Adventures in Veganism

So, like most women who’ve battled with their weight, I’ve tried many different diet plans.   All that information is swimming around in my brain now, confusing me if I think about it too much.  Is Paleo the way to go (no grains, beans, or dairy)?????  Or the South Beach way (low carb)???  Volumetrics  (lots of watery, fibrous things; few calorie dense things)??? Weight Watchers (anything goes so long as it’s written down in your journal and all “points” have been accounted for)????  It all makes me feel like this:  How about if I just stop eating altogether so I don’t have to worry about it anymore?

Probably the most extreme way of eating that I tried was veganism.  In case you aren't familiar with it, it means eating no animal products at all.  It had the uh…..most humorous effect of all the cuisines I’ve tried.  Warning:  My definition of funny includes potty humor.  I was inspired by Dr. Neal Barnard’s book, Food for Life.  I found it to be a lot of work, lots of chopping of vegetables and cooking.  I only lasted about a month or 2 on that one.  But the positives were that I dropped 10 pounds without even trying, and I had boundless energy in the mornings.  Being more of a night owl, that was really a different experience for me.  I haven’t had so much energy in the morning ever before or since then.  It’s weird that digesting animal products takes so much energy out of you, but it does.

Now, the moment you’ve been waiting for:   The Potty Humor.  (To my husband:  you may want to skip this paragraph)  All that fiber does something to a person, specifically to your gut.  It tends to generate lots of gas.  And poor me, I had 2 jobs where I was up and moving around a lot.  I’ll leave the description there.  So veganism wins the prize for having the most embarrassing effect on me too.  But the bottom line is that I just plain old NEED a real hamburger sometimes (not to mention cheese, ice cream, shrimp, and, and......), so veganism be damned.

Some of My Best Friends are Skinny People

One of my challenges in losing weight has been living with skinny people, namely  my husband and my two daughters.  They don’t eat astronomical amounts of foods, but they can eat whatever they want and stay thin.  The foods they sometimes want are my problem foods.  Then I am the one who eats astronomically.  I am triggered into space-age eating by pizza, cookies, Doritos, cake and chocolate.  A skinny (and athletic AND gorgeous) friend said to me once, “Well, you can have any food, just have a little bit”.  Thinking back on it, it may have been justified to karate chop her.  It just doesn’t work that way for me.  It’s easier for me to not have these foods in the first place so I stay in control.

Now we come to the subject of my hubby, God bless him.  I love him to pieces, and we are very compatible, but not metabolically.  He’s a total health nut now, but the past is a different story.  He used to ask me “When are you going to make me a cake?”, as though it was part of our wedding vows that I had neglected.  Funny, I didn’t remember reciting, “For better or for worse, I will keep him supplied with baked goodies.”  One time, I was making an effort to eat healthier, and in cleaning out the pantry, I had thrown out his new salty treats.  Was he ever maaaaad!  He then informed me that whenever we ate healthier, HE was the one who lost weight.  Our different eating styles were a source of conflict for years.

There is this big jigsaw puzzle that explains why I struggle with my weight, and his influence used to be just one piece of the puzzle.  I’ve learned helpful things by observing him too.  He gets really strong signals from his body on what and how much to eat, and he actually listens to those signals.  Imagine that!

I cannot blame him, or anyone else for that matter.  Ultimately it was ME who gained the sizable amount of weight that I gained in my 20’s.  The positive side of realizing that is that I had the power to do something about it.  Since peaking at my highest non-pregnant weight in my mid-20’s, I’ve gradually, and fitfully, lost about 50 pounds.