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Food is, essentially, the most important thing to human (and animal) life. I mean, air and water are important, but in the modern era, if we are talking about necessities, people would rather be naked than starve. Obviously.
But it's also amazing what effect food has on our society. I feel like I have had a very unique and wholesome experience with food despite being so young. I have gone from being a meat lover to a vegetarian, even vegan. I have eaten the worst of foods up to the most nutritious.
It's so interesting and surreal to me to think that at one time we ate McDonald's and went to Sheetz, to restaurants, got pizza. I mean at one point we spent a lot of nights eating take out food. Unfortunately even the things in our fridge were unhealthy.
In college, we worked at the college cafeterias. Ruka became heavier than ever at nearly 150 pounds. I gained weight too but surprisingly wasn't at my heaviest. We ate tons and tons of carbs, cheese, meat, soda. Dessert constantly. Oh my god.
Then we moved to the roach motel and decided we needed to eat better and do more. Surprisingly I did lose a little weight and Ruka definitely did. But the thing was, our idea of healthy was definitely not healthy. And we were eating somewhere a lot.
Then, we moved here to the townhouse and at first we were the same. Then last year I got serious and decided I was sick of being fat. I decided that even if I had something wrong with me, I would do it.
It's still a work in progress but I have reformed my eating. This year I will reach my goal. But it is interesting to me to reflect on the effect food has had on my body.
When I decided to get smart, I realized I was making a ton of excuses for being fat. I thought I had PCOS, or a broken thyroid, or a terrible metabolism. These are all excuses I have seen dozens of times. I needed to learn to quit blaming other factors that I didn't know existed for sure, and start blaming myself.
Weight loss is all about calories in and calories out, but also eating right. I did definitely have a hormone problem. My body is very sensitive to processed foods, it seems. But when I stopped eating those foods and tracking my calories, my symptoms improved dramatically. I felt much happier, more energetic, and the weight pretty much fell off.
Processed foods are basically the reason so many people are obese. Not only are they high in calories for what they are, but they contain excessive sugar, bad fats, and a host of mystery ingredients and chemicals, not to mention wheat or processed corn.
On my body, I have seen the effect processed food has. Wheat and sugar are addictive. They literally trick your mind into wanting more. This is definitely true for me. Not only this, but they bloat me and make it hard for me to lose weight.
Cutting them out was perhaps the best decision I made, but Rome wasn't built in an egg (;D). At the moment, I am still getting over the holidays. We ate way too much and really unhealthily. We came away asking ourselves how we ever ate like that all the time! It was ridiculous and it didn't feel good. So after, my body is fighting me because I allowed myself those addictive things. It's been very hard to get back into eating more veggies.
But it does go to show, those foods clearly have an effect on the mental state. They make natural, raw foods seem unappetizing. They clearly have an effect on the body.
So the bottom line is. Food is important. Given the power it has over your health, your well being, and even hormones, why waste time eating junk? I can't imagine going back. Each time we eat something that isn't great for us, I am reminded that I have come to prefer clean, healthy eating.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.