SAME SONG FIFTH VERSE

I haven’t written much about trying to lose weight, because frankly I haven’t have much to say that hasn’t been said before, usually better, by a lot of other people. But, after about four years of semi successful weight loss I have noticed a few things that may be worth sharing.

I don’t know about anyone else but it seems like my system has an on/off switch. There’s a point when it’s “time” to try again. And it’s not like I’m that strict about it while I’m doing it. After dropping about ten to fifteen percent of the beginning weight the switch goes “off.” Suddenly it’s much harder to say no to certain things. And these periods are about a year apart. It’s as if I can lose so much and then my body says “ok, I need some time for housecleaning and adjusting here, back off a little.”

After four years of adjusting what we eat, sweet things are really sweet. And I do mean poisonously sweet. I’ve always thought Granny Smith apples were too tart to be a good eating apple. But the nibble I had the other night was pretty good. Have to keep my taste buds open. Could have been an unusual batch of apples. LOL

Has anyone else noticed how many so called diet foods mimic the foods that got us into trouble in the first place? Even the shakes and bars that target diabetics look a hell of a lot like shakes and candy bars. How can you retrain your taste buds when so many of the products available are basically high priced candy bars? Granted they’re candy bars with vitamins, but what the #$##%$? And yes a lot of the high priced frozen dinners that while lower calorie, are smaller portion versions of the food that got me and you on this subject in the first place.

It’s no accident that both Jennie Craig and Lean Cuisine are owned by Nestle. There’s money in them there fat people. And one journal type website put the weekly cost of the food on the Jennie Craig program at about $125.00. That’s food for one person for one week. Yep, there’s definitely money is us hefties. I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t afford $500.00 bucks a month for groceries just for me. Maybe Kristie and Valerie can, but I can’t.

Just a note, they get us at both ends. Nestle owns a highly touted infant formula line too. From birth to the grave and all points inbetween. And paying through the nose for the privilege. (and since women are the traditional caregivers and nurturers the message in all of this hard to swallow food is a whole ‘nother journal entry)

One of these days I want to do an entry on how similar advertising is to the definitions of demogogary. Yes, most of us need help. But, for me at least, any program that keeps me eating the kind food that helped me pile on the weight in the first place isn’t going to work on the long haul. What does seem to work for me is a semi vegetarian, whole grain, whole foods approach. And since there’s very little money to be made by the big multi nationals when consumers get smart enough to do this,  I guess we won’t be seeing any high powered ads starring B list actresses any time soon. (uh oh, my inner snarkiness is coming out, better end this pretty soon)

We’re still getting the yogurt sweetened with Splenda because it’s only got a hundred calories and it does have fruit in it, not just fruit flavor. Rather nice pieces of fruit actually. And we go for the low fat cottage cheese and no fat cream cheese. We use Pam, some olive oil, non stick pans, and a lot of garlic.

It’s surprising how far you can get with a large apple, a hunk of bread, accompanied by small portions of really good cheese and salami. Thehigher calorie things almost become condiments. Oh, and chai spice (no milk or sugar) or a good herb tea to go with it. I’m leaning more and more to decaf these days. It’s a good thing Celestial Seasonings make decaf Chai spice or I’d be up a creek.

So, same song fifth verse, quietly, patiently (I keep telling myself that anyway) here we go again.