Cheater, Cheater, Ice Cream Eater

Today you will read a harrowing saga of sugar, milk, and low temperatures combining in the perfect storm of cheating and excess.  But first....

I know I promised a post yesterday about why we're working on our diets and participating in the Daniel Fast with our friends, but after I got home our power went down.  After about an hour and a half of candlelight and a dinner of cold (but delicious) cereal, I went to bed.


Recently, my wife and I realized that we could no longer rely upon our youth to keep us healthy.  I'm turning 33 this month. I have a desk job with carpentry jobs only on weekends.  I weigh between 215 and 220 pounds.  I should weigh 185-190 pounds.  With a BMI of 28 I'm technically overweight and pre-obese. I pull muscles regularly.  Working out sporadically is of little to no benefit.  I'm getting fat.

We've gotta do something. 

She ordered the P90X DVDs from Amazon, and we started planning how we would approach a healthier regimen of food and exercise.  We don't want to go on a "diet" because diets fail.  We have to change the way we think about cooking, eating, and moving.  I figure if we learn enough good recipes that are delicious, and just start making them rather than mac and cheese, it'll be a huge step forward.

The first hurdle that we have encountered is that everything we've been eating is full of corn syrup, sugar, oils, and refined grains.  With the concentration of calories in our typical food choices, by the time I fill my stomach and feel satiated, it's easy to have eaten three to four times the number of calories I should in a single meal, plus cola, plus dessert, oftentimes consuming an entire day's worth of calories in less than two whole meals. 

Enter the Gut.

We didn't know how to cook a lot of healthy foods that were also good to eat.  We still don't, but we're learning.  If it doesn't taste good, I'll be the first one to drop it in the bin and head out to get a value meal.  We have slowly begun trying recipes, some of which work, and some of which don't.  Some "healthy" food is so disgusting that I assume the reason it's healthy is that you don't eat it at all and thereby don't expire from the shock of terrible tastes.

As we started seriously looking at the state of our eats, it so happened that two friends, a couple we spend a lot of time with, were also coming to a similar point in their lives.  They had decided to begin with the Daniel Fast, and introduced us to it.  It's 30 days (I said 21 earlier, I know) of cleansing, physically and spiritually.  The idea is that you take the fast that Daniel took in the Old Testament, and spend 30 days eating no meat, leavened bread, or dairy, and drinking only water, as well as reflecting and meditating on scripture. 

Starting the fast and planning the transition into P90X afterwards is what prompted me to start writing this blog.  I figure if I'm blah-blah-blahing about it to everyone I know, it makes it harder to cave in and give it up.  Even if they're not reading it.  Seriously, I have no way of knowing if you are really reading this.  Unless you comment, I suppose.  Most of my page views are from me viewing my page to see if I have more page views.

I used to think that anything like the Daniel Fast implied the exciting mixture of carrots, lettuce, and crackers; a program that, frankly, is so unappealing as to be pretty much impossible for me to seriously consider.  That's most people's initial assessment.  After almost a week on the program, I can say my notion of that fast has turned around.  We've had delicious Chili, awesome pita sandwiches, superb vegetable lasagna, banana/blueberry/strawberry oatmeal and cereal, and spaghetti. 

Aaaaand a milkshake, fries, and a cheeseburger.  :*(

I have certainly missed a bubbly Coke here and there, but over all we've had so much awesome food to eat that I haven't felt that deprived.  I've also cut around 200-400 calories a day out by not drinking soda pop alone (with two nights of nasty caffeine headaches, which have, thankfully, subsided).  I also keep reminding myself that LDL Cholesterol, the waxy, yellow stuff that cakes up in people's arteries, isn't found in plants.  BONUS!

Anywho, Once we're done with the 30 days, we'll begin the P90X program, which is no joke, let me tell you.  Actually, I will tell you, just not tonight.

Which brings me to my harrowing story of the perfect storm of cheating and excess.  Wife and I went to Yellow Dog, an excellent local restaurant, and had some great sandwich wraps today for dinner.  I was stuffed and satisfied, albeit tired from a day power washing a patio.  As we headed to Bed Bath and Beyond to check out blenders/food processors, when the rumble of sweet, milky ice cream thundered its way about my wonderful spouse's head.  She was deaf to my encouragement to resist.  I drove by McDonald's and she splurged on a Reese's McFlurry. 

Upon finishing her ice cream with a flourish, she suggested today's blog title be "Cheater, Cheater, Ice Cream Eater", so I guess something good did come of it.


I'm gone!  *Swoosh!*