The Eye-opener

One of the classes that I am taking right now is Health Education for Elementary Teachers. I have taken fitness and nutrition classes before so I didn't really think that there would be too many new things to be learned...I was so wrong. I have been thinking about our class discussion for nearly a week. First she had taken empty bottles of different kinds of drinks and filled them with the amount of sugar that they have in them. I was very upset to see that a little tiny juice, that I have enjoyed before, was more than half way full of sugar! Then she took out some tubes and showed us how much fat there is in different things.

Then we watched a short movie about a 760lb man... it was awful. He was saying that he was just cooking in the kitchen one day and his knees just went out from under him. He had been in a bed ever since. They moved him to a rest home and it took 10 people to move him so that they could weigh him.

The big kicker was taking a paper home to see what I ate. I've written what I have eaten down before just to make sure I am getting enough veggies a day, but I didn't really keep track of calories. I was having some lunch and got some whole wheat pasta out of the cupboard and started heating up the veggies. I had a yummy little lunch and then pulled out my paper to start adding up calories. It said 180 calories per serving. Not bad, I thought. Then I realized that one serving is 2 ounces. That is 1/4 of a cup!! By the time I added up the cup of noodles, the sauce, veggies, and pinch of cheese, I had eaten over 800 calories! I thought I was being healthy with my whole wheat noodles. :( I am just baffled. I then spent about half an hour googling our favorite restaurants nutrition information. ~That is pretty crazy by-the-way. If you like costa vida, don't look up how many calories are in one tortilla.

Anyway, maybe it's just new information to me, but what a wake-up call.