Eat, drink, and be merry

For tomorrow we Phase 1

I bumped into a client I hadn't seen in a while. He has lost more than 30 pounds on South Beach and looks great. I asked him about it and he, being a guy, said that his biggest temptations were salty junk food and beer as opposed to chocolate and pastries. (Mmm. Cake.) He liked popcorn, chips, and huge sub sandwiches while he was watching football games on the couch. In listening to his story and seeing his success, I was inspired. I had been thinking recently about how much I would like to break my dependence on carbs. I love em. Cereal. Bread. Cake. Biscuits. Donuts. Ice cream. One of the tricky things about it all is that we have abundant options. If you're just counting calories, it is easy to assume the quality does not matter. I'm tired of processed crap. I read Michael Pollan's books last year and was so happy to discover and rediscover how much better real food actually is. It tastes better and it sticks with you longer. That said, if you are carbing and sugaring out, you can still do damage. The integral parts about eating mostly plants and watching your portions were lost on me.

I find myself revisiting the desire I have for balance. Once I realized that Prince Charming is not coming, no one gets a happily ever after, and my goals had been totally unrealistic, I had to replace those emotions with something. The depression I went through in November and December was terrible. Some days I just wanted to die. But now that I have walked through the wilderness and made it out alive, I don't particularly want to eat my feelings. Or celebrate my survival with food. Processed crap has made me feel bad. Tired, sluggish, bloated, weighed down. My exercise habits have been good and I have been pushing myself to try new things. I have kept an eye on my portion sizes but the stuff I have eaten has not been the right stuff.

So we'll see how this goes. The main thing I hope to accomplish is to steer myself away from boxed and prepackaged stuff, junk food, candy, and fruits that are basically as sugary as candy. Man cannot live by figs, dates, and raisins alone. However tempting they may be.