Comments

Vicki made a very good point in her comment post. Why does the government get to decide what kids go on a diet, and whose diet plan should they follow? My first thought was, what do schools have to gain by having this added to their, ahem, plate? And why is it ok to put these kids on a diet, but take away all their recess time or gym time? Why is this only the parents "fault" and not the fault of the public schools keeping the kids there all day with cafeteria food being their only choice. I mean come on, that food is so full of starches even a horse would keel over!

It all comes down to money, power and control. An attempt to get more money from our paychecks, an attempt to control our children and our choices and with power comes an overwhelming need to control. The experts and those in charge seem to have forgotten lessons learned in the past. You can only control yourself. You can't control other people....because many times they rise up and bite you....or cause a major revolution.....civil war....get the pattern? I am not saying we need to take up arms against our oppressors, but we may need to smack away the hands trying to force us to only eat what they put on our plates.

Just like public school, diets and food plans are NOT a one size fits all proposition--I am living proof of that. :)

Strewing the Path

I have been reading a lot lately about various forms of homeschooling. It has gotten me thinking about how much school has to do with why we believe the experts or authority figures in our lives.

I have the humbling experience of unschooling my children. Unschooling or child led learning keeps the imagination and creativity active, lets them learn at their own rate in whatever subject/subjects they are interested in at that moment and build on it from there. All we (the parents) as guides need to do is Strew the Path...........

As I thought about this I realize it is similar with out low carb lifestyle, or anything else we hold dear. We strew the path for others to see, read, learn. I hope in this journey of losing the body scraps I will also be able to lose the mental, emotional scraps and unlearn the things I was taught or tortured with during my school days.

I have 3 children. Each with different personalities, all just right in their body styles and loving to do active things. Are they always active? The youngest son yes! LOL They are unique from each other. Different likes, dislikes, yet similar in many ways as well. Just like people all over the world--similarities and unique individual tendencies. If we look at how schools work and experts think we may see the similarity of how they treat everyone. Diet is a one size fits all, and all should fit one size.

However, being an individual, I can't live the way the experts say I should. Government "officials" want us to live a certain way, use our taxes their way (because we aren't really able to decide for ourselves), send our children to their schools to learn to respect their authority and to follow blindly what they teach. I have stood up and said no more!

Soon there will be more rules and "laws" regarding how we live. If certain people have their way we won't be able to choose for ourselves when, when or how we eat. It might not be now, or in 5 years but it is coming. We see it daily with smokers and smoking. Recently our area added a huge tax to alcoholic drinks. Soon they will want to banish all things they see as BAD for us. It is the choice of the individual. If someone wants to smoke they should be able to. Granted I would appreciate it if they didn't do so around me....but they should be allowed to choose.

I hope it will never go so far as to be a forced program, but who knows. Maybe someday we will be forced to follow the pyramid to a T, even logging everything into a daily program as proof. I have hope that someday regular people like you and I will be able to stand up and show the experts they still don't know everything.

Frustration

Do you ever get frustrated with people who just assume you feed your face all day long and are abysmally lazy which is why you are fat? Yeah, me too.

I had been a decent weight through my college years(ie. within the weight recommendations), worked out, took care to keep muscle built up, was extremely active and then it happened....I got married and had children! Since then I have had a miscarriage, injured my spine, had 2 pregnancies on complete bedrest and found out I have Sarcoidosis (look it up, you'll know as much as I do on the subject)which put me on prednisone for 6-8 months (steroid). Complete bedrest didn't work out well for me--no exercise?!? Yikes! So here I am 8 years later trying to undo what doctors told me to do. Why do I listen to them??? *sigh*

All the docs would look at me and say 2-3 things point blank....1. You are FAT! (yes they said it that way), 2. You are depressed (what? I must be depressed if I have 3 children and am FAT???? HELLOOOOO--they would say this too), and my personal favorite 3. What drugs can we put you on today? No how can we fix the problem and the pain just what drugs. Motrin 800s? Darvocet? How about some depression meds (no thanks!!!). I have just lived with it for all this time. Pain, fatigue, aching/swollen joints, all the inflammation in my tissues from the disease. 24/7 pain and trying to take care of 3 angel children. Not a pretty combination.

I was keeping food journals like "they" told me to. They said I must be lying about what I was really eating because I was following "their" plan to a T and gaining instead of losing. By the time I was finished with the doctors and their "plans" I weighed in at my highest weight EVER! 372 lbs...WHAT THE HECK!??! What was I going to do...I gave up, figured I would always be this way and in pain to boot.

Segue to our move, Pittsburgh, PA...Home of the amazing Primanti Bros (giant sandwiches with fries on them-YUM), more Italian and Pizza joints than I have fingers and toes to count, home to all the good "home cooked" food you could ever want. YIKES! I didn't gain any more weight, but I didn't lose either. Thankfully 2 things happened. First my chiropractor had a specialized visit with me and suggested a low carb diet to help with fatigue and pain issues. Second, my dear friend chose to do Atkins and asked me to join her. She was well versed in Atkins and had lost weight, but really was doing it because she noticed all the carbs made her feel yucky. I have been doing this with her since May and the rest is history.

So why do people feel they need to judge you for the size of your (insert your least favored portion of your anatomy here) instead of your heart? I never dream fat, I am always the size and shape I was when I got married. I don't treat others that way. I have a HUGE heart and am willing to use it! :) So why? Are they jealous that I can be the same no matter what size I am? Jealous that I can be happy through it all? What is it that makes them so crazy that they have to be mean to the larger than life? Who knows....maybe they just aren't eating as well as we low-carbers are and they are carb cranky!

Bored with Breakfast?

Still making fried or scrambled eggs with bacon or sausage for breakfast? Break out and try something different! There are so many places to find recipes if you don't do a lot of cooking. Or you can experiment and share! This morning I was hunGRY! I didn't eat much yesterday and awoke to a "gumbly tumbly". I thought I would cook for the whole fam this morning, but what could we all enjoy....How about Eggs McAmberlee?

I took 6 eggs, 1 cup heavy cream, 1 small onion, 6 strips of bacon, 1 cup shredded cheese, a touch of pepper and set them out. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and sprayed PAM on the muffin tin. I cooked the bacon and onion. While they cooked I mixed the eggs, cream and pepper together in the bowl with 1 cup of shreddy cheese. My cheese is 0 carb, watch your carb count on that to be sure of what you are getting.

I measured 1/3 cup egg mix into each cup of the 12-cup tin. Then I ripped up bacon into all 12 and put a tsp of onion into 6 cups (not all my family likes onion for breakfast)... Baked at 350 for about 30ish minutes and Voila! Yummy breakfast food for all.

I could see a million variations from the cheese you use to the meat you put in. Add spinach, broccoli, tomato or salsa...The possibilities are endless. It is like Quiche in a cup, or maybe more muffiny. Either way, a great choice to start your day.

Exciting!!!

So I have been experimenting and keeping track for all the people who think that Low Carb means super high in fat and calories. I have been using SparkPeople.com to keep track of what I am really eating every day. I keep my carbs at 20-25/day and just enter all the foods I eat at each meal.

What I have found is that I am eating less calories and my fat intake is WITHIN DAILY NORMALS on my government Pyramid! Can you believe it? Well you should. Am I eating low fat? NO! Just normal, everyday, good enough for the farmers kind of fats. :) My highest calorie day was 1800! According to my weight and size I should be between 1800 and 2000 daily to lose weight!

I am sorry but the "experts" and "doctors" don't always know what they are talking about. I have tried to follow their "diets" to the T for the last 8 years and I weighed MORE when they were done with me. It was my Chiropractor that suggested low carb as a way to help my over active Estrogen and Immune System disease. I Feel GREAT! Can you believe my inflammation levels are really low for the first time in 8 years. I am actually losing the weight I gained from the steriods docs put me on to "help". I am more active than I have been in a long time! Whoo hoo for me! :)

So TRY it! It may not be for everyone, but if you are inflammed, in pain, dealing with PMS and Estrogen levels that would kill.... Low Carb will really help. I am living proof.

Vacations are too Short!

I had such a wonderful vacation I didn't want it to end. Real life has to come back into play and we have to get back to "normal" things. *sigh* The good news, however, is that since last year I have lost a lot! How much? 52 pounds! Whoo hoo. Most of that is since the low carb, how awesome for me!

I am getting bored and it is time to switch up what I am eating. It is time to see what in season veggies I can add to the diet. :) I just love all those summer veggies. YUM! We grew all sorts of vegetables in our garden this year. We have already enjoyed the broccoli and a summer squash was ready just last night. The kids were so excited. Our tomatoes are looking lovely and we hope to have some hot peppers soon too.

Getting Ready

We are getting ready for vacation. It will be a tough one, for sure, and not because of low-carbing...It is because of the gas prices! Ouch! It is going to cost more for gas than anything else (usually hotel is pretty big expense). We are staying with family, thankfully. But still with as far as we have to go gas is really going to hurt us. It makes me angry because we really want to visit with friends along the way but that will cost more. We barely have enough to get there and back. :( If gas was still back at $2/gallon we could handle the trip much better.

So to take shortcuts our cooler is going with us with all the eggs, heavy cream for me and milk for kiddos, cheese, meat it can carry. Plus we will bring salad and dressings. Eating for the trip won't be difficult. We don't need fast food. (I must say we haven't eaten at McDonalds since we moved here!!! Hooray for us!). I am looking forward to the beach and seeing my In-laws --which does mean time away from the children, time to be with the hubby....and still plenty of time for the family to do things together.

We would spend more on fun stuff if the gas prices were lower.....