About a decade ago I had to change my diet dramatically, drastically lowering the carbohydrate and increasing the protein. When I say "had to", I mean to address a fairly radical change in my basic metabolism combined with disastrous iron-anemia. I feel very fortunate that I like meat quite a bit, and for the time being can afford it in large volume.
Also, I basically like almost all the foods, so switching to lower-starch vegetables wasn't particularly challenging.
But I was really sad at the time. It might've been the fact that I had lived 40 years in the full privilege of eating to taste and taste alone. (**generally, my taste is a basically healthy diet of meat and vegetables and a pre-1980-style amount of starch, so it's fair to say that my taste ran coincident to many of the basic dietary guidelines). So I was pouty about having to, you know, bring discipline to a place in my life where I had been going with my heartbeat. There certainly are worse and harder areas where life gives this to us.
Anyway, where was I? Yes, I was sad. I now have to get the protein down, whether it's really where the deliciousness-action is at on the plate or not. It can feel . . . boring. People make all kinds of wondrous dishes that are not meat-heavy, and I'm always angling for more protein.
And -- did I mention that it's expensive? Good gawdalmighty did my budget change.
The thing I'm terrified about ever having to give up is coffee. My mother had to give up caffeine at 65, and I think I've mentioned it here: it was traumatic for her, and really hard to watch. She'd had a life of survival and not much pleasure, and her coffee was an important highlight. She gave up the cigarettes with much less sorrow than the coffee, and she had smoked Kools-straights for forty years. But she did it. That woman had a will the likes of which I've never encountered since she left us.
