Diet: Back to Basics

The other major part of what I'm doing to fix my body is my diet. Sugar, in particular, and carbs, in general, are obviously a problem. I'm reducing, but not eliminating them (unless thy name is sucrose, in which case you've been voted off This Island Morgan). Super low carb/no carb diets always make me wary because of some of the side effects of ketosis. Which can include poor judgement. Which seems like a dangerous thing to have problems with when evaluating if you should stop continuing with the dangerous, but effective, diet you're engaged in.

Dairy is pretty much right out. It doesn't bring anything to the party that I actually want or need. Fat, cholesterol (the bad kind) and sugar. Cheese and cream sauces are delicious, but the Calories are dense and everything that comes with them only leads to systemic degeneration. Milk is often purported as a source of calcium (good for the bones; do not ignore the bones!), but ironically it only does the opposite. The lactose causes your system to become acidic. This leads your body to want to neutralize that and more to normal pH levels. The most available source of calcium to do this with is your bones.

I'm reducing meat considerably. It's another dense source of calories and I want to reduce those; allow myself to feel full and actually get the right caloric intake for my goals. Also, it's a source of fat and cholesterol. Cholesterol that comes from animals, and only animals (this includes humans, so anthrophages take note), is pretty much one of the worst things that you can put in your body. The amount of protein that I actually need, even when building muscle, is considerably less than what meat gives me. I have no need of that much protein. Unfortunately, I, uh, still like meat. So I allow myself some, not a lot, just some, every now and again. A little every day. I'm trying to slowly reduce that. Not uncommon for me to have under 100 grams of roasted, skinless turkey in my lunch at work. I'm lucky in that I've never been a fan of skin as a food; it's terrible to eat.

Vegetables are an every day thing. They may be bitter, but they are my mainstay at this point. There aren't a lot of Calories in there and I do need to think about ensuring that I get enough of those. They do bring a lot of good things and fill me up so that I'm not thinking about other foods as much. I also have to resist the temptation to douse them in salad dressing. I limit myself to two tablespoons of Kraft Fat Free Zesty Italian. It has the least calories and carbs of anything that actually has flavor. Stay away from salad spritzers. At best they taste like water with a weird texture. At worst, well, we won't talk about "at worst". Kids could be reading this. For lunch at work each day I pack a salad with red leaf lettuce, bell pepper, cucumber, celery and broccoli. Sometimes carrots. They have a lot of sugar and I am wary of them. I'm still afraid of food. I will often have the same at home on weekends and for dinner. Also remarkably cheap even out of season.

Today was the first day that I've had fruit this year. I had half and apple. It was freakin' delicious. Honeycrisp, if you're curious. If you haven't had that delightful fruit, you should fix that. Now. Seriously, this blog will still be here, but every moment you haven't had a honeycrisp apple is one that your life is incomplete. However, the whole time I was worried about the sugar. I shouldn't have been, but I was. It's important to avoid fruit juices; they pretty much condense everything bad in a fruit and remove all of the actual good stuff in it.

That really leaves the carbs. I still have Cheerios every morning. One cup. I put them in half a cup of almond milk (I prefer unsweetened). The whole grains are important. Rice is always brown or wild. Beans, always rehydrate yourself and avoid pre-canned. There's less question of how much fat and sodium is in there. I do love some red beans and rice, so that works out for me. Unfortunately a lot of what I liked to put on them doesn't. Salsa is more of a staple than it used to be.

On the whole, this is a category that I'm really still trying to figure out. Ideally I would like to move to a "whole food" type of diet. Ideally I would also like to enjoy what I eat somewhat and taste it. These two ideals are in conflict, as ideals often are, until I can find some recipes that work for me. I still cheat on food at times, for example tonight we had Chinese, but I try to be more responsible about it (nothing fried for me; except for those spring rolls, but we can keep that between us). That also has the advantage of tricking my body into thinking that it isn't actually starving and doesn't need to conserve energy constantly. I think. I hope. I'm going to go with that's right for now; it sounds good, doesn't it?