Food is my pleasure and downfall

I've not had much to write about until today. Life has been vanilla. So frickin vanilla. Sunday was completely vanilla, way more than I expected. And of course I started a new diet that day. Plus I was lucky enough to manage food at all when most restaurants batter and fry everything. Yet we wonder why this country has obesity problems.

Speaking of diets, I restarted Atkins. Last summer I was doing a modified version of stages 3 and 4. Moderate starch carb intake with lots of fresh foods. Since then, I've not been doing so well. At one point this summer, I was 40 pounds heavier than I was last summer. Scary stuff. It happened gradually and I never got control of it. I had a severe wake up call when none of my summer clothes fit. I haven't put near as much effort into weight loss as I should have since then.

One of my fav foods. Rice cake, nutella, peanut butter.
Heaven that tempts me so bad, lol!!!
Though I use WAY more nutella and peanut butter! :-P

Why? Well, I like food. I like starch carbs and sugars. I was convincing myself that I was do everything in moderation when obviously I was far from it. When I would acknowledge the weight gain, I would go between beating up myself to thinking, "I want to eat these foods. I won't let it get any more out of control. The weight has stabilized here. I don't want to diet and give up everything I enjoy eating. And if they love me, they'll love me regardless if I'm at this weight or if I'm thinner."

There is some truth to all of that. But I was not eating healthy. I can spin it however I like but I wasn't. My body has a difficult time processing starch carbs; it always has. I have to be extremely active (as in several hours of cardio/exercise per day) to handle a normal range of starch carbs. And my body is no longer up for that challenge. I've been denying that very idea for years. More years than I'd like to admit.

The one great thing about the Atkins diet is that it keeps me far more mindful of using fresh ingredients, which is actually a big deal for my health. I have an allergy to soy that has progressed to extremes as well as a gluten-intolerance. Prepackaged and processed foods won't cut it now or ever again. Eating out is going to be a pain in the ass but hopefully still manageable.

I've been good this whole week keeping to the Induction stage...except for coffee. I like coffee too much. And I love creamers and splenda. Sir can attest to how much of a frickin coffee fiend I am, haha!! Someone is liable to get stabbed if I don't get coffee, and considering I'm close to that by not having all the sugary carbs I want, I get to keep my coffee. But for the rest, I'm really on top of everything. I've already lost 5-6 pounds and I feel INCREDIBLE. Yeah, I know. It means my body likes being fed this way better.

One thing Sir really admires about me, once I get an idea and want to pursue it, I make it happen. Typically immediately, I'm all over it. I decided I was going to get back to eating healthy and I started that day. Hopefully I can continue with it and stick to eating better overall. I do love all the fatty meat I can eat so I guess that kind of makes up for lack of sugar cabs. And once I do lose the weight, then I can splurge every now and then.

I do have legitimate fun things to talk about but this post has taken on a life of its own, heh. So I'll tell you about all the nifty planning that Lisa and I have been doing for our birthdays next time. Our bdays are only a few weeks apart and we're planning an incredibly fun getaway for us. :-D