Some Diet Changes and a Little of My Weight Story

Oh my, I know I said probably like 3 weeks ago I was going to post about our decision to change our diet….lets see if I can finally get it posted today lol.

First off, this change is not based on weightloss. Yes, hubby and I do both want to lose a bit of weight, I want to lose about 20lbs and he I think wants to lose about twice that. I want to lose a bit of weight(as I said in my goals for this year), but I like my curves now, it took me a long time to accept my body as it is and now that I have I actually have no desire to be skinny again. I just want to lose enough so the clothes I have fit me better, and so I feel a little better. I feel good, but there’s never anything wrong with wanting to make yourself feel better, as long as it’s YOUR choice and you’re not doing it because someone else says you should. This is MY choice.

Like I said, this diet change is not based on weightloss, we do hope to lose a little, but it’s not the reason we decided to make these changes. We are making these changes for overall health, and already I’m seeing a difference. The change I’m seeing isn’t even in weight, my weight has bounced up and down within about 3lbs, hubby’s has done the same within about 5 or 6lbs, so really nothing there and I’m not surprised because I don’t get any exercise at all in Winter. But, we’re seeing a difference in how we feel. In the 3 weeks since we changed our diet neither of us has had heartburn or acid reflux even once(was a several night a week thing), we haven’t felt as tired all day as usual, my skin is doing better than it has in years, we’ve had way less headaches(I was having a migraine a week, now for 3 weeks I’ve only had a couple of small shortlived headaches) and a biggie for me is my stomach issues have been soooo much better. I’ve been lactose intolerant since I was a baby and I have had other stomach issues since I was in High School, which I’m sure has been the biggest contributor to my social anxiety. While my stomach aches aren’t gone, they have been wayyy fewer and far between than I can ever remember. I’m starting to wonder if my problem wasn’t lactose intolerance as I thought my whole life but actually a gluten intolerance, I’m having almost NO gluten but I’m still having quite a bit of dairy and the dairy isn’t bothering me!

So, what is the change? Well, we have cut out sugar and carbs. No: bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, sugar. This decision came about after watching a documentary a couple of weeks ago that one of hubby’s co-workers was telling him about. The documentary is called Fat Head (we found the full movie on You Tube if you want to watch it). Now, if you’re not open minded and if you don’t believe that carbs are what’s killing us, then this documentary and this post are not for you because even with evidence you probably can’t be convinced(I’m not here to try and convince anyone, we’re all adults and can make decisions for ourselves). For us there really was no convincing, some of it is stuff we’ve talked about for years and already believed, but it’s easy to be blinded when everyone and everything out there is trying to convince you that counting calories and eating low fat is not only the way to go, but the only way to go.

A lot of what they had to say in this documentary we didn’t need convincing of because we knew from our own experience it to be true. Both hubby and I have been overweight since after my pregnancy of our first child, that was 14 years ago. I have tried so many different things to lose weight, so many I won’t even begin to name them. Some I would actually lose 10 to 20lbs, but then that would be it, my weight wouldn’t budge from that and then it would come right back in no time. And as much as I hate “working out”, at one time I did it religiously 5 times a week for 4 months plus trying to watch what I ate and drink more water. In 4 months not only did I not lose a single pound, but I didn’t lose even a fraction of an inch either.

My husband usually won’t even try a diet with me, but there was one he did. About 8 years ago we cut out all carbs. We stopped eating sugar, bread, rice, pasta and potatoes. Our diet consisted of meat, veggies, dairy and fruit. We didn’t exercise other than the occasional walk and each of us worked 8 to 10 hour shifts on our feet. Guess what happened? We both lost weight, not just 10 to 20 lbs. I don’t remember exactly how much we lost(sorry, I have a bad memory and it was like 8 years ago LOL), but I went from a size 16 down to a 12, I could even wear a 10 in some things. I felt AMAZING! I had way more energy, my depression was probably the easiest it has been to handle in all the years since it started with my first pregnancy, my skin was not as bad as usual, overall I just felt fantastic.

It’s that feeling I want again. I don’t care if I don’t get down to a 10 or 12 again, to be a straight 16 and have all my 16’s and maybe some of my 14’s fit me really well is perfectly fine with me. But I want to feel good, that’s the part I’m looking for. I have so many things I want to do and my kids are getting older and needing me less, I need to feel good to do all the things I want to do.

So there, that’s my big diet change, and so far I am finding so many yummy ways of making things and new recipes that I’m not missing the carbs and sugar at all!!

If you have any questions about our changes feel free to ask! I won’t debate what diets are better and all that, but if anyone has questions or wants to know where they can find out more information I’m more than happy to steer you toward what I have found, I’m still learning every day about the benefits of this change.

There, finally got it done….now I have to go make a recipe post for today and maybe get a head start on some posts for this week, I meant to make every day of posts last week and failed badly at that!

 

Jolene