What the hell else was there to do but eat and watch TV ? I think a lot of drinking problems developed over covid, too.
Covid has affected a lot of lives. If the truth ever come out I hope people are punished. People profited, big time. No matter what some think.
My wife eats a whole 30 diet regularly. Since that's what she does I follow suit. No point in fixing more than one meal at a time. Also we are super active with tennis, pickleball, disc golf & trials, swimming, plus our training workouts.
Its basically this... The Whole30 started as a 30 day challenge type thing, a springboard for a healthier lifestyle and a way to identify how you react to the foods you consume. Now it has turned into an entire movement and people often try to stick with it far past the 30 days. I have done it before, I dropped 25 pounds in a month and felt great. I found out that gluten hurts my stomach and that dairy isn't great for me either, unfortunately, it doesn't always stop me from eating them. It is great if you can stick to it but it can get expensive and you have to prep and cook A LOT. I was doing it with a family of 4, well before covid, and it cost me $2000 in groceries for the month to stick completely to the plan. I can only imagine what it would cost now but to be fair I had bought some things that I normally wouldn't to try some recipes that were "Whole30 approved" and you can do without all that, even if it does leave you with some fairly basic meals to rotate through. They have a bunch of free downloads on their website and it tells all about the program there. The Whole30 Program The book I referenced in my quote above was where the challenge originated and goes into some of the science of why it works.
All I knew was that it certainly did involve drinking any Coke or other sweetened drinks in the US. For some reason totally unfathomable to me, the US government decided to start producing corn syrup. Unfortunately, it does not taste sweet, meaning that a 330ml can of coke contains 13 teaspoons of the stuff, including all the carbohydrate. Due to our vast increase in type 2 diabetes, Coke manufactured in the US is among a number of other products banned from import into the UK. Visitors are constantly complaining about our Coke, which is sweetened with glucose syrup, so corn syrup is obviously addictive.
@wilsjane, I have not touched a coca-cola product in more than a decade. Possibly two... yucky stuff. Soda in Europe is more sensible, but still it's not good for you.
If your energy level drops between meals, the odd carbonated drink is fine. But unfortunately it cleans your teeth, leaving them open to bacterial attack. Saliva is also alkaline, so any fruit acid neutralises it. This is also a problem with non carbonated drinks. Like you, I have not drunk any carbonated drinks for decades, even as a child I hated them. Needless to say, I was not very popular at the wedding, when I said that the vintage champaign tasted like drain cleaner.
I have tendency to lose weight rather than gain it. I eat a lot. It is all made at home, I do not eat junk ever and I walk 4 or 5k most days. I do have 3 courses every day, soup or salad, main course meat free and pudding, usually fruit and yoghurt but always have lots of "proper" stuff in freezer like fruit crumble or sponge.
Sounds very healthy to me! I have found that simply eating a healthy diet prevents weight gain, and over time my body naturally went to a proper weight for my height.
We have found that it takes disciple, intelligent choices, and accurate information to start. It wasn't easy in the beginning, and as Moon Goddess aptly pointed out, you also deal with all of the eating habits you had while growing up....and that is on top of the other issues she wrote about that you may have to deal with when trying to change your diet. We decided to begin our journey several years ago and we have just started being able to say it is now working. There is a plethora of sites that give you information on how to do this....but we finally developed a routine that works for us. Now we have to stick to the disciple part...which can vary from time to time due to the reasons Moon Goddess stated. My wife weighs 25 lbs less than she did in high school and I am within five pounds of my freshman year in college.
With becoming un femme du certain age, there’s excess weight. what worked before…doesn’t. so I dove deeper. I’m now 70 percent fruits and veg, the rest is beans and resistant starch. A couple times a month, all bets are off. Maybe something fried, maybe a sweet. I’m looking for new activity, since I can’t afford the shows to dance at that kept me svelte for 30+ years. And I need to strength train for a better old age.