Any Thought of Moderation Would Soon Disappear

That's a pop music line I've been waiting to use for a long, long time. It's from "Nothing At All" by Heart, that female duo that also gave us "Magic Man." It was overplayed on the radio and thus not one of my favorites, but when I heard it not too long ago, I thought, wow, a pop music line that is destined to jump out of this blog someday!

The entire line goes:

From our first communication it was clear
Any thought of moderation would soon disappear

Any of you who read CR Community are now aware that in addition to a new career, I have some other wonderful developments in my life! I've always been of the "Life is so wonderful, why wouldn't I want as much of it as I can get?" brand of life-extensionism, but now I feel even more motivated than ever to do everything I can to take care of myself. I'm having so much fun now... why would I let aging take one minute of this incredible happiness away from me?

We all know I've been flirting with the idea of dropping my calorie levels a bit for quite some time now. Until now, I've been averaging 1100 - 1200, mostly because while I have quite a few days that come in at around 1000, I have at least one day in any given week when I go out and eat much more, sending my weekly averages higher.

Lately I've noticed that I feel dramatically better on the days when I stick to the 1000 range, and especially the days when I eat almost no junkie carbs and lots of protein. The difference in my mood and mental function is so remarkable that I think I would try to eat this way even if I knew there were no life-extension benefits whatsoever. A recent conversation with my salad eating CR brother Dean has caused me to remember how much CR is, for me, very much about the here and now. There are just so many immediate benefits for me... the side effects are good enough to justify my CR practice no matter what. I'd like to point out that I'm not calling my new relationship a "side effect" of CR... though these days I do feel like a bit of an advertisement for the CR Society. It goes like this:

"Join the CR Society! Get the body you've always wanted, your dream job, and the most amazing man in the universe! All for just $35, and a dramatic decrease in your calorie intake!"*

* results not typical

I too am in the "Am I living in a science fiction fairy tale?" phase.

The point being, the short term benefits of the reduced calorie intake are so positive for me, and the long term benefits seem likely enough to pay off, that I'm planning on taking my calories down to 1000 every day, unless I see my weight dropping too quickly.

This means a few things:

1. No more junkie carbs! I think this may be my final farewell to bread. But who needs bread when you know that a Sherm's megamuffin is waiting for you in some extremely cold part of the world?

2. More attention to detail! Lately I've been going out to eat too much, and not really knowing what's in my food.

3. Stop worrying so much about what other people think! The people I eat out with aren't there because they care what I eat, they're there because they enjoy my company! It doesn't matter if I just eat a salad. They'll still like me. And if they don't, you have to really wonder about them.

4. There will be some social occasions (I can see Lisa's wedding as one of these) where I'll eat too much and not beat myself up about it, but I know from past experience that every time I overeat, my anxiety spikes and it takes away from my peace, well-being, and optimal mental function. So why bother?

It's a little easier to contemplate this course of action because I've learned some tricks from a CR brother who gets quoted a lot that will make it easier for me to take my CR on the road when I travel. For instance: the magic megamuffin. So much good stuff, so easy to pack, so yummy! Did I tell you bloggiefriends about the morning I woke up from a dream about eating tons of megamuffins? I must email Sherm himself to say thank you. They rock my world.

Also, volume. One thing I noticed when CR bro who gets quoted a lot (CRBWGQAL? that's too long... he needs another name) was cooking for me... my food at home is pretty low volume. When I am eating higher volume food, I get stuffed before I even reach 1000! I can learn to cook a little higher volume low calorie at home. Of course, it's harder to pack everything into 1000 than 2000, but I've been doing pretty well so far.

So I'm going to give it a try, and watch my weight carefully to make sure the pounds aren't falling off too quickly. I look so very normal (anyone who has actually seen me is welcome to comment affirming this... no doubt we're in for another round of "are you anorexic?" comments) that if I lose a little weight I'll still be in the "I'm so lucky to be a naturally curvy girl!" phase. I'm also straightening out my supplement situation, which in addition to the pretty good nutrition I get from my food will calm any fears that I'm somehow killing myself. Got a chewable calcium supplement today... more on that later.

In case you're wondering, I didn't go to the NYC CR Society meeting because it got snowed out! The snow started pounding us at 11 am, and it came down solid until just a few minutes ago. I think that there is at least a foot on the ground right now. The city is shut down. I was going to have my mom over for dinner tomorrow (Sunday) night, but we decided to do dinner tonight since I was unexpectedly in town. We bundled ourselves up and walked to the grocery store, trudging through knee-high snow. Two short women and a pushcart, surrounded by mountains of snow. A funny scene no doubt. We had coffee at the corner coffee shop, then we bought veggies for Fancy Vegetable Dinner. I steamed brussels sprouts, sauteed a chopped leek in calorie-free butter spray (go ahead and tell me why I have to throw this out, I know it's coming so go ahead) and added a pint of mushrooms, plus the sprouts, plus some "magic mushroom" seasoning that I bought in a grinder over Thanksgiving. Dash of salt. Delicious! We split a pint of grape tomatoes with it. Very yummy. That was it for dinner, except for my one glass of red wine.

For breakfast I ate my usual eggwhite scramble, and then for lunch a can of stewed tomatoes and 200 cals of walnuts. I know, flax people, I need to get some flax oil, but I can't drive to the corner, much less to the Whole Foods store in this weather. Last week two separate CR brothers and a sister told me that I need to solve my omega 3 vs 6 problem with some flax oil. I considered writing a blog entry entitled: "Attack of the Flax People." Once I can drive again (in case you're wondering, I'm blogging from my mother's house, which is in walking distance, while she entertains my cat... I did not drive to the office in this blizzard!) I will get some and probably give up my nuts in favor of flax oil. I also ate a green apple. I just really felt like eating a green apple. I love tart things. I used to make a great cranberry apricot pie... my college roommate Samantha and I would make it, and we called it Samberry Aprilcot pie.

Today is definitely coming in at around 1000, though my DWIDP is on my office computer so I'm not sure about the nutritients. I'll figure it out tomorrow. I picked up some broccolini to make for tomorrow's fancy vegetable dinner (we're just going to have fancy veggies twice in a row... my mom and I haven't gotten a chance to hang out much lately, so it's nice to catch up) along with red peppers and more mushrooms. I love the taste of sauteed mushrooms. Not as much of the megamuffins (what do I expect to happen? If I keep talking about how much I miss the megamuffins, they will magically appear on my doorstep?) but still, mushrooms are good.

I was sad that I didn't get to go to NYC to hang out with my CR brothers and sisters and some college friends, but it's probably just as well because I have so much work that I need to do for my new job. Only another week until I can devote every moment of my existence to fighting aging full-time! Hard to believe... it's all such a miracle... but here we go.