2010 Soap Box Archives

Food

Supersize me. Whopper, Quarter Pounder, all-you-can-eat buffet, giant burritos, bucket of chicken, giant tub of popcorn, Big Mac.
Daily we are inundated with TV commercials and advertising slogans that invite us to overindulge in food, most of it unhealthy and full of calories.

The convenience of the drive up window and the availability and the variety of food you can just pick up and drive away with have helped change the eating habits of America.

Where stay at home moms once prepared a healthy breakfast for the family, because of today's economic situation, many moms have to work and breakfast consists of a cup of coffee or a glass of juice and a sweet roll at home and a stop off at the drive in window of some junk food franchise for a breakfast burrito or greasy sandwich.

And thus we start our day.

You notice I say we, not you, because I am right in the middle of those of us who enjoy food and the more of it I can get my hands on and the faster I can get it the better I like it.

I have had weight problems all my life and for no other reason than I tend to overeat and love the high calorie stuff.

I love anything that has been fried. In fact, I think you could fry an old shoe sole and it would be good, and I think I could eat chocolate-covered pine shavings; I love the stuff so much.

There was a time that when I went out to have a steak I would search the menu, not necessarily for the best cut, but for the biggest cut, I once ordered a 32-ouncer at a steakhouse in Amarillo, Texas.

I remember being in California with my family in the 70's having breakfast at a place that prided itself on its serving size and ordered a breakfast that consisted of a half dozen eggs, meat, pancakes and I don't even remember what all.

I can drink a giant malted milk, chocolate of course, without batting an eye and years ago my standard hamburger order was four.

I could eat a washtub full of mashed potatoes and put a serious dent in the poultry population if it is cooked by somebody who really knows how to southern fry.

The point being friends, I know the trials, tribulations and temptations of stuffing ourselves on a daily basis and wearing the results around my middle.

Having had a mild stroke, I have had good reason to modify my diet of late; to lower my caloric, sodium and fat intake, and I find that it's not nearly as painful as I had imagined. It's amazing how your tastes and appetite can adapt in few short weeks and how greasy fried foods seem to taste and how good vegetables can be with just a moderate amount of salt on them.

There have been times that I have gone on stringent diets and lost a lot of weight, one time close to one hundred pounds, just to put most of it right back on when I got off the diet.

We have come to equate the word "diet" with a painful period of denial and deprivation, a time of lettuce leaves and low fat cottage cheese, or some miracle program of pre prepared food and measured portions.

People, I am here to tell you that they all work, you can lose weight on a lot of different programs but until we start considering the word "diet" as our lifestyle instead of a quick fix the results of any program will only be temporary and will only weaken your resolve to do something about your seemingly unsolvable weight problem.

Please know that I am not preaching, I am simply relating what I have learned the hard way through years of painful trial and error and have come to a conclusion.

The only way to permanent weight loss is a change of lifestyle and that begins in your head between your ears.

As in the case of all-important things in life you have to weigh the facts and set your priorities.

Fact: You can lose weight on most of the programs you see advertised on TV, but unless you're willing to stay on that program and eat bad to mediocre food for the rest of your life, the odds are you will regain the pounds you lost.

Fact: If you are seriously overweight it is going to catch up with you sooner or later in the form of a heart attack, stroke, bad knees or just general bad health.

Fact: You can, please take it from one who knows, you can do something about your situation, and the only way to start is to decide in your heart that you're going to change your lifestyle, permanently and that good health is much more important to you that unhealthy food.

That doesn't mean that you're never going to have another piece of cake or another pork chop, the occasional indulgence is not going to ruin what you're trying to accomplish, but the key word here is occasional.

Look around you, we are waddling down the streets of America, and not just us old folks, kids of all ages are fatter than they have ever been.
I only hope that those of you who share my problem of being overweight will take what I've said as encouragement.

I have a few goals in my life and one of the ultra-important ones is to obtain and maintain the best health I can.

Won't you join me?

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, and for our country.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

©Copyright The Charlie Daniels Band