My Diet History

I was a kid when I got hooked on Sweet ‘n Low in my iced tea.  It has to be because I thought I needed to lose weight and not because I really loved that chemical taste.  At boarding school I tried any number of crazy ways to lose weight.  I can remember laughing with my friends over the book Dieter’s Guide to Weight Loss During Sex, which was perfectly safe for us since we were at an all-girls school.  We lamented that if only there were boys we could use up a lot more calories based on the books predictions.

In my twenties I went to Dr. Greene in Washington DC who had invented a liquid protein diet.  I got my skinniest drinking three foul tasting shakes a day and a cup of chicken broth at the same time as Oprah was doing Optifast.  When she came out on TV in her skinny Calvin Klein Jeans pulling that wagon of fat everyone asked me if that was what I had done.

Both Oprah and I had similar spectacular results and the same rebounding weight gain as soon as we both ate regular food again.  Dramatically limiting my caloric intake for five months really made my metabolism learn how to live efficiently on practically nothing.  As soon as I introduced pasta back in my life, even with just straight tomatoes as sauce my body reacted like it had entered nirvana and was never going to leave.  It grabbed weight back on as fast as possible fearing that I might enter that famine period again.

About ten years ago I became a Weight Watchers professional.  I lost the most weight I ever have before, basically because I was the fattest I had ever been.  I learned every point value of every food and could really maximize the system so I could eat as much as possible for the fewest points.  The one thing about Weight Watchers is that as a company they make money on selling you pre-packaged, processed food and in the end that was not very satisfying to my body.

So here I am again.  The good news is that I decided to lose weight well before I passed my previous high.  I still have all the Weight Watcher’s knowledge, as well as every other plan I have tried, so I have synthesized it together and found my new way is the easiest way to live.

I cut out almost all sugar and most flour.  I eat primarily fruits, vegetable, meats, eggs, cheese, milk and a little whole grain.  I don’t count, measure or weigh anything, but I try and use small plates and bowls and only have one serving.  I am mindful of my eating, but I don’t write down anything I eat unless I am writing a recipe.  I don’t eat after 8:00 most days.  I drink a lot of tea and water.  I go to my trainer to work out twice a week. Most importantly I write for just 20 minutes everyday on the blog and I try and laugh a lot.

Other than the writing the blog, I don’t think about eating as much as I ever did on or off a diet.  I am so much more concerned about what I am going to write than what I am going to eat that I spend my day listening to and watching people waiting to find some inspiration for the blog.

Don’t get me wrong, Food is still important to me.  I got up early on this Saturday morning and went to my church kitchen to cook for the lunch we will serve tomorrow.  I still want to make yummy things that make people happy.  I am just as happy to make them for others and not for myself.

Maybe it took me all my 51 years of trying every kind of diet to finally invent one for myself that could just be my way of eating and not a diet.  Only time will tell.