Hey Chicks,

Happy Wednesday – it is half way through the week, week 3 of our October Bootcamps and a yucky rainy day in Toronto! 

So I worked quite late last night, got a haircut that I am not loving (my top layers are way too short!) and then went home to zone out and watch one of my favorite guilty pleasures shows right now – the XFactor (I actually have a now not so secret crush on Simon Cowell and am totally rooting for little Rachel!).  After that I was chatting on the phone with a friend about deli meat (sounds weird I know, but read on to see why as it is something I am VERY passionate about.)

This was our convo: 

Me “Deli meat should be illegal”

Him:  “People can choose to eat it or not”

Me: “True, but it is so toxic they should not even be allowed on grocery shelves.  I know we have a choice of what we put in our mouths but then why shouldn’t heroin be on the grocery shelves.  We know that it is bad for us so why can’t we have that as a accessible choice as well”

Him: “It is just how it is. Do you really think you can change that?”

Me: “Yes I do”

When Amanda and I started FIT CHICKS, one of the ideas we built it on was accountability.  We wanted to inspire chicks to be accountable and involved in their health.  But I get so frustrated when I watch my chicks every week, sweating their butts off, working so hard to make positive changes in their bodies, be good examples for their families and friends and are being fed false information!   They go home and are inundated with messages from food companies advertising products that are what the food administration say are “approved healthy choices” (like that deli meats are a low fat healthy option – seriously?!)  for chicks and their families.  They believe they are making great food choices becasue we have grown to trust these companies. But unfortunately they are not.  How can you be accountable when you are being lied to by corporations and the companies that are supposed to make sure this does not happen! (sorry, I am getting upset…don’t mess with my chicks!)

Let’s use yogurt as an example.  Everyone thinks that yogurt is a health food (and it can be) but the lovely people over at companies like Yoplait can put up to 24 grams of sugar (that is 6 teaspoons!) to a little serving of yogurt!  6 teaspoons (think about what 6 teaspoons would taste like in your tea..yuck!)  The low fat types can have even more.  And you definately want to stay away from the ones with artificiall sweetners like aspartame! These food are given the healthy check symbols so we think that they are a good choice – but wrong.  Check out this great sugar comparison post from whatscookingwithkids.com – awesome visuals to see how much sugar it equates too! 

Moral of the story – it’s time to be accountable!  While we all keep trying to make the food corporations accountable, start by making yourself accountable for your food choices! Pick local, organic when possible. Make your own food from all natural, unprocessed choices (like with yogurt buy organic greek yogurt and add fruit or honey to sweeten! ).  if it comes in a package and has things on the ingrediants lists you can not pronounce, put it down. 

And more than anything PLEASE don’t buy deli meat especially for your kids!  Make it your mantra to “Not eat the shiny meat!” (some cold cuts actually shimmer pink and green!!)  There are so many other choices out there and it is just really, really, really gross!

Ok, thanks for listening to my rant today 🙂  This head chick feels better now I got that off my chest 🙂

Have a fabulous day!

Laura