We’ve blindly evolved and molded ourselves into this mindset that bigger is always better.

So holds true of us in our little patch of Georgia. Bigger trucks and cars, bigger houses and RVs, even bigger dogs, have all become the stifling norm for us. No surprise our waistlines are hidden amongst the clutter of this lifestyle as well.

The Washington Post lifted the veil in a recent article on how we’ve safely secured the twenty-seventh spot; out of one hundred eighty-eight countries, as the most obese nation in the world. Granted, at the opposite end of the spectrum are countries who struggle a lot with starvation and malnutrition, so they don’t have a choice really when and what they eat. We’re blessed enough to have enormous decisions to weight out when concerning our feasts. I’m a personal trainer not a nutritionist. I can’t tell you what and when to eat. But I can tell you how many wrong directions are being made when concerning our diet practices.

Portion seizes have gotten astronomical. Thanks to the “Bigger is better” mentality, ordering half a cow between two slices of bread and every condiment known to man; except your silverware, jammed in with it… is actually a reality! How is this problematic? Considering that an average burger from any one fast food joint is around three hundred to four hundred calories alone, and your body only typically absorbs ten percent immediately; outside of the additional calories potentially already burned that it’ll need to make up, that leaves a lot of calories being stored as fat. Am I going to ask you to forget about eating at any of your favorite places? Lord no. That’s one of the many misconceptions about fitness; that you have to starve yourself in order to live a healthier or more active lifestyle. Granted, a salad once or twice a day is a better choice when concerning your caloric intake, but simply cutting the mozzarella sticks before your steak will put you on an easier path to trimming down into a smaller sized skirt.

So if you’ve adopted that more active lifestyle I highlighted in my last article, and you’ve been blasting it at Anytime Fitness or the YMCA; burning over six hundred calories a swimming session or kick boxing class, then you can easily get away eating such large portions at your favorite place to eat. Calories taken in should represent calories burnt, plain and simple as that. Barring any ailment or eating disorder, adopting this mindset is where we truly not to be heading going on.

“Fat free,” “Low sodium,” “Sugar free,” all these are littered on labels throughout our aisles at our marketplaces. While these are great additions to search for when trying to concoct a meal for the family, companies are preying on uneducated cooks who are ill informed about nutritional facts. So this product has low sodium and you read the nutritional facts and see what you originally didn’t believe, and sure enough it’s a number you’re satisfied with. Into the buggy it goes. That is a tactic companies are steadily implementing to let the common consumer; that actually do read nutritional facts, overlook the fact that the serving size is drastically more than they expected, or to potentially get so worked up over that one fact that you didn’t notice the thirty or more grams of sugar in that single twenty ounce bottle of soda. So now that the “Bigger is better” mentality is in full force, not only did they sucker you into getting that item, but you probably bought more than you needed. This eats me alive! Because when people finally do decide to start making a healthier decision towards their meals; these companies are selling nothing but false hope. Read all of what the item offers. Let’s start reaching for the right ingredients and refreshments.

I can understand these two articles haven’t exactly been what you may have expected to hear from a personal trainer. That’s mostly due to the lack of true trainers in the area. “Go over there and lift as much as you possibly can,” isn’t my mentality and shouldn’t be that of other trainers.

This; as well as my last topic, is the foundation to fitness. Getting plugged into fitness and nutrition are what’s going to get that set of six pack abs, or lower your cholesterol and relieve stress. Whatever the reason for getting fit, these two are vital for results! Not just how much time you spent in the gym today. So now that we’ve touched on these two topics, I look forward to our next session; where we tackle actually spiking your body’s metabolism and start shedding this fat we’ve been babying so long. Stay warm Port City.

Column submitted by Corey McMickle