Thank you for the detailed answer. I have been cooking my food, mostly because I don't trust the food supply. It's harder to get large cuts of meat from farmers here because I have no way to store large quantities. When I move into a house again (currently renting a room from a wonderful lady who is trying to save her home) and can set up a chest freezer I will do what some of the guys in here have been doing and getting big cuts.

I've cut out all vegetables entirely but have been using up what is left of my spices, taking care not to use anything that had sugar on the label or things I don't recognize. So far it's going pretty well. The "sickness" seems to have passed, but one thing that I have had some trouble giving up is a little bit of cream in my decaf. I think it's interfering with weight loss, but I can't say for sure if it's just my age and metabolism at this point\the fact that I went back to a terrible lifestyle for so long or if it is genuinely the couple tablespoons of cream a day. The scale hasn't really moved in the last two weeks.

Still, I am feeling better, so I'm sticking with it. I think vegetables are too easy to overeat. I don't respond very well to sugars in any form.

Thanks for the reply!