Food Failure

 I realized the other day that there is not one meal that I can think of that I can cook the exact same for all four people in our house that we all would eat. 

Actually, that's not true. I think that if I served plain hamburgers with French fries and glasses of water, we would all eat that. 

It makes me sad and reflective on how this came to be and I can only look in the mirror. 

There are lots of other successes that I can point to and say that I influenced that positive outcome. This is not one of them.

If I have any advice to a young family, it is to reduce the number of snacks in your pantry. Snacking between meals is unnecessary and a symptom of boredom. Make meals that everyone can tolerate and that are balanced. Introduce new foods in small amounts but frequently and prepare them simply. Wait to introduce condiments. 

Finally, there is no such thing as "kid food." Foods high in salt, sugar, and saturated fat are tasty to all humans. We (yes, I include myself) are just preparing our kids to be diabetics. 

That is all. Good luck, because I know it's easier to type in a blog than it is to do in real life.

Cravings no more

 I've been on a ketogenic diet (really, carb sensitivity diet) for about 4 months. The reasons for doing so were weight gain and cravings for sugar.

The latter was the main problem. At 6'5", 218 lbs, I was a bit overweight, but not too bad. Still, it had been creeping up. And I am almost 100% certain why it would have continued to tick up. 

Because of cravings.

I would get addict-like cravings for sugar, especially at night. When I'm in it, it feels like an uncontrollable, out-of-body experiece. I'm looking at myself from outside of myself, saying that this is stupid and that I shouldn't be eating all of this junk food. But my body would be incontrol and do what it felt it needed to do. 

Now that I've been eating a carb-restircted diet, my cravings are almost zero. I can be around foods that would have made me cave and maintain my discipline. 

In other words, it's not just psychological discipline, but my body has better chemical discipline. It's not demanding this food.

Case in point: this past weekend was that of Halloween. I love chocolate. Love. I love chocoalte candy. Love. So, I told myself that this weekend I would be able to eat anything I wanted. And I did. Pizza, candy - whatever. 

This morning, there's candy all over the place and I'm not interested.

Since starting right around July 1st, I have lost 18 lbs. I do wish that I'd done measurements and blood work before starting (adipose fat and blood sugars and other levels,) but I didn't.

That's all. If you want to learn more, these are the resources that have influenced me:

Tim Ferris

Peter Attia

Phil Maffetone

https://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/ketogenic-diet-plan.html