Jan 1

For the majority of my adult life, I have been more excited for the new year than Christmas. It's a time to reflect, look ahead and makes plans for changes I want to make. Like so many years past, I began planning my path a week ago. Well, maybe more like loosely, quasi-planning it. Being home recovering should make everything easier since my stress level is low. still, here it is Jan 1, the ultimate do-over date and I had a Peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast and some chips for an afternoon snack. During the week I was tortured by what plan I should follow so I just went to YouTube and searched "Heal your body with food" or something along those lines, and I found an interview of Dr. Mark Hyman. I had heard the name but never knew what he was about but by the end I was feeling positive about the book he was promoting in the video, "Food: What the heck should I eat". I bought the book and read it in a couple days, finishing yesterday right as I was supposed to be ordering the groceries. if I have them delivered these days since I'm not mobile, which is convenient but you have to order early enough to be able to have them delivered the day you want them. Anyway, the book had great information, don't get me wrong, but I walked away thinking, 'Of course a wealthy doctor would say I should only eat wild, organic, locally farmed, humane, sustainable foods or I'm absolutely ruining my health.' I don't know about you but I don't exactly have pasture raised, organic chicken at my disposal. in essence, I can certainly take the low hyperglycemic load message and run with it and leave the scary health messages of GMOs and cooking things at higher heats causes cancer and pesticides cause cancer behind for now. My big problem is, if I don't lose weight, something else will kill me long before cancer I'm sure. But my rejection of the whole idea that you can only ear the most ideal things ever created made me feel overwhelmed and I decided to wait another week so I have more time to prepare what a menu would even look like eating the majority of my food as produce with some high quality meats. I admit, over the years I have been far too reliant on dairy for my protein sources. His approach is somewhat similar to keto and I do believe the science behind it but it will take some planning. cheese and yogurt are allowed but with lots of rules included. so basically the diet is high fat, moderate protein and low carbs, but he does say he doesn't feel most people need a ketogenic diet or intermittent fasting. Anyway, something stopped me, I felt not ready and maybe I never will. it's another form of restriction, and to say I haven't really been restricting myself this past month isn't a lie. That being said, my teenage sons are self-regulating and requesting me to buy less chips and cookies. we don't really have indulgent stuff around the house except for the times we order out or my husband feels like picking up a pastry to make a holiday feel more special (which he never does but did this Christmas and New Year's Eve because we can't be with his mom). My food thoughts always focus on what I can eat to make me feel happy, not on what would make me feel good. So, I am not taking the plunge with the hard working folks who anti up on Jan 1. I need a little more time to figure out what this new year needs to look like for me and how I can get there. I am OK with taking my time right now, there are plenty challenges ahead in 2021 but I do feel optimistic.