Steve asked: >>cec: just curious about how you are doing in climbing out of the bastardized food cespool and into nutrition. you mentioned what you used to eat. did you go cold turkey?
Well, to tell more or less the whole story ...
I went from a spare and muscular 165 lbs on a 6'0" frame to 315 lbs. on that "diet" from '83-'95 or so. Freaked, started doing a little better, started hovering around 290. Truth to tell, I was using diet to self-medicate for fear. Fasted under supervision for 12 days and dropped to 260. Kept it off for a while by eating according to Natural Hygiene principles, but eventually went back to caffeine use and climbed back to around 280.
Caffeine is the big problem for me. My "job" no longer really interests me most of the time, and I find it hard to concentrate on it when there are so many truly interesting things in the world yet to explore! Caffeine has seemed to help. But it is always associated for me with sugar. So ... here we are, 2009. I'm diabetic. Peripheral Neuropathy has pretty much stolen my ability to play any sort of music (keyboards and frets primarily). My endocrine system is a mess to the point that my doc won't even start hormone replacement therapy cause the blood work results are all over the board. This is a problem because other things don't work either, and that messes with the marriage!
Bottom line, I haven't really kicked things as yet.
Having said that, I eat and drink much less of the junk previously listed than formerly. I'm trying the "overcome-evil-with-good" approach by stuffing myself with good stuff as much as possible. It does seem to work when followed. Instead of keeping a drawer in my desk full of chips, cookies, and candy, with pop in the fridge, I've got cans of various vegetable soups, beans, nuts, vitamins, tea bags, ... and a little bit of candy (which has been around for a while now, rather than disappearing the same day). My fridge at work has carrots and salad dressing, fresh strawberries, oranges, lemons, duck sauce (for vegetarian spring rolls from a local chinese eatery), Aloe Vera juice, and a couple of bottles of Naked Superfoods. I tend to eat dinner at home with Cindy, and that typically involves veggies or a salad.
Today, I drank about 4 oz of Dr Pepper, 4 oz of a coffee/milk drink, a SlimFast Optima (Eeeewww!), 1 ltr of Bolthouse Farms Blue Goodness Smoothie, ate about a pint each of cut pineapple and cantaloupe, a couple handfuls of cashews, 6 jelly beans and 2 pieces of chocolate. Have felt good and busted my tail all day at work.
Yesterday, however, ... I drank a litre of Dr Pepper, and ate a medium pizza (mush, olives, pineapple, extra cheese) and assorted other junk. Felt awful, performed poorly, and went home a mess.
Of late, God has been trying to deal with me over my caffeine use. I'm not on a soap box proclaiming that it is an evil drug and all who use it are sinners (though come to think of it, they are -- just like everyone else! ROFL). I do, however, know that it is too often abused, and has negative health consequences when used regularly. AND that some people don't metabolize it as well r as fast as others, creating other problems.
In my case, God seems to be trying to tell me that I'm STILL using it out of fear. I thought I had that licked, but apparently not.
I've done some serious study on the benefits of a totally RAW diet, probably pretty much vegan, and the info looks pretty positive. I am finding it hard to commit to going to that extreme, even for a set period of time like 60 days, but the loss of music and other things is getting to be too much to bear. Also, considering the difference in how I feel today from yesterday, and on only 5 hours sleep, is pretty stunning!
Having talked waaaaay too long, I'll now shut up.
(Other than to say I wanna go HOME -- to the Pacific NW!)
Cecil