Health & Fitness: The ‘D’ Word

By Chuck Howard

Today is the day you will begin to never “diet” again! Your new definition of diet is your Daily Intake of Energy Treats!

Your daily eating plan and your five meals a day is your diet. No deprivation, all real foods, no packaged or precooked foods. Just a good, healthy eating plan. 

Stop and think about the foods people had to eat way back in the 1800s: vegetables grown in the ground, fruit off the trees, animals that were hunted, fish that were caught in the river and grains that were picked.

There were no pasta primaveras, cheese enchiladas or Texas chili — and definitely no pizza. Unfortunately, those days were much more primitive and cooking was done over a wood-burning fire. There were no microwaves or fancy ovens, no food processors or pasta machines, not even refrigerators.

Whatever was caught that day was eaten. Now, what this shows us is that the food was fresh, all-natural with no preservatives, and prepared over a fire or eaten raw.

If society could get back to the basics by eating all-natural foods, more fruits and vegetables, fresh fish instead of red meat (primarily because we do not perform manual labor any longer to burn the calories in red meat) and less sugar and flour products, we never would have to watch what we eat.

Our activity level would need to increase. The pioneers and Indians walked or rode horses for transportation. As you know, this burns more calories than sitting in a car.

If we could incorporate the ways of our ancestors by eating more natural foods and exercising more intensely, we could improve so many aspects of our lives. Here are a few benefits we could expect:

Chuck Howard is the director of athletic performance and the GCU Student Recreation Center. Contact him at chuck.howard@gcu.edu.