Posted by
ScarletPimpernel on Monday, May 05, 2008 12:33:05 PM
I will not go gently into that Good Night. But I will concede small defeats as long as I make like they were my decisions in the first place. We're talking about taking care of my body - foodwise. I find that food now affects my body greatly. I have to adjust what and when I eat things nowadays. I take great umbrage with this fact although I stop short of going into high dudgeon about it. Let's look at the list:
sugar - I really should just quit it altogether. M&Ms, Reeces Pieces, Cake, Ice Cream, Sweet Tea. They taste sweet of course which triggers 3 day benders like this past weekend. I ate a gallon of vanilla ice cream sprinkled with M&Ms. I got that good feeling when I ate it but then I crashed pretty hard. I fell asleep in the middle of the game on Sunday. I don't like naps during the day - I tend to stay awake all night if I take them.
carbs - not the so-called good kinds like sweet potatos and fruit, no the tasty kinds like bread, pasta, potatoes, and rice. For effects see sugar above. Pasta et al gives me that full, cozy and satisfied feeling. And then I get sleepy in the afternoon.
If I eat pasta and cherry pie for dinner (last night) I sleep pretty well. However, it's the waking up part that ruins me until about 3 pm the next day. It's like I drank a six pack of beer and took some cold medicine on top of it. I feel drugged when I try to wake up. My eyes look piggy for most of the morning and I am non-responsive except for grunting. This would be okay except that my wife is a woman and I work around lots of women all day long. Whereas men communicate fine with grunting, shrugs, silence and nods, women will just keep asking questions until you verbally respond in a coherent manner.
So what do I do to remedy this situation? Coffee and ginseng. Lots of it. And what does that do? Right, it gives you a buzzy nervous feeling all day. My puffy eyes also get that fuzzy periphery thing going. Not good.
Then I get home feeling wrung out and figure I better eat something to "come down man". Cereal for a snack and then a big plate o' fries or something like that. The vicious cycle never ends. I blame society.
I've got to kick this food habit. I feel like if I don't eat food I'll die.
Just being silly there. Up until my mid-thirties I could eat or drink anything and would be fine. Of course, I guess my body could handle being full a lot better then. But now I've figured out that I will have to give in and heed the advice of nutrition gurus. I'll eat more fruit and chicken and cut back on the caffeine, sweet sweet caffeine. Sugar is gonna have to go as well. I could try what my wife calls "moderation". I'm not sure what that is but I'm afraid I'll become too moderate if go down that road. I think of food as a challenge or a tool. It's there to be overcome or used, right? I mean why put the other half of a candy bar back in the fridge? Or if there are 2 slices of pizza left; well, aren't we supposed to gobble it up? So what if you also ate the other slices? Finish the job you bum!
I find that if I eat more protein I have more energy. So I'm going in that direction. I guess I'll leave the potatoes and sweet tea out and go for some green beans and water instead. (Sigh)