mindful eating

This evening as I was training two hilarious, hard working women, we began talking about calories.  What a shock, right?!  On Saturday, my husband and I ate at Panera.  It is awesome that they now have the calories listed, except for that means that I may never eat another frontega chicken sandwich.:( 

Using the calorie counter, I ordered the Thai chicken salad and black bean soup with a water.  The total amount of calories was supposed to be around 400.  Not too bad and it was delicious!  My husband, not a calorie counter by nature, ordered a mean that totaled around 1200 calories.  Since he is trying to eat cleaner, I asked if he knew how many calories he was consuming.  He was shocked!  He actually thought he was doing alright by ordering French onion soup.  It made me think about how many times people think that they are eating healthy only to be blown away by the nutritional content. 

Our society does not make nutrition easy for most.  Unless one has a good understanding of nutrition, it is very easy to be fooled.  The first step to eating healthier is to have a better understanding of what a body needs to run efficiently.  The second step is to apply it!  Think about it this way, is that mayo on your sandwich going to help to strengthen your immune system?  help build muscle?  help keep skin looking youthful?  No!!!  It will add more calories to your day, period.  No thank you!  Better options are mustard, very few calories or avacado, calories and fat yes, but it offers more good than bad.  By simply thinking about what we put into our bodies, we can make positive changes.