so i have a question to put to vote. you all may remember my diet post from a week or so ago. i have been on a fairly strict diet, first in my life, since then and have lost some weight, which is really nice.
HOWEVER here's the thing. i love to cook. really. and bake. i always have. and one of my long term goals (pre-diet) has been to learn to make delicious, hand dipped chocolates (you know, like apricot truffles, nipples of venus, mendiants, etc.). i recently checked out a library book on the subject full of french chocolate recipes, and it's killing me not being able to make them. its an artistic desire as much as a gluttonous one. i love making food come together into something beautiful and delicious.
the truth is, i cannot eat/make french chocolates and be skinny. i cant. i might stand a chance if i had an actual chocolate shop or something where i could sell the loot, but i dont. so is a life without french chocolate really worth living? there are chubby people out there, even fat people, who seem to be living ok lives, happily enough. justin promises he'll stay with me even if im a lardo (right baby?) so is that better than being skinny and always hungry in pursuit of some nebulous ideal of perfection? should i just quit baking?
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When I was trying to slim down back when Sammy was about 2, a number of things came together for me. I had hit a weight that sort of shocked me when I seriously thought about it. Sam was my last child, and I had finished nursing him. When you nurse, you can "eat like a horse" but when you are done nursing, it is a bit of a challenge to go back to your original eating style. At about this time, I started taking a clogging class with Shaunne. (She was 10.) I was winded with a little exersion, and I decided that it was time to do something about this weight. I was used to eating a slice of homemade bread with peanut butter and honey and a glass of milk before I went to bed. Once I was done nursing, I cut that snack out before I went to bed. Eat dinner, but try not to eat anything before you go to bed. That helps a ton. #2. I started eating only one serving of food at the dinner table. Eat enough but don't allow yourself to "gorge." #3 and I cannot overemphasize the importance of this. Get some form of aerobic exercize where you get your heart pumping. Clogging was super for this...and fun! Clogging gave me some confidence that I COULD get the pounds off if I tried. On our property in Arizona, we had a number of navel orange trees and the most marvelous tangerine tree, along with some other fruit trees. (We called the place "the garden of eatin'") I have a tremendous sweet tooth. I love sugar, and I found that the only way I could pacify my sweet tooth, if I cut out the sugar, was to eat alot of fruit. I ate navel oranges when I was hungry...or watermellon slices. You can eat as much of this kind of stuff as you want, and you won't gain wait. The kids and I would go outside and eat tons of these wonderful oranges, pomegranates, and tangerines. In the summer, I would get watermellons and we would eat that at night if we got hungry instead of eating bread or sweets. As I kept up with this sort of "diet", the pounds melted off...esp. if I stayed away from the things that I have already mentioned. I had a little thought...a reminder, actually...that I had up on my bulletin board by my desk.
"Nothing tastes as good as thin feels." After losing 25 pounds, I found this to be true, and it gave me confidence to maintain that level of weight through careful maintenance of my diet, and staying active physically. I got tough in my resolve for a few years there, and I would turn down most of the yummy sugury things that you get at church functions, etc. This may sound paranoid, but I don't think so. I get on the weighing machine every morning when I wake up and every night before I go to bed, just so that I can monitor my intake each day.
In all honesty, Anna, it has been much more difficult for me since we have moved to Michigan, as the weather is not always helpful, and I have had a hysterectomy and bladder suspension since coming here. The real knockdown was having surgery on my knee, and how that has put a real damper on what kinds of exercize that I can do. I can no longer just "haul off" and clog, or hike, or bike. I have my definite limits, or I will pay with issues with my knees.
I wish you the best. I love to cook also, and I continue to make chocolate chip cookies galore for my kids and other tasty treats...fruit pies, etc. It makes people happy. So keep making treats, I say, but decide what you really want as far as your weight and intake. As for exercize, I soooo miss sweating, because that kind of aerobic exercize will burn off those calories. It also burns out toxins.
Good luck, friend Anna.
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