I decided I need to lose five pounds before I face the moment of truth when I renew my license at the end of this month. Plus my skirts are getting too tight.
Ever since I moved past my teenage obsession with weight and what I now realize was bulimia, I've felt nervous about diets. This worked fine during the baby years, when I had no trouble keeping the weight off and struggled to gain weight during my pregnancies. But then I hit the fabulous 40s and didn't have more babies and took lots of inhaled steroids.
Not good.
I am not good at structure and discipline. I mean, I can come up with elaborate schemes of walking so many minutes a day and eating careful nutritious portions 6 times a day and treating myself to one dessert a week. This always lasts about three days and then I get hungry and in a hurry and it all gets tossed to the winds.
My lovely neighbor "Miss Anita" stopped by the other day. She has lost a lot of weight and reassured me that no, she's not sick, but she really wanted to do this and now she's at her goal weight.
So we talked about weight loss, and getting over the ethical hurdle of actually spending money on weight-loss products [how crazy this must seem to a Haitian], and how to keep it off.
She said the basic tenet of many diets is omitting white flour and white sugar.
This seemed like a simple-enough formula that I could actually follow it. I decided to try it for a week. And really, I don't eat that much of either flour or sugar anyway, I reassured myself. I mean, I don't eat lots of desserts and I quit putting sugar in my tea a long time ago. I never drink pop or bottled drinks.
Wrong, shockingly wrong.
At the end of the second day I am craving sweets and baked things so badly I am getting obsessive. That lovely carrot cake from Sunday dinner, the whoopie pies I made for the boys, the dish of caramels I found when I defrosted the freezer--all of them constantly calling my name.
My normal meal-diet isn't different--whole wheat bagel and cream cheese for breakfast, haystacks for supper, rice and stir-fry yesterday. I don't split hairs about a bit of flour or sugar in meatballs, for instance.
But apparently I've been mindlessly nibbling on sweets and crackery snacks and never realized how much of a sugar-rush I was getting from them.
So I am sitting here with a packet of rye crackers beside me, unsuccessful at convincing myself they taste like those wonderful little square cheesy crackers, and it doesn't help when Jenny looks at them and says:
Quote of the Day:
"It looks like dog food."
Go to the store right now and buy yourself some sugar free chocolate. Let yourself have one a day or two! If you can find Dove's sugar free product they will just make you smile.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the world of ADD dieters. It's all connected, you know, or disconnected, in this case.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes on following your diet! Two and a half years ago I found out I was pre-diabetic. I didn't want to go on insulin if I didn't have to, so changed my diet. I cut out all sugar and flour (not just the white). Now if you think that isn't challenging, just try it! I do eat fresh fruit, so when I'd get my cravings for something sweet, I'd eat some fruit. The cravings actually proved how much I was addicted to sugar. It's not so much the fat a person needs to watch, but the carbs. And yes, I lost weight. Lost 50 pounds in the first year. :-) The next 15 pounds pounds have come off much more gradually. I was at a stand-still for quite awhile, but glad to see the scales inch down a bit more recently.
ReplyDeleteHope you have success at weight loss, and feel better while doing so.
I was on a no sugar/no flour diet for a year. It works. The longer you go without....the less you crave it.
ReplyDeleteMy slogan is..."if it tastes good,spit it out." (=
Best wishes to ya.
Go for it! And it's true--the longer without, the easier. And also, sweet stuff almost starts tasting too sickly sweet after you go without and get used to it. Also the fresh fruit is a good thing, too.
ReplyDeleteIf you read the "Hey Fat Boy!" post on my blog you will know what I have done since November. I lost 25 pounds. I agree with those who say after you go through the adjustment in your diet, you realize how sweet the things were that you had been eating. Keep at it, you can do it!
ReplyDeleteI agree with what others have said. I went on a Paleo eating plan a few months ago (meats, veggies, nuts, seeds, a few fruits) and the first few days were tough - lots of cravings for bread, sweets, etc. But that wore off quickly and now I can really taste how icky-sweet things are if I have anything even a little bit sweet. I made some coconut-milk tapioca pudding that had 1/4 cup of sugar in the entire recipe and it tasted WAY too sweet. Next time I'm going to sub a mashed banana and see how that goes.
ReplyDelete