What is best for me

In my ongoing fight to be a better me, I am constantly finding that a huge chunk of my focus is on food. What can I say, I like to eat. A lot. I always have. Growing up I was always the first person people looked to when food went missing, and normally I was the right person to look at.

Now when I was a teenager with a better metabolism and was walking and moving constantly this wasn't such a terrible thing. I mean I wasn't what the fashion industry or my family would consider skinny. I was however, in retrospect, healthy. Seriously if I had realized back then what I actually looked like and not what I thought I looked like, my life would probably be different today.

I am now 30 and spend like 85% of every day sitting so I have to think more about what and when I eat. It is responsible or something like that. It is also a huge pain in the ass. I spend far more time than I would like tracking food and planning what I am going to eat when.

What really makes this a pain is the fact that eating healthy isn't a simple thing. Anyone who tells you it is easy to be healthy doesn't live in reality. Eating healthy is expensive and grossly restrictive, two concepts I do not work well with.

I have some requirements when it comes to food. I want my food to taste good. I want my food to be good for me. I would like my food to be reasonably priced and reasonably convenient. Now convenience I am willing to let slide most of the time. For lunches I would prefer something simple, but I do recognize that sometimes effort is required. The other three are sort of the important ones.

Sadly you can't have all three. You can have cheap and tasty, you can have tasty and healthy, but rare is it you find cheap and healthy especially if you are expecting it to taste good. What is up with that?

Don't even get me started on what I think is healthy as opposed to what other people try and shove down my throat as healthy. I have heard all the arguments for high protein low carb, no carb, paleo, whole grains, no sugar, vegetarian, vegan, substitutions, no trans fats, no processed foods, and any other up to the moment food fad there is. I am not sold on any of them. I recognize some portions of some of these food philosophies are good, but not the whole thing.

Yea processed foods aren't the best for you, but I am never going to give up white flour or processed sugar. I agree that too many sweets are bad for you, but I am never going to give up sugary foods altogether. I agree that tons of empty carbs are not the best idea, but I am never giving up bread, pasta, or rice. I know in theory that whole grains are good for you, but I am never going to switch from white bread and pasta because whole wheat and whole grain are disgusting. I don't even know what trans fats are but I am not convinced they are totally evil anymore than I believed eggs were evil, or salt was evil, or high fructose corn syrup was evil, or anything else you say is evil but will come back and say is alright in moderation ten years from now. I even think the whole paleo movement probably  has some good benefits, combining a lot of the other ideas we have covered here, but I am never  giving up dairy. It sort of goes without saying vegan is off the table, but I am never giving up meat either so lets not even ponder vegetarianism an me.

Now I know saying never is extreme. Never say never or some such nonsense. The truth is if I was forced to give up any of those things I would. Right now however there is no gun, literally or figuratively, being held to my head, so lets just stick with the never theory.

What I will do is be conscious of what I eat. I will try not to eat huge amounts of sugary sweet things. I will try and eat less processed foods. I will eat smaller portions of everything. I will try and balance out my protein to carb ratio. I will try and do what is best for my body.

I just wish I could do that and stay on my budget.