blue artichoke

New year = fresh start.

There are a few things I do at the beginning of each year to feel like I've started out on the right foot. I go through my files to weed out stuff I don't need and move the previous year's collection of various statements to the long-term filing cabinet in the basement. I buy a new cutting board (this year, I upgraded to bamboo!) on the assumption that if it can collect stains, then it can collect bacteria as well. I back up my music collection, my digital pictures, my recipes and my computer onto an external hard drive. I make my resolutions. I go back and forth on making resolutions, alternately thinking that it's a futile endeavor because I'll forget them before January is through, and that the start of the year is a great time for self-reflection and improvement. This year, I'm planning to make monthly resolutions, though I'm pretty sure I'll forget about that by February or March.

The January resolution, though, is to change my diet (notice I didn't say I was going to go on a diet). I've been reading several diet/health/nutrition books lately, and I'm becoming more convinced that a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet is the healthiest diet. I think the Atkins and South Beach diet fads are based on good science, but I don't like the marketing and development of special supplements or fake carb substitutions. This diet that I'm cobbling together for myself has elements of several diets, but is probably closest to the Abs Diet. My plan is simple: eat foods that exist in nature, with minimal processing. The primary components of the diet will include meat, vegetables, fruits and nuts. Also allowed in limited quantities are dairy and legumes. Prohibited foods include flour and sugar. The exceptions are diet soft drinks (which I already limit to 1 per day, but I may try to phase these out. We'll see how it goes.) and protein powder shakes and bars. Both of these drinks are very highly processed, but helpful to me. I'll get tired of bacon and eggs for breakfast every morning, and don't often have the time to cook breakfast, so the protein shake will continue to be my usual breakfast. I need a pick-me-up when I hit my mid-afternoon slump, so I try to time my diet soft drink to counter that sleepiness. The protein bars will be for emergency situations, like when I'm out doing errands and need to eat something. So, that's the plan, in a nutshell. Poor GC will also be on this diet, by default, though he doesn't seem to mind. We do seem to have a rather large selection of simple carbohydrate foods in the house right now (crackers, tortilla chips, leftover Christmas cookies, etc.), so he can munch on those if he needs a break from my January diet plan.

I spent new year's eve pigging out on simple carbohydrates before the January resolution took effect. I probably ate two dozen Christmas tree cookies and half a dozen each of the snowball cookies and peanut butter cookies. I had gnocchi for dinner. I was so wired on a sugar rush that I couldn't go to sleep last night, so instead I read about how unhealthy those choices were and how a diet high in simple carbohydrates (flour and sugar) contributed to the diseases of civilization: diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, and so on.

Today has gone well so far, though I noticed that the dried cranberries I put on my chicken salad at lunch have sugar as an ingredient. No more dried cranberries for me. Red Meat will be so happy.

Also, no more Sunday Muffins. Sigh. The most difficult part of this diet will be not baking. I'll miss making delicious breads, muffins, cookies, etc. more than I'll miss eating them. Oh, well, it's only one month.

Getting to Know All About You: Resolutions?