This weekend we went to San Francisco for the day and ended up at a thrift store. My clothes are no longer fitting, and though I thought that I could "make them work", I have been informed of otherwise by several individuals now. So the thrift store was a total score- I'm down two full sizes in jeans, from 42's to my new 38's, and was able to find brand-new looking really expensive name brand stuff (that I have never previously owned or worn because I am ridiculously cheap and hate shopping name brands since they never fit right anyways). It felt really good to fit into a large shirt (down from XXL) and size 38 jeans. Completely crazy.
I've also noticed that I am sleeping a lot better at night now. I'm able to sleep on my stomach again (haven't been able to do this comfortably in a long time- used to be my favorite position to sleep in), and am feeling more rested when I wake which I'm sure can be interpreted as deeper sleep. I'm also more energetic now and don't get winded as easily. The affects of my weight loss are become more and more apparent. It's been an amazing transformation.
All in all, I am feeling healthier and healthier, and can't wait to achieve my goal of hitting the 80 total pound mark (which will be accomplished after my juice fast ends via Eat Clean Diet and exercise). Once I hit that, I'll have to got get new jeans again probably, and the ones that I just bought will be my new "baggies", but it is all worth it.
I watched a great 60 Minutes on Sunday. The title was "Is Sugar Toxic?" (link to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B56Gpf1f5_A). America is in the middle of a health epidemic. Our food sources have been attacked by our food industry as can be seen in any multiple documentaries that are readily available (Food, Inc, Super Size Me, etc.). Americans (and folks in other countries with similar food source systems) need to wake up and realize what are processing of foods is doing to us. "Is Sugar Toxic?" stated some amazing things that I have never heard before, that is news to the medical industry as well. Sugar consumption is now being linked to cancer development. Sugar (in all of its forms, by the way: raw, processed, honey, syrups of all kinds, and yes- even powdered) turns into fat when the body gets too much. The liver simply can't break it down, so the body stores it. This 60 Minutes piece shows pediatric endocrinologists, dietary research specialists, neurologists, and cardiologists all coming to the same conclusions: sugar is addictive (as much as crack), your body builds resistance to it (making you "need" more to satisfy cravings), it is exacerbating otherwise controllable diseases (being the cause of 70% of the most pressing health concerns the USA faces), and we must limit our intake or we will suffer for consuming it. Not to mention the inappropriate usage of sugar in food sources.
You see, in the 70's, the government decided that it needed to regulate fat use in foods. Heart disease was on the rise, and symptoms that were pointing to a need for broad change in our food systems were pressing. So the government stepped in and regulated fat content in foods. Food makers began complying with the changes and found that food was tasting like cardboard. Not good (for sales, that is)! So, they began adding sugar to all of these foods that never previously had sugar in them. Go through your pantry and you'll be surprised what has sugar in it and how much there really is. We did last night. My 10-year old daughter is working on eating healthy. She watched 60 Minutes with me, and is doing something that we all need to begin doing: she is monitoring her sugar consumption.
So one of the doctors in the 60 Minutes piece was asked: "How much sugar is ok??". He said none. But then he added that this isn't really realistic, and said that based on the body's ability to process sugar, Men should have no more than about 150 calories from sugar a day, and women about 100. This information is not on the packaging or included in food labels, so this is difficult. But a quick google search will tell you that each gram of sugar contains about 5 calories. So this isn't too bad to calculate. But we also need to be able to put this into 'understandable terms'. We don't really use grams too much as a unit of measurement (especially kids), so I went ahead and found how many grams (a unit of weight, not volume, so this is specific to what is being measured) are in a teaspoon of sugar. Answer is 4.2. Now, my daughter is honing her math skills calculating based on serving size and sugar content of food how much sugar she is taking in daily. If a grown woman should have no more than 100 calories from sugar daily, her number is should probably be 70-80. That's about 1/4 of a soft drink. About 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam gets her there too. Pretty crazy. So now, she has determined that in order to hit her daily goal, she is going to have to reduce her sugar consumption by eating the right foods. All of a sudden, she's eating all of the healthy food in the cabinet and fridge. She's paying attention to snacking... She's watching how much ketchup she's using. She's teaching herself to make the right food choices based on one theme- sugar consumption control.
At the same time, she's eliminating unnecessary calories and calories from fat from her diet, and getting all of the foods that she needs. Her personal 'food pyramid' is being restructured. The most amazing part of this to me is that as she adopts this new way of thinking about her food, she's eating healthy without the prompting of her parents. At 10 years old. I wish I had learned to do that at 10. I probably wouldn't be hungry and on the 45th day of a rigorous fast now if I had. I think that many adults need to take a lesson from what she's doing and learn more about their food choices, and how they are effected by them. Even seemingly healthy foods that are labeled "organic" and "no high fructose corn syrup" can be crazy bad for you. Americans are fat not because we've been unsuccessful in cutting fat from our diets, but because we haven't understood how much damage sugar does to our diets. We've been idle while our food industry has created a monstrous environment for us to choose our foods in, and we are making our children fat by allowing them to continue in the path we are on, that we are also taking them on with us now. Even the ones with "good genes" still have horrible unnecessary health issues after they eat like they are taught to from the onslaught of food advertisements that carefully hone their dietary tastes from a young age into maturity.
The more I learn about our food in the US, the more it makes me want to pack bags and move. We are slowly killing ourselves, and need to have a reality check. And maybe worse than eventual death, we are creating many unnecessary miseries in our lives along that inevitable path to our graves. I'm not so concerned with how long I live. I would love to live a long life- don't get me wrong. But I want my years to be filled with family, friends, fun, and productivity. Not health issues, limitations, and early death as a result. When you look at those options, 60 days of juice fasting doesn't seem so bad, and missing 180 consecutive meals in order to make up for lost time being healthy to cut weight seems like a drop in the bucket. I'd do it again in a healthy heartbeat, because I know what the result of turning a blind eye to all of it will eventually be.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
English Standard Version (ESV)
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
~Until tomorrow
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