So what am I having for dinner? An 'asta la vista baby' dinner of a grand scale: swedish meatballs (covered in sugar), whole wheat pasta with sauce (almost any pasta sauce contains sugar), parmesan cheese (cow's milk) and vanilla cake with icing.
I'll be in a sugar/milk comatose in no time.
So, after all this time, why is it my goal to spend
the next 365 days without eating milk or sugar?
A few months ago, I went completely sugar, milk, caffeine, wheat, and gluten free. After the initial rocky 3 week adjustment period, I felt better than I'd ever felt in my whole life. It was as if I'd been living in a fog... and never knew it. I was finally awake and being fully awake and fully myself (without the assistance of coffee or sugar highs) felt good.
I'd always wondered why I felt so hungry all the time, why I couldn't eat below a certain number of calories and why losing weight seemed like a neverending battle. The moment I got off sugar, within a week, I found myself consuming between 1400 and 1600 calories a day... and being completely FULL at the end of the day. There was no feeling of starvation or hunger.
I got the 6-8 hours of sleep I needed and I woke up rested and ready for the day. It was an entirely different experience.
But... there's a certain level of commitment that comes with eating this way. Eating out is a hard task (nearly impossible depending on where you live). All your food has to be prepared, cooked in advance, and ready to go. You kiss things like salad dressing, ketchup, pasta sauce, even canned veggies goodbye, and, unless you've got a Jack LaLayne Juicer, you have to get really comfortable with drinking only water. When I first began this journey, I wasn't working full time. I was at home all day and had the luxury of going to sleep, waking up, and cooking at my leisure. Now that I work in a field that requires 50-75% of travel throughout the year, the idea of no coffee, no sugar, and no milk got thrown out the window.
On my first out of state trip in a small town state, as I sat with oily eggs, sausage, and sprite (to ease the stomach pain I knew would be coming), I thought to myself "There's no way I can eat healthy on the road."
Well, I've always given this quote to other people: "The thing always happens that you really believe and the belief in a thing makes it happen." (Frank Lloyd Wright) I think it's high time I believed that eating healthy, living healthy, and being free of sugar, caffeine, and milk is something I can do no matter what my life stage, career state, or busy schedule.
And, over the next 365 days, I'll document my journey. You'll be here with me on it, seeing my struggles, hearing my triumphs, and witnessing the year that I've decided to make my journey to my highest level of health.
Are you ready? Let's go!
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