I could not tell you how many times that I have
started on a diet. However, I can tell
you how many times I had real success….twice.
Once when I was in high school I lost 30 pounds in 3 months. I ate a hamburger patty for breakfast (my
mother was concerned that I was not getting enough protein so she faithfully
fried that hamburger for me every morning), for lunch I ate whatever was on the
plate lunch menu at school. At that time
we had meat, veggies, and dessert (no pizzas back then). For supper I alternated between a salad and
yogurt. Of course when you’re 16 it
doesn’t take quite as much effort to take off a few pounds. The second time was the year I would turn 50
in November. I started on January 1 and my
original goal was to lose 50 pounds before my birthday. I surpassed my goal and went on to lose 70
pounds in about 15 months. I followed a
plan that was your basic food pyramid with more grains, which I rarely got all
down, small portions of meat, lots of veggies, and dairy. Along with the eating plan I did small hand
weights 2-3 times per week and started walking….miles and miles and miles. At first 1 mile was difficult on a trail at
the park which had a couple of decent hills.
Little by little I would add a mile and got to where I could go 4 miles
in under an hour. I was mowing my mother’s
yard and at times ours also. Randy was
working in Glasgow at that time so I had more time to myself. I’m not sure that I would have dedicated that
much time to walking if he had been here at home waiting for me.
I can honestly say that not a week has gone by
since I lost that weight that I haven’t tried
to be careful with what I ate. But
without all of the walking I’ve managed to put back on a good portion of what I
lost. I was not able to maintain that
level of exercise even though I purchased an expensive treadmill that doesn’t
trip up me up like some of the cheaper ones did. I’ve also had a recumbent bike that I rode
for a while, but I just never could keep at it.
We were going to the cabin for Memorial Day and I
was looking at Amazon to find some books that I might like to read while were
there. I ran across a new book….The Big Fat Surprise. I read lots of the reviews on this book and
found that it was not a diet book so to speak, but it was the science behind
why the low-fat diet approach, which we’ve all bought into, doesn’t work and
low carb does work. I went to the
website http://www.thebigfatsurprise.com/ and began reading some reviews. I read one by Dr. Michael Eades and found
that he had written a book, Protein
Power, which agreed that the right kind of fat was not a bad thing. I purchased that book to read on my Kindle
because I couldn’t wait for a copy to be delivered and they didn’t have it here
in town at Barnes & Noble. I’m
afraid that I did a lot of skimming because all I really wanted to know was
what I could eat on this diet. I must go
back and reread it!
Since it was a holiday weekend I decided that I
wouldn’t worry about the diet until Tuesday when we got home, so I enjoyed
Klondike bars, Hershey’s miniatures and some homemade chocolate chip
cookies. But first thing Tuesday morning
I hit the floor and dove right in.
A low carb diet includes plenty of protein in
average proportions, not unlimited as we were lead to believe with Adkins. Most vegetables are included also. Starchy veggies such as potatoes and corn
should be eaten in very limited proportions.
For me, I might eat ¼ potato or 2 small bites of corn. Plenty of non-starchy veggies, Greek Yogurt is a good way to get dairy in
since most of the carbs are strained out of it.
Fruits do have carbs but in varying amounts. Grapes, raisins and bananas are much higher
in carbs than berries. Nuts & cheese
are good for snacking and adding a little of a higher carb, sweeter, food with
them can make for a delicious snack.
Breakfast hasn’t been hard at all. For most of the 41+ years we’ve been married
I have gotten up and fixed bacon, eggs & toast. I still that do that for my hubby, but I stopped
eating the toast because of the carbs.
Now I eat 1 scrambled egg and 2 slices of bacon plus just a sip of
orange juice to get my multivitamin & potassium down. I don’t know about you, but our breakfasts
and lunches have always been pretty monotonous so having the same thing Mon-Fri
has not been a problem. The weekends are
a little harder because we did vary them with pancakes & waffles and sausage & biscuits. I usually fix sausage to go with my eggs on
the weekends and continue to fix Randy a pancake to have on Sunday
mornings.
My normal
lunch for the past 12 years has pretty much stayed the same….low fat,
artificially sweetened yogurt and a small ham sandwich (either ½ a sandwich, ½ whole
wheat hoagie bun, or a slider bun) with just a touch of Miracle Whip and a diet
coke. Earlier this year I changed over
to Greek yogurt, but I didn’t care for the $1 a day it cost so I bought myself
a yogurt maker and started making my own.
I read a lot about the differences in low fat and whole milk yogurt and
sugar vs. artificial sweeteners. I tried
making it with skim, 2% and whole milk and couldn’t make up my mind until I
stated this diet which I wanted to stick with.
Now I make it with whole milk and I’ve been cutting back on the sugar
each week, hoping to eventually not use any at all. Presently I put 1/8 cup sugar in each batch
so when you spread that out over 7 days, I don’t think it’s too bad. A batch makes approximately 4 cups. I have ½ cup each day blended with 3-4
strawberries. This leaves ½ cup to
inoculate the next batch of yogurt. I’ve
also been eating some hard cheese, a hamburger patty, 1 or 2 hot dogs(which I’m not sure are good
for me so I’m backing off on them if I can find something else), a couple of
slices ham or turkey for more protein. I
take another potassium tablet at lunch. I’ve
also cut out the Diet Coke. I drink
water…lots of water!
I bought an insulated mug at WalMart that keeps
liquids cold 10 hours or hot 4 hours. I
take it with me wherever I go filled with ice and water. When I’m shopping I can leave it in the car
and it’s still cold when I get back. No
more worries with water bottles that have BPAs in them. I keep it filled all day and other than my
coffee in the morning, that’s what I drink. I don’t keep a count, but
I’d say I probably fill it 8 times a day.
I’ll occasionally opt for a Diet Coke if I’m in a restaurant, but that’s very rarely.
Speaking of restaurants, we’ve been eating out
once or twice a week. It’s not too hard
to stay on this diet when eating out….just order a meat entrée and a
salad. I’ve been allowing myself 1 treat day each week. This has been happening on Sundays when we
eat out after church. One week was at
Mariah’s. They have wonderful
rolls. I can usually down 2 or 3 of
them, but I limited myself to 1. I had their
California chicken salad and fresh fruit.
It came with a cinnamon muffin, which I also ate. It was a treat, but then I was right back on
track. This past Sunday we went to
Buckhead and I had their salad that came with fried chicken fingers (breaded..yea!)
and a hard roll. That evening we went to
DQ and got Blizzards (mine was small).
Then back on track the next morning.
Giving myself permission to go off of the diet one meal each week has
really worked well for me. I look
forward to it and know that I can still have some of the things I really enjoy
that aren’t included on the diet. I had
lasagna at Brick & Basil with a breadstick (only problem was that I was
full by the time I finished half of it.
I also had some cake that our daughter, Kristy, baked and our
granddaughter, Kate decorated for us --- Mother’s Day and Father’s Day
combined. Yummy!!
I had a very small piece of
wedding cake when some friends married.
I also ate broccoli, nuts, cheese and meatballs (which are all good on a
low carb diet) at the reception. They
had water with fresh lemon so I drank that instead of the sweet punch. I’m
trying to make mostly good
choices. I read somewhere that you
needed to stay on track 90% of the time, but could go off 10% of the time. Those ratios sound reasonable to me!
Suppers have taken more effort to prepare, trying
to keep mine within my diet but having extras for Randy since he has no problem
with carbohydrates. I always have meat…pork
chops, beef roast, salmon, shrimp scampi, baked chicken, hamburgers, grilled chicken, grilled
streak, etc. I eat a lot of salads….endive
lettuce with tomatoes, onions, cucumber, avocado, cheese, bacon bits. I’ve changed my salad dressing from 1000
Island, which is sweet, to Blue Cheese which is not sweet and has fewer carbs
per serving. The past couple of nights I’ve
given Randy a Sister Shubert Roll. It’s
nice that you bake just 1 or 2 at a time.
It is hard trying to vary the veggies to get a variety. We’ve had squash, green beans, broccoli,
brussell sprouts, asparagus. I was shocked at how many carbs baked beans
had. They will not be on my menu for a
while!
Exercise: I’ve
gone back to my hand weights 2-3 days a week and along with gardening and lawn
mowing I’ve been walking 1 mile on the treadmill or occasionally walking at the
park.
As of today, I have been following the plan for 4
weeks. I can honestly say that I have
never been hungry. After about 4 days I
was bursting with a new found energy and just could not sit still for a few
days. That feeling didn’t last, but I do
have more energy than I had before. I’ve
worked in the garden, mowed the grass, cleaned out closets. My scales weren’t working correctly when I
started, so I don’t have numbers to backup that the plan is working, but my
clothes are fitting better so I’ll take that over numbers any day.
It will be interesting to see how my blood work
turns out this fall. My cholesterol,
HDL, LDL, triglycerides, sugar have all been within normal ranges. My blood pressure has been borderline for a
few years so hopefully it will improve now.
So basically I've cut out or way down on white food....sugar, flour, potatoes, trying to get more veggies. I'm hoping that this is not going to be just a diet, but a permanent way of life for me. If I reach my goal, I'll be able to have a few more days that I get to eat carbs, but it won't be everyday. I think I have to say....I am a CARBOHYDRATE ADDICT and will always have to watch how many carbs I eat.
