Epiphanies and BIG commitments!

The first weekend on spuds is complete.  It was both easy and hard.  Easy in that we knew what to eat.  Hard in that it’s really hard for me to just eat one food.  I know, why am I still doing this if it’s so painful? 

I’m learning a lot about myself already.  It’s like I can see some things more clearly when I step back away from food and just eat to sustain life.  Physically I’m not craving anything but fruits and veggies.  I’m craving the variety from my plant based diet.  I want to crunch on a salad and eat a banana something fierce!  I’m taking this as a good sign. 

What have I learned about me and moderation?

For someone with food issues, moderation is very difficult.  Moderation is no issue to my skinny friends who don’t really care about eating nor attach any emotion to it.  They can eat the one cupcake and be satisfied.  For others, it triggers a sweet tooth and opens a whole world of “possibilities”.  The story I tell myself is that “it’s in moderation, I’m not eating the whole plate of cookies or the whole gallon of ice cream”.  Some people do that and the fact that I don’t means I’m not that bad right?  I’m not a true food addict right?  I’m not sure of the answer to that question but I do know that food is a drug used at times to deal with stuff.  My stuff is just not big enough to need a whole gallon of ice cream.  OK, so what does that mean?  The trigger is still the same.  The emotion causes a reaction.  The reaction makes you reach for something to soothe the emotion.  If you don’t drink or smoke or take medicine the obvious choice is food.  It’s the comfort in cold weather, when you have a cold, when you are depressed, when you come in from school, when you need a hug, when you are broken up with your favorite someone.  It’s the celebration at every get together from birthdays to ball games.  There is a food for everyone’s problem.  It’s what you deserve after a good weigh in, after a hard week at work, after a marathon.  And the foods that we turn to only fuel addiction.  The types of foods that are addicting have three things:  sugar, fat and salt.  (Did you know that this is why they coat the fries at McDonalds in sugar before they put them in the fryer?  Is it any wonder they are addicting?  Nope.  They planned it that way).  So there are physical reasons we are addicted to the bad food and mental cues all around us that make it almost impossible to NOT fall in the emotional eating trap.  The food industry spends billions to make sure you do.

So what now?  You can’t just never eat an Oreo again or swear off potato chips for life can you?  Well, if you are an alcoholic would you seriously think you would be asking yourself that question about your favorite drink?  The answer is YES you can.  Will it be hard?  Yes!  And if you are on the side of the fence where you have not broken the physical addiction then this may sound impossible.  If you have no support group in your life to help you even want to stay on the straight and narrow it would seem unrealistic to think you could.  But I’m proclaiming today in front of my two readers that I will be here for you.  If you want to say no to the triggers in your food world I will take a stand in front of you and show you how it’s done.  I don’t want to be a slave to food anymore.  I will make an alternative that is low in sugar, fat and salt to everything I love and enjoy food on my terms.  I will share these recipes with you and give you the mental tools as I learn them to continue on this journey to incredible health. 

What I have learned so far...

1. To start you have to reset your taste buds.  You can do it with juices or spuds or any other cleanse you might want to try.  There are some things I learned that are critical in that process.  Take a B12 supplement, maybe vitamin D if you don’t get much sun and take a Probiotic.  This is an affordable one if you need an option:  Physiq Probio.  You would take the probiotic to bring in good bacteria.  As I have said before in an earlier blog , the gut determines what you crave and health of your organs.  Very important to have a good gut biome!
2. As you are cleansing, learn how to eat better.  I have an earlier blog that also gives a list of instructions if you want to choose the plant based lifestyle.  .
3. Get support.  I’m just started a closed group on facebook called “Journey to Incredible Health”.  If you want to join you can search and find it and request membership.  I want to support those who want to eat better and I will post recipes and inspiration on this page.  I would love to hear what motivates you and what struggles you are having and maybe as a group we can all join in to help.  Or maybe you want to just sit back and be a silent participant.  That’s ok too. 

OK that’s enough for tonight.  I did not expect to say all that but the words started flowing through my fingertips and before I knew it I was committing to stuff J   Thanks for journeying along!  I have a testimonial from another Spud Fit veteran coming next week AND I have blood work from the start of the challenge.  I know everyone loves to see bloodwork – the proof is in the blood!  More later!