Fad diets

 <<WARNING this post may be triggering for some people.>> 



I was going to call this post something like Paleo Smaleo or some other such nonsense but I knew this is a long time frustration long before the Paleo....which is a real challenge since the Paleozoic era is around 540 and 240 million years ago give or take a few years.  I was raised by a mother that chased every fad diet that ever graced the tabloids.  She tried them all and swore that each one was the next greatest thing to get her back to her 'original' weight. (This 'original' weight thing should technically be the 3 lbs she weighed when born two months premature but that should be another post.)  I looked up the Paleo diet that people were raving about and the whole basis is to eat like the cave men since they didn't have cancer.   Well with that theory we should also give up all cars, air conditioning, and all other 'modern' conveniences.  The Paleo diet advocates also didn't take into account that only the strong survived, the weak died young.  I am not willing to give up my car, hospitals, or air conditioning, which living in the desert is just about top of the list of important modern conveniences.  I am also thankful I didn't live during that era because without medical intervention, I would have been dead long before I had cancer.  Now, I happen to agree to get back to real food as possible.  No smoothies, no liquid meals, no high density, high fat, high sugar stuff with no nutrition that I fondly call junk food and is some how necessary for me to feel good.  My sister Judy posted a link to Roots to Blossom that covers quiet nicely, the subject of junk food:

Judy's Post http://theprojectbyjudy.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/interesting-post/
Roots To Blossom http://roots2blossom.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/junk-food-and-self-loathing/

I have a bucket load of crap attached to my relationship with food.   Food was my reward and my punishment.  I went hungry so my brothers could have seconds.  My own body punished me over food with tonsils that swelled almost completely shut (they were removed.)  High hernia that closed off the top of my stomach so I couldn't swallow food (doctor fixed that too.)  I am cheerfully addicted to chocolate and cookies and bread and Alfredo sauce and you get the picture...I love food.  Problem with food addictions is I can't quit cold turkey....I have to eat.  Like Roots to Blossom, I have the flip side of food addiction of anorexia in my family too.  My grandmother was anorexic before it became well known.  One of my favorite singers Karen Carpenter died from complications from anorexia.  I am facing a significant challenge.  I am now 4 weeks using MyFitnessPal.com to monitor what I am eating.  My assignment for counseling is to have a life plan....oh boy.  I realized that my life plan is the key to bringing food back into its rightful place one piece of the puzzle of keeping me healthy.  I need:
Food
Excercise
Sleep
Companionship with people I love
Sunshine
Christ
All these things are needed in my life for me to be healthy.  If I knock food off its pedestal of  being the mighty solution for all things wrong in my life, then food is like medication I need to have it.  The proportions I eat of each thing is vital.  Myfitnesspal helped me to recognize that I have some faulty thinking about food.  For one, I really don't eat very many vegetables.  I need to change that.  That yummy pineapple that I thought was so great a substitute for chocolate has more sugar calories than a candy bar...I would rather have the candy bar.  Fortunately, I can do my own research and come to my own conclusions that work for me.  I get furious when someone tells me something is natural so won't hurt me...three deep breathes and calmly tell them that arsenic will kill you naturally.  A tape worm will naturally keep me skinny until I am fat from the tape worm that then kills me.  Eating healthy will not be a easy for me.  I suspect like diabetics that have to monitor what they eat for the rest of their life, I will too.  Facing my demons do not make them instantly go away.  I sometimes go to my food diary and look at all the food I ate to remind myself that I am not starving.  Loosing weight will not solve my life problems but being fat won't either.  My heart would love me to loose about 40 more lbs; it is that much less body it needs to pump blood through.  Part of loving myself is loving my body to be healthy which includes changing how I was feeding it.   I can do this.