Diet Notes 2019
I decided to start a diet when I saw my portrait in the 2019 Grace Episcopal Church directory and saw how fat my face looked. I am also seeing every day how good my friend Keesha at work looks, and I decided that if she can do it, so can I. I thought I would give the ketogenic diet a try.
I have concluded that I am likely not on a keto-compliant diet. I suspect I am still eating too much carbohydrate and too little fat to meet its standards. However, I think this is a healthier diet than I have been eating before because:
* I have cut out potato chips/wheat- and corn-based snacks, Pop-Tarts, bread, buns, cake, tortillas, croissants, pot-sticker dough, pasta, masa, pizza crusts, and cookies. I will not buy raw canned biscuit or cinnamon roll dough anymore just because I want to eat raw dough.
* I am avoiding soft drinks, Starbucks beverages, and other high-calorie drinks like Java Monster.
* I am drinking more water.
* I am eating more vegetables.
* I am eating more tuna.
So I should still lose weight and derive health benefits from it; I just won't lose weight as dramatically as I would if I were on a fully keto-compliant diet--and I'm fine with that. Keesha isn't on the keto diet, but she has lost a lot of weight, and she looks good. I'll just have to find out from her how long it took her to lose the weight. Bottom line: I can live with what I am doing now. Yes, it will make restaurant dining more challenging, and I will have to give up mashed potatoes except for special occasions, but this is realistic and not an extreme hardship, the way a full keto diet would be.
I will need to plan how to handle holidays. At Thanksgiving I am usually a carb hound; I can't eat like that anymore. Yes, I will have stuffing, because it won't be Thanksgiving to me without it--but I will eat my turkey, and I will eat as much of the vegetable dishes as possible and avoid the sweet stuff. I'll restrict myself to half a slice of cranberry sauce and a small spoonful of sweet potatoes, if that, and I will avoid the French-fried onions in the green bean casserole. No dessert, or I will eat only one small portion. For gamer feasts I will just make a vegetable dish.
I talked to Keesha. She said it took her 20 months to get to looking the way she looks now. She started diet changes in August 2017, and it is now April 2019. That sounds like a quite reasonable and healthy length of time, to me. She also exercises for at least 30 minutes a day, so I need to make sure I do that consistently. She exemplifies the fact that sustainable, permanent weight loos requires a lifestyle change. Once you start, you cannot return to your old eating habits, or you might relapse and gain all the weight back. I sure as hell do not went to gain my weight back. I estimate that I weigh 155 lbs. now, and I'm only five feet tall. That is inexcusable.
I have decided that, if I buy a weight scale, I won't check it daily; just when I want to know. I will usually estimate whether I am losing weight based on how I look in clothing and how my body feels to me. I can monitor progress when I have my weight taken at my doctor's office.