Eating

I looked at myself in the mirror, topless, and watched a ring appearing around my waist, a ring of chubbiness, with matching moobs that I could cup. I’m forty two and my health has been on mind.

I am not the most active chap on the planet and if there is a short cut for doing anything physically demanding I will usually seek it out and adopt that method.
 
This desire to look better has been with me for a while, and I have tried rather lazily to do something about it, but I found that takes hard work.
 
I bought an electric bike (short cut taken). I clocked around one hundred miles. Didn’t like it and sold it.
 
Tried boxing, it nearly killed me. I’m sorry but there something amusing about a forty year old unfit chubby man standing in a boxing ring, with gloves on dripping in sweat with no ability to actually move let alone throw a punch. I didn’t last.
 
Tried the gym, I felt inadequate, and my wallet wasn’t too chuffed either.
 
Exercise is important but I had to break this down into something more manageable. I turned my attention to eating.
 
I have been known to eat like a child. Sweets, crisps and all manner of snacks. I could do in three bars of chocolate and inhale a share bag of Haribo, chomp through a big bag of crisps and wash it all down with an ice cold Cherry Cola. Sugar is a drug.
 
Several hours later my stomach hurts and I’m in bed with heartburn, popping indigestion tablets like sweets as well.
 
I went one a discovery of eating things then waited to see what hurt me. It turns out that cheap carbohydrates and high sugar food is causing my stomach pain.

I had no choice but to stop eating sugar and carbohydrates. No junk food, sweets, convenience foods, pasta, rice, potatoes or bread.

I did that about three weeks ago.
 
I focus on high protein foods and don’t worry about the fat content so much. I don’t calorie count and I don’t weigh myself. The difference I am experiencing quite literally phenomenal.

All acid reflux and heartburn has gone completely. The most unexpected benefit was my change in mood. I am so much more positive in my general outlook on things. I am not as aggravated. I really had no idea how much of what I ate influenced my mood. I feel generally happy and more alert. I sleep so much better. As an added bonus I’m losing some weight as well.
 
These first few weeks have been challenging, as sugar and carbohydrates are everywhere. I find myself checking the packaging on food as so many things we eat are labelled in a way that would have you believe you were eating pure wholesome food, when in fact you are eating sugar.

Anything that say “high in protein” on the packet, usually means just as much (and more) carbohydrates.

In the first week I craved sugar badly and it was really difficult to resist, I think I went through some kind of glucose withdrawal.
 
I am going into my fourth week with fewer and fewer cravings.

I have adopted some new habits, I eat when I’m hungry, in smaller amounts and around fives per day. I drink a lot more water.

I try not to eat several hours before going to sleep. I like to move around after eating, and not just sit in a food coma after dining.

The food I eat is a lot simpler. It mainly consists of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, seeds, nuts and eggs. This makes the weekly shop easier and surprisingly cheaper.
 
I’m now in a better mindset to look at starting some kind of exercise.