Improving the diet

Nope this isn't the post that says I'm back to tracking my calories so I can actually lose some weight. Tho' I hope that post happens soon.

This post is about how if you are serious about your health, chances are you could make some changes to your current eating habits. If you stop and think about what changes you should make to be healthier, I'm guessing most of you think about the things you need to cut down on, or cut out completely. I'm with you there. I eat much differently now than I did 4 years ago. Which was probably differently than I ate 4 years before that.

Looking back, I think one of the first big changes I made was no artificial sweeteners. I think that was back in 2000. That eliminated diet sodas from my world. Which meant Soda was practically gone from my diet because I rarely drink regular soda. I don't think I'd be lying if I said an average of 10 a year. Honestly it's probably less than that. This change was partially inspired by my Aunt having some bad reactions to NutraSweet. Once I was away from it for awhile and I drank a diet soda, I felt that I had some minor reaction to it as well. Hard to explain as it's in your brain. Never the less, it really made it easy for me to just decide that stuff didn't agree with me and there is no reason I should consume it. So I haven't. If you are curious about the medical research on this go here. I figure the Mayo Clinic is reputable enough for most people to accept their findings.

The other things I've done are much less dramatic sounding than that Artificial Sweetener issue. Things like Fried Foods are a very unusual for me now. I remember how the smell of French Fries would basically be enough to make my willpower crumble and I'd have to have a few, or more than a few. But then I'd realize how those French Fries made me feel. Eventually instead of the smell triggering the desire to eat them, it had become almost a warning signal. Obviously it took awhile for that to happen but decisions about having fried food are pretty seriously weighed out.

Anyhow, cutting things out of my diet isn't what I wanted to talk about. I was going to discuss the issue of adding things INTO the diet to improve your overall nutrition. I eat a ton more vegetables now than I did 10-12 years ago. 10 years ago, I think I figured potatoes were vegetables so I had it covered. Now I'll eat gigantic salads for lunch with nothing but balsamic on it for a dressing. Another more recent addition has been Sushi. I'm not sure what inspired me to try out raw tuna and raw salmon. I'm glad I did tho'. I'm guessing I'll have that once a week now. Yes I'm aware there are some concerns about mercury and parasites. Hopefully I don't run into those types of problems.

I've just started adding some other things this past week. I fired up our juicer and I'm working on figuring out how to add Kale, Beets and other greens and vegetables into the mix. There are some vegetables I just have a hard time consuming. With a juicer, you can hide these things behind apples and oranges and limes, and so on.

I was inspired to go in search of a juicer after watching the movie "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead". It took us awhile to find the deal we wanted. So I kind of lost momentum on the importance of trying to add in really healthy juices to our diets. So our juicer sat unopened...

Then last week, my dad sent me this TED talk called "Minding your Mitochondria". I associate Mitochondria with "improvement as an athlete", as those are one of the cellular adaptations you are trying to inspire through your training. So already it was a must watch for me. As it turns out, it wasn't about being an athlete at all, but has everything to do with being healthy. Check it out.



I wish she didn't bring up the Paleo Diet and the whole hunter gatherer thing. I think that leads people to some questionable conclusions if they search more information about that on the internet. We live in an amazing place where you can get foods from every corner of the world. I'd rather she stressed the importance of "gathering" a variety of whole foods and working them into your diet. That's kind of what I'm trying to do right now. It makes sense to me.

Your body is good at making what it needs and even pretty good at making you crave things to direct you towards what you need or can't make. I hope you can see how you still might end up deficient in something. It may take years for that deficiency to cause a noticeable problem tho', at which point how easy is it to right the ship and get back on course?

That's the motivating factor for me right now. Juice it up and Take Your Medicne! In the form of Food. Hopefully SuperFood! Meaning perhaps I won't be sick as often. Maybe my recovery from workouts will improve. Maybe I'll keep my health and strength for decades to come. I'm also hopeful that it will change my tastes a bit more and I might make further improvements in what I'll eat day to day. I can tell you already, I've eaten more beets and kale in the last week than I have in the last say... 40 years.

So there you have it. As I get better at making recipes for this juicer. I'll post up some of the good stuff over on our other blog.