diet | Life Of Joy

So, I have found how to stay the same weight but I am struggling with releasing weight. I say it that way now because I have read that there is something psychological that happens when you lose something; you feel a loss and want to reclaim it or at least that is how I remember it. (Do your own research on the topic if you want the details though.) So it was recommended to say that you are releasing weight, this gives your psyche what it needs to keep it off.

I think my problem is that I love food! I like to eat. I’m also a social eater. However I have had a few times in my life where I was determined to get rid of some weight and managed to do so. I did well on the hCg diet. Now, I do believe that I probably did some harm to my body through that but the restrictions on that prove to me that I can indeed restrict what I eat when I put my mind to it. And that is one time I really put my mind to it. Unfortunately I reclaimed many many of those lost pounds and sooo want to rid myself of them again.

So, I’ve decided to severely restrict my food intake, both the amount and the variety of foods eaten, for the rest of Lent. It helps to put it in this time frame because then I have more of a reason to stick with it and a finish point.

I will have a few days omitted from this, which began last weekend with Brian, Lauren, and Liam being here and getting together with family to celebrate birthdays. And I will omit Sean’s birthday from my food restrictions but will keep it in control. I control what I eat. I do not let my appetites control what I eat. I’m still going to be applying THM standards as much as I can.

One of the things that you are supposed to eat during the dieting phase of the hCg diet is grissini, which is a breadstick. Unfortunately the ones that are available in the store are not sprouted whole wheat nor fermented, so I’ll be making my own. Thankfully I found a recipe that uses whole wheat pastry flour, which I have but now I have to figure out if it will work in the artisan bread in five minutes method. We’ll see.

I do not really want to restrict myself in this manner but I really want to release some of this weight! So, I’m pushing on. I can do this. Hopefully, this will get me to a place that I don’t eat as much and when I follow the THM principles after Easter, will not regain anything. Of course, I’m praying all through this process and am relying on His strength to help me through all of this. In the end, I will learn the proper amount of food to sustain my body and eventually release even more weight.

I wish I were one of those people that could lose weight on THM, keto, Adkins, or anything else, but the truth of the matter is that I eat too much and too often. I have to have some outside restrictions to get me headed in the right direction. I believe that once I get a grip on my appetite and eating less food, that THM will work for me because it does to a degree right now, I just bend the ‘rules’ a bit too much and need this fast for now. Yes, I’m looking at it as a fast because I am not eating the things I really want to be eating.

Well, I hope this unusual Tasty Tuesday post can be an encouragement to you. I’ll share about those breadsticks when I figure them out.

Until next time,

Michele ºÜº

Last week I shared some of my favorite Keto links with you. Today I want to talk a little about my journey.

About a year ago, Michael was doing some research because he’d been experiencing some things in his body and was looking for a natural way to get healthier. He stumbled upon some doctors that promote the ketogenic lifestyle. The more he researched it and prayed about it the more he felt this was something he could benefit from.

I, on the other hand, have been on so many diets that it is sad. I’ve been overweight most of my life and after I got married it only got worse (I think I was a rebellious eater ) In the most recent years, I have done Atkin’s New Diet Revolution, Eat Right for Your Blood Type, Weigh Down Workshop, Let’s Do Lunch, hCg and such. I’ve also done Weight Watchers and NutriSystem, years and years ago.

The problem with most diets for me is that they want me to not eat things that I love and thereby it is unsustainable, although I gave each one a good long try at about a year each. I’m not really a quitter but during that time I tried to find ways to make the diet a lifestyle that would work for me and unfortunately, I never found one.

After gaining back the weight I’d lost on the hCg injection diet, I was distraught and had committed the matter to much prayer. I determined that God made all the food groups and that He wanted me to learn moderation in all of it. He didn’t want me to eliminate any one of them: not fats, carbs, or even fruits. Thus I was determined to take the principles I’d learned in Weigh Down Workshop, namely, eat according to hunger and listen to your body. (Well, I’ll just tell you that my mind can misinterpret what is hunger when I want to eat something . . . just saying.)

Then Michael told me that he felt he needed to do the Keto diet and that he thought it would be good for all of us to do. I felt God nudge me in that direction and later tell me that I needed to support Michael in this, as he has supported me in all my previous diets.

So I started researching and looking for guidelines and such. Unfortunately people make Keto much more confusing than it has to be by talking about macros and such. I did find some sample menus but again there was a problem; all the samples were for one person doing the diet and thus had you eating the same two or three meals throughout the week. Now that is all well and good if it is only you or maybe even just two of you but for a family of four adults, that is not going to work, especially since I don’t think we should have to eat the same thing for dinner several days in the same week. Now Tiffany, Sean, and I do not mind eating leftovers for lunch but to have the leftovers be another dinner in the same week was not good for me. So I just pushed through making a menu like I always did but with recipes from several different menus I’d find online.

Eventually I found Kristie Sullivan and her facebook group Low Carb Journey. Now she simplified things! Don’t eat any more than 20 total carbs in a day and it is best if each meal is only 7 total carbs. She said not to worry about all the other macros and only eat when hungry. “If you’re hungry, you’re doing it wrong!” Then I learned one more big thing from her, if you are eating enough fat in your meal you should be able to go four to six hours until your next meal and your body actually needs you to go at least 3 hours to be able to do something other than digest food all the time.

Now remember that I said I knew God was wanting me to have a balanced eating plan? I can assure you that Keto is not balanced. But it was a necessary step for us. In this time I believe our bodies have done some healing that would not have been possible otherwise.

Through my keto recipe hunts, I’d occasionally stumble onto a Trim Healthy Mama recipe that fit keto, so I knew that in some way THM would fit what I was already doing. I eventually decided to read about the plan in their book and knew I’d eventually turn to this way of eating. It has keto meals without abusing calories but also allows for those carbs that God created for us to eat but doing so in a setting in which it will be most beneficial to the body.

This post has gotten a bit too long, so I’ll stop by saying that we have started to incorporate some of these yummy whole grains into our menus with joy but it will be a while before we completely understand all the ins and outs of the plan and work it with ease. It was a joy to have fish tacos with rice and beans last night and know that we were completely on plan and that it would not harm our bodies.

I’m sure I’ll share more as I grow in knowledge of this amazing program.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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