The first order of business is grains. Growing up, and until the last couple of years, I held onto the old idea that grains should be the base of food pyramid. Each meal should be based in grains and anything else was just bonus nutrients. I thought that grains were the gold standard for nutritional value.
Then I started thinking about it. The government subsidies of grain production explain why the USDA endorsed them as the basis for nutrition. Grains are cheap, versatile, and are one of the easiest sources of energy (calories.) Hence, corn-fed beef is higher in fat and in Omega-6 fatty acids while grass-fed is leaner and higher in Omega-3 fatty acids (more on that later.)
I've started to realize that my whole basis for nutritional understanding has been entirely skewed.
So, now I'm trying to re-define what good nutrition means to me and my first step is removing grains from my regular rotation. I cannot say that a grain product will never cross my lips again, but I can make an effort to not eat them frequently.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
starting the cleaning process
I want to clean up my eating. Actually, I've wanted to clean it up for about 4 years now. I've been in either a state of very slow improvement or steady decline for so long that I can't quite tell the difference. Perhaps I'm better off now than I would be if I hadn't been working on this for so long or perhaps I'm just not making any progress and in fact regressing little by little.
I have gone from not thinking about food 80% of the time to not thinking about it about 20% of the time, when I'm asleep, though I find that I dream about it, too.
These are my issues: I have some minor health problems like Hashimoto's which is an auto-immune thyroiditis that I take meds for. This is something that is not necessarily curable and generally progresses as one ages until the thyroid is entirely non-functional because the body has destroyed it. The only thing that really does help to stop the auto-immune reaction is changing one's eating habits. I also have some food sensitivities that rear their ugly, stinky heads occasionally, somewhat sporadically, and seemingly inconsistently.
I like to eat and create new and interesting foods, but I'm finding more and more that I can't handle food like I used to. For starters, with an auto-immune disease there are foods one should avoid - inflammatory foods - like grains, sugars, dairy, artificial crap - basically everything good and delicious. Ideally, I would eat a diet of whole foods, primarily vegetables, some meat, occasional fruit, the paleo way of life. But for whatever reason, when I attempt to implement simple guidelines, that I KNOW would benefit me greatly, I can't do it. I fight back (against myself) like I've been imprisoned and desperately need to break free immediately.
I'm nearly 30 and I feel like this, one of my most basic needs, MUST be met because it should be the easiest thing I can change for my own betterment and yet it is by far the most difficult.
As I said in the beginning, I have been working on this for 4 years, always thinking that I'm on the cusp of making that one change that will implement a total transformation in how I think about food, but never getting there. I've been looking for the event that will signify my time to change, the book that will alter my whole perception of life, the day when I will wake up and say "That's it! I'm done! I'm doing what's best for me because I want to and I know how to." But, sadly, those things have not yet happened. I still hope that they will, but I'm realizing that perhaps it's not an epiphany-type experience. Perhaps it's not a black and white moment. Perhaps it's not a turning away and never looking back decision.
Perhaps it is each moment for the last 4 years, strung together, zig-zagged up and down across the progress chart like a Missoni knit on crack, moving, at least, instead of stagnating. Perhaps it's having the courage (or not caring anymore) to put this "out there," publishing to the world of semi-anonymity that I DON'T have it all together, I don't know what the hell I'm doing, and I make stupid, unhealthy decisions everyday that I KNOW hurt me and I KNOW are not positive progress, but I continue to choose them over and over and over again because they taste good.
Perhaps it is all of these things, rolled up together and unrolling over time into what is perceived as life. But, each moment is a choice, each meal is a choice, each bite is a choice. I just need to accept that the only one responsible for those choices is me.
I have gone from not thinking about food 80% of the time to not thinking about it about 20% of the time, when I'm asleep, though I find that I dream about it, too.
These are my issues: I have some minor health problems like Hashimoto's which is an auto-immune thyroiditis that I take meds for. This is something that is not necessarily curable and generally progresses as one ages until the thyroid is entirely non-functional because the body has destroyed it. The only thing that really does help to stop the auto-immune reaction is changing one's eating habits. I also have some food sensitivities that rear their ugly, stinky heads occasionally, somewhat sporadically, and seemingly inconsistently.
I like to eat and create new and interesting foods, but I'm finding more and more that I can't handle food like I used to. For starters, with an auto-immune disease there are foods one should avoid - inflammatory foods - like grains, sugars, dairy, artificial crap - basically everything good and delicious. Ideally, I would eat a diet of whole foods, primarily vegetables, some meat, occasional fruit, the paleo way of life. But for whatever reason, when I attempt to implement simple guidelines, that I KNOW would benefit me greatly, I can't do it. I fight back (against myself) like I've been imprisoned and desperately need to break free immediately.
I'm nearly 30 and I feel like this, one of my most basic needs, MUST be met because it should be the easiest thing I can change for my own betterment and yet it is by far the most difficult.
As I said in the beginning, I have been working on this for 4 years, always thinking that I'm on the cusp of making that one change that will implement a total transformation in how I think about food, but never getting there. I've been looking for the event that will signify my time to change, the book that will alter my whole perception of life, the day when I will wake up and say "That's it! I'm done! I'm doing what's best for me because I want to and I know how to." But, sadly, those things have not yet happened. I still hope that they will, but I'm realizing that perhaps it's not an epiphany-type experience. Perhaps it's not a black and white moment. Perhaps it's not a turning away and never looking back decision.
Perhaps it is each moment for the last 4 years, strung together, zig-zagged up and down across the progress chart like a Missoni knit on crack, moving, at least, instead of stagnating. Perhaps it's having the courage (or not caring anymore) to put this "out there," publishing to the world of semi-anonymity that I DON'T have it all together, I don't know what the hell I'm doing, and I make stupid, unhealthy decisions everyday that I KNOW hurt me and I KNOW are not positive progress, but I continue to choose them over and over and over again because they taste good.
Perhaps it is all of these things, rolled up together and unrolling over time into what is perceived as life. But, each moment is a choice, each meal is a choice, each bite is a choice. I just need to accept that the only one responsible for those choices is me.
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