SBS News and Goals for 2010

January 04, 2010 ↓ Comments (5)

Happy New Year! There is so much to tell you. Here it is…

The Forum Is Back!

There was a forum on the site back in 2007/2008. It’s now back and working once again! Registration is free. When you login you will be logged in site-wide. That means you won’t have to enter in your name and email address when you comment on a post! You can add topics in the forum as well as write to other members to discuss anything you want. You can also make a profile. Your email is not visible to anyone. My hope is that we can all communicate to share knowledge, ideas, links and resources.

Dietary Goals for 2010

Meat

I have never been a big meat eater. I’ve always considered myself “almost a vegetarian” except that, you know, I ate chicken and sometimes had a hot dog or hamburger. Mostly I didn’t commit to not eating meat because I wanted to be free to eat whatever I want. And I am free to choose. However, after having done lots of research this year into where my food is coming from, I decided to try a no-meat diet for one year and see how it feels. This is my choice based on the things I’ve learned.

Gwenn and I rarely go out to eat. For some reason though, we found ourselves out more this year than in years past. One thing we noticed was that restaurant food is super-salty, especially at places that specialize in drinks. Another thing we noticed was how lousy we’d feel after eating meat (while out). This happened to us so many times, in fact, that we figured it was something to do with how the restaurants were cooking it. So we stopped ordering meat. Then we noticed the same thing at home and so we started to remove the meat from our food there as well. We always felt better after a meatless meal.

Bread

I still eat bread. However, in 2010, I am only going to eat Dave’s Killer Bread: Powerseed (sweetened with fruit juice) or Vita Bee bread (sweetened with honey and available at Fred Meyer). I will avoid all other breads. Until now, I’ve eaten bagels from time-to-time and white bread such as French or Italian dinner breads. At home it will be nothing but Powerseed and/or Vita Bee and out I’ll avoid bread when possible.

Without meat and white bread, I will not be going out for hamburgers in 2010. It wasn’t something I did all the time, but I definitely ate a few in 2009. Thing is, I’d always get fries to go with it and of course that included some Ketchup. Ketchup contains High Fructose Corn Syrup and I justified eating it by saying it was just a little bit. Hmmm…

Since 2005 I have managed to cut out all of my trigger foods and reduce sweets to only natural or specialty foods. Still, I’d go out for a burger here or there. (How can that be? Because I stopped being sweet instead of attempting to quit sugar forever. To stop being sweet is not an all or nothing kind of thing. It has taken me several years to be in a place where I can give up even more “comfort foods” and attempt a more challenging diet.) I can finally admit to myself that I was after the sugar in the meat, bun, fries, and Ketchup.

Goodbye Sweet Meat

On New Year’s Eve, Gwenn and I went out to eat. She got a chicken burger and I ordered a cheeseburger. (She’s going vegetarian as well. Doing it together certainly makes it easier!) We both felt really full afterwards. Thirsty too. This is going to be a challenging year!

Eating smeat

I Hope This Site Helps You

StopBeingSweet.com was created to help keep me honest while I attempted to quit sugar for a year. People offered such positive feedback that I wrote a book. Book sales help to offset some of the time I put into this site. My goal is more to help people who are addicted to sugar and have no idea how to stop eat junk food than it is to take on the role of “Sugar Police” or “Mr. Anti-Sugar.” I don’t go around smacking cookies from people’s mouths.

If you are going to stop being sweet this year, remember that eating healthy is a skill, a full-time pursuit, and something that you get better at by practicing. You’ll make mistakes and you might even mess up really badly, but you can always start again and get right back on track. Since it’s the first week of a new year, now is a great time to make a resolution. Best of luck to you in 2010, whatever your endeavors!

Comments · SBS News and Goals for 2010

Janna
Jan 04, 2010

About the eating meat, I too want to join in with you for just a month. It grosses me out the way meat is raised and processed.

Funny note: my daughters toy allows her to feed a cow while the cow chews it… the music playing says something that the cow hates hay and loves corn… HA!!!

My husband and I watched Food Inc., and Super Size Me. Both movies enlightened us to what we are really eating regarding food. Today we started a Lifestyle Diet Change.
Our goals:
Develop proper relationship with Food: Food is fuel not emotional stabilizers, or for entertainment purposes. Food is to fuel the the temple God has entrusted to us.
We have created a few rules, and an reward system. One month at a time.
Rules include,
no sugar in meals at home,
exercise,
eat proper portion,
drink water 30 min before meal,
chew food completely,
eat slowly, and
eat 3 meals with 3 snacks, and
of course no eating outside the home except once a week.

gabe flores
Jan 04, 2010

Nice. I’ve often thought about being a vegetarian. several, several years ago I did it for about 6 months and enjoyed it. I was reading a lot of animal liberation philosophy, primarily Peter Singer. Maybe I should try it again. I was always surprised how full I could get on a veggie diet.

DavidVanadia
Jan 17, 2010

So far I don’t miss eating meat!

Dee
Jan 30, 2010

I’ve been doing the vegetarian thing for about 5 years - first just stopped eating meat, chicken, ham, etc. but still ate eggs and fish - Octo/pesco vegetarian. Gradually I stopped eating fish, then eggs. Last March I stopped eating dairy products after taking a nutritional class through The Wellness Institute founded by Dr. Pam Popper. I thought giving up cheese was going to be really hard—and I was right, it was. After doing some reading about the addictive properties of dairy, especially cheese, I now know why it was so hard. Sugar is still the hardest thing for me. Even though I haven’t eaten a plate of scrambled eggs, etc. for years, I was still eating sweets with eggs in them; cookies, cakes, etc. I watched Dr. Neal Barnard’s video on your site - very helpful to get me re-focused on all the reasons I decided to go veggie/vegan in the first place. The previous poster was right: food is fuel - not entertainment! The magazine Vegetarian Times had a great article a few months ago about the addictive aspect of cheese that was a real wake-up call for me. Also, the most amazing side effect of stopping the cheese - no more dark black circles under my eyes! About six weeks after stopping all dairy, they were gone! No magic creams, serums, or anything like that. Just stopped the dairy. Anyone else experience anything like that?

DavidVanadia
Jan 30, 2010

Wow Dee! That’s really interesting (circles under the eyes). I am still eating cheese but might cut that out eventually. A little at a time. Not missing meat at all, but cheese would be hard right now.