The ancient brain is addled

/ MR

I am so desperate to settle on an eating regimen that will combine the things I really like to eat with those I really need to eat that I dunno if I’m Arthur or Martha (as we used to say).

And if that ideal smacks of dreaming, I’m going to continue to work towards it ANYWAY.

Because the things I really like to eat are vegetables, fruit, bread and various kinds of cereal. A local brand called Freedom produces some absolutely yummy breakfast cereals –

Yummy yummy !

I came across that one first: it’s not at all sweet, consisting of flakes with a nutty flavour and pumpkin seeds: boy, is it delicious ?! And then I discovered

(ditto)

and decided to mix them together in a 5-something box with a lid. It was at that point that I decided I could, after all, live without muesli, provided I had a boxful of this mixture. I would add tinned pineapple and Greek yoghourt and stir it all together and have it for my breakfast or lunch. Oh, those were the days ..

But in order to reduce my sugar intake so as to ward off diabetes 2, I am sworn off ALL carbohydrates and ALL fruit (almost), so that breakfast would now be just the yoghourt. I love my Greek yoghourt, but ..

Breakfast is by far the hardest meal to provide for myself under the no carbs high fat regimen. No cereal and no toast and no fruit. Jesus christ on a bicycle ! – is there any point in living ?

I can’t help feeling that there MUST be a middle path I could take that would get me no closer to being pre-diabetic but maybe stay at this fairly naughty figure (whatever it is: my GP doesn’t believe in sharing details of that nature). I mean, if I were to cut down on the carbs but not eliminate them .. and if I were to increase fat intake but not to a disgusting degree .. wouldn’t that do ?

Let’s face it, I’m not going to lose weight. But if I can stay here, with my insulin count (or whatever – blood sugar ?) not progressing, why wouldn’t that DO ?!

(I believe I’ve consulted nine GPs since I’ve been in Geelong – 5 of them in the one practice – and I haven’t once felt confident about his/her pronouncements. My GP in Sydney I had for the last 12 years I lived there: I never once doubted a syllable he uttered. While Chic was still about I used to make him come with me if I needed to see Uttam, because I could never remember what he told me. The problem with that was that Chic and Uttam would make each other laugh, and we often ended up having to do a bit of speeding through my consultation .. But it was all good, back then.)

So what I really like are bread and cereal and fruit and vegies (including those carb-filled beans) and yoghourt and cheese, with the occasional piece of rump. But really only occasional. And what I really need is a lot of fat .. So if I were to make up a general kind of plan – NOT a meal-plan, just a kind of guide – that had me eating three meat meals a week and three vego meals a week and one day a week stuffing my face with Dr Becky’s salad, that absolutely does take away the appetite so that it’s a fasting kind of day .. wouldn’t that be good enough ?

I can manage without potatoes ..
I really do LOVE vegetarian cooking !
Avocadoes are very high in fat ..

In other words, do I REALLY have to go without almost all fruit (except berries) and many of the vegies I adores (root vegies !) and toast&marmalade forever ?

I can’t do that, I’m here to tell you. Nup, I can’t. It’s all very well Dr Becky telling me that after 40 days of this regimen I can have 1 day of eating whatever I want before going back for another 40 days .. If I look ahead for whatever smallish number of years are left to me and see a wilderness into which I must go for 40 days and 40 nights and then another and then another, interspersed with only solitary days of stuffing my face with my favourite foods .. well .. I will have to top meself.

My thinking now is to make some lists of this half-and-half kind of eating, follow them for a few weeks and then have another fasting blood test and see where my blood sugar is. As the GP has told me not to do that before December, it all fits in nicely.

Wish me luck, yes ?

14 thoughts on “The ancient brain is addled”

  1. Oh poor you M-R, it’s miserable having to change your diet so dramatically. My suggestion is to make lists of the food you are supposed to eat, look for recipes that meet that and just see how much of it you can really like and enjoy. Make that your base diet then work out how you can add in the things you really love. It might be trial and error to find a balance. I’d be asking the doctor for the numbers. You have a right to know.

    In the end the question is how long do you want to live, versus how do you want to live.

    My MIL lived with pre-diabetes for quite a few years, dying on her 97th birthday. She had a big sweet tooth, and still ate sweet things most days right to the end. Just less of it.

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  2. I’m with you M.R. It sounds like you love what you eat, so perhaps just a few moderate changes will sit more comfortably with you. Perhaps replacing some of you bean meals with fish (some but not all). I know it’s become the thing lately to eat lots of fat, which sounds great to me (I love fat), but next year they’ll have changed their mind on that too. Sounds like you have good knowledge of basic nutrition, so make up your own diet.

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    • You know, Chris, that aspect of my problem – the multitudinous diets available, and the knowledge that the perceived solution will probably change yet again – is key, eh ?
      I have so enjoyed my vegetarian cooking, and got great pleasure from feeding friends who are not vegos with my favourite meals and seeing how they enjoy them .. and the sole finger-wag about that period was the frightful amount of farting that went on. Now that problem is gone, but the much more frightful constipation is far worse, and I’m throwing down Benefiber like there’s no tomorrow wthout achieving any kind of satisfactory equilibrium. Sighh .. Honestly, to get back to farting and giggling would be a joy ! 😀

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  4. One never knows what is enough until you have had more than enough. I’ve had years of more than enough. We’re now in the same boat. How to be sensible without giving up things that are too damned good to give up? If you crack the conundrum before me, please let me know.

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    • That is PRECISELY and ABSOLUTELY (I do wish I could write one single sentence without employing a plethora of adverbs !) the case, my dear friend.How is it that you can be relied upon for a relevant statement ? Please be less to the point ! NOT.
      But is “sensible” the most apt word ? – it is so very subjective when it comes to food regimens. As Chris says, what we read this year will almost certainly become passé next, overtaken by another very different story.
      Have you read “The Big Fat Surprise” ? – I’m currently listening to it in bits: it’s too technical to listen to in long bites ..

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      • I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve been able to shift the considerable excess weight I’d acquired. My main rule is to avoid anything made in a factory. Not always possible but I try to apply it. I also try (and am quite successful) in using small suppliers. I make all my own bread, get my fruit and veg from a small-holding/farmshop, my meat largely from a small farm butchers, my eggs from my daughter’s chickens and a significant quantity of salads, herbs and soft fruit from my own garden.

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        • All these things I know, and am frightfully jealous of. I also know you to be a man of strong will, having the ability to carry out whatever you determine.
          You haven’t been ‘lucky’, Simon: you’ve had the pay-off for your own efforts.
          Sometimes I wish you weren’t so bloody admirable ..
          [grin]
          XO

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  5. I firmly believe that there’s no point having a diet that will let you live to 100, if you hate eating it. So I say YES to making some changes while also keeping a firm hold of the things that you really enjoy.

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Go on - you can say it. :)