I care not about temporary fixes for anything. And I think anything worth doing is worth doing for the right reasons and doing the right way. Diet smacks of band-aid. Photoshop in real life. Not to say I'm against a short cut---but I am against fooling thyself. I'm not a tattler, but I am a whistle blower. I'm very keen on paying attention to the man behind the curtain. He's up to no good.
Would I mind if I lost weight? Certainly not. But honestly my main goal was to have a case of the Feel Goods. And relocate my mid section to a small village in Bolivia. It's not that I felt "bad" per se, but here's a list of random symptoms that I was blowing off to middle age:
*achy joints, bloat, debilitating menstrual cycles, bloat, indigestion, moody cranky pants, headaches, lack of energy, too much energy, wonky sleep patterns, eating all the time and never feeling satisfied.
Hmm, PMS? I refuse to give into that as a catchall. Yes, there are markedly different peaks and valleys in our hormonal cycles but that too, can be just a symptom that can be fixed. I take a wide spectrum of B vitamins, calcium and a D supplement. A Krill Oil and a few witchy herby things that seem to take the freak out of the show before the big day. I felt like I was doing all the right things...right?
I noticed that my artisan bread baking and discovery of the Jamie Oliver pizza dough recipe had me eating, sampling and dreaming about bread and its evil cousins, Crackerbread, Focaccia, Wood fired Pizza with rosemary and fresh mozzarella...Grilled bread. Toast. Calzone with home made goat cheese and swiss chard. Homemade English muffins topped with roasted garlic hollandaise and my own fresh eggs and garden spinach. Grass fed beef tacos with organic cilantro and cumin aioli. I was having grain at every meal. I didn't even notice. I was going to need an intervention.
And the sneaky thing is that this is not a processed food household. There are no boxed items. No candy. No soda. Nothing with a label. I belong to a CSA and grow a lot of stuff. I have meat and egg hens. Friends with a natural pork farm. I buy grass fed beef. I cook all my own food. But even though I feel a lot better than many folks I know who are rattling with pills and "ailments", much heavier than me, with all season allergies and a cold every month...I didn't feel in top form. And maybe a little snippy. Short. Irritable. And I was in denial. Please, please, don't make me give up my bread...and its sweet Mistress of Melting...cheese! But dairy makes me feel pretty wicked in the gut, I've long since had my eye on the cow nectar. I started bargaining.
Then I started watching what my chickens ate. I noticed that when I fed them grain based feed, they ate more. They were crazy when the feed ran out. Literally walking up to the main house and looking for me to bring them more. Like drug addicts needing a fix. They were hungrier the more I fed them. If I withheld feed, which forces them to forage more and walk around and get their own grass and protein from bugs and worms--they were calmer and had fewer cravings. I started giving them some salmon, seaweed, squash...left overs from the kitchen. I got a healthier egg, and happier birds.
I wanted a piece of that...
(Next time...The Imposters, what sneaky things in the house are grain based and making you fat and cranky? Stay tuned!)
