Losing Weight Starts in the Kitchen

I saw this over at HuffPo and had to post it here.  The author, has come to the same conclusion I have--you can never be thin or healthy if you let the food industry prepare your food for you. 

He makes a lot of good comments including this:

What didn't make sense to me was her willingness to blame the food industry and restaurants for limiting her healthy food options, yet she was unwilling to take her health into her own hands. The fact is, our quick and easy, rapid-pace lifestyle has gotten us to where we are in the first place, and it is really going to take some effort on our parts to tip the scales in the other direction.

And this:

I often hear my clients complain that they need a fast solution. They say they need to eat on the go, that they don't have time to think about eating, and that they can't even begin to think about making healthy food choices, let alone learn how to cook! We have made eating a chore, kicked it to the lowest priority on the list, and even treat it as though it were a hassle. With so many fast and cheap alternatives, why bother putting much thought into meal planning?

It's so easy to blame the food industry for our current obesity epidemic, but in reality, we must all take responsibility for our own actions. We've forgotten that we are the ones who asked the industry for quicker and faster meals over the years. We sure did get what we wanted, but at what cost?

And this:

So where do we begin? Well, stop demanding quick, easy, and processed foods and start cooking wholesome meals made from real foods. This will increase the demand for nutritious foods, putting pressure on the manufacturers to increase supply and forcing them to boost their selection of real foods because now this is what their customers are asking for.

You don't have to be Julia Childs everyday! Just pack your lunch, bring food to work, snack sensibly, and stop depending on the food industry and restaurants to fuel your life. You don't have to cut eating out completely, and believe me, I really enjoy a great meal out on the town, but I see it as a special occasion, not an everyday event.

Losing Weight starts in the kitchen. Pure and simple. If you take control of your food, you take control of your weight and your health. If you cede control of your food to the food industry you cede control over your own weight and health. You'll never be thin nor healthy if you insist that you can not prepare your own food. Also, the time argument is just pure BS. If you have time to run to a take out joint, you have time to make your own food.

Preparing your own food can be as simple as peeling and eating a banana for breakfast instead of pouring it out of a box or heading out to McDonald's for an Egg McMuffin.   Throwing some lettuce in a container and adding some chopped cucumbers, onions, etc for lunch takes hardly any effort and probably takes less time to heading to Au Bon Pain to pick up a sandwich to bring back to the office.