Friday, September 20, 2013

a talk with oneself

A few recent posts by bloggers have talked about regain, how the hard part of weight loss is hanging on to the ground you have won.  Some very good sites concentrate on that subject particularly.  I don't think many of us will disagree with the importance of the subject, especially those who have decades behind us of "failure."

It comes down to THIS:  people with metabolic issues can NEVER eat in a manner conventional wisdom considers "normal."  Never.  We never should have eaten like other people in the past, and now that we've taught our bodies how to be thrifty through food restriction, we are front-loaded to regain at the least sign of carelessness.

"Young" dieters -- i mean either chronologically young, or those who never had a weight problem till mid-life, and are essentially having to consider it for the first time -- usually have a vision that, if they can only get back to a "normal" weight, they'll be able to join in the feast like everyone else, just be more moderate this time around.  Nuh-uh.  It doesn't work like that.

My history is pretty typical i think, barring the hypothyroidism; i was a chubby child, but got lean in my teen years and stayed normal in my twenties -- though that's where things started getting screwy.  I got "infected" with the low-fat propaganda in the middle of that decade, and from then on it was a battle to try to "eat right" and exercise and keep my weight where i wanted it.  Of course, i couldn't.  All those plates of low-fat pasta, all those bowls of oatmeal, all the baked potatoes with artificial toppings....  I could cry -- but of course, the tears are actually pretty far from the surface now that i do VLC, which stabilizes emotional behavior.

Through most of adulthood i've never been out of the "overweight" range as defined by BMI.  I almost made it to the lower limit last year, but vacations got the better of me.  Not to mention the failed attempt at reincorporating starches....  :-(  By now, i have no illusions.  It's VLC to the bitter end.

The sooner we have that big talk with ourselves the better!  We have to convince our conscious AND SUBCONSCIOUS minds that we can't go back.  We have to become comfortable with the idea that certain foodstuffs are simply not in the books for us.

I wrote the other day about convenience foods; i think i implied that work-arounds are particularly valuable for newbies in the low-carb world, but let me add here that they need to be "the new treat" for us long-timers as well.  Remember how, as a kid, that special cake or cookie was something you looked forward to on your birthday or during the holiday season, and even then your mom would ration it out to you and not let you make a pig of yourself.  That's us, once again.  But "mom" is now your higher self, as we say in the esoteric world.

For those of us who need to stay away from starches and sugars on an everyday basis, THIS has to be "normal" eating.  We can't let others' definitions of what constitutes a healthy diet seem at all appropriate, even in our imaginations.  If we can convince ourselves that THEY are the ones who are weird, and we are the evolutionarily congruent thinkers, the battle is won.  If our self-talk succeeds in pinning the "toxin" label on everything that actually IS bad for our cells, we've done what is also accomplished by ex-smokers, ex-alcohol-abusers, and ex-addicts.

19 comments:

  1. "For those of us who need to stay away from starches and sugars on an everyday basis, THIS has to be "normal" eating."

    And it is a lifestyle change - not just for one month, two months etc. Lifestyle change can incorporate food, exercise, eating etc.

    But it is a good change and brings many health advantages.

    All the best Jan

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    1. it certainly does. ups and downs of feeling bad after a "forbidden" food disappear, which makes us feel better about ourselves in the long run! definitely worth the trouble!

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  2. Tess, I feel that eating LC is more normal compare to the eating pattern I have to follow. In order to keep my weight where it is now, I absolutely has to avoid snacking and eating more often than 2 times a day. It is what doesn't fit well with what other people do. I found out that there is a way to loose weight if I wish to do it - eating ones a day couple times a week.

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    1. you're one of the few who has figured out what your body wants and needs -- quite an accomplishment!

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    2. Unfortunately, many things I though I've figured out in past just worked for a while then stopped.

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    3. perhaps because tiny nutritional tweaks have to be made to adjust for current repletion state? that's something that has to be done constantly, i'm sure. people with low D status get a boost when they add supplements, then when they get enough it starts messing with their immune response. "operating" the body is like driving a car in the mountains -- you have to keep shifting gears to accommodate the changing terrain. :-) ...oooh, i like that analogy -- i need to use it as a blog-post theme....

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  3. For those of us who need to stay away from starches and sugars on an everyday basis, THIS has to be "normal" eating. We can't let others' definitions of what constitutes a healthy diet seem at all appropriate, even in our imaginations. If we can convince ourselves that THEY are the ones who are weird, and we are the evolutionarily congruent thinkers, the battle is won.

    -> +1. I've always believed that "normal" is a relative term anyways. :)

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    1. absolutely. ...but isn't it a sign of sanity to doubt oneself from time to time? ;-)

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  4. excellent post Tess, pretty much same story, normal childhood teenage weight, at 18 I became a lardass in just a few months. At 19 joined the Marines, (79) they taught me gung ho bust ass way to fitness, worked through my early forties then quit working. Low carb is only way for me to keep away the LA.

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    1. thanks, Dave! my son joined the Corps overweight, and they quickly worked him down to normal weight too -- but he ruined his knees in the process! now, a small farmer with a full-time job on top of it, he stays fit because he works his ass off! :-)

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  5. If our self-talk succeeds in pinning the "toxin" label on everything that actually IS bad for our cells, we've done what is also accomplished by ex-smokers, ex-alcohol-abusers, and ex-addicts.

    Truer words were never spoken. After 9 months of maintaining my 65 lb weight loss, I developed carb creep. Slips such as eating the bun went from a once a month to every other day. The weight came back fast and furious, gaining 10 lbs in 1 week. The most difficult part is trying to discern just what I was thinking. As soon as I put the carbs and wheat into my system
    My body goes on full lockdown, refusing to give up anything that it acquires.

    I am grateful it has been made so plain to me.

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    1. nothing teaches us like our own mistakes. :-( at least, that's the way it's supposed to work!

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  6. Hi Tess! Funny, I just have finally accepted that chocolate is that way for me; a trigger food that even a morsel of...and I lose my control. Maybe not lose it 100%, but more than I care to give up.

    Great post!

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    1. thanks, Gwen! yeah, when i have anything sugary or starchy, i KNOW i'm going to be tempted to do it again so i'm on my guard!

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  7. Yup--you can't treat the diet like an aspirin.

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  8. "I got infected with the low fat propoganda.." Me, too! My next blog post is about being afraid of fat. Weight maintenance is tricky to navigate, but easier with a higher quality fat, grain free, processed sugar free.

    Glad there are others out there who are blogging about this...

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  9. I love this post! This is what I tell myself now over and over and its working to keep me on plan:

    "We have to become comfortable with the idea that certain foodstuffs are simply not in the books for us."

    The maternal side of my family is full of super atheletic people who eat WHATEVER and maintain god like physiques. Clearly I didn't get that gene. I have to keep reminding myself that I cannot eat like them even though I was raised to. I just can't eat like that and meet my goals.

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