And I Could Not Ask For More

The other day I was writing to one of my CR brothers and I quoted the Edwin McCain song that goes, "I have all I've waited for, and I could not ask for more."

Negative commenter's comment came at a particularly amusing time because I spent much of this weekend reflecting on how I am probably the happiest person on earth. Not that it's some kind of competition, but I think you'd have a hard time finding anyone who is happier. And the world would be a much better place if you could find a lot of people who were equally happy.

Thanks to Dani, one of my most loyal readers who has been with me from the beginning of my journey, for your nice comment! I do love the support from my readers... you guys are great!

I'll reproduce Negative One's comments so that you can all see what I am talking about:

I know many people with eating disorders and this is a major problem right now. DO you honestly feel good about yourself for promoting restrictive eating and the idea that food is the enemy? I used to be super skinny. Now I'm regular weight and happier than ever. AND I eat carbs! AND I'm totally healthy, in love, have a great job, and good relationships with family and friends. How we feed ourselves is a completely psychological matter. Do you write in your blog about what's missing EMOTIONALLY in your life? For someone who's so socially conscious, seeing food as the enemy is a major socio-cultural issue. I wish you would think about all of the people in the world getting into eating disorders and stop preaching to the masses about seeing food as the problem. Why are you so compelled to control your food intake and have your life revolve around this to this degree? Are there things missing in your life and you're convinced that controlling food is the solution? Do you really want your close relationships to revolve around how much you eat? CRON may be a great community, but how much do you let people get to know you, really? Will you post this or will you delete this?

Well, let's see. I am glad that Negative One is so happy with her or his life. I would actually describe my life similarly. Perhaps we could just be happy for each other's success?

I would have to point out that how we feed ourselves in not a completely psychological matter. How we feed ourselves directly effects our health. The way I feed myself has made me incredibly healthy, and my health improves with every passing day. I never get sick, I have tons of engergy, I need less sleep, and I've achieved almost total relief from the mood swings and anxiety that used to plague me.

Food is not the enemy at all... I never said it was. However, over-consumption of calories is not healthy, and would shorten my life. I'm having so much fun here on this planet that I want to live as long as possible, in a youthful, healthy, vigorous body. By practicing CR, I give my body exactly what it needs to stay as healthy as possible as long as possible. Instead of using food to eradicate boredom or lubricate social situations that are otherwise boring or block out emotional pain, I use food to give my body the nutrients it needs! Radical concept, I know, but when you try it, it really works.

Saying that something is missing in my emotional life because I pay attention to my calorie and nutrient intake is like saying that someting is missing in your emotional life because you spend time cultivating a garden. Perhaps the landscape of my lawn is not important to me, so I don't spend time on a garden. However, I don't go accusing gardeners of having emotional problems. We all have our priorities. For me, practicing CR not only gives me the possibility of a longer, healthier life -- it also gives me many benefits in the here and now. So it's more than worth the effort I put into it. It has been remarked by some of my CR brothers that I accomplish excellent nutrition at an incredibly low calorie level with very little time and effort. I enjoy every aspect of my CR practice... from educating myself by reading The List to creating new dishes to playing with my nutritional software.

It's pretty absurd for people who have never met me to speculate on what might be missing in my emotional life, but I'd think that even from just reading the blog, you'd see that I have almost an excessively full life. The dinner parties thrown and attended, the satisfying work (and especially my new work!) the wonderful relationships with people who are close to me, who make life worth living... and worth living indefinitely.

Eating disorders are NOT rampant. Obesity is! Heart disease and diabetes are problems for many, many people. I write this blog because I want to show others how easy it is to take control of your health, life life to its fullest right now, and look forward to many, many decades of doing the same.

So back to what I've been eating:

On Saturday, my friend whom I was visiting over the weekend made me his CR friendly Zoned pizza on low-carb tortillas, and it was excellent! We also had some wheat bran (I think?) on the side and I had a Walford sized glass of pinot noir. I was floating in 0 gravity all weekend, with someone else paying attention to my calories and nutrition for me, so I know I was better off than I ever am but I don't know exactly what was in everything. (Before you dismiss me as a horribly lazy princess who spent the entire weekend making some poor fellow take care of her, I'll have you know that I chopped vegetables and did dishes.) Sunday morning we had high protein pancakes and and eggwhite scramble with vegetables for breakfast, along with some more whey powder in kefir. I had a cup of coffee and some green tea too. Then he packed me a lunch for the plane of 120 calories of hazlenuts, a 200 calorie megamuffin, 60 calories of a Chinese green vegetable whose name I don't know how to spell, and some whey powder. I ate the greens in the airport next to a guy who was eating French fries in gravy. The muffin was also gone before my first flight... the nuts I ate later during a long layover when my flight was delayed. I'm saving the whey powder to mix into an iced latte this afternoon.

My flight didn't get in until 1 am, so I slept a bit late this morning (which for me is anything past 4 am!) and then was running around to do lots of errands before work. Didn't eat breakfast, but ate a great lunch of black bean soup, hummus and carrots.

Feeling very stuffed after the rather big lunch, and will probably eat brewers yeast and broth tonight. Off to go get an iced latte for my whey powder soon.