When the pandemic hit, I started a diet. I had gotten uncomfortable not just with my weight – but how I felt overall. Since I worked at a school, I was able to be at home and concentrate more on my health. I chose The DASH Diet – which is Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The reason I chose this diet is because I had also had some high blood pressure and figured it would help me with both the blood pressure and the extra weight I had been putting on for years.
The DASH Diet is a very healthy diet – low carbs, high protein, cuts in sugar, increase fluid intake, increase in fiber, etc. I wanted to stop feeling so bloated and uncomfortable all the time. So I did the shopping and studied the sample menus and went for it.
Most all people that talk about diets tell you they are never hungry because they are getting more than enough food since they are exchanging their burger for a huge salad and a tiny piece of fish. I am here to tell you that THEY ARE ALL LIARS! I about died, I was so hungry! It was terrible!
The big problem came down to the fact that I am a carbohydrate sugar junkie. My favorite food group is cookies. So going from my consumption of chips, cookies, and breads to healthy food was agonizing. It maybe was enough food to fill me up physically, but the hardest part was the psychological hunger. The cravings were intense. I think I read a whole 7-book series and drank tons of approved beverages just to get me through the cravings. The reading allowed me to “go somewhere else” in my mind, and the beverages helped fill me up a little. It was intense.
I weighed myself every day and luckily saw immediate results just from losing water weight. I wasn’t as bloated. That helped to keep me going. I found that not having the refined sugar helped me taste natural sugars in foods. And eventually my body adjusted to the change in my diet and it wasn’t as hard. I do admit that I did not follow the diet as much as I should have. I tweaked it here and there, never really having as many vegetables as they recommended. But I lost weight. I lost a total of 12 pounds. I felt really good, my clothes fit better, my double chin wasn’t as bad, I didn’t feel bloated. It was great!
And then I had to go back to work and I started eating some sugary treats now and then. I was tired after work and didn’t want to cook, so ended up eating easy stuff – which were not necessarily good for me. I still weighed myself every day and it helped me maintain for awhile. I was up and down about 3 pounds. Over time though, it has been more up than down. Now I find myself bloated and uncomfortable again, and still addicted to sugar. I have gained back half of the weight I had lost. It is discouraging.
I know exactly what I need to do to lose the weight – I just don’t want to do it. And that has been the hardest part for me – the realization that I don’t want to do what it takes to feel good again. It was difficult then, and will be difficult again – and it stresses me out to think about it. I don’t want to! No, you can’t make me! Inside I feel like a toddler who refuses to do the things that as an adult I know are the right things to do.
So with the encouragement of having a Barnes and Noble gift card, I ordered a book online called “The Dirty Lazy Keto 5-Ingredient Cookbook.” I need something that is easy. I need something that does not take a lot of time and effort. And it has to be low in carbs which I know the Keto Diet is more protein based. I literally just got it in the mail today and so far it looks pretty good. I sure hope it is. My diet of late has been Christmas cookies and eggnog. I might have some chips and a soda while I look through the book and make my shopping list. Gotta start somewhere.
amylenore 