Eat Locally - Part 9 Day 4 What do I make?

Day 4 - Still no cheat eating! Yee Haw!

What did I eat?
Breakfast: coffee and milk, rice and a slice of bacon
Snack: strawberries
Lunch: leftovers 1/2 pork chop, asparagus and 1/2 yam
Snack: hard boiled egg
Snack: cup of blueberries with milk, slice of bacon
Dinner: leftover pork, leftover bitter greens, leftover 1/2 yam and I am stuffed

What have I learned today?
You always hear people say, "Oh my grandma used to cook with butter and lard, drank whole creamy milk straight from the cow, ate bacon and eggs every morning, ate fried in lard chicken every night, and she never weighted more than 120 lbs, and she lived to be 103!"

Well, I believe it, sort of. I am living that diet. I too am eating eggs and bacon everyday, cooking in lard (bacon drippings), and drinking whole milk everyday this week. I have even cut back on my jogging to about 2/3s of what I normally run each day just to have that extra 20 - 30 minutes to cook and blog more. I have been eating a meal or snack every 2 - 3 hours. I have lost 3 lbs since the start of this Eat Locally challenge. I could lose a lb or 2 or 20, but I wasn't meaning to lose wt., but it is a fortunate result of Eating Locally.

What do I attribute my weight loss to? What I have omitted from my diet is processed flour, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, and all artificial sweeteners because none of those are grown or made locally. I am eating carbs of all kinds though, in the form of brown rice, sweet potatoes, fruits and veggies. I am not on a low carb diet. I think that there is something about processed flour, corn syrup and artificial sweeteners that pack on the pounds.

What else? I am eating less, and I know it. But, I am not feeling deprived, nor "panic hungry" that happens when blood sugar falls too low. I think that every food that I have been eating is so packed with flavor and nutrients, that I don't need much more than a small portion to be satisfied. I think the food value of the food I am eating is really high, so my body is not craving more food to fill the nutrient requirements. For example, I think that when I eat a bread made from white flour and sugar, my body may be getting a lot of calories, but it is also looking for nutrients and wholesome goodness. When it doesn't get the nutrients, I will eat more and more to fill the nutrient void. Now, with really good greens and sweet potatoes and meat, I don't crave more because my body is getting nutrient rich foods it needs to thrive. Because I am completely satisfied with what I am eating, I really don't have any inkling to cheat off the foods I have beee making.

There is something else. I figured out this week the difference between the hunger feeling, and the feeling of when blood sugar drops low after having a spike of blood sugar after a sweet or white flour snack. I think that the feeling of the 3 pm blood sugar drop is due to previously eaten white flour bread, snacks or corn syrupy soda has been depleted. Then at 3 pm, the sweet snack craving happens to quickly get the blood sugar back up. The 3 pm nosh is part of the cycle where blood sugar is spiked, depleted, craving sugar/white flour, spiked, depleted, craving. It is really hard to stop eating when unhungry because those cravings are not hunger, rather it is part of the sugar cycle. I think that cycle is a very different feeling than just being hungry, when fuel for the body is really needed. At anyrate, since I have taken white flour and sugar completely out of my diet for this week, I have not had that blood sugar cycle, and I have not had that need to feed the sugar cycle.

Onward for tomorrow, it is a new challenge. I have been invited to a birthday potluck dinner party. Sigh, I will have to cheat on Eating Locally. BUT, in my back pocket, I will be bringing a nearly locally grown snack... mini sweet potato samosas. Recipe to come tomorrow.

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