Trading Almonds for Fritos

Not long ago I read Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted.  This is a peppy little book with an agenda, to get the reader-in this case me-to stop poisoning himself and start eating foods that will heal what ails him.  At one point he mentions how hard this process was hard for him, because everywhere he went, he found that people wanted to kill him.

Ok, maybe kill him is a little bit of an overstatement.  He found that everywhere he went, people wanted to feed him, even after he had eaten all that he needed or wanted to eat.  One of the keys to staying thin, as my near anorexic sister-in-law could tell you, is to eat else food.  Having spent the better part of my life always wanting more food, Doctor Amen and I share the feeling that eating less is swimming upstream.

The Wife and I dine out a lot.  She has recently found a restaurant coupon site and we have dined in a number of interesting places we would not have known about otherwise.  But these are not places, as a general rule, that serve low calorie, healthful foods and beverages.

Not long ago I read a book called The UltraMind Solution: The Simple Way to Defeat Depression, Overcome Anxiety, and Sharpen Your Mind, which offers a six week program of diet and supplements designed to clean the body and clear those foggy brains.  The Villian in the piece, is again, The Western Diet.  As with the brilliant In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, the author recomends -Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.  Doing a few hours a week of aerobic exercise is also part of the program.

Like everyone else, I’m pretty good at starting programs, but not so great at seeing them through to the end.  Being on the road makes it hard to follow the diet, so I have decided to give it the full effort at the start of the year.  I have been eating more almonds, taking a few more vitamins, and working out when I find the energy to do so.

I remember Oprah talking after one of her countless experiences with yoyo dieting that a doctor told her she would have to learn to embrace hunger.  She said forget that noise, and started eating whatever she wanted again.  After a week of eating salads, nuts, and rye bread sandwiches I am also less than willing to embrace hunger.

But a funny thing happened.  After eating a few meals filled with the forbidden salts, sugars, and fats-I found myself a bit depressed, more so than I have felt in a very long time.  Was this really the result of eating at McDonands?  Or was it more to do with driving all day and listening to the Dallas Cowboys get soundly beaten yet again?

So I am eating my modified version of the Ultra Mind Diet for another week or two.  Hey, it couldn’t hurt.

Well, maybe it could hurt my wallet a bit.  I like Whole Foods and Central Market and Health Food shops in general.  I know that almonds are better for me than potato chips-but…a two pound bag of almonds cost a little over ten dollars while I can often find a two pound bag of chips for a couple of dollars.  Yesterday I went to a market and found a 12 ounce bottle of Cell-nique Organic Super Green Drink – Kukicha Tea Blend – 31 Superfoods w/Agave for $3-this same market was selling 1/2 pound hamburgers with the works for $2.19.  So I decided to have both.

So all I need now is Oprah’s money and a personal trainer to yell at me every time I get near food. If it worked for Oprah…oh, wait a minute.

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