Gurus & Diets

Gurus & DietsCows & Flowers

I’ve always loved modern gurus. You know the kind I’m talking about, the ones that leap & bound around the stage, exhorting us to be the best we can be. No! We can be even better than that! These days we sometimes call them life coaches. You can take courses on how to be a life coach so there are life coach coaching gurus to follow now. I’m guessing most graduates of such courses do a good job but when I spend my hard earned money, I want to see a superstar in action. I want to be entertained, motivated, exhorted to the max. There are gurus like this in every field. Promising athletic levels of fitness, bodybuilder musculature, huge wealth through investment & real estate schemes, all of which will make us rich beyond our imagination. And, of course, there are the gurus of diet.

While I am still entertained by such figures, & I continue to listen & learn from them, I’m aware that my initial enthusiasm wanes back to normal after about 3 days. Since most of us who listen to these highly motivating people are not slim & fit millionaires, I’m guessing that decline in enthusiasm happens for most people. I’m disappointed with myself when that happens, of course. I know it’s not the gurus fault, it’s mine. I didn’t do it right. I didn’t follow the rules. I didn’t step up. I’m not suggesting that it doesn’t work for some people, it certainly does. The testimonials are there to prove it. Over the long haul though, it just doesn’t seem to work for me.

This seems particularly apt when it comes to diet. Weight loss feels like it should be more of a leisurely walking marathon. Perhaps with a little jog here & there. For me, it’s certainly not an explosive, short, sharp sprint to the finish. It’s difficult to maintain such a high level of intensity all the way down to our goal weight. There is nothing wrong with an occasional sprint. But for most of us, most of the time, we need a strategy that allows us to succeed at a slower pace. One that allows us to still feel good while the finish line is out of reach. A system that, somehow, hangs in there when we’re just not feeling that super-high level of motivation. A lifestyle that doesn’t demand huge sacrifice each & every day.

We could really use an approach that is more suited to that pace of living. Not one aligned with wishful thinking. We need an approach that is flexible enough to match the realities of actually living life.

Now that’s all starting to sound quietly amazing, restful even. Despite the low key, I’m almost a believer already. And that’s without all the motivational theatrics!

But I wonder if my scale will agree with me when I return from vacation! LOL

Bread Depresses Me!

Bread Depresses Me!Nova Scotia Lobster

I still don’t know if this is real or imagined but bread definitely does something to my mood. I keep coming back to this because it’s the one thing I haven’t figured out how to integrate into my dietary regimen. Yet! I’m sure there’s a solution out there, maybe an old strain of the wheat grain will work for me. Or an alternate grain, but I haven’t bothered to chase it down yet.

Meantime, I’m faced with the fact that I pay a price for eating bread. I pay with reduced impulse control. I pay on the scale. And I pay by feeling just a little blue afterwards. And often this persists through to the following morning. After eating bread, I am tempted by other treats that, typically, don’t cross my mind. I try to buy a bar of dark chocolate in anticipation of the loss of control but even that doesn’t provide sufficient resistance sometimes. Most interestingly, I tend to have feelings of light despair, uneasy anxiety, or perhaps it’s just a hint of melancholia. None of these feelings are normal for me. Circumstances don’t change but, after eating bread, I do. It’s possible that the other items I eat, because of the lack of impulse control, are contributing but I think I’ve narrowed it down to bread.

So why do you eat it then, you idiot!

Well sometimes you just do, don’t you! The past week vacationing in Nova Scotia has been wonderful. And one of the great things about being in Nova Scotia is the wide availability of seafood, particularly lobster. Once considered nothing more than a sea bug, an ocean cockroach, it’s now a luxury dining item. Because of demand, it’s not cheap here either. But it’s a lot cheaper than back home so I’m indulging! Anything you can imagine is done with lobster here. And it’s available everywhere. Forget gourmet restaurants, you can get lobster from diners & food trucks in Nova Scotia! Sure you can eat just lobster but you can also have lobster salad, lobster Cesar salad, lobster cakes, lobster club sandwiches, even lobster mac & cheese. And a big favourite with the tourists is the lobster roll. It’s exactly what you’d imagine … a big roll of bread, stuffed to overflowing, with lobster meat. I just knew I’d have to have one. And I did. Yesterday.

So today, I’m just a little off as I write. I’m looking forward to eating far less today. And definitely no bread. I hope I didn’t do too much damage & that my scale will forgive me when I step aboard.

PS … I have to add that this is a fantastic place for a holiday. It’s just ridiculously beautiful, the air is clean, the beaches are glorious. The people are great & the food is to die for. I warn you though, don’t think you’ll accomplish all you set out to do. Maps & the internet do not provide insight into all the distractions you’ll face along the way. Everything takes longer, way longer, than you imagine because it’s impossible to resist the impulse to follow one more sign, to a place with some unpronounceable name. And then you’ll find yourself sitting on a beach, in a deserted cove, that you can call your own for an hour or two. It’s magical. I highly recommend a visit.

And yes, the lobster roll was worth the pain! 🙂

Dieting on Vacation

Dieting on Vacation

It’s impossible, right? The jury is out for me on that question, just for the moment. But I’m cautiously optimistic that I’m not doing too much damage. I doubt I’m getting off scot-free but if a diet cannot accommodate such things, what use is it for living an enjoyable life? While I am committed to enjoying my vacation to the fullest, a very interesting thing happened yesterday … I left food on my plate!

I genuinely can not remember the last time that happened. I’ve been eating reasonably well for the past month & a half, could it be that my ability to recognize satiety is returning? Or was it just guilt because I ate half the slab of fish that my dining companion didn’t want to eat!?! Hey, it was all locally caught, & I’m here for that local experience, what can I say!

Regardless, I actually left some food on my plate. While I can still clearly hear my Ma’s adminitions to “clean your plate”, advice I’ve unfortunately followed since childhood, I was just a little smug getting up to leave. 😃

I might try that again sometime. Even if it’s just one bite!

Oops! I Ate This …

Oops! I Ate This …

I’m on the road & I’m suffering withdrawal. From my bathroom scale! It’s like I need that added feedback loop to guide me. While I’m only logging weight once a month, I like the daily feedback.

But that’s probably just an excuse to eat all the wrong things for a bit! Lunch was that breakfast bowl in the pic. I attacked it with such gusto that I’d eaten half of it before I realized I should have taken a pic. I’ll get it right next time. Maybe!

The challenge with these little excursions into the danger zone is managing the recovery. There’s nothing wrong with stepping out every now & then. So long as I get back to behaving pretty promptly. String a few bad choices together & I might be in trouble.

And I won’t know how much trouble … ’til I get back to my scale.

Wish me luck!

PS … Phone post, excuse any formatting errors!

Why Do I Eat Cheesecake?

Why Do I Eat Cheesecake?Cheesecakes

Because my daughter makes the best cheesecake. And I mean the best cheesecake. She reduces the sugar content in her recipe, just to appease me. But then she adds white chocolate chips (those little blobs of synthetic whiteness are probably about 90% sugar!) & the base is made from those very famous cookies. You know the ones, the two dark biscuits with that creamy white center. Some folk like to dunk them in milk. I don’t want to say the name in case I trigger a snack-attack for anyone!

Anyhoo, these single-serve (hah!) cheesecakes are to die for. And when my daughter makes ’em … I eat ’em!

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to resist, I decided, well before the olfactory symphony came wafting from the kitchen, to limit myself to just two. I had been eating really well prior to this latest round of baking. I was at a point where I was losing weight gradually. I was not feeling hungry. I was enjoying a designer binge here & there. The very occasional intermittent fast, mostly just skipping breakfast & lunch, was easy. Everything was puttering along beautifully. And then came the cheesecakes. I didn’t have just two, I had three. What can I say, you can barely pack three into a bowl but they look so nice fighting for space there. Naturally, I poured about half a cup of heavy cream over them. Maybe a little more than that. But it’s only to blunt the insulin response, you know!

That was three days ago. And it’s only today that I’m getting back to feeling as safe & as well as I know I can feel on my new diet. During that time, I had to cram a bunch of safe starch (potatoes!) into my face. Along with cream-covered fruit & nut desserts. Anything to avoid the potential of eating something worse. Needless to say, the scale doesn’t hide the truth from me.

On the bright side, though, I am developing some really good strategies for avoiding falling off the dietary cliff. You know, like the times when you have just one cookie. Followed by the rest of the pack. And then you’re suddenly calling for pizza delivery. And yes, please, I’ll take the two bonus one-liter bottles of pop for a dollar! We need strategies for handling such urges & mine seem to be working well at the moment.

In real life, there will always be those times when we will consciously, deliberately, eat something not quite right for us. And if that’s the case, we need to know how to survive those occasions.

So why did I really eat the cheesecake?

While I really love my daughter’s cheesecake … I love my daughter even more!