The "D" Word

Bret and I are going to Jamaica in a few weeks.  Wanting to shed about ten pounds before we go we decided to get on a diet.  When I say we decided what I really mean is that I decided and Bret got told kind of after the fact.

I have never been good with diets.  They just don't work for me and they make me really grumpy.  The one other time that Bret and I tried to do it together we tried to do a shake/meal replacement program and we almost killed each other.  So this time around we are a little wiser.

We decided to work on calorie restriction, portion control, and exercise.  I have been going to the gym faithfully for the past three months.  I am taking a water aerobics class and a water toning/resistance class.  I am also taking spin and jogging on the treadmill.  What I noticed was that I wasn't really losing a ton of weight but I was getting toned which is nice.  My arms are a little less giggly and some of the crazy cellulite in my thighs have lessened.  I knew that to drop the pounds I was going to have to start watching what I eat.

The first day of the diet I was all gung-ho.  I packed Bret a new water bottle, his breakfast, and snacks to get him through the day.  By the time he got home from work I was ready to quit.  I was so hungry I couldn't see straight and was seriously hangry at everyone.  Bret on the other was on board to make this happen.  We went to Applebee's and had one of their 500 calorie meals and survived day one.

We are on week two and things are still going good.  This is the longest I have stayed on a diet ever.  Last night though I had a heart to heart with Bret and was surprised to see that Dr. Bret showed up.  You would think that having a husband as a doctor would be nice to have as a wealth of information.  You would be wrong.  Dr. Bret is tired of answering questions by the time he gets home and usually blows off my questions that are just curious (not when something is serious).  So when I have an ache or a weird rash or whatever he tells me "you are fine" and the discussion is closed.

However every now and then Dr. Bret comes to the conversation instead of husband Bret.  I usually don't like these conversations because it usually is information that I don't want to hear.  Such was the case.  I made the comment that I felt this diet was pointless.  I can already see Bret losing weight...I on the other hand haven't really changed.  Dr. Bret gave me this long speech about how I am insulin resistant, high risk for diabetes, blah, blah, blah...I need to cut out carbs and switch to a diabetic diet if I ever want to see real results.

Pretty much he told me that my body craves carbs, can't process carbs, and so even though I am limiting calories (which helps) if a lot of my calories are still carbs they are worse than twice as much calories that are not carbs.  Not at all what I wanted to hear.

I love bread, pasta, and potatoes...not to mention sugar.  Limiting those items in my diet is really hard.  Working to ELIMINATE them feels impossible.  However, I really want to lose some weight, I really don't want to become diabetic, and I want to be healthier.  So I am trying.  In fact today for a snack I had a lean turkey hot dog with nothing else...for a snack.  Instead of a granola bar or animal crackers (which are my go to light calorie snack) I had string cheese and a hot dog.  For breakfast I had an omelet.  What really surprised me was that I felt better today.  Maybe there is something to this whole carb thing.  We shall see.