Pizza invasion

Much as I had a problem giving up ice cream, I am having some trouble giving up pizza.  Not only did I buy a frozen pizza on my last grocery trip, I also cooked it that day.  I ate half of it Sunday for lunch, and have been eating the remaining slices throughout the week.  Once it's cooked, it becomes a convenience food.  Convenience foods have a way of convincing me not to cook something more healthy.

I strive to give the Primal Blueprint a fair try, but I could be failing worse than eating high gluten pizza.  I rationalized the bread component by blaming my exercise.  I have been increasing my jogging time this week.  I can now run most of the path around my neighborhood without feeling like I'm on a death march.  I'm still walking on the really steep hills because slopes are tricky on my joints.  Each day I go out to jog, I find it easier to start up running again after a pause.  Last year, running was an all or nothing activity.  I would jog until I was worn out, then I would have to calm down significantly to be able to jog again.  Now I use a different approach.  I jog until I feel it crosses the line between leisurely stroll and chronic cardio.  At that point, I slow down to a walk.  This keeps my stress level down, and I find that by staying calm, I can actually run farther simply because I worry less about running out of fuel.

There is a good thing that came from my pizza detour: I find that pizza is no longer helpful compared to my meat and plant focused meals.  Bread digests very slowly.  I spent the first two weeks on my Primal Blueprint trial feeling hungry all the time.  When I filled up on pizza, I found that I couldn't eat dinner later because I was still full.  Essentially, I find bread to behave like Dexatrim: all filler, no fuel.  When I fill my plate with vegetables and meat, I am getting a lot of nutrients.  When I load up on bread, I feel like I'm eating empty calories.  It may keep me alive, but it's not helping me grow more healthy.

It's far easier to give something up after seeing the downside.  Pizza's downside is the enormous amount of bread it contains.  That doesn't mean I have to give up pizza forever.  When I went vegan for a week, I made a pizza from scratch that had whole wheat crust and soy cheese.  I found a recipe for pizza crust that uses ground cauliflower, eggs, and cheese.  I will have to try this sometime because I love pizza.  I love the idea of pizza.  It's a food that can contain everything you need in one dish and still tastes amazing.