Day 0 - Starting 2024 With My Health in Mind

Last night was like many other nights.  I lay there in bed, fully intending to get a good night's sleep.  Then the same thing happened that happens just about every night.  I became ravenously hungry.  My usual solution is to go downstairs and make myself two peanut butter sandwiches.  That usually takes care of the hunger, but then I'm wide awake and have trouble going to sleep.  Last night was one of the worst, and I was awake until 2:00am.  

My outward appearance often does not coincide with how I feel inside.  People will tell me I look fit, and yet I'm 25 lbs heavier than what I would like to be, and my cholesterol is through the roof.  My wife is a vegetarian so when I received my first cholesterol report, we both thought that following her diet would take care of things.  It's still high.  I stopped checking because I'm tired of being discouraged.

I have a family history of diabetes, and it's the last thing I want.  It may be inevitable, but I'm going to fight it off for as long as I can.  For Christmas this year my wife gave me two books from Dr. Mark Hyman: The Blood Sugar Solution and The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook.  One piece of the program is to journal how you're doing on the program - hence this blog.  It's another one of those slow burning carb diets, with elimination of gluten and dairy to check for allergies.  He calls it an elimination diet, and once you're through the firs six weeks you can start introducing things back to see if your body can handle it.

As I read through the book, I noticed some other symptoms that are attributed to poor nutrition - symptoms I brushed off as being residual from a back injury, or just didn't stretch enough.  My legs often ache at night, and lately I've been getting really hot when I need to be sleeping.

I'm ready to start week zero, where you eliminate the main toxins - sugar, processed foods, alcohol, and caffeine.  I'm both excited and scared.  My biggest fear at this point is getting off of bread completely.  It's a little tough during the day, but I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the late night cravings.  (Dr Hyman also recommends not eating for three hours before bed - so there's that.)  As a compromise (is that allowed) my wife bought me a loaf of rye bread for my sandwiches.  There's another anecdote in the book about rye being better than white or wheat bread.  Hopefully with the other modifications to my lifestyle I won't need them, but maybe I do need to gradually decrease my dependance.  

For some fun, I really enjoyed the movie, Julie and Julia about a woman who blogged about cooking through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  I figure that I can also use this blog in a similar way - trying out all the recipes in The Blood Sugar Solution and The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook and writing about the experience.  With a vegetarian and a seven year old in the house - this should be an interesting experience.  I'm sure I may be told that some recipes are disgusting - actually that has already happened.  Apparently flourless chocolate chip cookies are not everyone's cup of tea.  But I'm doing this for myself so I'm not overly concerned.  Wish me luck!