Thoughts.com

Here it is...6 months, 3 holidays and several parties later and I am still keeping close to my original diet.  Some might think it a cop out to say that I have balanced my diet more over the past few months but I can not argue with the results.  I have monitored my intakes and have really tried to experience what makes me feel good or bad and have re-added some items back to my diet that I originally cut.

I lost 8 pounds without trying.   This is what I drink.

No soda.

Coffee reduced from everyday to once or twice a week.

Green Tea...no sugar or additives.

Black Tea

Soy milk. (No more cow milk)

Grapefruit and cran rasberry juice (100%) with mineral water.

water

Red Wine (1 glass at a time)

Occasional beer (Makes me feel swollen the next day...but I enjoy it going down)

I am constantly hydrating. 

Aloha!

I have to admit that this week has felt like I am Neo and have been released from a pod battery and have seen reality for the first time.  Everyday I walk through a sea of fast food, cookies, candies, alcoholic temptations floating on a sea of fat.  Even within myself I am noticing the quiet urges, those little pangs that point to eating without thinking.  It is a daily battle.

Even after a week I feel so good. Those little aches in my knees have all but disappeared, the headache I came home with twice a week is gone,  the bags under my eyes have began to fade and although it seems I have more than usual gas (not smelly) I don't feel perpetually bloated.  Energy up, mood stable, I feel well.

My reading and searching this week has taken me to some really dark places, slaughter houses, mildly poisonous meat fillers designed to eliminate ecoli in the fast food hamburgers, chemical companies suing farmers not to grow seeds.  In Hawaii I am so far away from the world in many ways that these images seem distant and mysterious but at the same time I know they are real.

When food became a product and not a nourishment everything shifted.  If I can boil down what I think I got from this week it is this:  When we put processod foods into our bodies our bodies react to them not as food but as foriegn invaders that must be dispelled.  This cause inflamtion, pain, diarhea, and diverts important energy resources away from higher body functions.  When we feed our body whole foods, it reacts to it as food, absorbing the nutrients and sustaining all of the systems within us. Can it really be that simple?

Still working on the diet...I promise I will post it soon but there is one decision I have made.  Every morning after waking I will start the day with two large glasses of water. (Maybe with a slice of lemon) I believe deeply that proper hydration if the key to getting everything else to work correctly.

Last night I had a raw spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, avocado, alfalfa sprouts and cucumbers topped with a peice of salmon.  This week I will focus on learning about dairy products.  Any leads on thisplease let me know : )

Aloha!

Even though this is my second post I am about 1 week into the new diet and feeling really good.

Although I am still shaping the diet and trying to sculpt it into a rhythm I have for one week been off coffee, alcohol, refined sugar,  vege oil products and fatty meats.

Breakfast every morning has been fresh berries with kiwi, banana, walnuts, a very active yogurt and honey.

I made a nice organic stew with lots of veggies, garlic, in a tomato base.  I added a handful of Kalua pork to this.  My wife told me she didn't think I should put it in but as I said before a diet must be individual and pork (The non fatty kind) had always made me feel good.  It gives me energy, lifts my mood, and how shall I say...is good for my love life.

Also made a ginger and wild rice curry salad.  Had these for lunch on a rotation.

Last night I did a Quinoa salad, Fresh Salmon, and avocado.  This was my first experience with Quinoa (Keen-wa) and although I was told it is like Tabule it felt almost like a polenta to me.  It wasn't bad but I will spend some time over the next few weeks developing some recipes for it.

My mind has been really clear, no desire for snacks, I feel great.  A few days ago I went on a trip around the island with some students and noticed all of the places I used to snack (Eclair at the bakery with a hot chocolate, coffee or soda with dinner, another coffee and a candy bar at the final rest stop.)  Just eliminating those choices I feel I have done myself a great favor.

Will try to post the ingredients next time.

Aloha!

Those that know me know I have always loved to eat.  Cooking, experimenting, trying new things have always been appealing but I must also admit to many bad habits in regard to my own health.  It is something I have taken for granted.  Over eating, over drinking, fast foods, lots of sweets, and so on are unsustainable if I wish to maintain vibrancy. I am 44.

After many months of research, an aging (changing) body, and a fairly new belief that the American FDA in conjuction with the Drug Companies have sculpted a population which will require their services for life I have decided to completely change my diet and eating habits.

I have witnessed my wife battle a chronic disease for 15 years and how good she has done since stopping the medcine and using nutrition.  I want to give it a shot for at least a year (and hopefully for life).  This blog will be a record of my observations and challenges through this journey.

Systemic genetically altered seeds, processed and nutrient deficient high sugar products combined with unhealthy American eating habits (In size, frequency and style of consumpition) create a fertile breeding ground for heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. (to name a few) This makes us feel terrible and so we drown our sorrows in medicine.  We posion our bodies to kill the diseases we invited in with our bad habits in the beginning.  The cycle is there to see for anyone who is interested...I have just finally decided to do something about it.

I have began a process to create a diet that works for me.  These fad diets and national bestseller diets always generalize and I have come to believe that location, lifestyle, body type, nationality and a host of other factors all play an important role in how we decide to feed and maintain our bodies. 

Join me, help me, as this journey unfolds.  As the season of over overeating approaches I must stand and do battle with habits I have carried fo most of my life.  I am hoping this year I can give myself the gift of good health.