FoodSanity(3.0)

Of the many things Moe (my lovely bride of 37 years) and I have learned, one lesson is particularly notable: diets don't work.  We tried numerous diets over the years.  We would simply get to a point where we were carrying a few more pounds that we felt comfortable with, or that caused our clothes not to fit so well.  

Thus, we would embark on one diet or another in order to trim a few pounds.  Most worked, for the short term.  But most fizzled, as they were either impractical, too expensive, took too much work, or simply didn't taste good.  

All the while, we continued to engage in exercise of one kind or another - walking, jogging, lifting weights, watching and mimicking video-exercise-maniacs of endless varieties.

Underlying our weight control efforts was the underlying premise that with enough exercise we could "eat whatever we wanted."

Turns out we were wrong.  The diets never worked for the long haul and the exercise, no matter how extreme, was never able to offset the effects of poor eating habits.

Thus, we began a journey about a year and a half ago that has completely transformed the way we think and eat and feel and exercise and work.  The impact on our body/mind/spirit wellness has been amazing.  

So, what is different about how we eat now?  Here are some of the fundamentals:

•  Almost no grains or grain products.  When we do eat grains or grain products we make sure they are organically grown and not genetically modified.
• Only organically grown vegetables and fruits, and then only lightly cooked or raw.
• Only grass fed and grass finished meat.  We avoid meat that is feed-lot or mass produced as the animals are often laced with antibiotics and fed with genetically modified feeds (most of which have been dosed with pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers).
• TONS of natural fats - from meats, from real butter (some of which we make ourselves), from raw and unprocessed nuts, from avocados, from fish oil.
• We eat almost nothing that comes out of a box these days, and grow as much of our own food as we can (vegetables, chicken, beef, eggs, dairy products).
• NO sugar and NO high fructose corn syrup.  Amazingly, plain old fruit taste as sweet to me these days as a Dairy Queen Blizzard used to.

Interestingly, weight has melted off of us.  Our bodies have become leaner.  Our wellness markers have improved on all fronts (blood pressure, blood sugar, cognition, stamina, reduced inflammation in joints, reduced effects of arthritis, disappearance of the afternoon "sinking" phenomenon, etc., etc.).

Are we starving ourselves?  Nope.  We eat as much as we want and never count calories or limit volume in any way whatsoever.  I think I'm eating more, by volume, than I did when I was 30 years old.

Here's one of the tents of this approach to wellness: our physical health is 80% what we eat, 20% exercise.

We believe that assertion, and have the evidence to support it.