Category Archives: Habits

Good behavior

Emotional Eating, Habits, Thought Patterns

The Reality of the Fail

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My mother was the leader of my sister’s Girl Scout troop from the time the girls were 1st grade Brownies until she took them to Europe for six weeks as juniors and senior in high school. Though five years younger than the troop members, I was always along for the ride. I meet them when I was a toddler and know a few of them to this day. Yesterday, one of the Doty Bunch commented on my post. Rachel said, “…by sharing your failures and successes, you also share your authenticity and credibility! I love you!”

What a humbling thing! It’s humbling to me that: 1. Rachel (and you) choose to spend part of your day with me, and 2. That a woman who knew me when I was in diapers takes me seriously. Her comment raised something that has always bothered me – reality in the diet and health promotion industry.

I’m sure there are people who really do feel compelled to eat nothing artificial, nothing with added sugar, nothing processed. I’m sure there are people who, given the choice between an orange and a warm sticky bun will always choose the orange without even thinking that they’ve giving anything up. I’m sure there are people who deal with life’s challenges and outright sucker punches by going for a run without even considering eating their way through the freezer at Dairy Queen. I’m sure these people exist. After all, there actually are people who get their jollies by dressing up as giant stuffed animals. Surely the Stepford Health Nuts are no more unlikely than the Furries. Well, not much more unlikely.

Whether they actually exist or not, they appear to and they appear to write a great number of books. In the ones I’ve read, I haven’t really found any confessions of people dealing with emotional eating or cravings or sugar addiction. Maybe I’m just not reading the right books; but, it’s always been frustrating for me. I see these people with their 64 teeth, their beautiful bodies, their spotless kitchens, their organic pantries and I don’t see anything that looks like me. Their image is perfection. My life is messy. Emotionally, I see their image as reality, as an achievable ideal. And I see my inability to actually achieve that ideal as a constant failure on my part. Intellectually, I don’t think that most of us are wired to achieve their reality (if it even exists) any more than I think that most of us want to zip into a giant teddy bear suit. Intellectually, I might suspect that Jillian Michaels gagging over a gordita is at least some acting on her part; but, emotionally, I believe her wholesale rejection and think that I have been somehow a failure since I’d have eaten that in a second.

But that’s not right.

Her reactions are not mine. My reactions may not be the most healthful; but, they are my reality. I might choose the orange over the sticky bun today, but I’d give that sticky bun a good sniff and I might even shed a tear or two. I might do the right thing for my body this time; but, that doesn’t mean I always will.

I will fail. But that doesn’t make me a failure.

Body Changes, Habits

Day 6 (And I’m Not Done Yet?!)

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So, today is Day 6 of my Recommitment and, no, I’m not there yet. But what a difference a week makes!

After work on the 18th, my friend Kent and I went for breakfast at IHOP. I had the all-you-can-eat pancakes and I ate seven. That’s six plus one with all kinds of butter and syrup. We did the same thing on the morning of the 25th; but, this time, I had the Simple & Fit veggie omelette with fruit. I went from a breakfast of an estimated 1650 calories on the 18th (all at one sitting. Yes! I know!) to a breakfast of about 320 calories on the 25th.  And, guess what? I left there full both times. I went home and went comfortably to sleep without missing those 1330 calories. (I’ll tell you a secret. I didn’t calculate the 18th’s breakfast until just as I sat down to type and I’m still feeling nauseated by the knowledge that I ate all that. And, then, went right to bed! Even worse! Good grief.)

I’ve stayed within my calorie budget every day so far and am feeling really good about it. I won’t weigh until tomorrow when I’m one full week in; but, I’ll let you know what it shows. To be frank, I don’t expect to see any loss this week since my body still had all those excess calories from just the days before still lingering in my blood system, in my liver and in fuller fat cells.

That’s something I tend to forget easily (on account of I don’t want to think about it) – fat cells may empty but they never go away.

adipose2Fat cells – adipocytes – come in two or three different kinds: white and brown (which everyone agrees on), and pink (which is under debate). White fat cells are primarily for energy storage, while brown fat cells are used to generate heat (like in babies or in hibernating animals) and are primarily energy consumers. (Pink is in mammary tissue and I don’t know what it does.) Anyway, a healthy adult has somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 billion fat cells. Now, I’ve always heard that when fat cells reach their storage limit, they divide; however, Wikipedia is the only source I find that says that. Every other source says that the fat cells just continue to grow in size as long as we keep shoveling lipids into them. But, whether or not they make more is not as relevant as the fact that they don’t die and go away. They do regenerate so the fat cells I have today are not the ones I was born with; however, they don’t diminish in numbers. Only a plastic surgeon can get rid of some of those 30 billion cells. And, I’ll tell you the truth, the idea of liposuction is very tempting. Very. I mean, how nice would it be to have fewer of these cells to fill up?!

Nice, but it ain’t in the budget. Ima hafta do it myownself.

I can’t use my money budget to empty my body of any of these cells; so, I’ve got to use my calorie budget to empty some of the lipids from those cells, making them (and myself!) smaller. That process is going to take a whole lot more than six days.

But, I’m off to a solid start!

 

Accountability, Exercise, Food, Habits, Motivation

Two Days Later….

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Well, good morning, friends! It’s two days since I truly recommitted myself to taking care of my nutritional needs. As a by-product, of course, I’ll be shedding these pesky 20 pounds; but, the main goal here is to get back to eating healthfully, in a way that gives my body what it needs to be its best.

Using my old profile, I have started a new program on LoseIt! and it tells me that I should reach my goal in the middle of June – perfect for bathing suit weather! I entered my current weight into the program, along with my goal weight and the amount of weight I want to lose each week. It gave me a calorie budget to get to that goal. Right now, that budget is 1350 calories per day. However, as I lose weight, that number will decrease to keep me on track. Here’s the thing I have to remember, though: although my daily calorie budget will eventually be under 1200, I must eat at least that many calories each day to allow my body to function properly. If I dip below that, weight loss will slow. I will feel tired all the time. I will feel cold all that time. This is the voice of experience saying that weight loss dieters need to eat those 1200 to stay healthy. As I get further into the program and my calorie budget drops, I will have to ensure that I am exercising enough to stay within it.

For the last two days, I’ve been within that budget – yesterday, well within it. There are several different tasks I may be assigned any given night at work. Last night, I was given the most physically taxing one. I calculate that I walked anywhere from 13 to 15 miles over the course of my ten-hour shift. (And, honey, my bones are feeling every. single. step. right now.) Like exercise does, my long walk has left me hungry this morning. So, when I got home, I had a little 100 calorie snack because I don’t want to eat anything super caloric right before I go to bed.

Okay, scratch that.

I do want to eat something super caloric – like, say, oh a few chocolate glazed doughnuts from The Doughnut Palace – but, I’m not going to do that. So, yeah, I’d be lying through my teeth if I said that I’m not willing to sell a kidney for pastries right now. Indulging myself just wouldn’t be the smart thing for me to do since all of those calories would immediately go into storage. Likely on my thighs. And I’m into cleaning that storage unit out, not adding to it!

So, I’m going to drink a nice cup of herbal tea, brush my teeth and go give my body the rest that it needs.

(Psst! If you’re O+ and need a kidney, call me later!)

Food, Habits

60 Minutes I’ll Never Get Back

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On Monday, I shared how my 90 minutes of eating adds value to the other 1350 minutes I have every day. I briefly mentioned that healthful food choices save me a whole bunch of time at the doctor’s office; but, the truth is, I haven’t been to the doctor in so long, I really didn’t know how much time those food choices saved me.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday morning, I had an appointment to see my regular general physician at 9 AM. When I called to make the appointment, no one told me to arrive ahead of time to fill out paperwork or anything; so, I showed up at 9….and was given five pages of paperwork to fill out. Most of these forms were things that were already in my record. And the information hadn’t changed. My mother died from cancer in 2003. I haven’t seen my doctor in almost three years; but, the facts surrounding Mother’s death have not changed …. and neither has the rest of my family history. In fact, the only thing that had changed was my insurance information, which I gave the receptionist right when I checked in. The whole sheaf of papers was a waste of my time.

But …. I’m a team player and filled it all out. This annoyed me, but not unduly. What annoyed me most was that 50 minutes after my arrival, I was still sitting in the waiting room. I finally left without seeing the doctor.

full_waiting_roomI had scheduled another appointment with a different doctor at 10:30, an hour and a half after my first appointment. This should have been plenty of time; however, I realized at 9:50, that there was no way I could see my GP and make it to my other appointment in time to arrive by 10:15. I had been told by the second office to arrive 15 minutes early to fill out paperwork. Now, here’s the really funny part – I didn’t fill out any new paperwork there. The receptionist just made a copy of my new insurance card and told me to take a seat. I was in and out of that office before 11:00. I saw the nurse practitioner (which is all I ever see at my GP’s office either), had blood drawn, vitals done, and a full consultation in less than 45 minutes.

Physicians, I’m going to speak for many of your patients for a moment. We are frustrated that your offices do not value our time. We understand that emergencies come up and that sometimes we have to wait a while to see you. However, since these delays occur every single time we set foot in your offices, we no longer believe they are the result of emergencies. Rather, we now believe that they are the result of poor planning …. constantly. And we’re tired of it. You want to know why you’re losing business to those Doc-in-a-Box places? It’s because: 1) we see a nurse practitioner there, 2) we expect to see a nurse practitioner there, and 3) we don’t have to wait to see her. At your offices, we expect to see you, end up seeing your nurse practitioners and we still have to wait! And, guess what? You’re billing our insurance like we saw you and we know it. If either my insurance or I am paying for your expertise, then, by golly, that’s what I expect to get!

For a long time, I suspected that my doctor no longer actually showed up at the office bearing her name. Today, however, I heard her voice and it seemed to be interacting with someone; so, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a recording. It might have been a very clever recording, but I’m fairly confident it was a real time event. Since I never actually saw her, I can’t be sure.

I can, however, be sure that I’m in the market for a new GP – hopefully one who respects my time enough not to make me waste it leafing through ancient magazines.

Exercise, Food, Habits, Social Issues

Wet Hair Doesn’t Cause Diabetes

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“Get in here and get dried off before you catch your death of a cold!”

How many times did you hear that growing up? Luckily, my mother didn’t cut short my playtime in the rain with that silly sentiment. Playing in the rain or going outside with wet hair does not give you a cold. Contact with several viral bodies of a rhinovirus does.  Playing in the rain or going out with wet hair may lower your body’s ability to ward off infection, which would make you more susceptible to the virus, increasing your risk of developing a cold.

The actions still didn’t “make” you get a cold any more than eating fast food “makes” you get diabetes.

diabetes memeNow, hold on there, sister! Haven’t you been spouting for months and months that the unhealthy American diet causes diabetes and heart disease?

Well, without rereading every single post, I can’t say that I didn’t phrase it that way; however, if I did, I misspoke (or miswrote, whatever). I was reminded of that this weekend when a childhood friend shared the meme you see here.  There are several different types of diabetes; but there are two main types that we’ll talk about now – Type 1 and Type 2.

Type 1 diabetes used to be called juvenile diabetes because its onset normally occurs before age 30. For whatever reason, the pancreas does not produce enough insulin. My great-grandmother had this type of diabetes and my friend’s son has it.  They both drew the short straw on this one. They were going to become diabetic regardless of what they ate or did. According to the Mayo Clinic, somewhere between 5 and 10% of diabetics have this type.

Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult onset diabetes and I’ll give you one guess to figure out why. This is the kind that I’m normally talking about when I refer to the effects of obesity. Roughly 90% of diabetics have this type. Of those, about 80% are obese. According to the International Diabetes Foundation, obesity is a factor that increases the risk of diabetes; but, it’s only one of several risk factors. None of them cause diabetes, per se, but they significantly increase the risk a person has of developing the disease. Wait a minute! What about that other 20%? The ones who are not obese? Like my great-grandmother, those diabetics drew the short straw, too. Either they were exposed to some other factor or they were going to become diabetic regardless of what they did.

The human body is a ridiculously complex organism and our environments are no less complex. How our environments and behaviors affect our bodies is, well, it’s frankly too much for me to consider this time of day. My mind is boggled at the mere notion. While we like to think that we are smart enough to know all of the answers, the billions of dollars that are spent each year in disease cause and cure research remind us that we’re not as smart as we think we are. We are still figuring the relationships between genes, environment, disease and organism. We don’t know exactly how they all fit together and, it’s my belief, that we never will.

Just as non-smokers develop lung cancer and teetotalers develop cirrhosis of the liver, people with healthy lifestyles develop diabetes. It just happens that way sometimes. Those people were either genetically predisposed for it or were affected by some other environmental factor. Have you been affected by a factor like that? Have I? There’s really no way for us to know until we develop the disease or we don’t. That’s out of our control.

So, the smart move here is to control those things that we can control, like the risk factors related to lifestyle. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Eat them in a more natural state. Exercise often.

And, for goodness sake, before you catch your death of a cold, wash your hands and don’t touch your face. Here’s a tissue.

 

 

 

 

Accountability, Cooking, Eating Out, Food, Habits, Motivation

Heroes and Villains

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Superman has Lex Luthor. Sherlock Holmes has Moriarty. Spiderman has the Green Goblin. And Kermit has Miss Piggy. Every superhero has an archenemy – some villain that is a constant thorn in his side. Where Batman has the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman, Two Face and Mr. Freeze (I don’t know how Batman rates all those villains, really. It’s not like he’s Superman, for crying out loud.), Resolve has Fatigue and his sidekick Convenience.

Capitan-America-obeseAs we’ve discussed several times, making healthful food choices isn’t necessarily easy and it certainly isn’t convenient. For whatever reason, last week, I got less sleep than usual. I also did not take the time I needed to take to prepare foods like I normally do. As a result, drive-thrus all over town talked to me as I drove past. It wasn’t that I even craved a burger or fries or a banana milkshake; I was just hungry and didn’t want to fool with making anything. While I resisted the temptations – even the milkshake, a heroic feat if ever there was one, resistance grew more difficult as the week wore on and my level of fatigue increased.

Well, there’s only one way to deal with that. That’s right. I had to put on my Big Goddess Panties and suck it up.

I went grocery shopping on Sunday to stock up on good fruits and veggies again. Some of those veggies, including a butternut squash, are roasting in the oven right this very minute. (I had to buy the biggest butternut squash they had to repair some soup I made with the gourd last week. I put WAY too much garlic in that batch; so, I have to dilute it. Good thing that soup freezes well!) Yellow squash, zucchini (staples in my kitchen) and eggplant also found their way into the basket. Sadly, they had no large portobellos that I can eat like a steak. The small ones still make for a great stir-fry, though.

In addition to the vegetables, I soaked and cooked some beans. I prepared chickpeas, black beans and lentils. The chickpeas will become hummus, soup and this wonderful chickpea salad that I just love. The black beans will be seasoned to serve with rice. They will also become black bean burgers as soon as I find a recipe that I like. The lentils will be a lentil loaf. I’ve never made one before; but, this recipe sounds wonderful!

I can’t say that this week I’ll get any more sleep and/or rest than I did last week; but, I can say that I’m better prepared to deal with the snacky feelings and temptations that the fatigue brings.

Fatigue Man and Convenience Boy, you’re on notice! I’m still in my Big Goddess Panties. You’ll not find me at your evil Drive-Thru lair, regardless of how tired I am or how strong that pumpkin pie milkshake tractor beam is.

Food, Habits

Exactly HOW is this better?

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After relating my cereal induced thoracic balloon story to a friend, he said something along the lines of, “And this new diet is a good thing? Um, how exactly?”

Well, I’m so glad you asked! You see, it’s all about “normal.”

What is your normal? Really think about it. Does your normal include:

  • a constant bloated feeling
  • frequent gas
  • heartburn
  • sluggish feeling after eating
  • sluggish feeling in the morning
  • energy crashes
  • low blood-sugar shakes
  • sharp feelings of hunger
  • frequent lung congestion
  • joint pain
  • headaches
  • constipation

Mine did for so many years that I just thought it was the way I was supposed to feel. Guess what. It’s not.

None of those things are in my new normal. I believe that all of those symptoms were caused by the food I was eating and how my body reacted to it; but, that never occurred to me before. I mean, really. Why would I think that my bloated, gassy feeling was caused by that delicious chocolate croissant? (I’m still grieving over that.) Or that my struggle to breathe every 14 days was related to that “healthy” yogurt I was eating? Or that the sluggish feeling I got after eating was a direct result of the meat and/or cheese I had at my meal?

vegan bowlWhen I did the whole Juice Reboot for those few days, and the veggie and legume only diet I continued with, what I did was rid my system of all of the allergens. I gave my system a good clean out – and not just the Exlax way. I cleaned my system out down to the cellular level, I’m pretty sure. Now, I’m slowly adding some foods back into my diet to see the foods which cause adverse reactions in my system. Of course, I’m going to cause myself some difficulties during this process. That’s to be expected; however, it’s the only way I can think of to find out what foods my system really doesn’t like. and my body told me loud and clear that it doesn’t like wheat on Tuesday. Loud. And. Clear.

So, now I remove all (or at least most) wheat from my diet.

Last year I learned that my battle with chest congestion from a few years ago was likely related to my dairy intake. Even after my pulmonologist tied my struggle to breathe with an allergy of some kind, I never suspected dairy. Dairy made me gassy, I knew, but would never have suspected that it would have resulted in chest congestion. I suspected airborne allergens. Now I suspect cow-borne ones.

So, yes, in spite of this rocky period where I figure out what foods are off-limits to me, this diet (or menu, a term I like more) is better. It’s better in the long-run at defining and maintaining a new normal for me – one that makes me feel better all the time – one without constant bloating pressure, joint pain, constipation, low-blood sugar crashes.

I spent over 40 years ignoring my body’s responses to food. Now, I’m finally listening and that is always better.

 

 

 

Food, Habits

On The Faces of Things

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chickensWhen my son and I evacuated New Orleans to get away from Katrina, we went to the home of my cousin Dorsey and his wife Susan. Now, Susan hasn’t eaten anything that used to have a face for as long as I’ve known her. Even knowing this, I emptied my freezer – including a frozen chicken – when we left NOLA. After arriving at their house, I was putting the chicken in the freezer when I dropped it. Their burglar alarm registered the sound as broken glass and called the police. Uh huh. Karma.

Once, frustrated with the limited restaurant options compatible with the Adkins diet I was on, I told Susan that, although my restricting factor was the opposite of hers, I had a glimpse of how difficult it was for her to eat out anywhere. I thought I understood, at least a little.

HA! Hubris.

These days, I’m not eating animal protein – with the exception of a little grated Parmesan on some of my roasted vegetables, and the eggs used as binding agents in many veggie burgers and sausage. I am also avoiding refined sugar, caffeine, and most wheat since it makes me feel bloated, gassy and achy. (Ezekiel bread is something of an exception; but, we’ll get to that another time.) These restrictions really don’t leave much on menus that I want to eat right now. Seriously, look over a menu next time you eat out. There’s not much there for gluten-free vegans. (I’m not really one of those; however, it’s the easiest description I can come up with at the moment and I’m feeling kind of lazy. So, there you go.) And menus at social events can be just as much of a wasteland as the ones at restaurants.

On Saturday, my company very graciously held a picnic for all facility employees at the Nashville Zoo. It was cool and overcast – really a great day to be out there, not Southern, sticky hot. They set up an enormous carnival in the middle of the zoo with lots of activities for children and with food and soft drinks for everyone. They grilled up hamburgers and hotdogs, had popcorn, sno-cones and cotton candy. It really was like a carnival! Great family fun and VERY generous of the company. (NOTE: I am in no way either complaining or criticizing this event, merely making an observation from a dietary viewpoint that is very new to me.) Anticipating a sugary, carnivorous menu, I took couple of apples and some water with me. That turned out to be a good thing. Although I was able to enjoy some of the popcorn, the rest just didn’t fit with how I want to eat right now to achieve how I want to feel. And that’s my issue, not my hosts’, let me make my thoughts on that perfectly clear, as well.

In years past, I’ve had people over for dinners and picnics, and I’ve served everything from homemade lasagna, jaeger schnitzel and moussaka to fried chicken and crawfish magnifique. As the hostess, I’ve served things that I wanted to serve with very little thought to my guests’ dietary restrictions. I really don’t even know if my guests had any! I can tell you that I will now be far more sensitive to that sort of thing.

So, Susan, it’s okay for you to come to dinner. Now, I truly do understand and I have some fantastic things on the menu that never once had a face.

 

Food, Habits

Make Me a Decaf

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At work last night, we were talking about coffee, tea, sodas and caffeine. Everyone agreed that caffeine was absolutely necessary for them – no way they could give it up. I once felt exactly the same way – until three weeks ago.

That’s when I gave it up.

After those first few days when a universe was born inside my skull and after my ears stopped bleeding, I started getting used to it. I quit drinking coffee and Diet Coke a week before I went on 100% juice; so, I don’t really think that the extreme fatigue I experienced then was related to becoming decaffeinated. But, it might have been. Regardless, in spite of the Sunday when I could not lift my head off the pillow, the process of decaffeinating myself didn’t kill me.

So, I was wrong. I CAN give up caffeine. I can and I DID. And, at the moment, I have no plans to put it back into my diet.

Food_Drinks_Herbal_tea_033285_As I sit here at my kitchen table, drinking my cup of orange spice herbal tea, I am loving that there are no artificial sweeteners in my system from diet foods, drinks, gum, or other snacks. And I love that there are no stimulants coursing through my blood that my body didn’t make for itself.

Oh, my! I really may be turning into a bean freak! Soon I’ll be going everywhere barefoot. I’ll start saying “man” and “groovy” all the time (wait, I already say “groovy” all the time). I’ll go to Burning Man.  I’ll stop shaving. Alright, that’s a little much. I’m not giving up my Schick. But, still, I’m liking this new experience.

I really like that my heartbeat is more normal. You see, I have an irregular heartbeat, the cardiologist I saw many years ago called it a premature heartbeat. I went to see him because, while I didn’t think I was having a heart attack, I felt a sensation in my chest that just wasn’t right. He said that drugs could treat the condition; but, that the side effects from the drugs were worse than the condition itself! Since he said that the condition wasn’t going to hurt me, I have never treated it. Instead, I’ve used it as a stress barometer. When life is calm, I may feel the odd beat once every one or two days. When I’m under a lot of stress, I feel the odd beat twenty or more times in a single day. Any sort of ingested stimulant increases the frequency; so, drinking my Diet Cokes makes it worse. Can I tell you that I haven’t felt the odd beat at all in the last couple of weeks? It’s pretty fantastic, I must say.

I still like a nice, hot cup of something now and again; so, I’ve begun exploring the world of herbal teas. Thus far, chamomile is a total no-go for me..yick. But, orange spice, pomegranate pizzazz, and vanilla Sleepytime are all big favorites. If you’ve got a favorite, I’d love to hear about it!

So, like I said, I have no plans to reintroduce caffeine into my diet. I’m going to continue to make myself a decaf!

Food, Habits

When Where and When are Why

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Let’s play a little game of word association. If I say birthday, you say? Cake. If I say movie, you say? Popcorn. Burger? Fries. Christmas? Cookies. Thanksgiving? Turkey. So many of the things we do and events we celebrate are so solidly paired with foods that we can hardly think of one without the other, right?

whowhatwhereWhen I was first starting to eat mindfully and make healthful choices, a large part of my struggle was unpairing events and food. It was similar to when I quit smoking…every single time I did it.

I smoked when I drove, when I drank coffee, when I drank beer or when I read on Saturday afternoons. When I decided to give up the cancer sticks, I had to change other behaviors, as well. It was difficult – very difficult. I had to find substitute behaviors to fill the void the cigarettes left. When I drank coffee or read, I filled that void with food, which turned out to be a totally different struggle, as you know. When I drank beer, I filled the void with drink stirrers. I chewed on them.

One night when I was out in Atlanta with friends, drinking Guinness and debating the pros and cons of the death penalty (light conversation for light beer), I nearly took the waiter’s hand off for trying to take my collection of drink stirrers. Others at the table were smoking, but I was dutifully chewing on my little plastic straws. Ridiculous? Sure, but it got me through the night.

I thought of that night on Monday when I went to see the new Sin City with my friend David – the one who remembers to get butter all the way through the popcorn. I didn’t have any popcorn that day, but it was a struggle – not because I was hungry, I wasn’t. But because eating popcorn is just what I do at the movies.

It’s the Where and When that is the Why.

When I’m at home, I eat salted peanuts in the shell; but, I’m pretty sure the Roxy would frown on me dragging in a bag of peanuts then leaving bits of shell everywhere. Plus, there would be the blood after the other viewers tore me limb from limb for making all that racket. Nah. The teenagers at the theater definitely don’t get paid enough to deal with that. My struggle to keep my mitts out of the popcorn bucket decreased as the movie went on, not only because of the implied and displayed gore of the film but also because I got more and more comfortable with just not eating while I watched.

Making healthful food choices at home is a challenge due to budget, time and convenience. Making them out and about is a challenge largely due to availability. But the challenge for making mindful choices is the same regardless of location. It’s important to my continuing health improvement that I eat mindfully and purposefully rather than habitually.

It’s vital that my Why is the Why I chose, not the one Where and When did.