The Food, The Bad and The Ugly
Showdown in aisle seven!
I used to be fat. I remember seeing a copy of my medical chart and doctor listed me as obese. Yikes. I am still not a skinny Minnie and never will be. But I do the best I can with the knowledge I have been given. I had an auntie that died before I was born. She was really huge, so I knew I had a possible pre-disposition to go that way. She was always the chunky one in the family photos, while everyone else had the rail thin look that came hand in hand with the American Depression.
When 2020 rolled around and I had my annual wellness visit, my weight was about 220. (Just the month before, I had seen a specialist for pain in my joints. X-rays had shown tendinitis and arthritis in my hands, feet and cankles.) My cholesterol was 207 and the blah blah numbers were bad too, on that gloomy January day in 2020.
I have always struggled with my weight. But never once, in all my days as a patient, did my Dr. say “Well, gee. Instead of sending you on to another specialist/rheumatologist, let’s change what you eat. Because eating bad food causes ILL HEALTH.”
I know it was the hand of God that finally pushed my needle to actually do something about my weight. I had a friend who had lost 100 lbs on Code Red. It was started by Cristy Nickel, who was a local from Boise. She wrote a book called The Code Red Revolution. My friend sent me the main page out of the book about what to eat and what to avoid, while I waited for my book to arrive. I sent the list on to Hubs, who was at sea, and together we started our journey to get rid of the fat. You hear about detox from food, but I had no idea how real it was. I was bone sick for almost 2 weeks at the start of this. Ridding my body of years of toxins from what I was eating? Not fun, but so worth it.
And the timing could not have been more orchestrated. We had a trip to Europe planned for 3 weeks, Feb/March 2020. I know what you are thinking! You are correct. It was the start of the worldwide plandemic and we were in Ireland when we decided to cut our trip short and get back home before they started funneling all international arrivals into just a few US airports. While we were on holiday, we shopped and made all our own food as much as we could. But still…Guinness in Ireland. Heck yes.
2020, for me, was a time of transforming. Transforming the outside as well as the inside. I would eat because I felt as if I deserved that box of donuts if I was sad OR if I was happy. People talk of food addiction. I do not buy into that excuse. It is all about choice and the strength to follow through. Eating healthier is the hardest thing I do every single day. I can’t not eat. There will always be the temptation. As you can see, this lifestyle change was more keto than any other label. But, no bags, boxes or cans! Today you can find lazy keto items everywhere. You may as well just eat regular UPFs. (Ultra processed food) because the lazy keto food is processed. I do not eat it.
So, I used the above list as my guide. No shakes or crap to buy and no working out because you can’t out-exercise your fork. I just concentrated on eating right and not eating trash food.
I hit my goal weight on August 26, 2020…what would have been my mother-in-laws 99th birthday. I think she would have loved that.
I have downloaded the Lose It app and have logged my weight and food intake every day for the last 1600 days. I am the only one who sees it, so there is no reason to not log everything I have eaten or exercise I have done or not done because I am only cheating myself.
I kept going and lost another 15 pounds and held within 10 pounds for a couple of years. Moving part time to Florida helped immensely with the outdoor lifestyle as well.
As more and more information comes out about how adulterated our food supply has become (especially here in America) eating has become a research project. Voices that were once trusted have done a total 180 and are now screaming “EAT CARBS!” Huh? I listened to Mercola when he talked about cholesterol, and I still believe it. But I seem to be on my own path to wellness and what works for me. For instance, I lost weight and only ate good food and my cholesterol shot up to 350.
I find myself floating in a sea of information that I am left to disseminate on my own about my choices everyday regarding how to fuel my body. As I watch the series The Chosen, I see the Biblical food and it strikes a chord deep within me. There was a time recently when I had eaten no bread for a very long time. It got to where that was all I could think about. Then I began to wonder if maybe listening to my body should be my approach to healthy eating. So, I found a sourdough bread with minimally processed ingredients and it was heavenly. And my craving went away.
I discovered figs once again last September when I was in Florida. I remember having a Mission fig tree in our yard when I was a kid in California, along with pomegranates and persimmons, oranges and lemons, almonds and walnuts. My grand Pop raised peaches and made his own honey. Maybe there was something to this memory.
As I delve deeper into what I eat and what makes me feel healthy or not, I feel steered in the direction of less ingredients. That’s all. Whatever I choose to eat, the ingredient list on the item has to be small, with words I can pronounce. The sourdough bread I look for has 3-4 ingredients and it will mold if not eaten. Give me food that spoils within an allotted amount of time. I do not want to eat food that has the shelf life of an elite oligarch control freak. Let me know what you are doing differently in your food choices with a comment…would love to hear your take on all this! Thanks for reading.♥
If it comes from God eat it! You know real food that needs to be in the fridge and of coarse root vegies. I'm a foodie and my moto has always been: "If your not eating well your not living well!" I remember telling my Father that when he had some stupid eat don't eat list from the doctors office. He was 77 years old had smoked for 54 years and all of the health issues that go along with that! Rule of thumb simple: if you don't know what it is don't eat it! I make everything from scratch. We don't snack no chips, dips, cookies, donuts or anything else that comes from a factory. My food comes from a kitchen! Thanks Sadie Jay keep up the good work! Stay healthy!
What a great story, SadieJay! Good for you!
I've forgotten the man's name, but I can see his face. He is/was well known in the world of what to eat, what to avoid, etc. He came to Boston to present. I attended, and I will always remember what he said about grocery stores: "Don't go down the aisles!"
I remember laughing...Everything you need sits at the perimeter of the store -- the Produce section, the Dairy section, the Meat section. The stuff in the aisles?? The sugar, the chips, the soda, the beer?
"Don't go down the aisles!" Still makes me laugh.