Thursday, September 8, 2011

Vices

There is a group of Native Alaskans that believe that catching a fish by rod and reel is bad for the soul. It is considered torturing your food and eating tortured food is like ingesting negative energy. It all makes perfect sense.  Others would say you are what you eat. The concept is the same. What you ingest has a significant impact on your health and wellbeing. I am approaching 30 at the speed of light and am starting to realize that I am not in as good of shape and health as I should be. This past winter I hiked the Grand Canyon, down to the bottom and back out, with my 73 year old Grandfather and my 69 year old Grandmother. The expectations for my quality of life as I progress in years is incredibly high, I have super genes that I have to live up to. This was part of my motivation for giving up booze and coffee, a quest for a healthy lifestyle.
I passed my 90 days of sobriety a couple/few weeks ago. Weekend before last I decided that I wanted to give alcohol and coffee a try again. In the past two weeks I have drank about 5 times.  Every time after I get a buzz I remember why I gave up alcohol, I don’t like feeling out of control. When I drink, even if it is just 2 drinks and a slight buzz I feel slightly out of control. So I am deciding once again to give up booze. This is after a beer and a glass and a half of red wine. No more booze for me. This time it is for the long haul. I am not putting a time limit. I am just saying I am done. I wanted to know how booze would taste. I think I like juice and tea better now.
Over the past couple of weeks I have had coffee as well. Both decaf and regular. My first cup back was a French vanilla blend. Today I had two cups; the morning cup was again the French vanilla blend. The second was half a cup of a strong pot of a French press. I bought a bag of decaf and drink that occasionally, more than the regular. It all kind of hurts my stomach and it is not quite the wonder drink I used to think it was. It just doesn’t taste the same as it used to. I probably won’t give up the coffee out right, but maybe stick to the decaf when I have a craving.
Here comes the kicker. I am giving up eating land animals. For the past two weeks the most meat I have had was the bruschetta I had on top of my pizza. That is not including the cold water fish I had for dinner last week. I feel so much better. So only water based animals for me: fish and shellfish. No more chicken, beef, pork, goat or other animal raised with hormones and vaccines. Maybe I will keep the option to eat game meat? That might seem a bit obscure though.
I don’t trust people who don’t have visible vices, at least one. So I can’t consciously cut out every single vice I have, luxury and decadence is a matter of quality of life. So I am going to cut out the things that I don’t think are enhancing my life but not cutting out every single vice I have. I will allow myself the option to drink coffee when I want it, when I have the desire and the craving. I will retain my vice for clothes and sweets but knock out booze and most meat (not that meat is a vice, it is more a luxury).

2 comments:

  1. Welcome to the dark side. :)
    Just kidding. I am so impressed with all your healthy living changes! The older we get, the more unhealthy things seem to affect us. (I'm looking at you, hangovers!)

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  2. Thank you my dear, it was just a matter of time really before giving up meat (except fish). Thanks for your words of encouragement! Getting older is getting fun, it was hard at first but it gets funner every year I think.

    The German method of hangover avoidance is to drink radars (sp?) or in English "the cyclist". You order a lager and a sprite, mix the two in a glass 50/50.

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