One Small Change at a Time

I have lost three inches of adipose tissue from my visceral area.  I am down to 34.5 inches of girth measured at my navel.  This weekend I also ate a small slice of birthday cake and ice cream while celebrating Kaydence’s birthday.  The reason that I could guiltlessly eat cake was that I did not eat a bun on my hamburger, a portion of sweet baked beans, a portion of potato salad, and a handful of Doritos corn chips, and a cola.  I ate a naked hamburger patty, a portion of vegetables from a vegetable tray, a portion of coleslaw, and a glass of unsweetened iced tea.  While it wasn’t NO sugar, my Saturday meal was practically no sugar.

Had a really good chuck roast this weekend with gravy made from the braising fluid.  You must try that.  When you braise the roast you should strain off the vegetables and fat and make a brown gravy with this juice.  Lip smacking good, and the closest thing to desert on this diet. Here is the recipe, but know that I scaled everything down to normal proportions, one onion, for instance instead of three, and used ghee to cook instead of duck fat, etc.  Actually, I used the same spices and cut of meat, used the same cooking method and made the gravy, otherwise it was this recipe.  🙂

It has been two full weeks out of three completely restricting starch food intake and almost totally eliminating sugar from my diet.  It has not been hard at all.  We don’t drink soda pop, normally.  We drink coffee with sugar in it, but coffee with cream in it is just as good.  I have noticed that I don’t drink as much coffee per day if it doesn’t taste like candy, too.  Score!  We would eat desert a couple of times per week, but haven’t been doing that.  We have tried some non-sweet deserts, but our success has been less than good.

Watched a documentary from HBO last night called “Weight of the Nation”.  The first show in the series sets up the cause for change.  As a debater I knew that I was watching the reasons that we should be doing something, setting the stage for later episodes which will show what we might be doing…very sobering. For instance, 50% of children in elementary school in some states, as determined by autopsy of those that died of other causes, are already showing significant liver fat (bad) and artery diseases that lead to heart disease.  Watch the film.  I will post more on each episode here, but not more detail than this, because you should watch the film.

Someday, when portions of our nation can no longer look at chronic disease as a piggy bank, (soon, I hope) we will admit that food diseases are caused by food.  We will admit to ourselves that if you run a boiler with the fuel valve wide open that it will explode the boiler.  In order to cure obesity we have to limit the allowable sugar in all foods, and we need to find ways to force people to exercise.  No parking spaces close to work or shopping, for instance.  Elevators that only go down to the third floor, maybe, except for cargo.  Large doors in the grocery store that allow everyone to buy vegetables, but to get at the cookies, cakes and ice cream a very narrow door, with a large window in it where you can see the goodies, but cannot get to them if you are too wide.

We talk about our kids, sometimes and wish that we could tell them how to eat and they would mind us.  Sadly, those days are gone, because we know more now.  Our advice would be good advice, but all we can do is lead by example these days.  Start a blog, write it down, maybe they will read it and heed it.  Life is busier when you are young.  You tell yourself you dont have time for anything but a pizza out of a box, a breakfast out of a box, a lunch out of a box.  Really, though, if you plan, breakfast is faster when you make it for yourself, lunch is some of yesterday’s great dinner, dinner is the only hard one to make.  Dinner is the key to eating right and if you can eat dinner right the rest of your diet falls into place.  Are you listening, kids?