Another benefit of God's Diet Plan/the clean diet

I have been eating the "no white flour, no white sugar and little starch" diet for almost a month now.  I have also been eating many other foods much closer to the way God made them (my version of God's Diet Plan) during this time.  I've been eating a greater variety of fruit than usual, lots more veggies, and almost nothing fried.  Also eliminated has been almost all soda, all but three pieces of bread in over as many weeks, and desert in general.  I think I have had three cookies, two small peppermint patties and maybe four or five hard candies in a month-which is huge for me as I had developed quite the sweet tooth.

To top it off, I have been traveling for the past week for work and either eating out or having to make sandwiches for lunch.  That could have been a landmine-loaf of bread, chips to munch on with it and sweet or very salty snacks.  Instead I have used Romaine lettuce leaves as "bread" and too be honest like the "sandwiches" a lot like that!  Another change has been when we go out for supper-no eating half a loaf of bread or my own basket of chips, plus a big supper and either lots of Coke or the occasional beer.  As I have posted about in the past, these meals would result in feeling bloated by the third or fourth day on the road.  Portion control helped, but changing what was eaten has had an even bigger impact.

So let's recap:
Smaller, frequent meals
Food close to how God made it, include lots of raw fruit
Protein and good fats like almonds and other nuts
Water
NO ADDED SUGAR
NO WHITE SUGAR
NO WHITE FLOUR
No added salt

Overall very happy with how I feel physically, and oh by the way, I've dropped at least ten pounds without even trying!

Recalibrating my taste buds

As I posted last week, I am on a type of elimination diet and have gotten rid of most refined flour, sugars and synthetic sugars from my diet over the past two weeks.  This is the first few days on the road for work since embarking on this, and new challenges have cropped up.  Where I no longer am at home where we have lots of bread, crackers, chips and candies, I also only have a small fridge, no real way to cook other than a microwave.  Fortunately the hotel I am staying in cooks hot breaksfasts to order, and I have enough nights at this chain to get the breakfast "comped".  Of course there are all the pastries I normally enjoy, plus a waffle iron I have used many times in the past!  But they also do eggs to order, fruit, and have milk available.  The team I am part of doesn't really eat fast food, so that is good-I never seriously looked at a fast food menu until recently and saw how much of the food is basic, over-processed starch!  I've already hit the grocery stores twice in three days to stock up on romaine lettuce and sandwich fillings that aren't too bad.

One thing I also noticed is despite knowing better, I have the typical modern American diet:  Lots of white bread and buns, daily french fries, little fruit and vegetables, and too much soda-whether diet or loaded with sugar.  My taste buds have gotten acclimated to "sweet", "salty" and "peppery" and little else.  Not only is this not very heathy, it actually was quite boring once I reintroduced natural sugar from a variety of fruits, whole vegetables but no potatoes, and piece of romaine lettuce instead of even good breads as "sandwiches".  While I hope to go back to eating a few pieces of quality bread a week I honestly don't miss whole wheat bread sandwiches compared to the romaine lettuce!  I also am back to eating many small meals a day most days.  Last night was the exception, as we went to a Mongolian grill and I definitely enjoyed it!  I resisted eating a whole bowl of rice by myself which also allowed me to get thirds (yep, thirds) but truly enoy the vegetables and an extra serving of meats.

One thing I learned from my friends who are unfortunately going through chemo right now is that our taste buds are rapidly growing cells, and as my body replenishes them, the longer I go without overwhelming them each day with lots of sugar and salt, they become more sensitive to normal amounts instead of mega-doses of these tastes.  I had two small thin mints over the weekend, and was nearly shocked by how strong they were, instead of eating them by the handful.  Two were enough-as the tastes exploded in my mouth since I hadn't had chocolate in about 10 days.  While losing weight wasn't the goal (better health was) I have dropped nearly 12 pounds in just over a month and still feel healthy and am just as strong.  This is further proof that if we eat foods closer to the way God made them and enjoy all the spices and flavor in natural foods, our bodies respond with health and vitality. 

White ain't right, at least for starches and sugars

I recently have cleaned my diet up significantly, as I posted about last week.  I really am much closer to my advocated "God's Diet Plan"-as in eating things as close to the way God made them as possible.  While I've always known this, it's so easy to get caught in the fast food/convenience trap like anyone.  One thing I've always enjoyed is bread-white bread, sourdough bread, dark loaf bread, toast, toast tartar, by itself, as part of a sandwich, you name it I like it.  I also like potatoes and rice-so pretty much all your white starches.  While I don't add a lot of sugar to my coffee and almost never drink full calorie soda, I did use some raw sugar in my Starbucks coffee and drink one to two diet sodas a day.  All that is gone too.

It's been a bit tough, and I have to admit having probably the equivalent of one serving of bread a day but that's it.  I haven't added any sugar to any food, and tried to eat natural foods without added sugars in processing.  Also, I have had almost no diet soda in a week.  The end result?  Consistent energy levels except for some fatigue after not sleeping well for two nights, full recovery from the lingering cold, and I've lost over ten pounds-not all this week but over the past few weeks.

So clean those diets up!  Eat it naturally and close to the way God made it!

God's Diet Plan and Presidential Fitness Challenge Updates

Recently I have been instructed by a doctor and encouraged by others to really clean my diet up.  Most the recommendations as he gave them sounded like my earlier posts (started here and continued for 12 other posts or so).  A few differences was his emphasis on good fats, especially avocados, and Omega oils.  I've never taken Omega supplements but will start out on them and see how all this works together.  A number of years ago I really cleaned up the diet, so I know it's possible and beneficial.  In that case I lost something like 25 pounds while not losing much strength, was healthy and vibrant, and still ate well.  Like most people, it's really the convenience of fast food/processed foods that results in me eating so much of them.  It definitely isn't the varied taste, as the overwhelming flavor when you really think about it is SALT!  Ok, maybe some meat taste if it is at a higher quality place, and some cheese or veggies, but sometime ask yourself what you are really tasting/craving and I'll bet more often than not it is salt, followed closely by chemical sweet.

So I am trying to zero the processed starch, sugar and added salt while ramping up the whole foods, fresh fruits and veggies, nuts and good fats.  I'll keep lifting to preserve muscle mass and liking will lean out 10-15 pounds, but that really isn't the goal.

As I posted about earlier this week, maximizing the counted activity keeps my rolling monthly average for Presidential Fitness Challenge points at 10,000 points.  At that rate I should finish up silver and gold qualifications reasonably quickly.  The 1,000,000 point platinum award?  How about sometime next decade?  Hey, it's a goal at least!

Rest and recovery day two

Still pretty wiped out so taking today "off" too.  Will probably do some light stretching tonight but overall having a physically easy day while working and taking care of some admin/personal matters.  I've found that in my 40s rest and recovery are as important as the workouts, as are diet and sleep.

So tomorrow I'm back at it with a short lifting workout around work and a friend's retirement ceremony.

Update and observations on Presidential Fitness Challenge: Odd events

I continue to progress accumulating points toward Presidential Fitness Challenge awards.  For the last month or so I have been tracking everything, and I mean everything, when it comes to earning points.  I topped 52,000 points this weekend!  I've also earned just over 10,000 points in the last rolling month period after slowly bringing it up from 2000 to 5000 and now to 10K.  One way I've done this is by becoming more active on projects around my house, yard and garage.   Adding in a couple of "moving parties" and lots of points for "lifting/hauling" and the points total skyrockets.  This is because there are all kinds of activities that earn points if you make the effort to log them.  Big ones recently have been "home repairs", "household tasks" and the aforementioned "lifting/hauling".  Unfortunately I have also discovered it is possible to overtrain while lifting and hauling, as helping some friends move Saturday wiped me out as I finished recovering from my cold.

 

If you think those are some odd point earning activities (as I get points for folding clothes as a light household activity) there are even more odd events and scoring.   As I've scrolled through the list of ways to get credit, I've noticed these categories:  Baton Twirling, Billiards (and Darts), Hunting and Sailing.  How about this problem:  If you log time spent bowling-does the snack bar and beverages cost you points?  A couple of beers or sodas, a greasy pizza slice and sharing some nachos and I don't think three games of bowling are much benefit-although a fun way to spend time with friends.  Here's another one I saw, and fitting since I had just talked with a duck hunting friend about shivering in cold water:  Hunting awards 4.8 points per minute as it only has one intensity level.  Is that freezing in a duck blind, stalking or walking with your dogs and gun, or time spent up in a tree stand?  I find the categories fairly arbitrary-some make complete sense as fitness activities and some seem added just to increase scope and inclusiveness without much thought of the muscle and bone building or aerobic components of the event.

 

That said, I'm going to need to claim every point I can to ever get to the platinum award level of 1,000,000 points!