Yesterday marked the beginning of the second week of The 5th Expedition. Last week was a victim of complacency. Sure, I had this weird thing going on with my neck and I had a gym cleanup that included moving (again) all of my tools, workbench et al, but I know me, and a part of me rested a bit too much upon the laurels of The 4th Expedition, despite the efforts not to focus on past success. There's a bit of a false equivalence going on: "I had great success in the last six-weeks, so the next will be successful by default."

CLEARLY, this makes no sense, but, when do emotions make sense?

No, I have to go out there and get it and be ever-vigilant for this kind of thinking.

I'm a little wary of my diet soft drink habit. In the evenings, I've been enjoying a glass or two of Coke Zero, Diet Mountain Dew, Diet Coke, or Diet Coke Caffeine Free. While I had accepted that its influence on my diet is largely neutral with its lack of calories, on an emotional level, it does impact my overall objectives: it has me seeking pleasure-only out of food, a dangerous slope, and incidentally, correlated to my wholesale failure earlier this year.

Then there is caution to be considered on the gut side. Through probiotics, sauerkraut, ACV, and cayenne pepper supplementation, I am promoting good bacteria growth in my digestive system. Yet, my consumption of artificial sweeteners seems to encourage the growth of bacteria that is really good at pulling out energy from fat and overwhelming the system.

A couple of articles:

• Scientific American.com: Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways
• Healthline.com: Do Artificial Sweeteners Harm Your Good Gut Bacteria?

It really comes at no surprise, does it? Never fall prey to a corporation's marketing department, whether the words are diet, low-whatever, fill-in-the-blank-free, or somebody full of sexy sex like Matt Berry's Douglas Reynholm. Food is never just food. Food is a drug; food is a vitamin dispenser. We just can't think of food in terms of pleasure. There's a consequence to our actions. I know we avoid this when we are elbow deep into a bag of Lay's or have that ring of glaze around our mouths as a sticky box is left behind in our ravenous wake.

And sometimes our lack of planning makes the zeal of satisfaction more enticing. I finished up my soybean blends for the next six days—that's 14 mixes worth. The day before, I put together and microwaved eight days worth of broccoli and spinach. And two days ago, I set aside AM and PM vitamins as I take 10 capsules/pills a day. See, I've already invested thought into what I want to achieve and my nutritional approach to get there. I've eliminated any need to think, or more specifically, closed any openings for temptation to slide in and kick me in the ribs. Instead, I react without thinking with speed and intent.

Think about it: if we don't plan, but shop for food after work when we're tired, weak, and really haven't got a clue, how big of a role does nutrition play? Do we think strategically? Or, do we ring out Fat Bastard's clarion call: "GET IN MY BELLY!" Chances are, there's an inverse relationship of the ratio between $ spent and nutrition density. More money for less—when does THAT ever make sense? But, that's the peril of the sugar, fat, and Lord Salt pursuit; I mean, c'mon, I'm pretty sure methheads aren't tearing their faces off from a place of logic.