Greetings again friends!
As previously mentioned yesterday, coming back to work has offered me the ability to hit the reset button on some of the habits I had formed over the years. Yesterday we looked at me commuting to work on bicycle with a fair amount of regularity (today makes three days in a row). Today, let's look at something I never thought I would explore on the J-Blog: Food.
To be sure, I have never been the best eater. Ever since I was a young lad I have been one of the pickiest eaters known to man. There was no rhyme or reason to my insanity. There were just certain foods that made the no no list, and by certain food I mean anything healthy. Vegetables were like a swear word. Casseroles were (and still are) like poison.
Add to that insanity the way I was eating when I was in seminary. I was routinely waking up before the sun and coming home long after it had set. This led to entire days spent out on the road, which when combined with my complete inability to plan ahead for anything, led to me eating like a college freshmen with an unlimited meal plan. My car was littered with takeout containers, soda cups, and evidence of poor decisions. It was a bad place.
A few of my friends meanwhile have gone hard core about their eating. They fasted a good bit over Lent, and then just kept certain parts of the fast going through their normal everyday existence. While the picky eater in me thought that they were absolutely crazy, a sliver of sanity looked at what they were doing with jealousy. They don't like the word "Vegan," but prefer the words "Eating clean." I like those words too.
This was not going to be an easy transition, I realize. Certain terrible eating habits are, scientifically speaking, just like addiction. I was going to need the food equivalent of a step down program. So after vacation this year, I decided to take action. That first week, I decided to eliminate pop and red meat. (There's a lot of reasons for doing such a thing, and health is probably pretty close to the top, but truthfully I'm really worried about the environmental impacts) Both were on the previous J Freyer food pyramid, basically their own food groups in my life. This promised to not be easy, and if I'm honest I thought I'd make it half a week at most. But much to my surprise, I got there. I haven't had a lick of pop or a burger in two weeks now. Since that first week featured taking things away, this week has been about adding things. My goal has been to try something new each and every day, and instead of snacking on chips (my usual go to), to switch to carrots and humus or apples and peanut butter. Again, I've been rather successful. I even passed the cookie tray at staff meeting this week not once, but twice.
I'm guessing to a lot of you this like like reading someone who's really excited to tell you that water is wet. Some of you have been on this healthy/clean eating thing for a while. But man, some of the youth pastors I know have been eating like college freshmen, and we owe it to ourselves to take better care of ourselves. Sure, there's nothing wrong with the occasional pizza. But when that becomes your only source of sustenance you have a problem. And even just two weeks in, I'm seeing tremendous impact in other areas of my life. Cycling this week has been far easier than it's ever been before, probably because I'm finally putting the right kinds of fuel in my body. I would imagine I'll be able to hang in there a little bit longer against the kids in some of the games this year if I'm able to keep up these successes. I still have a long way to go before I can safely claim to be eating clean, but every little step counts.
So what kind of changes can you make in your diet for the healthier?