Attack of the Wellness Program

Dear Micah,

               I have started a new health regimen and Wellness program and I am having some trouble getting my husband to follow our new meal plan. We are cutting out fats and carbs and trying to eat more natural foods. My husband is having a hard time cutting out his refined sugars and processed foods. Plus he is a huge meat eater and we are trying to cut out most of our meat intake. How can I help to get him on track and focused on more healthy eating?

Jorry

Dear Jorry,

               I am not getting the feeling that your husband is necessarily cutting any of this stuff out or that he is even planning too. It just sounds like you have fallen onto this Wellness road and are trying to drag him down it too. I don't think I can be of much help here because you have asked the wrong person about this stuff. I am meat and potatoes all the way. I believe that vegetables are of the devil and I think Wellness programs are a fad and I laugh at them while I eat my half-pound of bacon. I will probably die way sooner than other people but I don't care. I think that giving up ten to fifteen years of my life in order to eat what I want to eat is a fair exchange.   I have seen people take great care of themselves only to live to a ripe old age where they are lonely and bored and unable to enjoy much of what life has to offer because they are completely dependent on family members to take them anywhere they want to go. I'm not saying that this is the road that eating healthier leads to, but it's one of the possibilities. I have also seen people eat nothing but fried foods with biscuits and gravy who have lived happily into their late eighties. With all this said, I am not one to argue with science; I am pretty sure that my way is wrong and that I should be eating a healthier diet. But at my core, I want meat. I want gravy. I want cake. And life without them is pointless and empty. So unless your husband has been diagnosed with some kind of medical issue that requires a drastic change in diet, leave him alone. He'll get healthy when he wants too. I exercise a lot so that I can continue to eat the way I want to eat and not have weight or heart repercussions. Maybe your husband could just exercise more and let that be your compromise. 

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