Super Size Me

Last night hubby and I had the enlightening priviledge of watching the documentary "Super Size Me" on our local Canadian channel. No, we are not Canadian, but we live only 30 minutes from the border. So.....we can watch their tv too! Anyway, I digress....

So I had never seen this documentary, although I've heard a lot about it. Basically, this guy decides to eat at McD's for 30 days straight, every meal, just to see how his body reacts. We were blown away with the condition he was in at the end. He gained 25 lbs, his liver was very sick, he looked about 10 years older, and his cholesterol and triglycerides were through the roof.

Ok. I shouldn't have been so surprised by this. But the show also said that 77% of McD's customers eat there at least once a week. 22% eat there 3-4 times a week. One out of Three Children born in the year 2000 will become diabetic at some point in their lives. That is really what got me. My girls have Type 2 diabetes on both sides of the family and I really don't want to see them go through that, especially as children.

Sooo.....that being said, here comes the inevitable New Year's Resolution. We are going to get healthy around here. My kids do ok, but not good enough. We are going to limit, I mean reeeallly limit the fast food consumption. Like once a month. Some would say even that's too much. But seeing as how it was about once a week, I think that's a good place to start. Hubby and I are resolving to eat better as well. We've banished the refined sugars and starches from the house and are increasing our vegetable intake. Next on the agenda is to increase exercise. All 4 of us could stand to benefit from that. A little more exercise never hurt anyone.

The girls and I started today. We got home from running some errands and Emma wanted me to carry her into the house because she was tired. I said, "Nope. You're going to walk. We're all going to walk around outside for awhile." Suddenly, she wasn't tired anymore! She got very excited as we walked around the courtyard of our apartment complex. Even Ella was having fun. She loves to be able to walk around and discover new things. I think she had her finger pointed at something the entire time we were outside, as if to say, "Look, Mom! Look what I see!"

Alas, the warm weather will not stay around for long, and I'm going to have to find new and creative ways to get them the exercise they need. We are bound to get some snow SOMETIME this month, right? But for now, we will enjoy the sunshine and feel good about the fact that we are taking better care of ourselves.