Dietary Dilemmas

My husband and I decided that my health really isn't very good right now, and that changes are most definitely in order. So, I took advice from here and from there(i.e., from my mother and other well-informed sources), and upon some recommendations I obtained this book through the interlibrary loan service.

I read through the book with the intention of being objective. I found the style repetitive, and the author beats around the bush for far, far too long. However, when it comes down to it she seemed to purport a logical, philosophically supportable approach to food, diet and lifestyle. That is, "moderation in everything" - not all carbs, not all proteins, no neverending regimen of rigourous exercise, but a balance of all good things. I handed the book over to the ever-skeptical-of-anything-that-smells-of-nutrition weirdos/chiropractors-and-all-such-hocus-pocus-son-of-an-M.D.-husband, and he likewise thought it sounded promising. We had two misgivings, however.

1) God did not create supplements. Why on earth would it be necessary for me to take 12 different kinds of them every day, and several of them multiple TIMES per day, just to keep my health in good order?
2) We are wary of organic food pushers. For all we can tell, organic food is just an excuse to charge a heckuva lot more money for a "specialized product". I mean, when we ask for a solid account for organic food as a necessary expense, we always end up getting a reply including something about factories and spillage, a depleted ozone layer due to out-of-control 80's hairspray, or something of the like blah blah blah, and the resultant bad soil, bad air {insert hand waving here} - and therefore POOF, the nutrients - ALL GONE. Factory spillage? All over the midwestern breadbasket, eh? Must have missed that for all the purdy sunflowers . . . (Needless to say, we're not convinced. Yeah, I know, I'm such a stubborn little skeptic.)

Nevertheless, we put these misgivings aside and sallied forth to the health food store, thinking we'd give this lady's diet thingy a week-long trial in the "all i's dotted" format, and tweak it from there if we thought things were a little over the top.

Now, we fully expected it to double our weekly grocery bill.

However, we never expected it to triple it. Yes, TRIPLE. The hubby has been having little seizures ever since.

So . . . we're going to go back to eating Cheetos and TV dinners, okay?

Oh for goodness sake of course I'm just kidding. I was raised by a nutritionist, so I could never eat that way in good conscience, let alone feed it to someone I love. All-in-all I'm actually quite good at serving up very healthy, balanced meals - the food just isn't "USDA certified organic" from the local upscale food market.

Now, how precisely my health got to be the way it is right now is probably due to a confusing conglomeration of several factors - things like moving, undergoing major life changes, liking my own cooking a bit too much and a complete lack of social outlets. (It's not because I eat like Bubba Jenkins.)

However, I must admit that I've been disgusted all week with the fact that someone finds it justifiable to charge someone that much money for rather basic food. We're definitely going back to "normal" food - I'll just make the necessary, non-organic substitutions and we can keep ourselves out of the poor house. If there's one thing I hate it's stores that sell things at higher prices than they should simply because they can get some idiot to pay that much. Well, that idiot is not going to be me. Nope. NOT ANYMORE. They're just going to have to find another idiot to pick on.

Another thing that was not made immediately apparent to us in our original read through of the above-mentioned book is that this diet requires us to eat a heckuva lot more food than either of us are accustomed to eating. I mean, just look at this plate (click on photo for mouth-watering, full resolution):



that's a LOT of food.

(Wait, you're thinking. Isn't that STEAK? What do you mean BASIC FOOD? - - Okay, so this was our one splurge item. It was allowed by the diet and BOY did it look yummy - and moreover we only bought one of them, and we split it. Although I have to admit that steak is a LOT more affordable when it's not sold by a "natural foods market". On sale at Publix is the way to go.)

To be honest, though, I'm not sure if I can keep eating this much. Mind you, a ton of it is vegetables. My refridgerator was positively CRAMMED with veggies when we came back, much to my husband's delight. (In fact, he's been very pleased with this change altogether (excepting the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ part), which is great - I like the fact that he's so supportive he doesn't even have to try. . . . I would sure appreciate it if he'd up and dislike that gol-derned goats' yogurt, though. Talk about naaaaaaaaaaaaaaasty . . . ) However, the fact of the matter is that I'm not accustomed to being full when on a diet. That seems downright weird.

Moreover, one other thing that's bothering me about this diet thing: in the past, I've always had a spiritual, sacrificial approach to my dieting ("offering it up", if you will), along with a philosophical adjustment that involves reassessing food according to its most proper end (i.e., "I eat to live, I don't live to eat"). This diet, however, demands that I spend a huge portion of my not-working life prepping, cooking, eating, and cleaning up afterwards. As I sit here now I should be back in the room properly cleaning up after a fresh, beautiful, and very messy dinner. You see, evidently leftovers more than a day old are a big no-no, and you're supposed to rotate your food so that you never eat any one thing more than once every three days. Now, this presents something of a difficulty with the whole, "I eat to live, I don't live to eat" mantra, as that's hardly what my life looks like right now. I mean, for all I can tell, since starting this diet I live to chop, sautee, simmer, broil, scrub, and drink water - that's about it. :-/

Oh, and another thing I dislike, according to this lady, all alchohol, no matter what quantity, no matter what kind, classifies as a "toxic chemical".

FIE, I say. FIE FIE FIE. I will not tolerate that kind of slander for an instant.

Oh, and also, did I mention that I'm hungrier than usual all of a sudden, between meals? I don't know if the diet/piles of supplements has already succeeded in boosting my metabolism or what, but I'm positively starving these days. Whussup with that?

Maybe I should take that as a sign and go back to the diet that I used to lose 40 some-odd pounds way back 7 or 8 years ago, huh? . . .