It’s now so long since I last blogged that the file on my computer where I create these blogs was locked and had to be unlocked! That’s a bad sign. So anyway, why the long silence? A long silence for me that is. Three weeks in fact. Have I been away, sailing off round the world on a luxury cruise full of protein and not much else? Alas, no. As ever the truth is prosaic in the extreme. I haven’t been following the diet much at all. I have in fact taken a diet time out and it seemed right to take a time out from blogging about it too. How can you write a diet blog when you’re not dieting anymore?
Have I reached my goal weight? Nope! Nowhere near. Am I back on the yoyo merry-go-round of a dieter’s mixed metaphors? Kind of. Ever since my episode just before Easter I’ve found it difficult to go back to the way I was eating on Paleo. I’m not blaming Paleo for my 24-hour sickness bug but it took several weeks to stop feeling sick after I’d eaten or often even at the thought of it. Bread became a comforter. Something I could trust. Something that never made me feel sick.
My old friend
Bread or bread products became like an old friend and I’m loathe to give them up again. I’ll probably have to though because I’ve noticed I’m getting much more heartburn than I did on Paleo and I fear I have to accept that bread is probably the culprit. It’s interesting that other carbs weren’t much missed at all. Pasta I used to love but never eat now and in fact had stopped eating way before I began Paleo. Rice I miss more than pasta but, again, didn’t cheat with it. Potatoes I can take or leave and chips I’ve never liked all that much though I do like crisps. But can live without all that lot. Bread was the sticking point for me. Maybe an indication I’m addicted to it? Or perhaps it’s psychological? For truly, is there anything more comforting than hot buttered toast and tea served with milk and sugar? Or afternoon tea with scones, butter, jam, cream, cakes and sandwiches?
Dieting with bread?
So could I go back to dieting but have bread? Not really. For that means returning to the old methods of dieting that we all know don’t work. Counting calories. Going for strenuous exercise. It can work for a short while but it doesn’t work long term because we get fed up of it – ha! Fed up, d’you see what I did there? Oh never mind. What I liked about Paleo was that it was a new way of eating. Bit like becoming a vegetarian, you just give up certain foods but warmly embrace the many other lovely foods you can eat instead.
Fat is not the enemy
I still believe fat is not the enemy. Sugar is. And the body treats bread in much same way as it does sugar which is why you always want more because you feel hungry again quite quickly. Protein is more filling and lasts longer and you can ever go for lengthy spells without eating if you stick to high protein rather than carbs because it stabilises your blood sugar levels look I KNOW ALL THIS!!! But the head is losing out to the heart. What can I say? I promised you blistering honesty and this is it.
Stopping can kick start
When I used to go to a well-known but I won’t say which one slimming group the leaders often suggested you stop dieting if you reached a plateau and then began again a few weeks later. Kind of fooled the body into giving you that lovely quick weight loss you get when you start a diet. It’s risky of course. Most of us with a weight problem have spent our lives either dieting or bingeing. To be off a diet is to be over eating. Not for us the ordinary eating habits of normal people. If we had them, we’d never have developed a weight problem in the first place.
Nevertheless, that’s what I’m doing. I’m watching what I eat a bit and trying not to go too mad. But I’m not following a diet. I am exercising but then I always do. Not for weight loss but because it’s good for the head. And when my head is back in the right place, I’ll start again.
I’ll blog from time to time about how this is going. I’m sorry if anyone feels I have let them down.
