The Battle to Lose Weight: Trigger Foods

Ugh!  This is going to be a lifelong battle.  But I have some new tools in my arsenal.  And with each year that goes by, Science and research are helping us learn more.  5 things I've learned in the last few years are:

1.  Sugar is the cause of all disease.  Grains, specifically genetically modified and over processed, are a close second.

2.  Exercise has nothing to do with weight loss.  Unless, as is my theory, it can help regulate hormones and prevent or reverse insulin resistance which have everything to do with weight loss.

3.  Calories consumed, calories expended has nothing to do with weight loss.

4.  Not eating for longer periods of time, or not eating simple carbohydrates (including fruit), reduces insulin levels in the body and can promote weight loss.  This is why starvation and low carb diets work.

5.  Trigger Foods:  If you think you wouldn't want to live without a particular food, it's the food you should give up.

Years ago I would have said the three things I wouldn't want to live without are Beer, Potato Chips and Ice Cream.  Now, I never consume these things.  I learned I have a problem with limiting myself with these items.  They make me feel physically bad when I consume them, yet I would keep coming back.  Often this is a sign of an intolerance or allergy.

I finally understand "Trigger Foods."  For years I thought they were foods that you can't stop eating until they are gone.  Not always the case.  They can also be foods that you must eat some of if they are around, you can't stop thinking about it until you eat it.  Surprisingly, York peppermint patties hold this over my head.  Or, foods you think you would not want to live without.

While I've acknowledged and let go of Beer, Potato Chips, and Ice Cream, I have some new trigger foods.  Specifically, Coffee (with cream and sugar), Chocolate, and Cheese.  The later two have been shown to produce the same effects on the brain as morphine and heroin respectively.  Coffee is one of those products in the news that is bad for you one day and good the next.  But it has been linked with insulin resistance, adrenal failure, hormone disruption, various cancers, and if you aren't drinking organic you are loading your body with pesticides and herbicides every day.  If you drink decaf you are probably loading your body with all sorts of chemical extractives, And if you don't drink Fair Trade, you are exploiting any number of South American or African workers.

I've got to eliminate from my diet Coffee, Chocolate, and even Cheese.  I can give up coffee.  I never drank it regularly until a few years ago, and I had to give it up for nearly a year while I was pregnant and attempting to breast feed.  I know that when I do give up Chocolate I won't miss it too much, except at holidays.  But Cheese!  I can't imagine a life without cheese.  It's my go-to snack.  I eat it by itself, with apples, in chili and soups, occasionally melted on some bread...such as pizza, in cheesecake, cream cheese spread on toast, olives, prunes, as a dip for vegetables, I could go on.

So here I stand with these things between me and my weight loss and better health.  I guess it's time to let go.  I just feel like by the time I eliminate all the things that keep me from losing weight or feeling well, I'll be down to just most varieties of legumes, non-starchy vegetables and filtered water.