I’ll Take Food For 15 Please… Alex | Health

Photo credit: Ola Mishchenko via Unsplash

Food is fuel and energy that helps us live. Much like air, technology, and water we can live without it for a while but food is necessary.

Did you know “The average American male has gained 17.1 pounds and the average American female has added 15.4 pounds from 1988 to 2008” according to the CDC. Some of this gain comes from excess food and some comes from less activity. Either way, we have changed over the years.

Food can fuel us to do great things or it can create an excess of calories to weigh us down. Very frequently, we can make the choice to fuel our body as an everyday athlete or as a garbage truck and… it’s not all bad news. Today is your day, it’s the day to be like White Goodman from Dodgeball. Take the bull by the horns.

By being a little more active and eating a little better than yesterday you may find your quality of life can improve exponentially. Small steps to eat better can help you take the power back and manage that 15 pounds effectively. Here is some food for thought: Calories are stored energy. 1 packet of sugar is about 15 calories and you can easily burn about 15 calories in less than 15 minutes of everyday movement.

For example, if a 180-pound person spent 15 minutes a day moving vigorously, they could burn 75-250 calories of energy each day and start to chisel away at that 15 pounds you may have gained since 1988 when you might have been eating popcorn and watching “Beetlejuice”, “Die Hard”, or “Big”.

Imagine that good things come in threes, like Beetlejuice, maybe stick to the theme of 3 to bring good things to you. Take time 3 times through the day to eat well and move for 15 minutes. Here is a cool website to use to determine how many Calories an activity can burn and maybe offer new activities to try and keep movement fun. Here is another cool website for quick and easy recipes that you can make in under 15 minutes.

Here’s my challenge to you: For the 15 minutes you take to eat today, tomorrow, and …For Your Life will you choose to fuel your body as an everyday athlete or as a dump truck? Will you take food for 15, fitness for 15, or the daily double?