I started reading. I'm a avid researcher when I'm interested in a topic and so a trip to the library was a coming! At first I was just looking for basic low cal foods and ways to hopefully make them taste good. We ate lots of expensive dishes during this bit of time. I picked up veggies and recipe ingredients based on what recipes sounded good to me. Not giving a thought to whether that vegetable or ingredient was at it's best price or even flavor at the time. I did lose a few more pounds during this time period-which thankfully did not last very long. We would have been in the poor house for sure.
I remembered that I have a copy of Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral" so I started reading through it again. I love that book of hers, not many of her others have appealed to me but this is a favorite. I went to the library and picked up Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma". When I read this book previously I had enjoyed it but when I picked it up this time something clicked in my sugar craving little mind. Maybe this makes sense? Possibly? Hopefully? I started reading ALOT on eating non processed foods. Some of it scared the crud-ola out of me. I had no clue what I had been poking down my throat and the throats of my kiddos all these years.
When you really start learning about your food, where it comes from and what it is made from is a learning experience. Corn and soy products go into just about everything we eat. I read that when Coke first started using high fructose corn syrup in its beverages that it's cost went down. Did they lower prices? No, they went to unlimited refills at restaurants and bigger sizes on the bottles. High fructose corn syrup makes your body crave more sugars. So when I and we filled up on those big gulps it didn't satisfy the body. It just makes you want more. I know people and I'm sure you do also that drink several sodas a day. I was a diet coke nut. I would have however many a day that I wanted. Never gave a thought to it. I mean there was no calories. I was not going to gain more weight from them. Diet coke and sugar free sodas make you crave sugars even more. More on this later.
Learning more about my foods and where they came from has taught me to grow all of my food that I can. We do not have a huge area to grow so we go to local farmer's markets, produce stands, and small area farms in the area. Getting to know the actual people that grow the food we eat and that I feed my family has been a wonderful experience. Simple foods that I never would have imagined could have taste explosions in your mouth have become our mainstays. Eating food that is in season is when it is at it's very best. Prices are better and quality is unbelievable. Imagine that summer tomato that you pick fresh from your yard dripping with tart sweetness that runs down your chin-now think about that tomato you picked up in January from the grocery store..tasty huh?
So far I'm at a size 10/12 down from a tight size 22 jean size. I'm not at my goal weight yet but this is a journey. I am sharing how I did it. Cooking this way is more work. At first I was putting in quite a bit of time doing it. You do get better as you learn though. It takes me no time to throw together dinner or fresh homemade bread. The taste of simple ingredients are amazing. We don't eat out at restaurants and if we do we are very picky eaters. It's just easier and more pleasurable to wait until we get home or are able to choose more wisely. Miss eating for a few hours? Not many people I know are going to be affected by missing a meal.
OK so here is where I'll begin sharing what I've learned and some recipes and tidbits as we go. If I get to preachy..someone just reign me in.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
My Story Part 1
Everyone keeps asking the secret of my husband and I losing weight. This is our story. When we first started out Paul had gone in for his annual health screening from work and his cholesterol levels were up and his triglycerides were elevated. He decided he was going to try and do something about it. He told me this as I lie in bed exhausted from the day. I just kinda shrugged my shoulders and thought "whatever." Over the next few days when I cooked dinners he wouldn't go back for seconds or ask for the gooey desserts that we had both craved. I just kept cooking away and not really thinking a thing about it. About 2 months later I finally saw that he had dropped some pounds. Now I love my husband, always have, always will-and I do not like the thought of any other woman catching his eye. So my little brain wheels got jogged a bit that afternoon.
I work in a medical office and we are always talking about losing weight. Get a group of women together and eventually it will end up there. I had always sorta half way listened because I just didn't think much about it. When Paul and I first married I wasn't really bad overweight and I was very healthy. I had gotten into mountain biking, rafting and hiking so I was in great shape physically. Over the next 2 years however; I had been on a binge of cooking and eating whatever I wanted. I listened as the girls at work discussed ways to lose some weight with half a ear and thought well maybe. Our Dr. we worked for knew we all could be healthier and happier. He offered us an prescription to a "diet pill" if we wanted to join in. He said for us to research it and think about it and he would do the same and then we would all decide together.
The next week I decided I was in! Give me something to get me energized and help with appetite. I got my prescription and started taking those little hopeful miracles.Now I do NOT advocate anyone using any drugs as a weight loss cure all-THEY DO NOT WORK FOR THAT! (Just thought I would make sure to throw that in.) Whoohoo! How I loved the energy I suddenly had. I had bounce in my step that I hadn't had in several years. I started cutting back on foods without even thinking about it. I felt good at last. The first 20lbs I needed to lose just dropped right off. I loved what was happening and I was still eating the way I wanted. Anytime I wanted candy or chips I could just have them. I wasn't eating as much so eat up girlie!
I started at a weight of 226. I think I had lost some right before starting weighing because I had been sick around that time, I know my size 22's were snug and they were wearing well when I weighed that first time. I digress; 20lbs off! This was a piece of cake. I had a pill to make it happen, yeah baby!
After I started that next set for 20lbs I actually thought about what I was doing to myself. I knew from hearing from all the people that had tried the prescription pill before me that as soon as they stopped the medication that the weight came back. I knew I had to change some things about the way I eat.
I started looking for healthy, low fat, sugar free and all the buzz words when I cooked and shopped. I knew I could do this, so what if there was no taste? We were still hungry after dinner, but so what? I chopped up veggies and meats and drank diet coke like a Sahara desert survivor. The next 20lbs just came off right before my eyes. I was hungry and cranky but I was getting to my goal. Heck I really thought I was at my goal. I was thinner than previously and still really wasn't having to work very hard at it.
Then I start thinking about the foods I'm eating and the brakes get slammed on. Why go through the trouble of losing this weight just to gain it back? What good is that going to do?
I work in a medical office and we are always talking about losing weight. Get a group of women together and eventually it will end up there. I had always sorta half way listened because I just didn't think much about it. When Paul and I first married I wasn't really bad overweight and I was very healthy. I had gotten into mountain biking, rafting and hiking so I was in great shape physically. Over the next 2 years however; I had been on a binge of cooking and eating whatever I wanted. I listened as the girls at work discussed ways to lose some weight with half a ear and thought well maybe. Our Dr. we worked for knew we all could be healthier and happier. He offered us an prescription to a "diet pill" if we wanted to join in. He said for us to research it and think about it and he would do the same and then we would all decide together.
The next week I decided I was in! Give me something to get me energized and help with appetite. I got my prescription and started taking those little hopeful miracles.Now I do NOT advocate anyone using any drugs as a weight loss cure all-THEY DO NOT WORK FOR THAT! (Just thought I would make sure to throw that in.) Whoohoo! How I loved the energy I suddenly had. I had bounce in my step that I hadn't had in several years. I started cutting back on foods without even thinking about it. I felt good at last. The first 20lbs I needed to lose just dropped right off. I loved what was happening and I was still eating the way I wanted. Anytime I wanted candy or chips I could just have them. I wasn't eating as much so eat up girlie!
I started at a weight of 226. I think I had lost some right before starting weighing because I had been sick around that time, I know my size 22's were snug and they were wearing well when I weighed that first time. I digress; 20lbs off! This was a piece of cake. I had a pill to make it happen, yeah baby!
After I started that next set for 20lbs I actually thought about what I was doing to myself. I knew from hearing from all the people that had tried the prescription pill before me that as soon as they stopped the medication that the weight came back. I knew I had to change some things about the way I eat.
I started looking for healthy, low fat, sugar free and all the buzz words when I cooked and shopped. I knew I could do this, so what if there was no taste? We were still hungry after dinner, but so what? I chopped up veggies and meats and drank diet coke like a Sahara desert survivor. The next 20lbs just came off right before my eyes. I was hungry and cranky but I was getting to my goal. Heck I really thought I was at my goal. I was thinner than previously and still really wasn't having to work very hard at it.
Then I start thinking about the foods I'm eating and the brakes get slammed on. Why go through the trouble of losing this weight just to gain it back? What good is that going to do?
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