Diets/Losing Weight

Are you doing any of the diets that are written about everyday, all kinds of information, misinformation?

I’m talking about Weight Watcher’s, Vegetarian, Flexitarian Diet, Pescatarian, Keto, Paleo, Whole 30, Mediterranean Diet, Low Carb.

Any of them with intermittent fasting?

When I was a teen I did a program similar to Weight Watchers. It’s not for me.

I went vegetarian for 2 years and lost a lot of weight. I quit because at the time my knowledge about the wide variety of ethnic vegetarian dishes was zero. Cooking for a family of 4, with 1 refusing to go along made it challenging with my heavy work schedule at the time.

Keto, Paleo and Whole 30 confuse me and all seem similar. I belong to a couple Keto pages on Facebook. I’m just a looky-loo. It’s wild some of the things people post.

I’m basically eating Low Carb. I don’t do fake sugars of ANY kind. When I need a sweetener I use a small amount of organic honey or maple syrup. I have virtually given up regular soft drinks. I will have a sip occasionally, or will down 1 or 2 when my blood sugar is way too low. I don’t drink diet soft drinks at all. I do drink every variety of no sweetener added sparkling water I can get my hands on. It has to be cold and over ice. My favorites are Dasani, Bubly, Ice Mountain, Target’s Simply Balanced. Any flavor other than coconut. To me La Croix’s flavors are weak in comparison to the others. Right now I’m on the hunt for Cola Sparkling Water and Rootbeer Sparkling Water. La Croix sells Cola if you can find it, but I’ll pass. Fizz and Shasta sell both Cola and Rootbeer...if you can find them. After my nearly complete review on Sparkling waters I will say that they do keep me away from regular pop and I do enjoy them. I drink coffee black or with cream, and I drink a variety of teas. The thing about going Low Carb is I do go through periods of craving carbs. At thanksgiving I went overboard on cauliflower as a sub for pasta and rice. I am just now starting to go back to it to sub for rice. I got a large bag at Sam’s Club today. I see Cauliflower Rice Sushi this weekend (I’ve made it twice, turns out great). I go for dark chocolate or berries or apple slices with almond butter if I want something like a dessert. I’ve tried sugar free vanilla Klondike bars by accident (son grabbed it by mistake for the rest of the family). They are actually not bad. I’d buy them on purpose. Lol! I actually had a serving of pasta (according to the package), 2 weeks ago and was ok with it. I’m Italian, a serving is generally a plateful. I do simple net carb counting. The glycemic load counting just confuses me.

I can’t do the intermittent fasting. It is said to kick start weight loss when you are stalled. Being Type 2 Diabetic, I can’t do it. There have been days filled with appointments and errands where I don’t eat a meal after breakfast, or I have to fast for blood work, and I forget my snack bag and find myself in a very bad way at 7pm. I keep protein bars (16-30 carbs) in my snack bag. I also keep a stash of Jolly Rancher hard candy in my car. (Not helpful when I was in rental cars for a week.)

I have lost about 40 pounds since October. My wardrobe is very limited. I have 2 pair of jogging sweats and 2 pairs of Old Navy Khaki’s I must wear with a belt. I really need to have one of my kids help me with my closet. I know I have pants the next size down. They just need to be found. I keep my variety of sizes wardrobe because I cannot afford to keep buying new clothes when I go up or down. People say not to do that, that it’s like a security blanket, that if you keep them you’ll gain the weight back. That’s a crock of bullshirt. You gain weight because you eat more calories than you use. Not because you keep your fat clothes. Every time I type or say I have jogging sweats I laugh. I can’t jog, run, and I can’t walk very far. I walk with a cane.

Are you doing any of the diets above, or something different? How is it going for you? Any tips or tricks? Recipes?

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