On Waisting Away...
I’ve been conspicuously absent from the blog for over a week now and some explanation is in line for why there has been no posting. You see I was tired. Actually, I was drained of all energy due to the insidious nature of The South Beach diet. If you are not familiar with it, let’s just say that the first two weeks are what I imagine the totality of Hell will be like. No sugar, very little carbs. Basically, anything that might make your life worth living…awake…is not allowed.
I don’t think that you realize just how much of our everyday food has some sort of sugar in it. Even canned vegetables have sugar. Avoiding sugar is something tantamount to avoiding oxygen. It almost cannot be done. Trust me.
My wife and I cut short Phase I of the diet by 24 hours. There was only so much chicken and vegetables we could eat without wanting to end it all. I would just be satisfied for something that has taste associated with it from time to time. So Phase II was ushered in this morning complete with its allowance for fruits and some bread products. We can also have milk and other dairy like yogurt again. At this point, it really is the little things.
All in all this diet has been a very good thing for me. Despite my intense hatred of the first two weeks, my eating habits and the way I’m currently looking at food have totally changed. Even my cravings have diminished somewhat. I was never much of a vegetables guy. But when you are basically only allowed to eat them, and meat, you start to get over some of the hang-ups you previously had. I haven’t eating squash or zucchini since I was little and probably refused to eat it after the first bite. I eat them now though. I’ve actually gotten so used to bell peppers that I don't even have to hold my nose before swallowing. I even had eggplant… I’ve confirmed that I will never have another reason to eat eggplant again. I’m actually going to call for its abolition. I figure if you can't bring yourself to eat it on a limited diet, it will never be one of the chosen.
More frightening however, is that I started to look forward to when we could introduce fruit into the diet. Fruit is a particular nemesis. It is a texture thing I guess, but the seeds don’t exactly send me into rapture. Still, I was excited for there introduction into the diet, along with the bread. This morning, as I was eating my cereal of bran, I was introduced to blueberries. It was not a beautiful union, but more of a grudging alliance. We agreed to meet again in the near future and see if we can work out our differences. Next up will be strawberries, of which I do have a little history. We’ve been introduced but never had much of a conversation. I hope we can get to know each other better…that is, if he isn’t totally annoying to me.
It’s hard to argue that all this dieting hasn’t given me results. I don’t feel like I look much different, but the scale tells me that there is 10 pounds less of me than there was two weeks ago. To me, it wasn’t so much about the weight as it was about looking healthy. Since it is pretty hard to look healthy without actually being healthy, well, I was left with no choice. If I was 215 pounds of muscle (even mostly muscle), then I’d still be eating pizza 3 times a day (with a milkshake chaser). As it is, I find myself going to Chik-Fil-A and getting the garden salad…as a treat. My, but the time they are achangin’.
The cool thing is that my wife and I are doing this together. This means that we spend less time in front of the TV and more time preparing meals, or going to the store to hunt down that elusive beast called…”Things We Can Still Eat”. We even went to a grocery store that was one of those places. You know, lot’s of organic stuff. No major brand names. I’d heard of them, but wasn’t sure if they even existed…but apparently they are real, and legal. And apparently I was wrong. If you eat organic you are not required to vote liberal. And I didn’t see one hippie in the entire store. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed by that.
I don’t think that you realize just how much of our everyday food has some sort of sugar in it. Even canned vegetables have sugar. Avoiding sugar is something tantamount to avoiding oxygen. It almost cannot be done. Trust me.
My wife and I cut short Phase I of the diet by 24 hours. There was only so much chicken and vegetables we could eat without wanting to end it all. I would just be satisfied for something that has taste associated with it from time to time. So Phase II was ushered in this morning complete with its allowance for fruits and some bread products. We can also have milk and other dairy like yogurt again. At this point, it really is the little things.
All in all this diet has been a very good thing for me. Despite my intense hatred of the first two weeks, my eating habits and the way I’m currently looking at food have totally changed. Even my cravings have diminished somewhat. I was never much of a vegetables guy. But when you are basically only allowed to eat them, and meat, you start to get over some of the hang-ups you previously had. I haven’t eating squash or zucchini since I was little and probably refused to eat it after the first bite. I eat them now though. I’ve actually gotten so used to bell peppers that I don't even have to hold my nose before swallowing. I even had eggplant… I’ve confirmed that I will never have another reason to eat eggplant again. I’m actually going to call for its abolition. I figure if you can't bring yourself to eat it on a limited diet, it will never be one of the chosen.
More frightening however, is that I started to look forward to when we could introduce fruit into the diet. Fruit is a particular nemesis. It is a texture thing I guess, but the seeds don’t exactly send me into rapture. Still, I was excited for there introduction into the diet, along with the bread. This morning, as I was eating my cereal of bran, I was introduced to blueberries. It was not a beautiful union, but more of a grudging alliance. We agreed to meet again in the near future and see if we can work out our differences. Next up will be strawberries, of which I do have a little history. We’ve been introduced but never had much of a conversation. I hope we can get to know each other better…that is, if he isn’t totally annoying to me.
It’s hard to argue that all this dieting hasn’t given me results. I don’t feel like I look much different, but the scale tells me that there is 10 pounds less of me than there was two weeks ago. To me, it wasn’t so much about the weight as it was about looking healthy. Since it is pretty hard to look healthy without actually being healthy, well, I was left with no choice. If I was 215 pounds of muscle (even mostly muscle), then I’d still be eating pizza 3 times a day (with a milkshake chaser). As it is, I find myself going to Chik-Fil-A and getting the garden salad…as a treat. My, but the time they are achangin’.
The cool thing is that my wife and I are doing this together. This means that we spend less time in front of the TV and more time preparing meals, or going to the store to hunt down that elusive beast called…”Things We Can Still Eat”. We even went to a grocery store that was one of those places. You know, lot’s of organic stuff. No major brand names. I’d heard of them, but wasn’t sure if they even existed…but apparently they are real, and legal. And apparently I was wrong. If you eat organic you are not required to vote liberal. And I didn’t see one hippie in the entire store. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed by that.
posted by Beeley at 11:37 AM
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