Day 18 Update... Addressing Concerns...

As you may already know, I've had to tweak my diet a little bit for lack of abundance this year.  But I saw a few of my readers yesterday and I wanted to clear up some concerns they were telling me about.  

The first thing I want to talk about is getting enough fats in our diet.  Fats are very important.  Fats help our bodies metabolize and absorb the vitamins that we are getting from food.  In fact, eating a little fat at the same time as taking vitamins, if taking them, can increase our bodies usage of the vitamins more than if we don't eat any fat.

  Fat also helps our brains function.  Lack of fats can make people have brain fuzz.  Our brain is made of cholesterol and fat.  There are studies showing that a diet low in "good" fats can cause depression because of the lack of cholesterol.  I really think this is why I felt depressed on my first days into this journey.  My brain wasn't getting what it needed.  The day I added eggs to my diet, I immediately felt better.  

My intention this year was to have more seeds to eat, which contain fatty acids.  I also normally have eggs from my chickens, but they are still too young to lay eggs. So, I have been buying them from a local farmer.  It's all in my planning, or lack of planning, and I will get into more about fats in another post.

The other thing that was mentioned yesterday was carbs.  The nice woman I talked to was telling me about a friend she had who was trying to lose weight and cut out carbs from her diet, was fasting or something, had lost a whole bunch of weight and then was in the emergency room because her heart was going haywire.  I can't remember the story word for word, but I just wanted to make this clear just in case people are thinking I'm doing this to lose weight.  I have lost a little weight, but it is not my intention to use this as a "diet".   Not only can losing weight really fast be bad for your health, but people who lose weight really fast never keep the weight off.  If I lose weight, I want it to be very slowly.  Carbs are great for energy and I am eating lots of carbs.  But not overly processed carbs.  I'm eating potatoes, beans, greens, squash.  All real, unprocessed whole food.

Anyone just starting to follow this blog, or anyone following, but missed it, can go back and read my first post about eating what I grow from back in June.  I give all my reasons for doing this.  Weight loss was only an afterthought.

These last 18 days, I have been on an educational journey.  I'm learning more about myself, and about what I need to do in the future to be more food secure.  That's what this is about for me.  Things have evolved over the last 18 days, but I am still focused on eating real, live, clean, local food, and the good that will do to me, others, and the earth.

Sunflower seeds have lots of good fats in them.  It's a superfood.

Amaranth seeds.  Good fats.

Carbs.  Unprocessed.

Sunflowers in the garden

Note:  I'm adding a note to this post because there are a few things I have wrong in the above blog.   I chose not to delete all the misinformation completely because I want to show that we can all get the wrong info now and again, and it's okay..  I was wrong about the fats and cholesterol.  Like many of you, I have tried many different "diets" that have all failed.  Keto being one of them.  Although we need fats in our diet, I was very wrong about the amount that is adequate and that fats from plants like nuts and seeds are just as viable, without the negative impact that raising animals for meat has on the environment.

It's the little things...

I think it is so true that when something is rare, or rarely happens, it is more cherished and sought after.  That is exactly how I feel about this whole food thing I'm going through.  If I get nothing else out of this journey, at least I know that I made a small difference in the way I feel about the things that come so easily to me.  It's about the small things.  

Only weeks ago, when I ate anything and everything I wanted, it was just that, eating.  Now that I have been away from that state for two weeks, I feel like I appreciate the things I have had so much more.  Now the simple thought of coffee in the morning has so much more joy in it.  I have allowed myself coffee the last couple of days because I feel like I've learned from this. And I've earned it.  But it isn't the same cup of coffee I had before.  It's much more.  

Not that I didn't appreciate things before.  I did.  I didn't come from a family with money and I certainly don't have money now.  It was never a priority for me.  I have more than I could ever want, but I appreciate what I have and that makes all the difference.  So to be able to coerce myself to eat twigs and bland berries for a few weeks, eventually a year, I have an ever greater appreciation for the things I have in great abundance around me.

When I drink coffee now, I need less because I am so much more satisfied with it.  I find that I don't just drink it down as a way of staying awake or waking up, I'm actually enjoying it much more.  Instead of saying, "Jeez, I need coffee", I'm saying, "yay, I get to have coffee!" 

 It's only temporary though, to have a little coffee.  Just as a reward.  I think the thought that I can cheat once in awhile really helps me to keep going.  Dealing with the psychological let-down that I can never have certain things for a year is quite depressing. 

I think if we could do that with more things in our lives, be more satisfied with the little things, we would be much happier people.  Instead of having to have the kitchen gutted and redone every 5 years to make our fickle selves happy, wouldn't it be great if a pretty utensil holder would make us just as happy.  50% of the stuff in landfills in the United States is building materials.

It's the little things.

Oh, and guess what...  I'm down a jean size!