Quasi-Control

I just finished watching Food Inc with Aubrey. It is a great movie. I didn’t feel like it was overly steeped in propaganda, rather that it portrayed what is going on in an informative light. It raises questions that the average consumer would never think about and provides then provides simple things that all consumers can do to effect change.

I highly recommend this movie. In fact I’m willing to buy a copy and ship it to anybody that wants to watch it (you just have to promise to ship it back).

If you want to know what you can do visit:http://www.takepart.com/foodinc

The documentary touches on so many topics that I’m not going to try to elaborate on them all but it nicely sums up many of the reasons that Aubrey and I have decided to take control of our diets by going vegetarian.

Back in December I decided to make and keep a New Year Resolution. This was a new thing for me because I had either forgotten to make them or decided to rebel against society and not make one.  For some reasons this year was different. Maybe it was because I was sick of having sweets support me through my afternoons. Maybe it was because I didn’t feel like supporting the soda and candy companies in the trying economic times to come. Or maybe I was thinking about the risk of diabetes, but for whatever reason I decided to have no Soda or Candy-bars for a year.

After a few days of keeping this resolution I wasn’t sure if I could do it any longer. I was missing my mid-afternoon sugar rush and was having a hard time staying awake without a heavy dose of caffiene, but after a two weeks or so I was weaned of the sugar addiction and started doing really well.  I was surprised how quickly I was able to get over my sugar cravings and how little self control it actually took.

As the weeks progressed the first thing I noticed was how many extra calories I was no longer consuming. In 2008 my average lunch came with two of my favorite things:

• A 1 liter bottle of Mountain Dew
• A Milky Way bar (on lucky days I’d opt for the King Size).

Compared to 2008 I am saving about $3.50 a day that is $77 a month or $924 a year! I was also consuming 600 less calories then in 2008. To put this into perspective a pound of fat can store 3500 calories, or roughly 6 days of what I was consuming. By cutting down these two things alone I was effectively reducing my potential weight gain by a pound a week.  I’ve been tracking my weight gain for well over 6 months now and I wasn’t gaining a pound a week but I was consuming enough calories that I could have.

With the arrival of Charlotte last week I wanted a way to celebrate. In lieu of buying cigars or champagne I decided to celebrate with a 20oz Mountain Dew.  I bought one today, actually a friend bought it for me, and I was surprised by how not good it tasted. I used to love Mountain Dew but today I was surprised by how sweet and overpowering the flavor was.  Also, within the first few sips I could already feel the effects of the caffeine.  I can’t describe exactly how it felt but it was a feeling I am used to.  My head started to feel tight and tingly almost like I was about to have a migraine or was having a very mild migraine.  I am very familiar with this feeling as I get it everytime I drink caffeine after not having any for a long time. Most people get headaches when the stop drinking caffeine, I get them when I start.

I was expecting to enjoy my celebratory Dew but I didn’t. My celebration wasn’t a complete failure because in the end it reminded me of the reasons why I made the resolution to begin with, and only increased my desire to keep it.