Thursday, June 23, 2011

I'd Rather Gain a Few Pounds, Than...

...hurt or insult someone. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not a lowcarb nazi. I eat lowcarb for all but one meal every week (and that meal is what I'd call moderate, (less than 100gN, with very few, 10gN at most, the rest of the day). And I'm losing 1-2# every week now that I'm eating to lose again and in fact am now back to my over-20-years-ago weight!

I went downstate for a funeral earlier this week, and spent 2 days there. My step-mother, who is wonderful and not wicked in the cinderella sense at all, lovingly prepared a beautiful meal for our arrival with her rheumatoid-arthritis afflicted hands. And it was DELICIOUS! Chicken and pork chops, floured and breaded with panko bread crumbs, served with potato salad, applesauce, and bread and butter. I would never reject her offering just to save on carbs, or to avoid a temporary gain of a couple of pounds, the mere thought of that is hurtful to me. And I enjoyed every single bite without guilt!

The next day there was a lovely luncheon after my uncle's funeral, which included a pasta dish, scalloped potatoes, rolls, breaded pork chops, a roasted vegetable mixture, and salad. I started with a hefty helping of salad and a couple of spoonfuls of the veggies. Then I ate a little of each of the other dishes, and skipped dessert. It was my main meal - only full meal - of the day.

2 days of carbs have taken their toll on the scale, yes...to the tune of about 4# actually. I know it's mostly water bound to glycogen molecules and will be gone shortly, if not already. And I'm having bread cravings like crazy too, that I'm fighting with the help of my Lovely Loaf, and modified oopsie rolls that include a little flax meal to give them more body. I had a serving of the bread today, and will have a couple of rolls with supper later this evening. Tomorrow I'll just eat the rolls and skip the bread altogether, and should be past the cravings.

Would I have preferred to eat low carb? Of course! But given the options I had, I absolutely made the right choice for my situation. I'm blessed that I don't have a health condition that totally prohibits carb consumption, obviously that would be a different story - and you might have written the story differently if it were your situation as well :).

I have a gentler heart than many, perhaps...but as one who also shows her love for others through food, I can't imagine rejecting that, not even for a few pounds.

2 comments:

  1. Coincidentally, I wrote this earlier in response to a post about LC. Thought it relevant here. :) Sally Fallon, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation has a wonderful cookbook 'Nourishing Traditions.' The subtitle is 'The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.' It's chiefly low carb, yet she has three potato salad recipes. She mentions a study that showed cooked starch raising blood sugars in diabetes (skyrocketing them, actually.) But in normal subjects the rise in blood sugar was minimal. I think it comes down to individual sensitivities and metabolisms. And like Tom Naughton in Fathead, I can lose body fat on about 50-100 grams of carbs a day if my calories aren't excessive and I exercise. But I know people who must go very low carb, even zero, to lose weight and / or avoid blood sugar spikes. Everyone has special needs. If you've read this far, send cake."

    "This low carber shares a Chili's Molten Lava Cake with son and hubby at least once a year. What I find tiresome (not from you, Lisa Crawford Geiger) are hardcore diet people who act like we're addicts who can never eat carbs ever, ever, ever! One baked potato and you'll die! If you aren't diabetic the occasional higher carb day won't kill you. Balance, not religious fervor in diet will work. I'm proof, staying at 125 pounds and sometimes going face first into real chocolate cake."

    "Sally Fallon, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation has a wonderful cookbook 'Nourishing Traditions.' The subtitle is 'The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.' It's chiefly low carb, yet she has three potato salad recipes. She mentions a study that showed cooked starch raising blood sugars in diabetes (skyrocketing them, actually.) But in normal subjects the rise in blood sugar was minimal. I think it comes down to individual sensitivities and metabolisms. And like Tom Naughton in Fathead, I can lose body fat on about 50-100 grams of carbs a day if my calories aren't excessive and I exercise. But I know people who must go very low carb, even zero, to lose weight and / or avoid blood sugar spikes. Everyone has special needs. If you've read this far, send cake."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bless you for posting this, Carol! In the lowcarb groups and forums there is a zeal that is rarely matched elsewhere, and eating anything carby at all is "cheating" carrying with it all the negative connotations of that word. I'm just not going to get that worked up about it. And I see now that I am in good company :).

    ReplyDelete