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My Old Lifestyle Diet
Listed below are the main things that I used to eat all the time; and I mean ALL the time. Everyday consisted of fast food, chocolate milk and candy. Everything I ate contained sugar and fat, and plenty of it:
- NesQuick Chocolate Milk (2% Fat or Whole)
- Chocolate Fudge or Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts
- Coke (the real stuff, no diet)
- Candy Bars (every type under the Sun)
- Boxes of 12 Hostess Donuts
- Blueberry Bagels with Butter
- Lucky Charms, Count Chocula, Chocolate Cocoa Pebbles, etc.
- Big Mac Extra Value Meal (that's right, super-sized)
- Taco Bell Burrito, Nachos Supreme & and X-Large Mountain Dew
- Every other type of fast food every now and then
I never drank water by itself. And I mean NEVER. The only water my body got was from ice in fast food drinks, or from the soda itself. Usually, I'd drink around 3 to 6 sodas per day. Given that the human body relies so heavily on water, I often look back and wonder how I stayed alive. I never ate any type of vegetable or fruit, never took any vitamins, and the only reason I got quality protein was because I was such a huge milk fiend.
Candy, It Was Everywhere, Still Is
Ahhh, the simple "meal" of a soda and a candy bar. It all started in junior high, seventh grade. Now I received lunch money to buy the standard school lunches. Blech! But what's this? Vending machines lining the school halls? And I can buy a sweet soda and chocolate candy bar for the same price? Sold! Soon, I had a coke and a candy bar for lunch most of the time during school, all the way through 12th grade. Rarely would I ever go to the cafeteria. And whenever I was feeling down, or tired, or bored during school, I would actually look forward to that sugary snack to pick me up and make me feel better.
When I got home from school, what was waiting for my brother and I on the kitchen counter at 3:00 PM? That's right. An ice-cold soda and some type of candy bar. My mom liked to set them out so they were there waiting for us as soon as we walked in the door. She never failed in that all the way through the last day of 12th grade. So, after every crappy day of school, I could always count on my good friends, the coke and the candy bar, to be waiting there for me as soon as I got home, ready to cheer me up.
If I ever found myself feeling really low and in need of a super-huge boost of sweetness, I could always count on the next big holiday to supply me with all the candy I could handle. All American holidays have one thing in common: they revolve around food. For kids, they revolve more specifically around candy and sweets. Every Christmas, there would be all kinds of cookies that I loved to eat. Same thing with Thanksgiving. Easter? Go fill up on all the colorful, chocolate-filled eggs and Easter candy baskets and solid chocolate bunnies as big as my head. Halloween? Run around the neighborhood and fill up your bag with sweets, kids. A stomach ache on the morning of November 1st was literally a requirement for a kid young enough to go "Trick Or Treating" back then. I remember the Halloweens in Fort Sill from around 4th to 6th grade where we would run as fast as possible from house to house to get as much candy as we could carry before it was too late.
As an adult, I would find those all-too-familiar vending machines following me around everywhere I went. They were standing guard just outside my barracks room door in the Army. They attended the exact same colleges that I went to. No matter where I got a job, those machines would get hired, too. Vending machines stood in every break room of every office building I've ever worked in. Cheap. Easy. Sweet. And just like in high school, whenever I felt down, or tired, or bored, my friends were always there to pick me up and make me feel better.
So That's Where I Come From In Terms Of Health
I was lucky enough to have good genetics that kept me from ever being an obese person in my early years, though eventually I would accumulate plenty of excess fat during my 30's. I always lifted weights from time to time, so I would appear to be in shape, but I was what is classified as a "muscular fat person". In the past year or two, I've become much more consistant about weight-lifting. If I just shed 30 lbs or so of body fat which cover and hide my muscles, I'll already have a nicely-shaped body underneath. You just can't see it right now.
Even though I'm a relatively healthy eater these days, I still constantly feel the pull of how nice it would be to just go down to the nearest gas station and buy a coke and a candy bar; how nice it would be to just pickup some fast food instead of having to cook and eat more grilled chicken and vegetables. Whenever such-and-such a thing has frustrated me, or I'm simply bored with eating the same plain healthy foods over and over again, my brain will still produce the thought: "You know what would be good right now? That's right. Go get 'em. You'll feel better." I still have a ways to go in reprogramming my mind to enjoy the food that is good for the body rather than all the sweets I became addicted to while growing up in the American culture of processed food and sugar, but I'll get there.