March 26th, 2010 Our Diet & Garden
One of the problems in America (according to a program that I saw the other day) is the overabundance of processed food.
I know that since I’ve started avoiding sugar (corn syrup, honey, etc.), I’ve discovered that there’s sugar in all kinds of foods that don’t need sugar. All this sugar is for is to get people addicted to the food so that they will eat more of it. Since I’ve been avoiding sugar, wheat and MSG, my pain level has decreased dramatically, although I still have “bad” days.
Stephen and I have now been on the South Beach diet since December, and he’s doing really well. He’s lost over 20 lbs. and his cholesterol levels are good….in spite of eating bacon & eggs for breakfast, meat for lunch and often a steak and veggies for supper. For us, at least, “fat does NOT make you fat. Sugar, other high-glycemic index foods and processed flour make you fat.” I don’t know how much I’ve lost, but I can now wear my size 12 jeans again. We’re both still losing weight.
On this diet we’ve switched to fewer (almost NO) processed foods. We eat “home cooking” with meat and “good” vegetables (very few potatoes or carrots). I miss my homemade bread, and occasionally I let myself have a fresh roll, but I usually pay for it the next day.
With the high cost of fruits and vegetables, we’re trying to raise all we can. Yesterday we put out more plants in the garden; we already had some radishes and lettuce beginning to grow. We put out some tomatoes, more lettuce and brussels sprouts. I’ve covered these with clear plastic to help keep them a little warmer, but these are already sturdy plants.
We’re again doing wide-bed, deep bed gardening this year. Every year, the beds get a little deeper as I pile more and more compost on them. They aren’t really that “deep” yet, but give me a few more years (or a few more times of cleaning out the goat barn) and they will be. I also need to invest in some landscaping timbers or something even taller for the “walls.” The walkways between the beds are covered with feed sacks covered with mulch. I think eventually this will be very attractive and it’s already suppressing weeds.
Gardening helps keep you healthy in 2 ways: 1) you get lots of exercise! 2) you get fresh veggies to eat.
