Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

Yesterday, I attended a Lake County Captains game. The Captains are one of the Cleveland Indians’ minor league teams. I admit, I had an ulterior motive for attending…I was honored to sing the National Anthem before the game. So I decided to make a day of it. And what does this have to do with losing weight?

Ballpark food…it smelled like heaven when we walked into that stadium. I was assaulted with the odors of hot dogs, burgers, French fries, popcorn, nachos and fresh baked pizza. Coupled with the fact that is was sunny and hot (close to 90 degrees), the lines to the food were incredibly long, and people kept filing by me with plates and containers emanating fresh-cooked smells designed to make even the strongest-willed person drool.

Considering the choices I had, which food should I have taken as the least of the evils? The pizza was about 400 calories, the plain quarter-pound burger w/bun was about 450. The extra long hot dog with the bun and works was about 380. The nachos were about 575 calories. The French fries come in at around 600 calories. So forget the nachos and fries. The pizza has both high fat and high carbs. The dog and the burger are running neck and neck, but a plain burger has more protein and less fat than a hot dog. So I ate the extra 70 calories for the sake of less fat, more protein and fewer chemical ingredients. Then I went light on dinner.

The choices we make are integral to losing weight and keeping it off. Everything we put in our mouths is a choice. We choose to sit in front of the TV instead of going for a walk. We choose to eat the cheese nachos instead of a healthy green salad. We choose to drink straight cola rather than diet cola or water. Every bad choice we make adds to the problem, even when each individual choice doesn’t seem substantial. Excess weight gain is the cumulative effect of all those seemingly unimportant choices.

We need to correct our thinking so that we can make the choices necessary to help us achieve and maintain our goals! This is not an easy task. We eat by rote. It is a habit to eat when the food is there and at specified times, even when we’re not hungry. It is habit to eat dinner and then sit on the sofa and watch the tube. Tomorrow we’ll give you some tips for breaking those bad habits and making better food and exercise choices. M.E.