I Never Met a Carb I Didn't Like

You may have noticed I haven't posted for a while (and haven't posted my July 1 progress pics. But that's another story.)

I had a great 4th of July. Great. Family, friends and food. That's what I wanted and that's what I got. I'm in the process of disengaging from my current place of employment and preparing for my new life. As part of that, giving notice and telling my staff was both exciting and sad. And I'm swinging back and forth between the two emotions during this transition.

So what does that have to do with carbs you ask? Well, as some know all too well, I'm a habitual lifelong overeater, specifically of sweets and other not-so-healthy carbs. Although I don't eat those foods like I once did (half gallon of ice cream, whole pan of brownies anyone?) I still gravitate towards those foods in good times and bad. I fight that battle on a daily basis and mostly win, but it's a battle nonetheless.

I gave in to my cravings over the holiday and have been struggling with coming back to the calorie tracking...no, let's be honest about it...dieting that I've trying to do since like forever. I have to get brutally honest with myself and admit this is not working for me. It worked for a while, the last two years, and I've lost a great deal of weight. But I'm struggling to get past this point. I'm coming to the conclusion that it's because I was able to achieve enough of a calorie deficit to lose weight while still eating at a high carb level and indulging in the type of foods that call my name. And if I want to keep doing that I'll stay right where I am and go no further.

Something needs to change and I think that something is that I have to say goodbye to carbs ruling my world. I need to make a lifestyle change when it comes to my food. I've been playing around with a style of eating variously called Paleo, Primal, Caveman, whatever. The theory being that human beings are genetically programmed to use fat as the primary fuel source rather than glucose and that people whose diets primarily feature glucose foods (sweets, flour and other grains, other processed foods, excessive fruits) run into problems because their bodies start looking for glucose for fuel rather than being able to tap into fat stores when food is scarce (like during fasting or even a calorie deficit).

It's a theory.

Since I have such a history of flooding my body with excess carbs, I think I'm one of those people whose bodies are unable to easily tap into fat stores for fuel. I think that's why I had such a hard time switching to intermittent fasting. My body just couldn't deal with not having a dose of glucose when it needed it.

I really want to change that because I truly don't want to be stuck here or heavens forbid start gaining the weight back. So what I'd like to do is work on reprogramming my body to be fat burning rather than sugar burning. If it's possible which again is just a theory. But I'd like to give it a chance. I want to start by taking the Whole30 Challenge to get myself weaned from sweets and other high carb foods. I want to take this as a lifestyle change and not focus on weight loss. What I'd like to see happen would be for my appetite to naturally regulate itself so that I eat when I'm hungry, stop when I'm comfortable and don't eat when I'm not hungry. Which I'm hoping will lead to being able to comfortably fast, either on a periodic 24 hour basis or a 14/10 hour daily basis. I'd rather create a calorie deficit using that method than having to spend so much time and mental energy tracking calories and forcing myself to fight my hunger.

My goal right now is to start the Challenge on August 1 with the next three weeks devoted to slowly eliminating all sweeteners, sugar and artificial, grains, dairy (except butter) and legumes, and slowly increasing the percentage of fat that I consume relative to protein and carb. I'll provide more details on how I'm doing that in future posts. I'm excited and scared to do this, sort of like how I feel about starting my new job. I guess as long as I'm changing my life I'd might as well really change my life.