Diet Madness...

Today, I eat clean...relatively clean. I eat no white products...sugar, white flour, white potatoes, rice and combine protein and complex carbohydrates and vegetables. I do take a cheat day, not a cheat week, but one day where I eat what I want. Problem is now that I am eating clean,I choose not to  break the chain of success by stuffing a Big Mac in my mouth, or devouring a bag of Cheetos because it' s cheat day. I confess, I am a sushi addict, so often for lunch I have a California roll, with white rice, not totally clean, but on the road to nirvana..yea right.

But I am far from perfect about my food. Folks at work are always bringing in tasty junk food, and since I have my focus mojo on I have not surrendered to the gooey pastries and the fresh pumpkin bread. I don't like taking steps backward, and a garlic bagel would start the obsession of self defeat, and I would be ordering Domino's and Indian Curry at gym time, guarding my right to eat whatever the fuck I wanted. And I would  munch out for a bit until it was uncomfortable to work because the pounds of self defeat had attached themselves to my ass.

I do well with rituals, and creating a daily eating ritual is working well. I know that I have to eat to build some muscle, and follow the eating clean plan, and I will be fine. Cooking is more of a challenge because every damn thing I cook tastes the same....overripe with curry or hot sauce, and so onion heavy. I need to get some information from my Twitter followers or folks I follow, because there is so much good clean eating information out there that I will  absorb.

I am eating clean because I finally figured out such a complex issue. I can go to the gym all I want, in line skate for an hour every sunny summer day, go elliptical manic, but if I am eating shit, my body will respond to it, and I will see no gains. My connection to diet, lifting and gains is fresh, but I truly am excited to see what goals I can achieve at this ripe young age of 65.

Oh, yea, I must interject here a snippet of my diet past, which literally never embraced food/workout connection, so I just tried every fad diet that came down the pike. Jenny Craig- did it, Weight Watchers- tried it, Nutrisystems, that one also. With Nutrisystems, came two gigantic UPS packages.
Now, I live in a one bedroom suburban  apt complex that is cheap and has the maintenance team from Hell. There was so much food in these boxes, that I had no room in my kitchen for my dishes which were all over  the apartment. Thank God "Hoarders" was not around because  I would have been recruited.  I stopped that one and put my dishes back, I still cannot find my can opener from those two months of terror.

Then, there was the diet where I ate brussels sprouts and American Cheese every morning. I do not like cheese except on pizza and Lasagna, and I will not eat a cheeseburger. My father always thought that I was a kook for despising Cheddar Cheese, but Cheetos was my comfort food. He joked with me about this "cheese thing"  a few days before he died. I actually enjoyed the repartee, because he had a great sense of humor and his belief that I was weird cemented our relationship is an odd, loving way.The first morning I ate the brussels sprouts and American cheese, I projectile vomited over my old cat, Christopher. Stopped that one . Christopher was not amused.

And the Phoenix Fiber Cookie Diet. I was so sold of this one, I never told anyone. With this one I ate these fiber oatmeal cookies, 6 times a day, nothing else. Guaranteed to lose weight ,no money back.  So I purchased these miracle cookies at the Health Food Store from the pale zombie like worker. Notice how people in health food stores look so unhealthy?  And I lost lots of weight- 40 pounds. I  looked like a suffering,starving  Third World country person--sunken chest, rips showing, gray color, One of my coworkers was so concerned she asked me when I was diagnosed with HIV. That got my attention, no HIV, but obviously, there was some body dysmorphia going on.  I ate a monster  burger and fries that day and enjoyed every minute.
The Phoenix Cookie was a scam and the feds removed them from the market for false advertising and a fat content that off the wall.

So eventually diets have stopped because they are only temporary. Took me a long time to realize that. I like that weight lifting, the gym, the focus, the goal ,the camaraderie and the sense that I am doing something positive. I may retire soon, and this gym will become even more important to me as well as my in line skating. I do believe that the true  natural  bodybuilders connect the emotional, spiritual and physical of the sport as most great athletes do.  If I am eating clean, working out, doing aerobics, resting, praying, meditating and staying positive, this renewed interest in health will continue to manifest remarkable  rewards.