could never do that. Those treats would be gone before days end.”

As time went by for her, those foods became a symbol of her good choices, and she had kept them in her refrigerator for over a year.

I find this philosophy interesting, especially in the light of one of the challenges on The Biggest Loser, which is called a temptation challenge. The contestants are faced with tempting foods and they have to decide how to handle it.

The Weight Watchers leader won her temptation challenge every single time she looked in her refrigerator and said “no” to herself. She proved to herself that her desire for those particular foods were not stronger than her commitment to getting to a healthy weight. And she won.

What do you think about this technique? Would you find looking at a tempting food day in and day out a challenge meant to be won, or a frustration that causes you to grab whatever the food is and stuff it in your mouth?

For me, I don’t think I could have survived the challenge in the very beginning of my weight loss journey, but as time went on, I could have let those treats sit in the refrigerator and resisted the urge to eat them. (Of course after a while, they would have been inedible anyway, which is a whole separate issue!)

Do you believe that purposefully challenging yourself is a good strategy? Diane

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I don’t usually post on Thursdays, but I wanted to let you all know that I’ve made a great friend in Rebecca Regnier, who blogs at “Does This Blog Make Us Look Fat.”

She has an e-book called “Your Twitter Diet” that she is giving away for free today in honor of Groundhog Day.

I met up with Rebecca through a twitter chat that she was hosting, and she and I are working together to get the word out about weight loss and using Twitter. Did I say it was free?

Additionally, for those of you who like to Tweet, I’ll be joining Rebecca at her #twitterdiet chat (she also tweets under @LaughItOff) tonight from 8:30 to about 9:00 p.m. EST.

She’s funny, real, and you can check out her blog or download her book at the above link. It’s available on iTunes, Amazon, in a Kindle format, and a couple of other ways! Go check it out and I hope to see you at the Twitter Chat tonight!

Comments are closed today, but if you missed my post yesterday on Calories Matter More Than What You Eat, check that out too! Just enjoy the book if you so choose!  Diane