I Was Told to Eat to Lose Weight (Part 1)
But I was never told how to eat
Since the ‘90’s, I’ve been attentive to my health and what I feed my body, but sometimes more attentive than other times.
I had always been told I needed to eat to lose weight, not realizing there was a method and reasoning behind the advice I was given.
Although I’ve never had a weight problem, I exercised and cut-back on my portion sizes.
Since I was still fairly young, I noticed my body had become more toned. My peers also saw a difference in how my body began to take shape.
As my body matured and life began to take its toll, maintaining my ideal weight and keeping my body toned became more challenging.
I had to work harder to achieve the same results that had come so easy for me in year’s past.
I loved football (I still do), and I would faithfully watch the games on Sunday. But one thing stood out to me. The players.
I knew they had to be robust and solid to withstand tackles, hits, and sacks, depending what position they played.
But one thing I began to wonder about, was the fact that as active as they were, they never seemed to be toned or have a reduction in weight.
As I reassessed my own food intake, while receiving advice from my doctor, I began to understand about meal-planning and how it affected my body.
Discovering how football players would eat after they came off the field while listening to some of the pre- and post-game interviews, and following some of my favorite players, I understood why and how they maintained their robust statures.
Players have the capacity to eat ‘volumes’ of food in one setting, and they eat what their heart desires.
But they also burn thousands of calories, which they perhaps, over-compensate for when they are at the dinner table.
Much of it may be intentional for them to maintain the bulk to survive on the field.
This revelation compelled me to consider the fact that my goals were different than that of the athletes.
Once I discovered that I had some of the similarities as the football players, when it came to my food choices, and the advice I had received from my doctor, despite my caloric deficit and exercise regimen, I realized I was sabotaging my body with what I was eating!
It didn’t matter how little I ate or when I ate, it was what I ate!
During my discovery, I also uncovered the ‘food saboteurs’ (a term I coined for lack of a better description) when I planned meals, which was a life-changing event, once I amended my eating choices.
The food saboteurs wreaked havoc with my body.
I had migraines, pain in my joints, fatigue, sweet cravings, sleeplessness, lack of endurance without exerting much effort.
One evening while at work, my right leg just gave-out from beneath me as I walked.
When I visited the company doctor, she diagnosed me as having osteoarthritis.
My primary care physician also confirmed my diagnosis, as well.
I felt that my body was falling apart!
However, with the information I had gathered in addition to things I had discovered, and what my doctor had advised, I took action.
First, I had to get rid of the migraines in order to function.
Although I learned how to recognize migraines at the onset, and how to offset them with a prescribed medication, I was on a mission to totally eliminate them.
I began to pay closer attention to my body, and realized certain foods triggered my migraines.
As I went through the process of elimination, to my surprise, the migraines ceased!
The foods that were triggering my migraines were red grapes and red wine. I was allergic to nitrates and nitrites.
Riesen chocolate candy with sorbitol (an artificial sweetener) gave me migraines which lasted for three days!
My life was miserable. In fact, I didn’t have a life at all during that time.
Also, chewing gum with sorbitol or other artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame would bring on the migraines.
Monosodium Glutamate also known as MSG and tannin in tea, which intensified my migraines when I made an Arnold Palmer (tea with lemon juice) were also culprits that added to my migraine misery.
I had to eliminate prepared, pre-packaged, and microwaveable foods from my edible selections. Some of those items also caused migraines, as well.
I also cut back on caffeine. I went cold-turkey on Pepsi, which caused me to be hospitalized with a blood pressure reading at stroke-level.
Once I eliminated the food-enhancers and food choices from my meal plan, the migraines disappeared, and I reassessed my food choices.
My trial-and-error revelations were pre-internet during the late 80’s and early ‘90's.
Now, as I fast-forward 30+ years, I can ‘Google’ and find others who’ve experienced these ingredients to be migraine triggers, as well.
During the next stop on my journey to conquer my food and eating challenges, I understood that I had to eat to lose weight.
At first, it didn’t make sense. But when I learned that my body needed food to keep my metabolism in motion, to process and digest what I had eaten, that’s when it all came together.
Otherwise, my body would think I was starving if I didn’t eat, kick into ‘survival mode’ and store fat, which would facilitate weight-gain.
Next, I adapted to incorporating whole foods into my meals. I shopped for them around the perimeter of the grocery store.
Although I thought the produce was expensive, and more labor-intensive to prepare, over time, the prices and preparation, both became easier .
I adjusted to the prices and made some least-expensive selections by purchasing the non-organic version of some produce, when it was most beneficial, both economically and nutritionally.
Eventually, shopping the produce section of the grocery became a lifestyle.
Since this post is so long, I don’t want to bore you, but yet give you the full scoop on my journey about ‘how to eat.’
So, I will share part 2 in my next post.
