Yesterday, I made cauliflower-based pizza with my friend’s daughter.  She struggles with the same past weight issues I struggled with and I enjoy assisting in coming up with new ideas and motivation.

I came to think about how family matters with diet, whether it is biological or close family friends.  Everyone needs motivation to stay focused on their change in eating lifestyle.  I have seen many clients who have been on a diet and fall off of the wagon because they don’t have their friends and family on the same wagon with them.  It is hard to be a food addict or a carb addict when you are surrounded by friends who try to get you to order an appetizer with them because they either don’t have a weight issue YET or they are not in the same mind space to lose the weight yet.  It is also hard when you go home and your family or significant other can eat whatever they want (albeit pure crap and not healthy for their overall wellness), and you are stuck eating the lower carb items.

So, in order to stay motivated.  You have to learn what foods to buy that are healthy and yet, are tasty and fun so that when you smell someone’s nasty cheeseburger, it doesn’t trigger you because you have something else to eat, which will satisfy you.  You also have to learn to speak up and let your friends and family know that the reason you might be falling off of the wagon is because it is hard to stay on a wagon when you have so many potholes around you in your own space!

THE BEST WAY TO LEARN CARBS IS TO START LOOKING UP FOOD ITEMS ONLINE.  Google them and find out the carb content.  Learn!

I had a friend who tried to shame me years ago for not wanting to order an “Awesome Blossom” with her before dinner.  She told me I was, “no fun anymore.”  I told her, “If fun means having big thighs, then I guess I am not fun anymore.”

People can and say whatever they can to get others to do their drug of choice with them…whether it is heroin, cigarettes or carbs.  Don’t let anyone make you feel bad.

Tonight was my anniversary and I went to the Wood Ranch with my husband of 26 years!  The waitress tried to sell us up on the extra cheese and bacon for the baked potato my husband was getting, drinks and appetizers and rolls.  We said, “NO” to all.  I will not let her even bring rolls or appetizers to the table.  I am eating my meat, salad and broccoli and that is enough food for one person.  My husband and I split a two combo meat dinner, a side of broccoli and a small dinner salad.  He had the potato, not me.  I had a huge diet coke and I was full.  Came home to my Carbolite later……although I was thinking of the 12 net carb Cheesecake Factory low carb cheesecake, made with Splenda.

There are alternatives out there, but we have to learn what they are and not be lazy and not allow anyone to shame or suck us into their bad food warp.  We are on a mission for a great, healthy body!  Motivate yourself!  Hang with people who motivate!  Stay away from bad influences!  Food is like crack!  Stay away from things that suck you into the vortex!

It is important to eat or drink six low carb, high proteins a day, mixed in with a few vegetables and a small fruit here and there.  These meals are spaced out to about every 2 to 3 hours, to keep your metabolism running.  If the protein is a meat, it has to be around 4 ounces to lose weight.   But, sometimes, it is hard to plan because you might be on the run.  If you skip a meal, you are only hurting yourself and slowing down your metabolism.

Today I had early class over 30 miles away from my house.  I made sure that I prepared the day before.  I could have made a salad with a protein, but I bought a prepared one from Chick Fil A.  Maybe too much sodium, but it was grilled chicken (not breaded) and all in all, with the dressing , it was less than 20 g carbs.  That was my lunch and I took it with me.

I grabbed a hard boiled egg for breakfast and some coffee (no carbs) and I took a protein bar (Nature Valley Protein with dark chocolate and peanut butter), which was 14 carbs.  I ate that two hours in from my hard boiled egg and an hour later, I had the salad.

I had another protein of grilled chicken with veggies (no carbs) when I got home.  So, I prepared and I didn’t eat a bunch of carby junk.  Total for my four meals=34 g carbs.  Two more meals included a chicken salad (about 5g carbs) and some Carbolite frozen dessert at 16 g carbs.  Had a few nuts too, adding up to about 10 g carbs.

Total for the day of carbs was about 65 g carbs.  Not bad for a day on the run!  I was never that hungry either because every time you think that you are getting hungry, it is time for another protein hit.  This way of eating is totally do-able!

You can eat healthy on the run.  Always have the right kind of snacks with you.  http://best-eating-plans.blogspot.com/2012/02/eating-healthy-on-run.html

Today, I had to put my old dog, Joey, down.  His nickname was Joey, B.O.D., bag of donuts.  My husband came up with that, not sure why, except it sounded Italian like Joey is an Italian name.  However, it had nothing to do with real donuts.

It is hard to stay eating a healthy plan when you had a trauma or a sad situation happen.  It is easy to run to the  comfort foods.  However, I am sticking to the plan.  My falling off of the wagon today is not something that will bring  Joey back and it will not make me feel great later.  I can no longer use sadness as an excuse to eat some spaghetti…….but I do have some replacement pasta noodles from Lindora.com (anyone can buy them) and you can also get them from Carbessentials.net, Netrition.com, and other low carb sites online.  Also, if you get a low carb pasta sauce or watch how much you use, you can actually have your so-called “comfort food”, but well-proportioned and guilt free.

I will be putting up recipes soon for things like mashed potatoes and pizza, that is made with cauliflower instead of the wheat or potatoes.  These are comfort foods too, but without falling off the wagon.

But, if you do fall off of the wagon, for whatever reason, get back on immediately.  Forgive yourself and move forward.

Joey hiding under the bed bench!  Hope he is being loved by my father in heaven right now!

Sometimes changing your lifestyle is hard and you might fall off of the wagon, but you can get right back on because you have STRENGTH!  Just do it and never give up on yourself.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I was a yo-yo dieter.  I had no idea why I was gaining weight so often.  I felt that I ate well.  I ate small portions and I ate all of the suggested foods on the food pyramid.  Well, as I have stated in an earlier post, the food pyramid is a crock.

It is important to get all of your vitamins and minerals, but many of them can be found in vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts.  Grain products and starches like potatoes are NOT necessary.

I went to a lecture last year after I started with Lindora.  The author of Primal Body, Primal Mind, was speaking about how man started out with eating meat, berries and vegetables.  No one had an oven….so no one was eating bread or cereal.  Our society now focuses on grains as a necessary source of fiber and vitamins is in a daily diet, but this is not the case.  And to have these things daily, is even more unnecessary.

A book came out by an M.D., called, The Wheat Belly.  It focuses on how wheat today is different than our forefather’s wheat and it is wreaking havoc on our bodies.  Since there has been corn derivatives and wheat derivatives added to our foods, people have been getting fatter.  Look at this article on obesity trends in the United States.  http://inventorspot.com/articles/geographical_obesity_trends_where_fat_kids_live_41328

Lindora focuses on low carbs.  NOT no carbs, just low carbs.  So, I have adapted this into my daily life and I never ever do more than 100 grams of carbs a day.  I try to keep it as close to 50 grams as possible, but what I have learned is that I have to eat between 50 g and 100 g carbs a day.

Do you know how many carbs are in a McDonald’s burger?  34 g, and that is without fries.  In a small 3/4 cup bowl of Kellogs Frosted Flakes, there is 27 g, and that is without the milk–and most people eat more than that in a serving.  So, you think the cereal is a better choice than the burger, but not so much.

Guess what?  You have to now learn what to chose to eat and what not to eat if you want to lose weight and keep it off.  I will save that for the next blog.  But in answer to the burger and cereal puzzle mentioned in the previous paragraph, if you absolutely MUST eat at McDonalds with their questionable burger meat, have the meat, throw away the bun and eat a side salad.  Chances are that is ab out 10-15 g for the whole deal with the dressing.

Caution:  Do not eat the french fries.  A bag of fries is 48 g for a small and a large is 63 g. So, if you want only 50 to 100 carbs a day, can you see why America is getting fat and you can’t lose the weight?

Story just out supporting a low carb diet:  http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-08-30/low-carb-diet/57444292/1

taken from: http://www.dietdoctor.com/how-carbs-make-you-fat

When you start a diet, you have to look at it as a “Change of lifestyle.”  Diets are temporary.  This means that as soon as you are done, you will go back to the way you ate before and you will most likely put it all and then some back on you.  This is how “yo yo dieting” works.  I know all about that.  Sometimes it sucks having to stand up to others about food.  But, if you love yourself at all, you have to do it!  No one else will suffer the pain you will feel when you are trying on clothes and hate how you feel.  ONLY YOU WILL SUFFER!  Remember, “nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels!”

A new lifestyle means eating only at places that have food you can eat, staying away from junk or trigger places, hanging with people who don’t sabotage your efforts or telling off those who do and feeling okay about it.  It means eating the right amount of food, types of food and eating at the right times of the day.  Period.

As you start your new lifestyle, you have to realize that you are not just changing your food choices….but you are changing where you go, what you eat– and others who are with you might feel guilty about their food choices, especially if they are in need of weight loss too.

I remember trying to lose weight on Nutrisystem in 1990 and I would bring these teeny-tiny Nutrisystem sandwiches to my lunchtime class in college.  My teacher asked me what I was eating one day and I told her it was a Nutrisystem sandwich.  She couldn’t believe that I would eat something so small.  However, that comment was explained with time, as I watched her grow larger and larger over the semester.  At the end of the semester, we had a party and she personally brought me a piece of cake.  I declined.  Her response was, “eat the cake!”  I told her that I couldn’t because of my diet.  Her response, “You do want a good grade in here, don’t you?”  She was actually so jealous of my weight loss that she was blackmailing me with my grade to eat sugar.  It was diabolical, but with time, I realized that families and friends do this too, but in a much more passive-aggressive way.

I have had experiences where my mother has tried to make me share dessert with her (all of the time because it is better to get fat with someone than alone!), despite the fact that I was wanting to lose weight.  I had a friend once say, “You aren’t any fun anymore, ” just because I would not share an Awesome Blossom with her.  I have had people try to force me to eat some of their dinner because of their own desire to share their food and not eat it all, despite the fact that I already had a full dinner in front of me.

I had a friend get mad at me for weeks once, just for insisting that we not go where she wanted to go to eat because there were no good choices there for me and it was selfish of her to push her desire to go there on me when it would sabotage my weight loss.  We eventually moved on, but I doubt she will try that selfish little number on me again.   If you can’t take me somewhere where I can order a healthy meal, then as far as I am concerned, you are not a true friend.

I talked to a friend today who used to get taunted for being overweight, and now that she is eating differently and better,  she gets taunted about her food choices, or told what she should or should not be eating, when she damn well knows what to do.  It is funny how personal people get about food when it comes to others.  Most of these people do not always mean well, they just disguise their passive-aggressive attempts as helpful, but meanwhile they are eating bowls of cereal with banana in front of you and spitting out the milk, as they tell you that your eating two hot dogs (only 2 carbs, by the way)  are bad and tell you that you should not be eating them? Most of these people have a better metabolism or are just jealous of what you are trying to do to make your life better.  And many don’t know what the HELL they are talking about! Bunch of well-meaning know-it-alls, who know-nothing!

So, my advice to those going through this emotional torture and abuse–learn all you can about what you have to do from KNOWLEDGEABLE or legitimate sources who have been succesful in long term weight loss, and find who supports you–and stick with eating and designing menus with them.  If someone invites you to eat somewhere or something that you don’t want to eat, it is okay to SAY NO!  In fact, if they continue to get pushy.  you can say:

“I have a stomach ache.”

“No thanks, I just ate.”

“I have allergies and I can’t eat anything outside of what I have at home right now.”

“Some people might say, “STFU”, but that could be considered rude.

I personally now have gotten so strong with diet saboteurs, because I see who they are and what they are doing and they piss me off…so I end up saying, “No thanks.”  and when they ask again and again, my “No thanks” gets louder.

Practice it in the mirror.  It will build confidence.  You have to be strong and have fortitude to stay on a plan.  You are on a mission for your life.  Remember that!  This is a change of lifestyle in not only FOOD choices, but how you deal with your peeps and your self concept.  Be strong and stand up for yourself!  Who else will?

A blog on diet sabotage: http://theonelastthing.com/2008/09/30/how-do-you-handle-people-who-sabotage-your-efforts/