Well...it finally happened. I found out I'm too old to eat crap.

I'll eat and or drink pretty much anything that is put in front of me without any hesitation at all.

But I choose to eat healthily if I'm doing the prep or paying, except booze.

I don't get the love for pop, I've known guys that can put away a six pack of coke a day no problem but from my experience pop's are an aquired taste. Cola especially. American Mountain Dew is different too, we don't have even close the caffine content in ours.

My favorite drinks are Kombucha tea, cold and flavored is good, and a brew of my own that was meant to cure colds but I just like the taste. Boil ginger, garlic, cayenne, honey and lemon. I can drink a pot a day no problem. You can make both at home cheap.

But once every three weeks or so I drink 12 beers, smoke a joint and eat fast food. Less now with the baby of course.

Everything in moderation, including excess.

If you want to lose weight, cut out junk carbs: bread, cereal, pasta or rice of any kind, corn, potatoes and sweets (which includes fast food etc). You'll get the carbs you need from good sources (in particular from fruit, yogurt, milk, legumes). I've recently had to cut that stuff out on advice from my endochronologist (I was recently diagnosed with diabetes, and I'm trying to control my blood sugar with diet and exercise), and I was surprised at the weight loss. I've been very active physically for some time, but my weight had plateaud...until I had to cut out the junk carbs. It took a bit of adjustment in my cooking and shopping routine to pull it off, but it's worth the effort. Of course this suggestion may not work for your specific health needs and lifestyle.

Coincidentally, not too long ago I heard an interesting interview with the author of "why we get fat and what you can do about it". He argues that since insulin is the hormone that regulates the body's retention of fat cells, if you want to lose weight, don't eat foods that trigger insulin spikes. You might want to check that out to get informed on some of the debates about weight loss and diet.

If you reduce the amount of factory farm-sourced, overly processed foods in your diet and have a reasonable amount of physical activity, you'll lose weight. Once you stop eating those junk carbs (mostly originating from highly processed and modified grain products that are also loaded with sugar), you'll see a difference.

When I cut out eating stuff like doritos, packaged cookies, fast food of any kind, grocery store ice cream, non-bakery breads, and so forth I almost immediately felt better. Now, if I eat anything like that, it's _shocking_ how overly sweetened and salted it all tastes. I had a pack of McDonalds ketchup not too long ago and it just about blew my teeth out it was so sweet.

People's palates have gotten so fucked up by all of this ultra-processed, super-preserved and over sweetened food...when you recover your palate and get out of all the junk food that is endemic in American eating, it will shock you how _good_ a plain heirloom tomato or a slice of organic, five ingredient bread tastes. Eating healthier at that point becomes easy. But not cheap.

It also doesn't hurt to reduce alcohol and total food intake. Modest improvements in these areas, taken together with reducing the junk carbs, etc that Hatch, Michael and others mentioned, and you can drop some pounds.

Michael Barnes wrote: Mountain Dew is like this huge problem in rural Appalchia...not kidding. Kids, adults, everybody are strangely addicted to it. I saw this documentary about a dentist working in Tennessee/Kentuckyand there's a big problem with kids' teeth rotting out because people give it to toddlers .

They have the same thing in Scotland with a drink called Irn-Bru (Iron Brew - made with girders!). Virtually unknown outside of Hibernia but a massive industry therein.

Personally I've never liked sweet fizzy drinks for the simple reason that I don't find they quench thirst. I'd much rather drink diet versions (Pepsi Max is my poison of choice). If you know a bit of biology you realise that drinks that are high in sugar actually disrupt the water balance in your body, rather than improve it, so it's no wonder you stay thirsty. So yeah, moving to diet soft drinks is definitely an easy way to improve your health a little bit.

Michael Barnes wrote: I have your Mountain Dew substitute. There's a natural soda company that does an all natural, diet "Mountain Zevia"...sweetened with stevia so it's zero calorie and 55mg caffeine. It's more expensive than Mountain Dew, $1.25 a can or so.

You probably won't like it at first... But give it a full six Pack and you'll get a taste for it.

Today I went to the local health food store and bought a 6 pack of Mt. Zevia and a 6 pack of Dr. Zevia. You warned me, and yeah, the Mt. Zevia was kinda weird at first, but I got used to it after finishing the first can. On the plus side, my wife thought it was ASGUSTING. I know she won't touch it.

I'm really digging the Dr. Zevia....makes me want to try the black cherry next.

By the way, it was 6.00 for a six pack, so not too bad.

Michael Barnes wrote: Mountain Dew is like this huge problem in rural Appalchia...not kidding. Kids, adults, everybody are strangely addicted to it. I saw this documentary about a dentist working in Tennessee/Kentuckyand there's a big problem with kids' teeth rotting out because people give it to toddlers . It's also huge with meth addicts.

Oregon's bad for that too. I lived out there many moons ago and there was one continuous rail of crank that ran along the coast from Lincoln City all the way down through Klamath Falls and beyond. Weird fuckers out there.

If you really want to moderate soda sugar, go exclusively to Italian soda. Pick up some soda water and flavor syrups. Add as much or as little sugar as you want per serving. Add in some lemon, lime, or orange if you want a bit more zing and less crap. It tastes better, the extra cost is negligible, and takes no time at all to mix up.

Also, switch over to whole grain breads and learn how to cook rather than eating packaged-for-the-oven crap (you wouldn't believe how much shit they put in those). Minimize fast food and restaurants.

The best part of knowing how to cook is knowing how to ~really~ indulge when you feel like spoiling yourself. After home made mousse, desert crepes, apple-sauce and so on, you won't go back to Snikers.

Whole grain breads are better than white bread, but if you want to lose weight you'll still have to moderate (or better, eliminate) your intake. 1 slice of bread = 3 tsp of sugar regardless of whether it is whole grain or white.