In the last issue, I wrote about losing weight with the iPhone by using apps such as Edibles Food Journal and Restaurants (“Lose Weight with the iPhone,” page 64, Vol. 1, No. 2). Losing weight is great, but it’s not the be all and end all—getting healthy should be your real goal. For example, your food decisions shouldn’t all be about calories and carbohydrates; you should be concerned about the quality of the food you eat. Note also that healthy people exercise regularly and tend to have a higher muscle-to-fat ratio. Muscle is heavier than fat, and as you build more of it, you might not lose as much per week. Finally, there are things more detrimental to your health than fatty foods, not the least of which is smoking. You have to go beyond calorie counting and wrap your mind around the idea of living healthier.
Fueling your body
Living healthier not only involves doing more exercise, it means eating better (we’ll call this “fueling your body”). A double cheeseburger might look tempting for lunch, and it may only cost me a dollar, but it consumes 25 percent of my daily allotment of calories, fat, and fiber. In addition, the contents of that burger—the bun, meat patty, tomatoes, cheese, etc.—may have spent days or weeks in a refrigerated truck. The point is that fast food provides me with questionable nutrition—it’s poor quality fuel for my body.
