GOOD-BYE, MY BELOVED . . . CARBS!

"Don't get me wrong; I love carbs, especially anything baked, be it yeast bread, hot biscuits dripping with butter, cake, pie, doughnuts, lasagna, dumplings, etc. HOWEVER, my beloved carbs do not love me back. They make me:  fat, retain water, have higher-than-recommended triglycerides, feel tired and draggy--well, you get the picture."

(See TO DIET OR NOT TO DIET and I WANT TO BE A LOSER, previous posts for background on this topic.)

Like I've written in the other dieting posts, I've been on all types of diets over the years.  After eating low carb this time, however, I want to go on record that I NEVER PLAN TO GO BACK TO EATING LOTS OF CARBS AGAIN!  I am simply feeling so much better now, and it is not worth it to feel awful all the time!  I've lost 20 pounds and 30 inches with a long way to go, but I'm pleased. 

Was it easy?  In a word, NO.  The hardest part was just making up my mind to say good-bye to more than 30 or 35 grams of carbs per day.  Really, in my case it is an addiction to carbs, notably sugar.  Staying far away from sugar is the best road for me to follow.  All carbs (starches, too) turn into sugar during digestion.  Then we have that insulin thingy to contend with, where the body stores fat instead of shedding it.

I was on the Atkins diet 25 years ago when it was controversial and considered downright unhealthy in some quarters ("What??  You eat bacon and eggs for a snack?").  I lost over 50 pounds, but gained it back when I resumed eating those carbs. 

TO DIET OR NOT TO DIET . . .

"I have probably lost enough weight in my life to represent a grown, muscle-bound man walking around out there somewhere."

 I warn you at the outset of this post that I am going to write about yet another diet journey--mine.  I will get rather personal, detailing my yo-yo weight loss over the years, gaining it back, declaring that I would NEVER gain weight back again, gaining weight back . . . and now:  I MEAN IT THIS TIME.  And of course, there's that verse in Scripture:  "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God"  (I Corinthians 10:31 NIV).  As a Christian, I simply cannot reconcile being overweight with glorifying God, especially when being overweight is from eating incorrectly, not from a different health problem itself.

I have tried all sorts of diets, too--but I won't mention those failures here, because those diet clubs, systems, special foods, etc., were not at fault--I WAS.  After all, nobody held me down, tied my hands behind my back, and force-fed me, did they?  Nope.  The one thing I can totally control in my life, that of choosing what food to put into my mouth, I didn't control at all.  No excuses.  Not a leg to stand on.  No reasons that are valid.