Introduction To Sustenance Sans

Sustenance Sans what, precisely? And what is 'sans'?

Sans is a different way to say 'without', or 'lacking', 'missing' and so on.

That is what I am going to find out! And help enlighten you, dear readers, about. How much of our food we rely on additives to give it 'flavour'. Even if those additives are something simple, table condiments like salt, pepper, tomato sauce (ketchup), bbq sauce and so on. How much do we really need to use them?

Do you remember the days, way back in history, when the dinosaurs were stomping around... when you could stuff yourself stupid on chocolate cake and not feel guilty over it? When jellie babies were eaten by the bagful because it was fun to bite off their heads, not because you needed to sugar-medicate? When icecream could, and was, a meal all on its own and not a teeny little side dish of extra that you sweated four hours in the gym over?

So this will be Sustenance Sans Guilt.

That is not to say that I'm about to advocate you go out and run to the nearest fast food outlet and chow down like there's no tomorrow. For a week straight. It will come back and bite you on the rear end. Basic biology. But kicking yourself for buying the chocolate bar rather than chewing on the carrot stick you packed this morning? Please.

First and foremost rule; Listen to your cravings, but don't over indulge them. The ladies I imagine will know especially what I'm talking about. You have a craving for chocolate and strawberries. Wonderful! Buy a small bar of chocolate, 75g or so, and a 250g punnet of strawberries. Go home, put maybe half of that chocolate on a plate, alongside four or five strawberries. Sit infront of the television, or in the bath, and eat that serving. That's it! Do not go back for seconds, no matter how delicious they taste, both alone and together, do not dish up the entire lot to eat in one sitting. In two days or so, if you're feeling in the mood for them again, then finish them off, or just have a teeny tiny little bit.

Same thing goes for craving carrots, or pizza, or something deep-fried and dipped in butter. A small serving of it will cure the craving, give your body what it's hungry for, and best of all? You won't feel the pain of not chewing on the celery.

Rule 2: Portion size. Eat less, more often. Breakfast, which by rights should be the biggest meal of your day and is usually skipped entirely, can be something large and glorious, like a fruit milkshake, bowl of cereal with milk and say, an apple. Remember the days when you didn't have a caffeine addiction and you weren't a growly bear before you'd had your morning cup of coffee/tea? Lets try and recapture those days!

Say you get up at 7am, and have to be at work for 7.30am. Shower, getting dressed... you don't have time for breakfast, right? Try again! Get up at 6.30am, that gives you the half hour to have a shower and be made beautiful and dashing, and you have a whole extra half an hour to fix yourself food! Food, not caffeine. Your day will start, and run, a great deal better.

Now! Not to get you all up in arms over 'what the hell! I'm not cutting out my coffee!' these two rules are things I am trying to follow myself. I'm a diagnosed type 2 diabetic, and I'm controlling my blood sugar levels (so I don't have a heart attack and die or something) through diet alone, well, mostly. I also take the tablets occasionally, but it is very rarely. I didn't drink hot coffee or tea in the mornings, I would have a can of coke. Believe you me, changing from a really crappy diet to something a great deal more healthy and still eating most of the stuff I love to, was not easy. Three months ago, my 'diet', if you could call it that, was vegemite sandwiches (white bread, butter, vegemite), tomatoes, salt, KFC, McDonalds, fruit juice and a buttload of Coke(tm) as my hydration. Getting told that gee, you can't eat white bread, butter, KFC, McDonalds, fruitjuice or have the Coke(tm) because it may very well kill you was not something a 20 year old girl wanted to hear. It was a case of so... I can eat what now, precisely? Lactose intolerance means no milk for me which left... Water. Joy.

So, for you few readers out there, believe you me, I feel your pain. Sustenance sans indeed. Sans flavour I'll bet! But I am determined not to. I refuse to eat boring, bland foods, but I don't want things to go really badly with a heart attack and die. Three months ago I was the size and roughly shape of a moderate sized beach ball. I have since lost 3/4ths of that and am still losing more. I figure, why not share the love! Share what this eating habit has done for me, and help others eat the food they want to eat, without the guilt!

For now, at least. As my investigation progresses, I am going to work on finding ways to get along with flavourful food without spending months sweating and panting to work the love affair off.