FOOD

Ah food. One of the posts I have been dreading the most to write, but one that needs to be addressed for sure. Why? Food is a struggle for me at times. A struggle in the sense that I love it! That sometimes the habits that are undesirable win out over the desirable habits I want to take on. More than once the vending machine or ice cream has won out over the apple or orange. What am I doing about that? Well dear reader you shall soon see.

 I chose the word food as a title for this post because it expresses a broader scope of what a wanted to write about. I could have said nutrition or diet.  But I am not a nutritionist, there are plenty of resources out there if one wants to dive into that subject. Diet has a negative connotation associated with it to many, though it’s basic meaning is referring to a simple pattern of eating.  I chose food and how it applies to habits that I want to create and the person I want to identify with, active and healthy.

I am writing from the perspective of someone who would like to lose weight and increase athletic performance. I understand there are people out there who want to gain weight, or who want to eat with a specific purpose in mind, for example to fight cancer, get ripped, to improve mood or a host of other reasons. Once again, your medical professional can give you more advice on how to proceed and there is a plethora of information to add to your own research. My hope is some of the principals I am applying in my journey can help you with yours

There are a huge variety of eating styles or diets out there. Each one claims it’s better than others. Vegan, carnivore, keto, etc. I am not here to promote one over the other. Perhaps you have had some success with one of these. You have made them part of your habits in the pursuit to the person you want to be. Great job and best wishes on keeping it up and strong during your habit journey.

In my case I have tried a lot of different things. Vegan, intermittent fasting and counting calories and macros. I can admit I have had some success and I am much better than what I used to be 8 or so years ago. But at them same time I have Type 2 diabetes and had a mini stroke. Those can partially be attributed to food and excess weight. I am not who I want to be which is to be healthy and active. I want to eat like that person.  That means to me eating whole, minimally processed foods and avoid highly processed sugar and/ fat rich foods. Unfortunately I was doing the opposite the majority of the time and have about 15 pounds to get to a weight I want to be at.

Now in my case as in most, if we want to lose 15 or 150 pounds it boils down to burning more calories than you consume. It is really that simple. It could be vegan, carnivore or even McDonalds. McDonalds you say?? Google Kevin Maginnis. He lost nearly 60 pounds eating McDonalds for his daily 3 main meals for 100 days. His blood work was good and he felt better. No smoke and mirrors. He ate less calories than he burned. Just losing that much weight alone is a big benefit. Am I saying do the McDonalds or Subway or Dairy Queen eating program? Nope not even implying it. It worked for him. But one of things I can’t stand doing is counting calories. I have done the Fitness Pal and after a couple of weeks that was it. Burned out, hated it and back came any weight I lost. I am sure there some out there that have had amazing results counting calories and kept it off. I am not one of them, but more power to you if you have.

So, what is a guy to do? I know this may be a shocker but highly processed foods are loaded with calories, fat and sugar (think Pop Tarts, mini donuts, candy bars and the list goes on) Your mouth and stomach may say I love this stuff but your body and waistline along with the scale say what are you doing to me. That being the case my first undesirable habit I wanted to remove is eating highly processed foods especially sugary, fatty things. The vending machine at work was a siren that calls me. Maybe it’s cheese burgers or sugary coffee drinks or soda for you but there is something we are not regulating that is giving us more calories than we can burn.

The  first thing I determined is I was not going to tell myself no. No you can’t have that anymore, no more for you. Why? Because we as humans tend to be rebellious and don’t like to be told no matter what our age and no matter by whom, even ourselves.  So I decided yes I can have whatever I want from the Devil’s vending machine. But I was not going to make it easy. Vending machines require money. Coins and one-dollar bills. So, I decided to leave all my coins and ones in my car in the parking lot. Guess what? If I wanted something, anything I could have it no questions asked. All I had to do is walk my happy little self out to the car and get change for a goodie. That means I have to want it really bad. Now in Colorado it snows and is cold and can be ugly out this time of year. I better want it really bad. At the same time my desirable habit to eat healthy was put into place. Money for the vending machine was so far away but right near my desk was fresh fruit, nuts, zero sugar jerky and yogurt. Much more convenient and warmer. You know what? Those little habit changes worked. Did I give up vending machine treats? Am I a cornucopia of fruits and veggies? Am I dropping weight like crazy? The answer to all those is a big, fat NO.

What I have come to realize is that many in the pursuit of instant satisfaction we fail to look at the results we have made. I looked backed to the beginning of December and I would say I have cut my visits to the vending machine in half and close to doubling the amount of fresh fruit I am eating. I am doing better than I was doing a month ago. The habit changes at the time were small but they are adding up. And best of all it was pretty much painless. Therefore, I am going to just keep on keeping on. I want to rid myself of the undesirable habit and keep building the desirable one. Cutting and adding in my mantra.

I am going to keep the ball rolling. I am looking back at what worked best for me. Well intermittent fasting did well but was so tough on some days. The second best one that worked was eating 3 nice meals a day with no snacks. Jack LaLanne a fitness and health guru in the 60-80s said he only ate 3 meals (some say 2) a day with no snacks. He lived to 96 and was probably in better shape when he died that I have been in my whole life. He ate what is considered healthy and nutritious. I want to create a habit of 3 meals a day, 3 meals that make me full so I have not desire for snacks. Staying full is something that I think helps me to resist snacking on highly processed foods. Having good satisfying meals has given me some modest results in the past (but obviously not enough as I am still writing this). Every meal isn’t going to the perfect example of ideal healthy eating style. I will get full and monitor my results. I will try to give you updates (hopefully when I start my Instagram account or here) It’s a work in progress a building of habits.  I am going to keep a written journal of what I eat just to see. Not counting calories just writing down what I eat for a while.

Do we always eat when we are hungry? Well in my case and maybe many of yours, eating is not just to fill the hunger need. We eat when we are bored, when stressed or anxious. Food can seem like an opportunist, there just at the right time. How am I going deal with overconsumption of calories when I face these? I have a couple of ideas and will try to mention them as I work them out.

Overconsuming calories can also be event based Maybe eating cookies and chips is associated with binge watching Netflix. A snowy day is associated with donuts and coffee. Food can often be linked to events. I do it all the time. A coworker and I have talked and we have said partly joking, food is love. In particular comfort food. It’s true a warm pastry and hot cup of coffee on a cold day. It’s like a big hug. We smile and soak it in. And what’s better on a cold day than a warm pastry and a hot cup of coffee? A second warm pastry with another cup of hot coffee. And thus, the habit begins How am I going to face those situations? What habit can I create to help get through it? Stay tuned.

I’ll keep showing up and keep trying, keep tweaking and keep posting.

Let me know how your food habit journey is going.

No matter how small create a new habit, be that person you want to be. I’ll be right here helping however I can. Take care!