In January when I was doing my Mission Fifty plan, one of the areas I found most unaddressed was my diet.

I’ve always tried to eat relatively healthy, but it’s difficult living in modern America with so much food containing a lot of calories, especially sugar. Sugar ain’t just in candy and cookies. They hide it everywhere in processed foods from hot dogs to pasta sauce. There is also a lot of fat in foods where you’re not thinking. Cheese is after all just dairy fat! Plus salt. It’s bad how much salt there is in common canned goods, including canned vegetables like I used to use a lot a camp. The more you learn and more you look at the labels, the more horrified you become. It’s everywhere, even canned tomatoes if you not careful. Even pasta and pasta sauce is pretty darn unhealthy with all the carbohydrates.

To be clear, I have never drunk much soda, eaten much fast food or had candy or cookies at home but it became painfully obvious that there was some serious holes in my eating habits as I turned 40. I not only eat too much but I also eat way too much pasta, along with my love of cheese and dairy. Whey too much carbohydrates with too little fiber — pun intended. The carbohydrates, especially from the white pasta was further aggravating my soreness at times from Lyme Disease and just generally growing older. You can eat a lot of white pasta with pasta sauce, loading up on calories but not be filled up due to the lack of fiber. Walking isn’t fun when you wake up all achy.

At times my blood sugar was all over the map, sometimes leading me to a manic phase where I would have an intense productive periods, other times when I would fall into a deep depressive state, unable to produce much of value. I’m not sure if I’m pre-diabetic, but I certainly was heading that way. Then there was a constipation from all that cheese and pasta, the runs and terrible hangovers from over-consuming alcohol at camp, and general not wonderful health — even if I was burning a lot of calories. Maybe I could get away with in my younger years, but I’m no longer 20 or even thirty.

There were other things that also made me reconsider my diet. For one, the rising price of food. Inflation is painful lately, especially anything from animals that goes moo or oink. Meat in particular has gone up a lot in price, but also pasta, cheese and sauce. Vegetables and rice in contrast have been much more consistent in price over the years. It’s also easier to buy them in bulk which means less plastic garbage to get rid off. I can burn it, but plastic is kind of nasty and recycling is a pain to clean and pay to take the recycle center, assuming that the recycle isn’t just a creative detour to the landfill as it often is.

Even before the year and my plan started, most weeks I was walking more then 5 miles a day, often much more. Most weeks were between 40-50 miles walked. But at the same time, I was looking at photos my face, winter camping, especially with the hoodie on and I was looking chubby especially in my face. Hiking up some of the big hills around was tiresome too. But things got worse. Pushing forty, things were just getting more difficult to do the way I did them in my younger years.

Probably the gateway to my healthier lifestyle was having a fruit basket in my office and eating fruit throughout the day. That did much to stabilize my blood sugar, reduced my extreme cravings for quick carbohydrates when I got home, usually in large bowls of sugar and carbohydrate-rich pasta and red sauce. Next I swapped out pasta for brown rice, which as a lot more fiber and is more filling. Started adding additional healthy things like lentils and beans, which really fill you up quickly with minimal calories. Evey week I make a big bowl of lentils, brown rice, and cooked dried beans of some sort as a base ration for many meals.

The next thing was cutting way back on dairy. I like farming, I like cows and dairy farming. But milk is calorie heavy, and calories become fat if you over-consume them. Cheese is great, in moderation, something I didn’t do in the past. So many two-pound blocks of cheese I eat over the years. Macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, slices of cheese with honey. Washed down with milk of course! I added the ever flexible tofu — pressed and pulverized soy — as a healthier option to the dairy I used to consume so much of. Not because I’m anti-dairy, but I’m pro-health.

I cut back on my meat consumption, and boosted my vegetable intake. Meat is wonderful as a treat, but it can pack in a lot of calories. And it lacks a lot of vitamins for all the fat and calories that it contains. To get healthy fats, I occasionally eat chicken and salmon, in moderation. At first I started with frozen vegetables, but now I’ve been getting more fresh vegetables as it’s often more affordable and the taste is better. Plus greater flexibility for camping, as you can’t keep things frozen. I learned love tomatoes, freshly chopped onions, peppers and even kale. Always looking at new ways to get new green vegetables into my diet — I always have either spinach or kale in one or two meals a day.

Once we get into the growing season, I am excited to be able to get more locally produced produce. And knowing that I like healthy, locally grown food means that when I own my own land I will be able to produce more of my own food. Ravioli and pasta are great, but it’s not like you can grow them out back. They come in paper and plastic garbage, they can’t be composted. In contrast, fruits and vegetables come in minimal to no packaging.

I keep watching Youtube videos and reading about the latest in nutrient science and cooking, to learn about the building blocks of a healthy diet. I don’t get hung up above overly complicated recipes, but I do try to make things are healthy and don’t add a lot of unhealthy things to make them artificially sweet or give them tastes that aren’t natural. And I really enjoy all the new flavors I’m enjoying. Getting away from sugar and processed foods really brings back your sense of taste. Feeling thinner and getting complements all of the time is great too.

It’s a journey and there is more to do. But I like where things are going.