my diet plan

Yesterday, I had 9 hours to think on the plane ride home, and so I spent a few minutes thinking about my diet plan (not 9 hours, don't worry), and I decided there are things I want to avoid pretty much entirely.  Some would call this extreme.  But in some ways, it's easier to be extreme because it involves less thinking.  These things are drugs and foods that cause heart disease and so many other diseases.  Drugs are toxic and addictive and make you feel crappy after they wear off.   Here are things that I categorize as drugs:

caffeine,

alcohol,

sugar

white flour?

sugar and flour?   I'm going to ask Dr. Fuhrman if sucrose is found naturally in foods.  Sugar is highly processed.  Since I hardly ever eat it anymore, when I do, it makes a huge impact.  Yesterday I had 4 small pieces of chocolate and the effect was very strong, of both the sugar and caffeine.  I noticed this with the white bread I ate last week too.  I don't get this effect from fruit.  And then coming down off it feels yucky.   all of these things make me feel crappy the next day when I've come down off them.  Alcohol and caffeine last longer in my system than sugar, at least as far as I can tell.  

Then the things that contribute to heart disease are

oil

salt

animal fat but I don't eat animals

So the things I would like to avoid completely then are

caffeine, sugar, white flour, alcohol, salt, and oil, and animal products but I don't have to remember the last one because that's so ingrained now.

Then I also need to limit nuts and beans.  Too many of either make me too full and bloated and gassy.  I think I will eat more grains than I have been--oats and brown rice to make sure I am satisfied.  I think I don't like the effects of wheat flour, even whole wheat, but my co-op has this Essene bread that is sprouted wheat, and I will experiment with that.

That leaves a lot of great stuff which I stuff my face with every day.  So really it's easy to avoid these other things and not feel deprived, especially since I feel crappy after I eat them.  Oh, I didn't have much jetlag on my trip.  That is the first time.   In the past I used caffeine and alcohol to help.  I think maybe it just made things worse.  This time I was able to take cat-naps when I was tired and that got me through the day.  I was also more relaxed and on an even keel until I had those 4 pieces of chocolate.