Better to not start at all than having to stop once you've started!

For the last year I have been eating a low-carb diet. Diet in the 'way of eating' not in the 'eating only bananas' diet. For those not familiar with low-carb, it's basically inversing the low-fat diet pyramid  so instead of NOT eating anything with fat in it and staying away from meat, nut, eggs, mayonnaise, cream, butter, sour cream, coconut oil - you get the picture since you are probably saying to nyourself "of course you would want to stay away from all that", I choose to stay away from bread, bagels, margarine, pasta, rice, cereal, and "lofat everything" and eat everything lowfatters are staying away from. As a result I am never hungry, I have lost 15 lbs in the past year and kept it off and actually look forward to a meal. Also, there are some internal benefits to eating in this manner like keeping insulin production in check, reducing the impact of inflammation on the insides of my arteries among other things. In the process of educating myself, I have been reading some pretty interesting research and blogs on the topic. More on this topic at a later date.

But the point here, we just celebrated my grandson's birthday with an ice cream cake from DQ. That's not on my list of foods I should be eating. Spike blood glucose, spike insulin and store fat. After an entire year of eating low-carb 90% of the time, I thought I would be over missing certain foods but I'm not. That combination of sugar and fat that triggers the pleasure hormones in my brain still works. But this much sugar and the concomitant insulin spike is not good! Since I am the only one in my family eating in this manner, any family gathering - and there is at least one per month as we get together to celebrate birthdays, all holidays, Fathers day and Mothers day - I am always faced with certain foods I would be better to stay away from.

I tried giving myself permission to eat a little of the offlimit foods - like if you're eating lofat that would mean putting only a little margarine on your brocoli. You know how some of the advice goes that if you deprive yourself of something, you will want it more so give yourself permission every once in a while, let loose, it's OK as long as you eat well-balanced in general, this will keep the 'cheating' under control. Nope! Not for me. I would tell myself that 10 chips are my limit and then proceed to eat chips until the bowl was empty - sharing of course with others :). So much for willpower! I have since found that, for me, it is much easier to not even start eating those chips (or drink those beers, or even eat those crustless sandwiches). And remembering that instead of chips, it should be almonds, and instead of sandwiches it's ham and cheese rolls. And in the absence of any acceptable nutrition, then intermittent fasting has its own rewards... more on this later!

So did I have chips, tortillas, salsa? Nope, Did I have carrots? cherry tomatoes? Yup with some sour cream dip - yum. And what about the ice cream cake? I coudn't say NO - BUT I only ate other people's cake - I finished my Mom's, had a bite of my spouse's piece, had the cookie part of my niece's piece, and ate some of my grandson's piece. OK So I fooled myself into eating perhaps even more that if I had had my own piece..... so that strategy is out the window. Next time, I will bring my own 'almond muffin' ... would that work?