Felicia: Y'all, why is it so hard to eat healthy? I mean, I'm sure many of us have been there and you have determined in your heart of hearts, I'm going to, you know, just get more healthy or eat better foods, eat real foods, whatever it is. We've all gone on that diet on a Monday, on New Year's Eve. So we've all done that. But really, why what does make it so hard? I mean, what really makes it hard eating? Healthy these days. And so I'm wanting to talk about that. My thoughts about that. Okay. So hi y'all. Welcome back to my raw and uncut podcast. And if you didn't notice, I'm having to change my podcast name. I know, like really sad because I really liked the original name. You may recall it, it was originally the Grains and Grit Unsifted podcast, but A ⁓ a small company that sells grains and things and believe it or not, also claims to be a Christian company has threatened to sue me for using a word that they trademarked. And of course, I'm not exactly wealthy. Y'all probably remember my husband was shot and crippled ⁓ last year. So I already spent so much time and money tending to his needs. ⁓ yeah. So basically I just said, you know what? I don't want to fight. My channel is all about spreading the love and joy of God's ways and the healthy foods He has given us. And I'm not here to fight and bicker with people. And I'm certainly not in it for the money. ⁓ and that might be what drives others, but that's between them and Jesus. So I say all that to say I'd rather just rebrand this podcast and move on. ⁓ I pray for them and hopefully we'll they'll find the love of Jesus and Anyway, this means a completely new name and logo. So introducing grains and grit extra gritty. So it's still going to be the same type of podcast where it's still raw, unfiltered, unedited. You know, just sit down and chat with me. Like you were here in my kitchen and we're talking about whatever subject has popped into my brain today. ⁓ so if y'all go back on previous podcasts and you might see like things blurred out or random cuts, it is because know I've had to rebrand this podcast. So from here on out though, welcome back to Grains and Grit Extra Gritty Podcast. So let me know what you like about the name. Comment below. But we're going to get into our subject today, which is about why why is it so hard to be eating healthy? ⁓ and this has definitely been something on my mind. If you're wondering what I'm doing, I'm ⁓ picking up my phone because I was like putting notes down whenever this topic came to my brain. So I just have a few notes so I don't get like way off topic. ⁓ And this has been on my brain lately because I am definitely back on my health journey. So I did a video recently where I it was basically talking about like why we shouldn't be food scientists, why counting calories and protein, why we generally shouldn't be paying attention to that, or maybe we weren't meant to be paying attention to that and all that. And I kind of talked to y'all about my current health journey in that video. ⁓ so to recap that in case you missed the video, ⁓ I was actually getting into pretty good shape. ⁓ lost a lot of weight about a little over a year ago. And a little over a year ago I was sitting pretty and then my husband got shot and our world turned upside down. And like I wasn't even home for a month. ⁓ I I was definitely reliant on eating out, even though God bless my friends who brought me like freshly milled muffins and freshly milled sourdough, you know, to help supplement the diet, but still. I I'm pretty sure we ate out more last year, more convenience food happened in my house last year than probably our entire entire marriage. And I certainly like gained a lot of weight back. So right now I am like really close to actually almost 30 pounds lost, which I'm really excited about. And I'm I'm getting back, I'm trying to get back the habits that I had established. So I know I have never been naturally skinny. Like I've always thought that I was overweight or even fat. ⁓ even like when I was actually at my skinniest and actually had a really good weight, like back in high school, back in college. You know, I I wish I could go back to the day where I thought I was fat. I wish I could be as skinny as when I thought I was fat. I'm sure you've seen that meme. So trust me, ⁓ this is not it's not easy for me. I'm I'm not naturally skinny. I don't have like a super fast metabolism or anything like that. It's always been a struggle, even when I, you know, it really wasn't a struggle because I was young and You know, but you know what I mean. You know what I mean. So I'm speaking about this from experience. Now I will go ahead and dive a little bit deeper in this podcast about my health journey. And one thing that has really been helping me a lot is I'm part of a net reader, the biblical nutritionist inner circle where there's actual coaching calls. And y'all, this it really helps me a lot. I'm I'm not ⁓ an affiliate with them by any means. Trust me, like ⁓ they they know, you know, I've had a net reader on this channel before. She's Wonderful, and she's doing really, really great things as far as teaching about biblical nutrition. And the coaching program has been very, very helpful because I did especially because so much of it was like has been a mindset shift, but we'll we'll get to that later. So let me ⁓ I'll talk about that when we get to that. So let's first of all hear my here are my things about why it's so help why it's so difficult these days to eat healthy. And they're basically kind of three ⁓ categories I put it in. And then I'm actually going to talk to you what I've learned of and tips about what we can be doing about it. ⁓ so first of all, is I think the big one is a kind of a big duh, and that is convenience. It's hard to eat healthy because of the world we live in of convenience. ⁓ food is everywhere. Okay. There's there's no need to work for it anymore. You don't have to have a garden, you don't have to be working in the fields, you don't have to have a farm. ⁓ you you know, you don't. We don't have to do that anymore. We can just go down to like Dollar General or the gas station or Walmart or Publix or wherever we want to go. And you know, we can drive by and pick up food within like five or 10 minutes. ⁓ with any with so many restaurants. And for those of for those of y'all in the city, it's even more difficult because you all have DoorDash. That's something that I discovered when my husband was in the hospital. And wait a minute, I can just I can order anything. anything and it just show up on my doorstep. ⁓ yes please. Yes, please. So ⁓ yeah, as y'all city people haven't even harder. See out here in the country, we just we don't have much, believe me, we still have like gas stations and we do have a few a few restaurants, but no DoorDash really here. I do have an instant cart, shockingly, but that's for like my groceries and stuff. But ⁓ it is it is just so convenient to get unhealthy food. ⁓ it's It's insane. ⁓ and that just actually added ⁓ just dawned on me. So the other thing I'm gonna add a fourth category here of why it's ⁓ it just dawned on me. So yeah, welcome unedited, unedited, y'all. But continue with the convenience, ⁓ yeah, just so like we go on a road trip and we get snacks and we get drinks and it's just really easy. That's just how convenient is. So the next one that popped in my brain is why it's so difficult to eat healthy is because unhealthy food is super cheap. Okay. It is it's cheap. I mean, you can go get a soda, like a 32 ounce honkin soda from the gas station for what 79 cents, maybe a dollar. ⁓ you know, these chips that you can get for like a dollar or you know, I'm sure that's going up now. But in essence, a lot of ⁓ the unhealthy foods can be very can also be cheap foods. You know, this is one thing that I ⁓ I'm against. I don't I don't like government welfare. ⁓ like food stamps and things like that, just because that is stealing from Peter to pay Paul, but it is what it is. It is here today, and I don't think it's going away. But one thing that some states are doing, like the state of Florida that I'm in, is they are at least limiting food stamps where you can't be buying like candies and sodas, heavily, heavily processed box foods like the little Debbie's, which I applaud. So, like if you're gonna do it, can you can we at least encourage, you know, ⁓ real food? Because those foods are cheap. They are cheap and they are convenient. So that's another reason right there. Now, now in saying this, ⁓ it doesn't have to be as cheap. I think the bottom line of getting around that is if you just actually plan and cook meals at home, ⁓ you can actually make cheap food. Trust me, I can feed my large family way cheaper than I can like even going through McDonald's or fast food. Like I can feed them cheaper here at home and probably better food as well, better healthy food. So, but with a bit of, but that's kind of with the convenience and it's cheap. You know, you can still go through Burger King and they have like those or like Wendy's little six dollar grab bags, and it's like a burger and nuggets and fries and a drink. I mean, that's pretty cheap. you know, but I can make I can feed myself for probably pennies at home if I cook from home. But you know, that's yeah, convenience cheap. It just kind of all depends, you know, how you look at that. So yeah, convenience, it's convenient. is cheap depending on the circumstances. I would say it's cheap if you're not cooking from scratch at home. But also another big issue is the mindset about eating. And this is a big one for me. And this is a huge pro ⁓ component of the inner circle with Annette Reader, the biblical nutritionist, is we really, really talk about the mindset of things, the mindset of food, you know, what you have. There's so much to this. Of course, we know about emotional eating. ⁓ eating when stressed. Know all about that one. Okay. So, like the night my husband was shot, it is now around midnight. And my brother-in-law, God bless him, I love him to death. And he was so wonderful to me. ⁓ so helpful to have. And he texted me, he's Hey, you want a frosty from Wendy's? And here it is at midnight. I'm like, absolutely, I do. I mean, not gonna lie. It was a long, stressful day. And yes, I I there is a thing to comfort food. And it's funny, but even in that moment, it was such a stressful, crazy, insane day. I I remember I don't even think I finished all of it, but you know, it definitely was nice to have. But yeah, I was like, yeah, yeah, frosty at mid at midnight. Yeah, bring it to me. Bring it to me. And ⁓ But we have emotional eating, you know, eating when you're sad, eating when you're lonely, ⁓ all of that stuff. And I could literally do a podcast in and of itself about emotional eating and also eating alone and the importance that we should be eating with community, family. That's a whole of the podcast. I need to add that to the list. ⁓ but also mindless eating, not paying attention to hey, am I actually hungry? You know, am I actually before I eat this, am I actually hungry? Or maybe you're just kind of grazing a bit and not really paying attention, but are you actually hungry? Because you may not be. Or your hormones are so out of whack, you've kind of turned off those hormone signals that our stomach brings to our brain that says, hey, we'll stop eating. We're full. We're satisfied. And that's also another podcast I can do about getting your hormones in check. So that's a big thing is like the mindset that we have, that emotional eating, stressful eating. Also, you know, ⁓ normalizing eating in front of the TV, which watching TV is a mindless thing anyway. you know, we kind of it it is, it's just the medium. It's part of your brain shuts off. It's a scientific thing, trust me. So eating even in front of the TV, you're not really paying attention to what you're eating. ⁓ you know, all of this stuff. It is very, very much a mindset where I do think most people Thousands of years they were first of all preparing the food from scratch. So just preparing the food actually to cook and everything. ⁓ that actually starts giving signals to your brain of like, ⁓ yes, yeah, you know, I actually am hungry and this is smelling good. And it's already starting to get your digestive juices going and it's awakening your body that food is about to come. And then many people would eat together as a family or with friends, or you know. usually there was community involved and it is a difference. There is such a difference when you eat with friends and family and you have that good conversation. There there is a difference with that. It's enjoyable. And I and I think studies have been done. I need to find this because studies have been done where, you know, just the fact of being in that type of setting actually helps your b body to process and digest the food. It's just a good setting. This is why like the French love They it's kind of part of the French diet, is they eat together, they enjoy food together. And so that kind of I think conditions your brain to where, hey, this food is not just to stuff in my mouth whenever I feel like it, whenever I'm alone. You start associating food with the loving community that you have, with the loving family that you're enjoying it with. And so I think with that mindset, you're kind of less likely to eat by yourself because. Well, if you're not hungry, why are you eating? And then, you know, no, I'm gonna enjoy that. I want to enjoy this good meal with my family or with my friends or whoever it is. I want to enjoy it with them. So again, that's that's a whole other thing. But I it is a mindset, it is a mindset change. ⁓ it's also a mindset change because we're so confused about what actually we should be eating. And ⁓ and again, that's kind of why I did that video about. ⁓ stop counting calories and protein and things like that because ⁓ this is part of the mind shift we have to make is when you're eating real food, just eat real food and thank God for it and enjoy it. He gave it to us to not only enjoy, but also for our good. It's for our benefit. So that's that's again, that's that's a lot. A lot with the mindset. I would love to hear your comments below. What what you think about this, but this is one thing that I've had to start ⁓ doing is changing my mindset of And also, there was a there was a documentary. what was it called? ⁓ hold on. ⁓ Hungry for Change. I actually recommend this documentary because they were they were pretty solid. Not a Christian documentary, but advocating for real foods and they didn't completely knock bread, like real whole grains. They didn't completely knock it. ⁓ so it actually is a good documentary. It is older, but one thing that they talked about in there is a mind shift change where typically when you go on a diet, you say, ⁓ I can't. You're in a mindset of I can't. Like I can't have that. I can't have whatever insert food here. And instead, they talked about switching the mindset to I can have it, but I don't want it. And for that, it is it is a change. Like practice saying that to yourself. Well, I can have the Reese's cup. I can have the whole bag of chips, but you know, I don't want it. I actually would love to have this banana instead or some. Toast with 100% freshly milled wheat bread with a little bit of butter, whole like real butter and cinnamon on it as a little snack. ⁓ you know, instead of the whole bag of chips. I can't have it because you know, I'm a grown adult. All right, y'all. If I want to eat, this was on the movie ⁓ War Room. If you've seen that one of she's and Priscilla Shire's character had said it's like, I'm a grown woman and I can eat this is my house and I can eat chips in my closet if I want to. And that's the thing is I can like if I want to eat a whole bag of chips in my closet. By myself, you know, other than maybe my husband be like, yo, you that's really not a good idea. You don't need to be doing that. I'm not being arrested. No one is coming to stop me. Yeah, you know. I'm a grown woman who I can buy my own chips and I own this house, and you know, and I can do this. Like, I can do this, but I don't want to. I don't want to eat a bag of chips in my closet all by myself because that just screams sad and lonely and cat lady, you know. And I have a wonderful husband and a wonderful loving family. And we eat meals together. And it's so much more enjoyable with my family. And when we have people over and hospitality, I can have that, but I don't want it. I want something better. I want something more fulfilling. I want something that's not gonna make me beat my head up against the pillow at night because I feel guilty and like you, you idiot. Like you just you just ate that and it does no good. It's it does no good. You don't feel that great. It's not feeding your body what it needs. I mean, you might have had a little sugar high or whatever in the moment, but ultimately it's not gonna make me better. It's not gonna make me feel good. I don't want it. You know, and it's that mindset change that it takes practice, but you you can do it. But it starts, it starts with that. You gotta start with the mind. Okay, so enough about mindset. The fourth thing of why it's so difficult of eating healthy is definitely addictions. Y'all, the sugar addiction is legit. Okay. It is a legit thing having a sugar addiction. And that is something that is very difficult to overcome, but it definitely contributes to why eating healthy is so difficult. Food manufacturers want you to buy their products. They have intentionally put things in there that make their food addictive, that gives your brain that little woo. Yay, you know, give me some more. And it makes it addictive. And we're kind of seeking that rush. And that kind of goes back to the mind the mindset portion. Because I think overall we're in a culture that is actually pretty unhappy and pretty lonely. And we have anxiety through the roof and stress through the roof that is actually not real. You know, we're It's ⁓ a lot of it is is geared because of we watch, you know, the fear and anxiety we get from, you know, the news or social media. So much of that that we could choose to ignore, but we inhale, you know, we get all this information, I think, far more. I don't think we were ever intended to really know what was going on in real time across the world. And we know like every we can know everything that's going on in the world at all times. And it's a lot, like it's a lot on the brain. It can cause anxiety and Those addictions, we get addicted. This is part of again the emotional eating ⁓ type stuff or the stress eating because the food that unhealthy food gives us little woo in our brains, and our brain is happy for a moment and then it crashes. So the addictions are are legit and it is something that needs to be overcome. So, in a way, I say, I say, like take this with a grain of salt, because in a way. It's kind of not your fault to have these addictions, especially if you just had no idea of that all of these things were put in these in these processed foods to make you addicted. So in a way, it kind of wasn't your fault if you ended up addicted because you just didn't know. Maybe you just didn't know any better. But now that you do know, what are you gonna do about it? Okay. And it's hard. It's hard to break any addiction, but it can, it can be done. But that is definitely one thing that can make eating healthy. hard, especially I think that sugar addiction. I think the sugar addiction is one of the hardest ones to break. And no one thinks of it. Like no one talks about it as much anymore. It's no one has sugar, you know, sugar anonymous. We have alcoholics anonymous, but we don't have sugarholic anonymous, you know, we don't have that in maybe we should. Maybe we should. Which leads to the next section of this is, you know, what to do. How, what can we do to start eating healthy again? And of course, if you haven't already realized that it's like I already said, you know, you have to change your mindset, you have to start thinking of these things. And one thing is recalling scripture, you know, recalling your whys. Why are you wanting to do this? Because maybe you have a health issue that you're wanting to overcome because you actually want to, you know, play with your kids or your grandkids without being winded. I mean, there's so many reasons why. You just want to look better in your clothes, you want to feel more confident. Vanity is totally fine. Or maybe you just want to be alive. You don't want to be 80 years old, 70, 80s year old, 80, 70 or 80 years old and alive, but unhealthy, you know, your a you know, aches and pains and all of this stuff. And maybe you actually want to thrive in this life, not just survive. So a big thing to start with is you need to remember that we eat to live. We don't live to eat. You should not be living to eat. You should be eating to live, to fuel your body, to live your life, to enjoy your life. Okay. To have those good moments. ⁓ the next thing is you've got to pray. Christians, no doubt in my mind, Satan wants to keep us sick. He wants to keep us unhealthy because if we are unhealthy, then we're focused on our health issues and not pursuing things and not fighting with everything that we have for the kingdom of God. And for those of you with a health issue, please know I'm not knocking you. You know, my husband is now paralyzed and in chronic pain every single day. And seeing someone with these types of health issues, it is very, very, very hard for him to do things. So trust me, I'm I have empathy for those who want to do more, but physically unable to do so. It is hard. Now, my husband's case. was not entirely preventable. ⁓ some it's not like he, you know, did something. Our neighbor lost his mind and shot him and he tried to kill him. He shot him five times. And so this is just where the Lord has us. This is where the Lord has us. Now he can choose to just wallow in bed and do nothing and ⁓ woe is me. And ⁓ to his credit, he's definitely, you know, trying to fight. But some days are just hard, you know, they just are. And so it is a mindset, you know, that, but this is where This is where you you pray, you pray and ask God, please help me. Show me what I should do. Help me to overcome this. For me, y'all, I had to. There are some days where I literally have to take it one day at a time. Like I can't think about tomorrow. I have to think, Lord, today help me to fight the temptation of, you know, me wanting to eat five Reese's bar, you know, five Reese's because. You know, it is so stressful and I just want something that my brain, my brain sees is happy. And there are moments where I just have to pray like, Lord, help me, help me to overcome that. And good news, he said he can. ⁓ I think it's first Corinthians 10, 13, where it says, There is no temptation that is seized you that is, ⁓ there is no temptation that is seed you except what is common to man, but God is faithful and he will always give you a way out. That's a paraphrase. But the bottom line is you're gonna be tempted, but God always leaves a way out. He always leaves a way out. Still a choice, but there's always a way, and we have to pray. And we have to pray and determine in ourselves that Lord, I want to, as best as everything that's in my ability, to actually, you know, be healthy, to eat the foods that you have given us so I can thrive and I can do more for your kingdom. Y'all, my mother died of cancer at 48 years old. I just turned 40. That is way too young. Even at that time when she passed away, it was way too young. 48 is way too young. And my mother had so much life in her. So much more. She was very much involved with ministry with my dad because my dad was a minister of music. And she played piano and in the choir and directed and, you know, all of these things. And think about if like she doubled that time in ministry, or at least like 10, 20 years further, could have happened. I'm not blaming my mother for getting cancer, by the way, but I do think many cancers can be prevented or at least. Helped in some way ⁓ if we just ate real food. Okay. And I love my mother. And more than anything, I wish she was here. And I'm not blaming her. I blame the system. I really do. I blame the system that has been created between food manufacturers and big pharma. And that's a whole other podcast. Okay. I'm going to get off, get off that rabbit trail. But my mother died so young. There have been others who have died from, you know, maybe it's diabetes that got way out of control and they died too young. And again, I'm not necessarily blaming people. ⁓ I'm blaming the system because it has really set us up to fail. Okay. But and this is one reason why, like, it's so important to have these ministries, like what and that readers doing and many others, like the biblical nutritionist. It's why I'm so passionate about what I do. Now I'm only talking about grains, but y'all, it's the staff of life and how important it is, even when people just change the bread, it can change people's lives. And here we are as Christians. Can you imagine if the church was healthy? And then we could show everyone, hey, I've proven it to you. God's ways are best. And I know we joke about the stereotypical Baptist preacher that's like 300 pounds and we eat so much junk at the church fellowships. Okay. And that I'm gonna go ahead and say it. It's like it's not a good testimony. It's not. It's not. Because here the Bible says that. God gave us these foods to eat and he's given us the ability to actually thrive in this life. And are we truly pointing people to Christ? Let I mean, put it this way, y'all. I mean, as this is vanity, okay, but people pay attention to people who look good. Okay. Because they're gonna look at them and say, hey, you know, I'm kind of interested in what they have to say because they look that way. And that's absolutely God can overcome our looks. 100%. He can overcome us even saying bad things. And and trust me, I'm not like I'm not knocking people who may think that you were not, you know, beautiful. I think every person, you were created by God and He knows who you are and He loves you. And in His eyes, you are beautiful because He made you just as you are. And we should all be accepting of who we are, how God made us. If you don't like your nose, God gave it to you. Okay. And it's okay. This is how He made you. This is how He made you. Now do the best with what He gave you. All right, it's what you do with what you got. And ⁓ I'm really taking rabbit trails on this. But bottom line is I do believe that as Christians, we could have a better testimony. Because think about it, and it's again the Christian life is not about your best life now. The Christian life is pointing people to Christ. And I do think that food can be a way that we can do this because, for example, with bread, for me to tell you like this is the biblical, like eating grains is good because God gave it to us and He says that He's the bread of life, forget what the world says, and then I can show you that it's actually true. That you can thrive and people are healthy with this. I mean, all the more reason, like more power to scripture and God's way. And yes, people are still gonna reject God. Doesn't matter. And I get it, but it is just one avenue, you know, that can maybe get people to pay attention. And so I think for us, we are called as Christians individually to bring God the glory in everything that we do. And everything we do, we do it for the Lord. So can so are you doing that with your food right now? Can you, are you doing it for the Lord? Are you eating whatever food that you were eating right now? Are you doing it for the Lord? Because that's what you should be doing. Whatever it is you are doing for the Lord. So let that sink in. Okay, so the last thing, just a practical what to do. And this is something that Hungry for a change, that documentary mentioned. And it was where you just start swapping out things for better ingredients. So for example, if you love bread, start milling it yourself, milling the wheat yourself, baking it from home. That's a swap. You don't have to eliminate your bread. You just swap it for the real thing. Same thing where, you know, if you love the frozen chicken pot pies from the grocery store, start making it yourself at home. I guarantee you it'll be far less ingredients, far less ⁓ you know, the additives and all that stuff. You know, don't buy the beef stew in the can. Make it yourself at home. And overall, it's going to be cheaper for you to do this anyway. Trust me. ⁓ so it's these little swaps that you can start making. And no, don't. For the love of God, do not swap out butter for margarine. Okay. You swap out margarine for real butter. That is more expensive. But trust me, I will die on this hill. No one should be eating margarine. Okay. Real butter from a cow. Cream to butter. That's what you should be doing. But start making these little swaps. So instead of say if you really love chips, for example, start switching them out maybe for something like nuts. So you still get that salty food, but it's just salty, raw nuts. Which is way better. You're still gonna have to watch how many you eat. It is a fat, but ⁓ you know, it's gonna be more filling. It's just better for you. It's a real food. But if you like salty foods that's way or like popcorn, y'all, I love popcorn. And popcorn is a whole grain. Pop it yourself at home. Get one of those little poppers on the stovetop, and then you know, add a little bit of seasoning salt or butter, whatever it is. But doing it yourself is it's super quick and easy. And popcorn is a healthy whole grain that you can have instead of like the chips. You know, that's actually an excellent swap right there because I there are times absolutely I love salty food and popcorn. Yeah, I'm gonna tell you that'll definitely help the salt cravings there. So these are all little things. Think of just a better swap that you can make. And even if you just like start with one thing. Okay, just start with one thing. And of course, I'm gonna suggest grains. So if you love muffins and pancakes and waffles, well, start milling the grains yourself. So you can still have those foods, but trust me, they taste better and they're better for you and they're gonna fill you up in all the things. All right. So that's it, y'all. ⁓ to for this new episode of the Grains and Grit Extra Gritty podcast. I would love to hear your thoughts below. For now, we're just on YouTube. But ⁓ if this ⁓ you know, as the momentum goes, I'm hoping to be posting more and maybe we can get on other type of ⁓ podcast type platforms. But otherwise, comment below your thoughts. Thank y'all so very much for watching and for or listening or just listening to this podcast. And I hope y'all have a wonderful, excellent day. Happy, healthy eating. And I'll see you later. Bye.