The Physical Heart

Weigh-in today: 168.4

I've had no soda for two days. Back to drinking water and may I say it is delish. The elimination of drinking soda along has stabilized my sugars because I am not waking up hungry in the mornings.

The soda, chips, pastries, cakes and cookies (not the usual fare in the home but the holidays were here and well...) have all been used up and will not be replenished. If I don't have it in the house, I won't eat it.

The last package of my microwave popcorn is in the cabinet and I may invest in a popcorn popper so I don't have to microwave anymore and could just make it natural. Anyone have a good idea what to drink with popcorn if not soda? My pleasure was diet coke and popcorn but now that I'm no longer drinking it, what do I do substitute it with? Hmmm? I may have to give up the popcorn because this is hard. I like the fizz. Maybe seltzer but that just doesn't do it, does it? I like the sweet taste of the diet soda. I may just leave that pleasure for when I go to the movies.

Went to a workshop yesterday on health and they talked about maintaining one's ph balance in the body and came to learn that much of the foods I eat (dairy, processed foods and grains) tends to be acidic and so these foods imbalances one's ph balance in the body. I was surprised by the grains category. The new food pyramid submitted by Eat Right America consists of minimum of 4 servings of vegetables a day, 3-5 servings of fruit, 1-3 servings of nuts/seeds, 1-3 servings of beans, and 1-3 servings of whole grains/starchy vegetables with the limited consumption of fish, eggs, non-fat dairy, poultry, meat, white bread, pasta, full-fat dairy, processed meats, processed foods and sweets. This sounds more like a vegetarian diet if you ask me.

I will certainly begin to incorporate more vegetables into the diet and that's not a problem since I love vegetables; fruits will take work; nuts and seeds I can do but I'm trying to lose the weight, not gain it!; beans, of course, from scratch. I make two batches each weekend and freeze them, and; my whole grains, which I love, I will certainly not give up.

I understand that anything processed is not good and we should eat as much to natural as possible and that will be my goal. I am not big on and don't buy much processed food to begin with but there are foods, like cereal, that I can't find my way around to giving up.

My challenge will be the creative ways in which to make lunch and eliminate the cold cuts altogether since the nitrates in cold cuts have been linked to stomach cancer and other degenerative diseases and also the raising of bad cholesterol.

And so on the fourth day of the new year, I'm learning, I'm trying, I'm doing...