I want to lose some weight – and feel healthier. The reality is that when I eat poorly, I get bloated and physically feel uncomfortable – but continue to eat the foods that I really enjoy and then wonder why I don’t feel better – and why the scale has been going up, instead of down. Like a lot of people, I want to reach a goal, but don’t want to change my behavior to get there. And it sucks!
One of my goals this year is to eat healthier – and in doing so, hopefully lose some weight. I am lazy when it comes to investigating diets. I don’t read all the books. I don’t care about the science. Just tell me what kinds of foods I can eat and I will do it if it looks like I can manage doing it. I also put diets together, so that I get “the best” out of all of them. But apparently that does not work. Just because one diet allows you to eat lots of fat, doesn’t mean you should in another. I want the good parts of all the diets so I can say I am dieting and working on my health – but still being able to eat most of the foods I still want to eat.
I tried this recently. I attempted to go on a Keto diet without really knowing anything about it. I just found some recipes and ideas online and started eating. But then I thought I should add lots of fruits and vegetables to it – you know – because they are healthy. I was keeping track of my food intake in my head, forgetting that I was eating candy at work because somehow that didn’t count. And surely these rice cakes are good for me. I ate celery with lots of dip. And apples with peanut butter – because you know – protein.
I weigh myself every day and I was sure I would see some weight loss. Instead my weight went up! I was so upset – I mean, c’mon! I ate celery!! Surely celery would make me lose weight! So I tweaked it a little more, and I still didn’t lose anything – and still felt bloated. I decided that this “combine all the diets” was not working and that I needed to really take control and just do ONE diet and stick with it.
Today I started the DASH diet – again. DASH stands for “Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension”. I had used this diet when the pandemic started and was able to lose 12 pounds, which was a lot for me. It is a diet that helps reduce cravings for sugar and carbs. Since I am a sugar addict, this diet is challenging for me, but I know it works. The worst part is getting through the first two weeks, because you are only allowed lean meats and proteins, fat-reduced cheeses, “light” dairy products, sugar-free jello, and LOTS of vegetables. I don’t like vegetables much so that part sucks. Oh, and just like every other diet, I am supposed to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day – which means I will be peeing all day and all night long.
I am just a few hours into the diet and am already dying. I had scrambled eggs with mushrooms along with some diet cranberry juice for breakfast. For a snack I had light cheese and a handful of nuts (who really eats just a handful of nuts at a time?). I already ate my sugar-free jello before eating lunch. I feel agitated and am craving cake.
Cravings are awful – but there is something good about them. When I have cravings, I find things to occupy my time – which means I am getting more done around the house. Today I am cleaning my room and working on some craft projects that I have wanted to do for awhile, but couldn’t because I was too busy bingeing on Netflix. Right now though, I am going to go fix something healthy for lunch. Maybe I will have some celery.
amylenore 