#27 - About food and drinks

As I mentioned a couple of times by now, for the past 6 months, I have been changing quite a few of my old habits. I had to, if I ever wanted to live a more healthy life. Most of the times, I write about the physical challenges and the adventures I have riding my trike. But the real change has happened in the kitchen.

Skyr, Spelt, Blueberries, Stevia

Now, it’s not like I had the worst eating habits before. I ate quite healthy foods already. My diet just wasn’t adapted to a life with diabetes. Too high in sugars, and too low in protein and carbs. That actually was a rather easy fix. I switched to wholegrain products overnight, and I added low sugar versions of some things I like. Jam, sweetener for the coffee, snacks… Just the basics. And then, over time, I tried new things. Couscous became one of my favorites. The wholegrain kind of course. It’s amazing how many things can be found as wholegrain. And it amazes me how often they are the more expensive choice. I just can’t understand why, if a healthy and a less healthy variation are sold in the same store, the healthy kind is almost always the more expensive kind. I understand that the production cost may be higher, or the ingredients may be more expensive. I even understand the market may be smaller. But why? Most likely, the ingredients would become cheaper, if more are produced. And the market would be bigger, if the healthier kind would be more promoted and more readily available. Then, the obvious choice could be the healthier choice. Of course there’s taste. Not everybody likes the same things on their plate. As a

young man, I once had the misfortune to try some kind of meat replacement, soy based matter. I can’t remember what it was called, but to this day, I do remember its taste and structure. The nearest thing was cardboard. Dry, tasteless and colorless. Not inviting at all. No amount of sauce or spices seemed to be able to cure the blendnes that was on my plate that day.

Low in alcohol means low in sugar

But since that day, a lot has changed. Largely thanks to vegetarians growing in numbers, the market grew. And it became profitable for companies, to invest in the taste, structure and variation they had on offer to them. Meat replacing products have improved incredibly over the past 30 years, to a point where I could cook a meal today, that would please most meat lovers, using nothing but plant based ingredients. Maybe they wouldn’t even notice. And that’s the whole point. Today, it’s absolutely possible, to cook healthy and tasteful at the same time. To cook meals that don’t make you feel like you’re missing out, but you can actually enjoy. And I’m not preaching complete abstinence of course. I like my meat like the next man. And I’m still eating it. A nice piece of red meat on the grill. Veins of fat running through it. Cooked to perfection… I will be thanking the cook any day of the week. But the piece will be a little smaller then before. And the next day I may be eating a nice piece of fatty fish. Turkey maybe? Or why not, a vegetarian meal. And all of them, I will enjoy with all my heart. Because I know that my diet is balanced. That I’m eating healthy. And that I can still eat most of the things I liked before. Just not as often, and I may plan a workout

before or after, just to make sure the evolution of my measurements stays on target. But that’s a small price to pay.

Some things have to be compensated of course. When you take things away, or even just change their amounts on your plate, it’s best to replace them. Sugar with carbs for example. White bread by wholegrain bread. The result is that I don’t have a fast peak from the sugars in the white bread anymore. In stead, I have a slower and lower peak because it takes time for my body to first make sugar from the carbs, and then get rid go those sugars. And I even took the next step. I swapped to high-in-protein bread. Even lower in carbs, and I knew I would need protein to build up muscle.

I started eating breakfast again. No bread there, just a nice bowl of dairy, fruits and grains. I really like Skyr and Greek Yoghurt. Some blueberries and some crushed oats will make my start of the day something to look forward to. That was actually one of the hardest things to change. Eating first thing in the morning. I hadn’t done that for a long time. It just felt too heavy on my stomach. But in no time, It just felt right again. Most of the days anyways. Sometimes I allow myself to skip a day. But at least I’m on the right path. And that goes for everything I try to change. Allowing myself to cheat sometimes, makes the transition easier. It makes me feel I’m not starving myself. That I’m still allowed to enjoy myself, even when I’m eating things I shouldn’t. From time to time. As a little pick-me-up maybe.

And then there’s the extra’s when I’m working out. The search for a good and even possible way to work out has been a struggle. And food was an important part of that. It' had been a long time I had been working out to a level where I have to compensate for the energy, the proteins and the liquids I used. Usually, I would take a couple of bottles of cheap sports drinks along for the ride.

Plenty of drinks during workouts

Some nuts, or even some ready to eat bread. But the little post workout crash I had recently, made it very clear to me, that just wasn’t enough. So I switched to some more professional isotonic drinks, in larger quantities. I started taking protein bars for those quick replenishments during the workout. And I even started monitoring my values more closely during and shortly after a heavy workout.

To sum it all up: what I’m doing isn’t all that difficult. These days, most of the things that I need are readily available in the supermarket. Some things can only be found in more specialized stores, but there’s plenty of them around too. It has been quite the search to find what I need and what I like. Personal taste is an important aspect in finding what works and what not. That leads to buying larger amounts to try different tastes for example. But in the end, that variation keeps my diet new and different. And that keeps me motivated. That makes eating healthy actually pretty easy.