How I Got Started

I confess – I love food. Always have, always will. And, quite frankly, it’s pretty obvious. My relationship with food, even when I was a kid, has always been a rocky one. And, while I’m putting it all out there and confessing, I never really cared all that much how dysfunctional my food relationship was. It was what it was. I love food. It makes me happy, and comforts me.

But then I turned forty, and I had a sudden desire to really start taking care of myself. I got checked out by my doctor – other than the need to lose some weight, I was healthy. I started doing Tai Chi regularly, and walking not so regularly. And I started to think about what I was eating.

Yikes!

It all began to hit home when I watched Dr. Oz on Oprah one day. He had a bucket of margarine, which he squeezed in his fist, and said that’s what it was doing to the arteries as well. I was horrified, and immediately made the switch to butter only. I sat, intently listening to all his recommendations, and committed to memory Dr. Oz’s list of ingredients to avoid. And then I added a few of my own.

Here’s the list I started with – No foods with any of the following: sugar in the first five ingredients, corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, bleached flour, lard, artificial sweeteners, or MSG.

But I don’t like to be deprived, even if I’m the one depriving myself. I need some flexibility and a little wiggle room. So I aimed to succeed at least 75% of the time.

For me, being addicted to food is in a large part about flavor. I’m addicted to flavor. And sometimes it takes a lot of food to be satisfied with the flavor. I’ve always loved flavored non-dairy coffee creamers for this reason. They have quite a lot of flavor packed into a single cup of coffee. But I gave them up. They’re basically just corn syrup with artificial colors and flavors after all. Instead, I now punch up the flavor of my coffee by using espresso beans fine ground for my automatic drip machine. It makes a strong flavorful cup, and avoids the corn syrup.

And that was my start…