Yes. You CAN eat 'normal' food! (my rant.)

LOVE IT!!!

I eat "normal" food, fast food, and junk food! In moderation and when I really want it! I've lost 98 lbs.

Well said!

I completely and TOTALLY agree I have lost 70lbs eating all the foods I love...just in the correct portion sizes and within my daily calorie allowance I am able to stay on track, be healthy, and ENJOY food again

This isn't about HATING food and making it your enemy...it's about EMBRACING food and learning to work WITH it so that our weightloss is lasting

Well said my friend...well said

The thing for me, I can't afford to go out and buy ingredients to make some fantastic low cal, low fat, low sodium, non-processed meal. Our oven doesn't even work, we have to use the toaster to "bake". I'm on a starving student budget and I'm lucky that I don't have to survive off of noodles. On top of all that I don't own a food scale. I seriously doubt anyone in my entire family that I have met at least once in my life owns one. So I can't measure out my food and toss out what doesn't fit in my budget. I know how many calories are in a 6 inch sub with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and ranch because I can easy look up the ingredients. I know what I'm eating when I pop a Marie Callendar's meal into the microwave because it says so on the box.

It's how I watch my portions. Instead of getting the 12pc nuggets from Chick-fil-a I get the 8pc and a water. Instead of a double whooper with everything on it, I get a whooper jr w/o the fries. Little things, it's what counts. Now maybe one day I want to munch on a celery stock while lifting 30lbs of weights, but right now I want my freaking hamburger and sugar cookies so I won't murder the poor guy that looks at me weird in the Wal-Mart check out.

Love this post!!

Here Here!!!! Well said and very succinct. I'm glad you wrote this!

Real quick here: for those "healthy eaters" who think that what they eat now as "normal" food, do you think that if everyone "normally" ate that way, they'd be overweight or obese? I'm betting the answer is no.
So since the majority of overweight and obese people probably didn't get that way from eating whole grains, vegetables, whole foods etc., then wouldn't the processed, junk, high sugar, high fat foods actually be the norm?

A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I definitely got overweight that way. Eating a huge bowl of pasta with meat sauce while you sit on your *kitten* is still going to pack on the pounds whether or not the pasta is whole grain and the meat sauce is made with veggies and grass fed beef. Making a wonderful veggie stir fry and serving it over a double helping of rice is still going to get you overweight. My problem was portion control. And sitting on my *kitten*. My problem was not that I ate a bunch a processed junk. Sorry to disappoint.

I grew up with a home cooked and well-balanced meal everyday to go along with my packed lunch. Every once in a while my mom would fry chicken or fish or take us out to eat at McDonald's or Taco Bell. I still cook all the time. I LOVE to cook. I love to cook with whole grains and veggies. I always have. Even in college I was the one having baked chicken with brown rice and veggies while everyone else ate their Hot Dogs and top ramen. I had fast food maybe once or twice a week when I was too busy with school to cook.

The fact of the matter is that eating processed junk is not everyone's normal.

Same here. I always ate a lot of veggies and fruits and hardly any junk food. Almost always bought produce and meat instead of boxed stuff. What changed for me when starting MFP was becoming more active again and controlling my portion size. For me to still eat my "normal" foods means still eating pasta/rice, an occasional pastry, ect. but probably less than I use to before joining.

What's considered normal to someone isn't normal to another person, whether that normal is junk food or health food.

There are exceptions to every category and like I mentioned, the MAJORITY of people who are overwieght or obese DIDN'T do it eating this way.

A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I feel like we've all somehow gotten distracted from the most important issue, though...

What IS going to happen to my boobs?

Two words... Deflated Balloons. Start saving for the breast lift now. LOL

I eat very clean and healthy for 5 days and my treat for doing so is 2 larger meals (one sat & one sun) and I usually eat out & have a little dessert!!!!

You CAN'T eat processed foods and expect things to be great. Just saying

Depends on how much of it you're eating. My body is adaptive enough to be able to handle a Snickers bar, or pizza, or Hot Pocket, every now and then. I wouldn't expect great things if I ate only Snickers, pizza and Hot Pockets, but since more than 80% of my diet is healthy and I'm meeting my nutritional requirements... I'm going to enjoy my weekly pizza and daily fun-sized Snickers, and on days when I'm absolutely stumped on what to have for lunch, I'll have a Hot Pocket.