Day One- Eating mindfully

After I posted on the blog yesterday, I sat down and hashed out an eating plan. It was based on reading tons of stuff especially about different foods and their inflammatory/anti-inflammatory properties as well as careful reading about the Omegas and carbs possibly being culpable in the whole diabetic/pre-diabetic debate. I honestly can say I have never given carbs a whole lot of thought for my weight gain (or their blame)

One of the things that I had come to believe was that carbs were not the culprit, it was FAT! Not enough FIBER! It was drummed into my head that low-carb diets were a fad, that really it was total intake that made you fat coupled with lack of exercise. I am now starting to think that I may have been wrong. I don't mean wrong about extreme diets, anything that is so out of whack it could easily cause way more problems.
Examples:
One woman I worked with completely and 100% cut out fat. She was almost religious in her devotion. She lost her hair and her skin became dry and nails brittle. (Imagine what it was doing to her insides)

Extreme low-carb dieters are known to have a high incidence of gall bladder/kidney issues due to the body's inability to handle high protein. In fact, I can count 5 women in my immediate circle that were carb-haters that had to have their gall bladders removed. (It may be coincidence, but I don't think so)

Anyway, I found a site that seemed to have a very common sense approach to eating complex carbs i.e. fruits/veggies/whole grains as well as a good balance of fish/chicken/lean meats and very little dairy. This seemed like the best thing for me as I have issues with dairy. It also seemed that it would be a good fit for DH...yes, there are healthy oils that would seem to substitute for the fish oil/flax seed oil combo supplements he is taking. As I mentioned before, I think that eating foods is better than supplements any day. UNLESS you are deficient in some area (calcium/Vitamin D etc), I am not sure supplements are a good idea. Oh my goodness! I know some will read this and will think it is blasphemy. I do know that supplements are a big business. Americans are reported to spend in the neighborhood of 11 billion dollars a year on supplements. That is billion with a B. What could 11 billion buy? Well, it could essentially buy you 1/3 of the state of Washington, based on their 32 billion dollar budget for the current fiscal year. It could buy you nearly 2 Rhode Islands based on their budget for this FY.  Is this the emperor's new clothes? Are we being sold a bill of goods? (or a bull of goods )

Another thing that I went looking for was how much people spend on weight loss. I could not get an accurate number due to the fact that some studies included gyms/diet programs/supplementary foods bars/bariatric surgery etc, while some quoted the diet programs only. Safe to say it can be as low as 20 Billion or as high as 60 Billion depending on what is included. Whew. How much is spent on fruits and veggies per year? The closest study I could find was from the USDA website.
From 2000. Wow an 11 year old study, get out much? Anyway, what we spent as a nation was about 222 billions dollars at the grocery story. Of that, about 16 billion give or take was for fresh fruits/veggies. (although it was 35 billion for all fruits and veggies) Seems pretty good until you look at 8 billion for candy, 9 billion for salty snacks, 13 billion for soft drinks and 21 billion on processed/prepared foods. It boggles the mind.

So, I am setting out on a quest. A quest to see if by carefully and mindfully eating for optimal nutrition, no counting calories/carbs/points, instead choosing specific foods for their nutritional value and throwing out those that seem to be mediocre on the food chain, can we become healthier?

Can we reverse the "pre-diabetes" that both DH and I have? Can we find other health benefits? Better well-being overall? More energy? More youthful in appearance? Lose body fat? All this without a formal diet program, just mindfulness and more exercise is my goal. I will keep you posted.

I made a very simple Excel spreadsheet with foods to eat everyday or once or twice a week based on the anti-inflammatory food pyramid. As I said, less dairy, more fish and healthy oils (especially those all-important 3's, the balanced 6 to 3's and the 9's) and of course there is chocolate on it, sparingly, which I take to mean 42 Snicker bars a day. Kidding!

This is a huge change for me. I have been vegetarian (closer to vegan) for more than a year. In the past few posts, I have alluded to the fact that trying to do something healthy for me by going veg has blown up in my face. I have decided that we are not failing, we are being pro-active in looking for the balance that I think our bodies so desperately seek.

Was Madonna really in her 20's when this movie was made????
And why did we dress like that in the 80's? What were we thinking?