Food Experiment: Intro and Day 1

I have decided that the path to constant self-improvement comes from strict focus and documentation.  I will be using this blog as a place to enforce these criteria.

My first improvement project will be breaking my addiction to food.  While I am fairly fit and not overweight, I often feel like I use food as a crutch or an emotional tool.  I see this lack of control over diet as one of my biggest hurdles in my quest for self-reliance.  It is for this reason I wish to eliminate this dependence first.

I will be attempting to do this by focusing on a high-starch and vegetable focused diet, with the addition of some intermittent fasting when my willpower feels especially strong.  I will also focus on drinking large quantities of water, as I typically slack on this, and I have heard this can significantly reduce cravings. I am basing my food template on the loose recommendations made by Ray Cronise on his site Thermogenex.  While the template may change somewhat, I will focus most strongly on avoiding eating processed sugar, fruit, and dairy.

One possible problem I foresee that may cause the template to change is if this dietary change affects my workout performance.  I typically follow a paleo-ish diet, which includes high levels of protein and fat.  This diet, with the addition of some starchy roots and tubers, provides me with enough fuel for my lifting.  However, the elimination of the majority of my protein intake may hurt my lifting performance more than I am willing to accept.  If this does occur, I will most likely revert back to a strict paleo diet based around meat and vegetables, which will allow me to continue the elimination of my addiction without negatively influencing my lifting performance.

Today is day one of that experiment.

Today's Food Intake:

11:20 AM - Veggie Stir Fry with White Rice and Gluten Free Thai Peanut Sauce
6:00 PM - Lentils with Broccoli and Sriracha sauce
9:45 PM - Avocado Roll
11:00 PM - Three ciders and Fried Rice

Today was not a particularly good start to this experiment.  It seems that alcohol affects my willpower and ability to make good choices more negatively than  I thought.  I will keep this in mind in the future.