Eating Right

I have been reading and hearing more and more about "clean" eating. Maybe it has been around for a while or maybe it is some new movement brought about by the rise of organic food.

I agree with most of all the ideas of clean eating and organic food only diets. In fact, I even tried growing all our vegetables (totally organic of course) for a month one summer which unfortunately coincided with a 25 month long drought in Central Texas. It was a miserable failure except for cucumbers which were a hit even among the squirrels. However, I do wonder how much of it is based on irrational fears and how much of it is really based on truth. I'm ok if the idea was born out of a simple existence or drive to return to a simpler life or how things were "meant to be." Some say that means how nature intended it, which I would re-word how God designed creation be function. If there is no real good reason to eat organic other than that mindset, then I'm ok with it and I agree with it.

Here's the main problem: I love processed foods!

I loved Mrs Baird's Fried Cherry pies. OMG!! I love them!! I like coke I really like RC Cole. The way the fizz (acid) eats at the top of my tongue feels great! I love spaghetti O's probably more than is healthy for a grown person. Really anything that is high in refined sugars and fat (animal or vegetable) is great to my pallet. Most people savor things they think taste good... not me, I eat them gorge style. Because why savor one when you can eat 10 and have the same taste the whole time?

Here's the other problem: Organic is expensive!!

Grass fed beef and really wild Salmon cost almost twice the hormone fed stuff. Part of me really wonders if soy fed farm raised Salmon is really all the different from whatever real wild Salmon eat. I know it is, but is it bad for me or just bad for the fish? Same with the beef. Does plain ole' grass just mean my cows don't get to enjoy the more fattening (probably better tasting see point 1) cow feed? Is it just bad for the cows or me? Sure you can search the Internet and find articles about how this is all better for me to eat organic but they seem more based on fear than facts. Or at least small lab rat type results that are extrapolated to apply to humans. Again I'm fine with just believing it is better because that's how God intended cows to grow but at twice the price I'm tempted to say, "oh well."

I would use the excuse moderation to say well I'll eat some organic and some not, but I can't. Really, I can't. Put me around something that tastes good and I'm like a crack addict who just left rehab and found some crack on the ground. It is just not something I can do. As soon as I taste the crack I go buy more and more until I find something else that tastes good. Right now, I'm in the rehab, trying to get myself off the cokes and processed Spaghetti O's partly because I'm getting ready for my 70.3 but also because I just want to live in a sustainable healthy life style, and with us down to one income I am trying to save as much money every where so we can continue our to meet financial goals. I've been doing a lot of cooking and making my own meals to help cut out all the "bad stuff" but I secretly long for Mrs Baird's chocolate covered mini-donuts or some Oreo cookies in milk... as you can see I've got a long way to go.