Quitting smoking and the Real Food Solution

A couple months ago I quit smoking.  It's a great thing and most of the time I feel pretty good about it.  I used an e-cigarette to do it, and about 2 weeks ago, I managed to quit the e-cigarette.  However, recently I have been wanted a smoke sooo bad.  It's been driving me up a wall!  THIS right here is what makes people who quit smoking gain weight.  You'll do anything to make that feeling that you want a cigarette go away.  I have reached for a cigarette 3 times in the last few days and last night I figured it out!  Eating Real Food will help me!  

When you eat processed food product, you have to be very very very careful about portions.  However, when you eat real food there are certain things that you can just eat and eat and eat, with the worst effect being a quick run to the bathroom!  For instance, I had a veggie juice in the morning (3 carrots, 1 apple, 1 cucumber, some tumeric), for breakfast I had 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1/4 cup golden raisins, cinnamon, and a teaspoon of agave nectar.  Two hours later I ate a slice of whole grain bread with a tablespoon of handmade organic cashew butter. A  couple hours after that, 2 cups of grapes, then a banana.  I grazed all morning and most of the afternoon (I got caught up in shopping and never had a real lunch) and the only things that had any appreciable calories were the cashew butter, the oatmeal and the fruit.  But it's also the type of calories.  These are natural proteins, fats and fiber.  The type of food that my body is designed to deal with easily.  

I'm not saying by any means that I won't gain weight as a result of quitting smoking.  We'll see how that plays out as I go.  But if I don't want to start smoking again I think that good preparation and a large stock of fruits and veggies is going to be the way to do that!  

Yet one more reason to try to eat Real Foods!!!!

Why I'm doing this

If you've been reading the last, well, two posts, you know that I started this after watching "Hungry for Change".  The question that needs to be answered today is WHY did I watch it in the first place.

My body and my mind are disasters.

My body has intersticial cystitis (causes chronic pain and specific situation pain), a disc out of whack, weak ankles, stress headaches, restless leg syndrome and allergies.

My mind plays with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, minor Bipolar and codependency issues.

My husband has commented that my medicine collection makes it look like he's married to someone in their 80's and I hate it.

So what to do?  Exercise will help with the mental issues absolutely,  and I have started to do some yoga.  I'm looking for a class, so I can be sure that I'm doing it right.  Currently I'm just using the fitness channel on my cable's On Demand feature.   I'm also doing clean up in my garden which is a lot of physical work with a visible result which is my favorite kind of exercise.

So, I've been thinking for a while that we (my husband and I) need to get more on track with the types of foods that we eat.  Then we both had physicals.  My cholesterol is slightly high.  His is very high.  So I begin thinking about all of this in earnest.  Then I see the movie on Netflix and I'm blown away.

My husband is going to be hard to convince.  So, as the main meal preparer in the household I will be making these changes gradually and just not saying much.  Hopefully, I can get him to watch the movie with me and pull him on board.  Maybe not.  

One thing that I want to make clear...this is a record of my journey.  It's something that I'm trying.  Joe (my husband) and I always dreamed of a farm, pigs, chickens, and fresh vegetables from a large garden.  And that's where I'm working on getting us.  This is NOT a condemnation of the way that you may have chosen to live your life.  If you learn something by reading this experiment that I'm doing...great.  If you read it and have your own thing that works for you....great.   I'm not really here to change your lifestyle.  I'm here to document the change in mine.

Love to all!

Next?

Ok, so great.  I've watched the movie "Hungry for Change" and I'm Hungry for Change.  Awesome....now what?

I have a kitchen FULL of food.  Well, not super full, I generally buy a month's worth at a time and the month is coming to a close.  I fill in milk and bread and all weekly, but I try to get my major shopping done once a month.  So throwing out everything in my cabinets and starting fresh is just not an option.  

Since today happens to be the day I had already scheduled a detailed kitchen clean, I am throwing out expired foods and re-arranging.  As I'm doing this, I decided to start looking at labels.  

All Natural Crepes - expired, forgot I had them after the first time I used them.  But hey!  Good Choice!  All Natural!!  Excellent!  However, a quick ingredient check showed enriched wheat flour but the nutritional values showed no fiber.  ??????  How is that possible.  So I looked it up.  Don't take my word for it, see for yourself.  Plus, there is also Thiamine mononitrate.  So, I'm relatively intelligent, and I'm figuring if I see a "natural" ingredient and I don't understand what the word means, maybe it's not natural.  Well, it's not.  Thiamine mononitrate is essentially fake vitamin B1.  Fake vitamins in my all natural crepes.  And, oh yeah, almost no nutrients whatsoever.  Unless you count the 1g of protein and 79mg of sodium.  

Flour Tortillas - expired.  Advertises on the front of the package NO CHOLESTEROL 0 GRAMS OF TRANSFAT!  It's cool but I can't pronounce most of the ingredients.  *sigh*

I'm not going to run through the entire contents of my kitchen here.  You know what I'm talking about and you need only pick up a packaged food in your kitchen to prove it.  It's disheartening that I'm just putting this all together now.  

But on the good side, at least I AM putting it together.

Diets don't work

Diets don't work

But we already knew that didn't we?  Somewhere in there, in the deep recesses of our brains?  None of them are sustainable.  We go on one, we do great, we go off it, and we gain it all back.  In fact, we often gain back MORE then we lost.  

We get drawn into the magical combination of just a few things you need to do and you will be thin and you will wear a bikini and you will be sexy...and yet, it's never worked for me.  I know that there are people out there who have had success with diets, but it's not the majority.  Those people are the exception to the rule, and the rule is that diets simply don't work.

So...what's the problem?  The first problem, as I see it, is that there is not one single diet program out there that is NOT designed to make money.   Everyone is either selling a book, a counseling program, a weigh in/meeting fee and nearly every single one of them have their own line of food and / or food supplements for sale.   (Although the baby food diet appears to just have you buying baby food at the supermarket....yes, I said the baby food diet)

The second problem is deprivation.  Ok, so the baby food diet doesn't have you buying their book or club membership, however, there is no bread allowed and let's face it, baby food meat is generally disgusting.  Atkins allows few carbs.  Jenny Craig has you buy your food for the day and when it's gone, it's gone.  Don't EVEN get me started on LA Weight Loss.

Those things said, Weight Watcher's, as I see it, tends to be the best of the bunch.  Your daily caloric intake necessary to lose weight is calculated and based on that you get assigned a daily number of "points" to use on food.  Any food.  As long as you don't go over your points for the day.  Points are calculated using their own formula which is based on calories, fiber, fat, salt and overall healthiness of the food.  However, again, you are PURCHASING the tools necessary to figure out the points of the food, paying for meetings and/or their own internet support program and they sell their own line of food.  It's a big business.  And many people go back over and over and over again, because they think they've got it all figured out and then gain the weight back plus some.  I've belonged to Weight Watchers three times.

The third problem is perhaps the most insidious because it's the one that we don't necessarily recognize.  The word "diet" itself.  It has a negative connotation associated with it that is inescapable.  When we tell ourselves that we need to go on a diet, we are saying that we are fat, we are out of control, we are unappealing and we are incapable of dealing with our own issues.  

Don't look at me all cross eyed and say what do you know.   I know.  I've been on many of the popular diets.  In the last 20 years my weight has fluctuated from a low of 135 to a high of 215. I am now down from 215 and currently reside at 190 and I got there by not going on a diet.  

But, something's still not right.  First, I don't exercise the way I should.  I'm not a walker or a runner or a biker.  I've been doing some yoga which I enjoy and I need to find a class.  But my favorite form of exercise is some sort of manual labor that accomplishes something.   I used to love shoveling snow in the winter, but we've moved to South Carolina so that won't be happening anytime soon, and besides, it wasn't exactly a daily year long kinda thing.  

I have my share of health problems.  I have an autoimmune disease which causes chronic pain.  I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder which is a one two combo of depression and anxiety with a subtle hint of Bipolar for a little extra fun.   I AM in the midst of quitting smoking which is good and I'll keep you posted on that.

But, I've always had this little niggling feeling in the back of my brain that all this low cal, low fat stuff is weird.  And I've been looking and I've been learning.  

And today I was struck dumb by the film "Hungry for Change".  And basically I learned that the more food manufacturer's make something less "fatty" or less "caloric" the more stuff they have to put IN that makes the food even more harmful.  And I fact checked as I watched the film.  As usual with a documentary of this sort, some stuff was easy to find, some wasn't.  Watch it for yourself.  It streams on Netflix and I'm sure it can be found other places.  But the gist of the film is something that has been trying to find it's way to the forefront of my brain for some time now.  If nature made it, it's good.  If man made it, it probably isn't.  

So, my journey now begins to find out what happens to me as I slowly begin to change over my diet to things only nature made.  Will it help reduce the myriad of pills in my medicine cabinet?  I know it will increase my activity level just from the amount of gardening I am going to need to begin doing.  Will I lose weight?  Will I always be hungry or will I be satisfied with nature's bounty.  

It's going to be an interesting ride.  

PS If you are interested in any of the "diets" currently around the marketplace, WebMD has a pretty comprehensive list right here