So if you've read the first two entries, you now know the "magical steps" to feeling good while you eat food that's good for you. That's sounds rather dry and boring. But the truth of the matter is that eating good, wholesome food is a lot more enjoyable than you might think. There is nothing boring about eggs scrambled with onions and/or sausage with a helping of whole grain toast for breakfast, or tuna or salmon salad on a bed of greens with a crunchy piece of lightly buttered baguette for lunch or tacos, burritos, grilled fish, chicken or steak on garlic sweet potato mash with any vegetable of choice for dinner. And the list goes on and on.

Eating meals that I've mentioned above is probably not hard for anyone to imagine. The harder part for most of us trying to eat healthy is imagining life without "the bad stuff". The hard truth is
THE MORE BAD STUFF YOU EAT, THE MORE BAD STUFF YOU WANT AND IT'S THE BAD STUFF THAT MAKES US FAT AND CRANKY. In my experience I have found sugar to be the mother of all evil.
Things such as:
Pop
Fruit Juice
Iced tea
Fruit flavoured drinks in any of its variations or guises
Candy
Chocolate bars
Cookies
Cake
Doughnuts
Muffins
Rice cakes
Crackers
Popped corn
Potato chips
Granola bars
Most Commercial Breakfast Cereals
are evil in disguise and should never be a part of our diet. They are all high in sugar and simple carbohydrates. You have one, you want another one. Before you know it, you have eaten more that you want to admit.If you want to read up on the action of sugar on our body chemistry you will see how and why that happens. Needless to say, if you have been eating the above mentioned foods, it will take a few days to get the need for them out of your system. But once that's happened, it's magic! You don't want it anymore!

You may find it hard to believe now, but a day will come in the not so distant future when you will be sitting with an array of desserts before you and you will simply not want any of it. I speak from experience. I was the original sweet roll with coffee for breakfast, snack, afternoon pick me up or dessert kind of gal. Now I can entertain or be entertained and reach for the savory treats on the table because I want to not because I think I should. Once you have gotten to this point you are on your way. The rest is easy.

Therefore, the first week or two of your new way of eating should look something like this.

No caffeine, if you want to you may want to drink decaff, but I have found that decaff is not always totally so and just the taste will play havoc with the memories of the real stuff and it may be easier to just go cold turkey. You can have coffee later on when you got the eating thing under control and learn what to eat with the coffee to minimize the effects of the caffeine. I have a mug of coffee with my breakfast now every morning without any negative effects.

Eat breakfast. You need to have fuel in your body and your blood sugar on an even keel as you are off to start your day. Have wholegrain toast with cheese or cottage cheese, toast and egg any way you like it, toast and peanut butter, a fruit smoothy with protein powder etc. You get the picture.

Have a sandwich for lunch if that's what's convenient or if that's what you like. Have left overs from yesterday' dinner. Make sure you have healthy protein ie, meat, fish, cheese etc. with salad and wholegrain bread or another complex carb or starch of your choice.

For dinner follow the same idea as lunch.

Of course, the healthier you prepare your food the better. Avoid deep frying and high fat content meats if possible. Grill, saute, and avoid rich gravies if you can.

REMEMBER ONLY EAT TILL YOU FIRST FEEL SATISFIED. YOU CAN ALWAYS HAVE MORE LATER.

IF YOU FEEL THE NEED FOR SOMETHING SWEET HAVE A FEW BITES OF A HIGH PROTEIN PROTEIN BAR.

START PAYING ATTENTION TO FOOD LABELS THEY ARE A FOUNTAIN OF INFORMATION.

Drink herbal tea or water if you are thirsty.

Now for the details. I must point out that at the time of my starting this new way of eating I was dealing with gall stones. Foods that were particularly fatty, such as bacon, most cuts of pork, anything deep fried, set of a gall bladder attack within minutes of being ingested. I had been avoiding them for the last few years in the attempt to avoid surgery. This tactic worked most of the time and the nasty results of transgression were enough to keep me on the straight and narrow and away from the things I knew would bring on a debilitating episode of " I think I'm going to die!"
Even though I had a powerful deterrent to stay away from greasy food, I was still maintaining my weight.

By the time the proverbial dust settled after a series of unfortunate events in late December of 2007, I awoke one morning knowing what I had to do. I did not set out to lose weight. I set out to take control of my life. The aim was to eat healthy and keep my blood sugar at an even keel. The weight loss was one of the fortunate results.

What I did at the very beginning:

1. I gave up caffeine( for the first few weeks) and all sugary drinks including juices.
I drank herbal tea or water when I was thirsty.

Juices are one of today's devils disguised as angels. The food industry makes it seem like you can't live your life without it and you are not a good parent unless you offer it to your children. Chemically, all juice is liquid sugar. Sure it has valuable vitamins and minerals but you can get the benefit of those by eating the actual fruit as part of a meal or snack where protein is present to counteract all that sugar going into your system.

2.I ate only wholesome, basic, good for you foods that would have been found in any grandmother's kitchen pantry a century ago.
Whole grain bread
Whole grain pasta
Brown rice
Potatoes
Butter
Olive oil
Vegetables
Fresh meat
Fish
Eggs
Cheeses
Peanut Butter
Nuts
Fruit (in extreme moderation especially in the first several weeks.)

3.Every time I put something in my mouth I made sure I had a good balance of protein to carbohydrate in the mix, half and half at the most or preferably protein out weighing the carb content.
Whole grain bread/toast with cheese or peanut butter
Meat or fish with vegetables and/or potatoes, rice or pasta
Soups made with meat or vegetarian soups with beans for a source of protein.

3. I ate only enough to feel satisfied.
I mean that literally. I really paid attention to that feeling of " I've had enough", knowing that I can eat again as soon as I felt the need to. This will result in being more of a grazer than an eater of three square meals a day. I just know I feel better when I eat this way.


4. I did not allow myself to get really hungry.
I started to carry a protein bar with me everywhere I went as an emergency snack or meal replacement and I do to this very day ( for those times when I am away from home and do not want to resort to fast food or the temptation of junk food.)These bars are also a good choice for a go to food when you are experiencing a need for something desert-like. They often come in flavours such as chocolate, peanut butter, etc. and will do in a pinch to counteract that need for something sweet. A bite or two is all you need to take care of that momentary feeling without the resulting sugar swing when you eat regular sweets. I get mine at Costco. The ones I prefer are MLO Bio Protein (these are less sweet and more suitable for meal replacement), and Clif Builders ( these taste sweeter and are more desert like) but I have also used the Zone bars as well. Make sure you purchase Protein Bars and not Energy bars. You want the protein to be at least half of the carbohydrate content and more if possible.

5. I took and still take a multi -vitamin every day.
You can now get "weight smart" or similar type of vitamins that contain minerals such as chromium known to enhance the action of insulin.

That my friends is basically it. Stay tuned for comments, pit falls, and ideas for meal planning, eating away from home etc.

It has been a year and a half since I've lost the 25-30 pounds I have been caring around for the last thirty five years. The only thing I counted along the way was the weight as it came off slowly but surely over approximately a nine month period. I did not count calories, fat grams, points or fiber on my journey toward the body I had not seen since high school. I went for a walk when inspiration hit me and I ate when I was hungry until I was satisfied and that is what I continue to do to this very day.
No, I did not wake up in a parallel universe on the first morning of my weight loss journey nor did I spend the last two years in a dream. It took a semi-traumatic event to instinctively propel me toward physical and emotional health I had been searching for for years. The details of the impetus are irrelevant but the consequence made me realize that I had to do something at a very basic level to change the way I felt.
People have been asking along the way how I went about loosing the weight. I reply tentatively and carefully aware of the fact that what I did came naturally to me and maybe is just what happened to work for me. However, in light of everything I have been hearing and reading lately related to nutrition and the problem of obesity in our society, it has occurred to me that maybe I have hit on something worth sharing.
There are not too many things more basic than feeding our bodies. We do it from the time we are born to the day we die and we do it from the time we are awake to the time we call it a night. Culture, habit, economics, likes and dislikes propel us to make our daily food choices. We know in theory what we should be eating but in reality we fall short and defer to our APPETITES. And this is the crux of the problem as I see it.
I'm not entirely sure how I came about the rules I set for myself when I woke up that morning in late December of 2007. All I knew was that I had to figure out a way to keep my body functioning at an even keel. It was probably the accumulation of life experience, listening to and reading material written by experts in the field that percolated down to the few tenets that I saw as indisputable truth.
The things I felt sure about:
1. Caffeine makes me jittery and makes my heart race especially when taken on it's own.
2. I need to eat regularly, every three to four hours or I feel unwell.
3. A high protein diet (Adkins, etc.) keeps me feeling satisfied for longer periods of time but leaves me feeling low in energy.
4. A high carbohydrate diet, even good carbs, makes me feel energetic but makes me crave more carbohydrates.
5. When I crave food I often crave more carbohydrates,ie.the wrong food.
6. Cravings, especially cravings for carbs/sweets are the result of low blood sugar.
7. I need to keep my blood sugar constant to prevent food cravings thus poor food choices thus mood swings.
With this new awareness I proceeded to look at the food I put into my mouth in a different way. I now saw foods as delicious but powerful chemical components that produced predictable and controllable results in the way I felt both physically and emotionally. Now I was playing a food game and I was in control, not the other way around!
That seems to be enough for an introduction. If you still interested, the details are to follow.