Day 4, Sugar Free & Sobbing

Day 4 is almost over and it's been the hardest day yet. It's not helping that I'm watching the Food Network and they just showed us deep fried candy bars at the fair.

So many candy bars... dipped in thick, delicious pancake-like batter, fried into crispy, melty chocolaty & nougaty bites of heaven. I wept as I made plans to attend the next state fair, in any state, as soon as possible.

With my period about to drop any minute, I couldn't have picked a worse time to give up sugar. And not just sugar, but all simple carbohydrates - anything & everything that *acts* like sugar in the body.

That reminds me - I saw a commercial tonight that I almost can't believe. A mother is serving cups of red punch to a bunch of kids and another mom tries to caution her about high fructose corn syrup being unhealthy.

The punch pusher cuts her off and says, "Oh, right, high fructose corn syrup? It's from corn, it's natural and just like sugar, it's fine in moderation." What the WHAT? Can you believe that shit?

Now the high fructose corn syrup lobby is trying to tell us that shit is OK? Early last year the Washington Post published an article about HFCS containing mercury! And HFCS is made from genetically-modified corn - even worse - and the Farm Bill subsidizes this shit!

The Corn Refiners Association - Cornholers - should be drawn & quartered then lovingly dipped into giant vats of HFCS and set out to dry in the sun to become candied meat bits for the vultures.

To quote one of my favorite nutrition info sources, Dr. Mercola:

"Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that HFCS was not only far cheaper to make, it’s also about 20 times sweeter than table sugar...

...The food and beverage industry doesn’t want you to realize how truly pervasive HFCS is in your diet -- not just from soft drinks and juices, but also in salad dressings and condiments and virtually every processed food. The introduction of HFCS into the Western diet in 1975 has been a multi-billion dollar boon for the corn industry."

Read Dr. Mercola's article on the devastating health hazards of high fructose corn syrup.

Just seeing this bullshit commercial strengthens my resolve to completely eliminate this crap from my diet. I may go back to eating sugar at some point, but it'll be sugar - it won't be this shit.

Shouldn't it be a crime to put profits before health, you fucktards at the Cornhole Refiners Association?

Happy New Year!

Is it? I don't feel all that happy. Could be last night's tequila - the current lack thereof - making me cranky. I don't feel hungover, just irritated.

Could be lack of sleep. We crashed early last night, 'cause normally *nothing* goes on in Alameda at midnight on New Year's Eve. WRONG.

For the first time ever, we were woken up at midnight by a loud racket of firecrackers, the clanging of pots & pans, noisemakers and whoops & hollers. I felt bad about being in bed, wondering when all the noise would stop. Maybe next year we'll join the party. Who knew?

But I also got a lot on my mind. I recently learned of the Bilderberg Group and I'm totally creeped out.

Nothing is known about the content of their annual, private meetings attended by our elected and/or appointed officials, financial & military leaders and the super-elite & super-wealthy.

A quote from one of the members:

"We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries."
-- David Rockefeller

So now I'm thinking, California needs to secede and become its own country with its own president elected by California citizens without any campaign financing of any kind other than a small stipend from a nominal tax fund.

All corporate donations/lobbyists are illegal and absolutely no policies are made without complete transparency and voter involvement.

We make marijuana totally legal and regulate it, tax it, and sell it to the rest of the world, along with the technologies we develop, Hollywood movies - whatever. There's a lot left to work out yet - it's still pretty early in the day.

I'm still happy about giving up sugar, booze & caffeine - it's a relief, really. It's easier when there's a good excuse - a New Year's resolution - otherwise people flip out. Why!? Why would you do that? What a stupid idea!

Yeah, you're right - striving for better health *is* a stupid idea - I'll feel so annoyingly good and the weight loss will be so lame. What was I thinking? Happy New Year.

Almost Done

It's almost 2010, or as lots of lazy people are saying, "twenty ten!" Is "two thousand ten" so hard? Wait, I need a minute. That tired me out a little. I do like Stephen Colbert's "oh ten!" so I maybe I'll go with that.

So it's almost O-Ten! Resolutions? Actually, this year I have a few. I had one last year but it seemed pretty redundant.

Last year I copied a friend's resolution to Say Yes To Adventure, but I'd already been doing that. It resulted in a fun new job I had no experience for and a move to Canada because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The rest of O-Nine was a constant Yes To Adventure - new restaurants, new foods, new routines, new activities, new sports, new road trips, new, new, new, new, new. That got old after a while. I don't think I need any help in saying Yes to New.

This year I'm getting back to basics while also trying a few New Things, all nutrition-related. First and foremost, for the month of January at least I will Say No To Sugar, Booze and Caffeine. I've never done this before, ever.

I've gone stone cold decaf twice before - some of the worst few days of my life until the withdrawals passed. But it was worth it - the sustained energy level throughout the day was a welcome change. I've been a caffeine junkie since I was a tweener, which is why I'm only 5'4". Kids, it's true - stay off the coffee until you're at least 18 years old.

The last time I went totally decaf I stayed "clean" for many years until a trip to Portugal. Oh dear god that coffee - that coffee is some of the best I've ever had. I opened a vein and let it jump right in and take me away to that blissful, chipper, caffeinated cloud far above the dull, sleepy sidewalks.

But now, so many years later, having been caffeinated for so long, my receptors are crusty & corroded. Just getting older is wreaking havoc with my energy levels, in that I almost never have as much as I'd like. Enter, the sugar problem...

Gotta Say No to Sugar. No more cookies, doughnuts, Peet's citrus bread & maple scones or coconut milk ice cream & chocolate sauce [sobbing]. Tastes so good, but hurts so bad. Stayed away from sugar for years, but got lazy and BLAM - sugar addict.

Finally, no booze... just for a month. Just for a thorough 30-day detox. Since we go out only one night a week, that's only four nights I'll cry quietly into a glass of water.

The only other New Thing I'm going to try in O-Ten is juicing. Been wanting to be a Juicer for a long time - non booze juicer - and I'm kind of excited to give it a try. Though it's going to be hard to not turn it into a coconut-tequila milkshake maker. We'll see how it goes.

I'll blog about my progress and I'll warn you now, it may be a rough few days at first, especially since in the past 24 hours I've consumed at least 10 very large cookies and there are a LOT more still sitting in my kitchen. If you're nearby, please come get them. Please.