Shocking Epiphany

For the Christmas holidays I went down to San Luis Potosi, Mexico to meet my hubby's extended family. I've been border towns and tourist hot spots in Mexico, but this was the first time I'd really been to a down-home type Mexican city. It was a culture shock to say the least, but I enjoyed every last minute of it.

As background, I've forever been trying to lose weight so I eat pretty healthy foods on a daily basis - lean meats, fruits, vegetables and whole wheat carbs mostly and drink only water. I've been eating this way most of the time for at least 2 years now. I knew the food was going to be different down there and I wasn't going to have access to my normal daily staples of my diet, but boy was I in for a shock.

I love trying new foods and will always try anything at least once, so I dove head first into eating the local cuisine I was served on a daily basis. It was different and way out of the relm of what I was accustomed to, but I loved it. It was delicious and interesting. I ate authentic flautas, pizole, various kinds of tamales, menudo, barbacoa, carnitas, gorditas, enchiladas and tortas, just to name a few. There was Mexican candy galore for the holiday season and I had my fair share of that, as well. Most everyone drank regular Coca-Cola for every meal (I seriously did not see a DIET soda drink ONCE the entire time I was there), but I stuck to my water because I just cannot warrant drinking useless calories when I could be saving them for more food. =)

I noticed as they were cooking that they fry everything in oil or used straight up lard (seriously, lard from a pig). They don't eat many fruits and vegetables on a regular basis besides the salsas and small additions to the main meal of meat and tortillas (sometimes with beans or rice). They almost always drink soda and barely ever drink water. The use the fattiest cuts of meat because they have more flavor. They never do any organized form of exercise. They ate candy and other 'junk' food guiltlessly. They only had full fat milk and cheeses, none of the low-fat/fat free stuff you can get in the US. They drank regular (not lite) beer on a regular basis.

That must be as far to the polar opposite as you can get from my normal way of eating, but all of the Mexican people were what I would call normal weight. I was the fattest person in the room most of the time! How is it that I'm eating healthy foods and exercising several days a week, but I'm fatter than all these other people who eat horrendously and never exercise on purpose? Granted, the women had little to NO muscle tone and were quite flabby, but that doesn't dismiss the fact that they were thin and I'm not! This was really an enigma to me for quite some time while I was down there.

After giving it some thought, I've devised my own reasons why I think they are at normal weights (how true my thoughts are? I have no idea). First off, everything they eat is fresh. There was NOTHING in our host family's freezer except ice trays. They went to the store daily to buy the food they wanted to cook for that day or, as one of my hubby's aunt graciously showed us, they went out to their backyard and gathered/slaughtered what they wanted to eat for the day. There are no preservatives or weird additives in their food. Also, their portion sizes are pretty small. We live in the world of supersize and king size, but they were blissfully unaware of the ways we Americans have created to stuff ourselves with as much unnecessary food as possible. The portions of food on their plates were small and it was very rare for anyone to go back for seconds. Their meat is still grassfed/naturally raised and not pumped full of antibiotics and fed things they aren't supposed to be eating in feedlots. They rarely ever watch TV, I think my hubby's cousin's family had 1 working TV in a house full of 5 people. The only one who ever seemed to watch the TV was the son, who amused himself with cartoons when no one was around to play with him. Other than that, everyone relished in socializing, cooking and doing things around the city. They did a lot of things around the house - cleaned often, did laundry often, fixed up anything that needed fixing, decorated and setup for social events. No one ever did what most Americans do when they are not at work - plop down in front of the TV and veg out for hours. I LOVED that because I really don't like TV. I can't say that I would want to always be moving around and doing something because sometimes I just like to sit down with a good book, but I think I could do without TV on most days. In addition to these things, they almost NEVER went out to eat. They would rather make a fresh, homecooked meal than go out to any restaurant.

All these things seem to add up to the reason why these people were not fat, overweight or obese in the least sense of the words. I, as an American, eat out way to much and, in doing so, probably eat a horrendous amount of additives and weird chemicals used to keep the food fresh. My portions are way out of control compared to my extended Mexican family. I eat frozen dinners for lunch at work, drink protein shakes for snacks and subsist on low fat cheeses and skim milk. Probably most of what I eat comes in a box, can or freezer bag.

Now that I've admitted that - it's just downright sad.

So, taking from the example of my new family members, one of my goals in the new year is to try to eat more natural, whole foods that preferably come from a farmers market, local farm or at least from a health food store. My meals will be made from scratch and will not come out of a box/can/bag, if I can help it. Also, I'm going to focus more on trying to move around and be more active on a daily basis. Walk to someone's desk instead of calling/emailing; park further away from the grocery store/work; work on projects around the house instead of watching TV/reading; cook at home more instead of going out to eat and trying to incorporate more fun exercise into my life (to make it seem less like exercise).

What an eye-opener going to Mexico was for me. I loved it and learned a lot from the experience. It's amazing how much I still don't know and how much I still have to learn. I've got some books on nutrition/food that I want to read to help broaden my horizons even more and educate me on what I'm putting into my mouth and how they food affects my body.

Learn something new every day...