My May 3 blog entry may have left a couple of mistaken
impressions – it definitely wasn’t my best-composed piece of writing ever. No surprise; I was writing it after about a
week of no sleep (worrying about my cancer exam) and a lot of anxiety. So take it for what it is – a tired, relieved
outpouring – and let me correct a couple misapprehensions I may have caused.
My life does not
revolve around food. In fact, you
can ask my husband – if I don’t remind myself, I can easily forget to eat. And when I’m working or writing, I’m all too
apt to bolt down a handful of macadamia nuts or some cheese and get back to
what I was doing. So no, I don’t spend
my whole day fantasizing about my next bite of food. My idea of a perfect moment would be writing
ten pages of wonderful new material, an evening playing Skyrim with my husband
(he plays, I look stuff up on my iPad and back seat drive), or a dark and
stormy night, my favorite recliner, a good book (preferably HP Lovecraft or
Manly Wade Wellman) and two chihuahuas and a cat or two curled up on me. Okay, I’ll admit that my mental scenarios for
each of these included hot tea and a plate of cheese at my side. I never claimed to be anything other than a
cheesehead.<G>
I don’t sacrifice low
carbing in the interests of indulging my every craving. What I mean is, if I have a package of
chicken drumsticks I’m going to make for dinner, I’m going to find a wonderful,
delicious low-carb recipe for them, not run out and buy KFC. My drumsticks, however, are going to be
finger-lickin’ good -- as Justin Wilson would say, I GAR-AWN-TEE it, because I won't settle for less. I’m not going to
eat the same thing for lunch or dinner two days in a row. I’m going to experiment and try new
things. I'm going to find or invent low-carb recipes for everything I want to eat. I’m going to season my food
deliciously. Even if I reheat leftovers,
I’m going to do something different with them – they get reincarnated in a
whole new dish. I refuse to settle for food that is anything short of delicious.
I don’t eat a lot of
fake or processed foods. I eat something made
with Carbquik probably once every two to three months. Dreamfields pasta, the same or less. Once or twice a month I’ll eat an Atkins
bar. I’ll make a low-carb dessert less than
once a month, usually if we’re pitching in somewhere. Yes, I have these things whenever I want
them. Thing is, I don’t want them all
that often. Surprisingly, I suppose,
eating these things doesn’t cause me to want more of them. But the ability to eat garlic cheddar
biscuits at home makes it a heck of a lot easier to walk away from them at Red
Lobster. As for pasta, I’m a great fan
of House Brand Tofu Shirataki and eat it frequently – probably as much as once
a week. But by far, my diet consists of fresh poultry, meat, fish, seafood,
fresh vegetables, nuts, and high-fat dairy.
We rarely even eat frozen vegetables, and canned even less. Everything else is a pretty negligible addition.
I don’t eat off plan
at the drop of a hat. I didn’t even
take an off-plan meal to celebrate the all-clear at my cancer exam. The hubby and I very rarely eat off plan, and
when we do, we do it within specific parameters. For example, we never eat sugar, and we never
eat regular pasta (the former because at this point it would probably make us
sick; the latter because we know it
makes us sick), and we take off-plan meals, not off-plan days. So please do not
interpret what I wrote to mean, “Hey, if it makes my taste buds happy, I’ll eat
off plan.”
Also, please bear in mind that my husband and I have been
low carbing for nine years now. We know
what we can and can’t do to sustain our way of eating. If you’re newer at low carbing, you may need
more “straight and narrow” than we do.
You also may be one of those “food addiction” people who eat one bite of
sugar free chocolate and immediately run out and scarf down a pound of Snickers
bars. I cannot speak for you, your
needs, your strengths, your weaknesses.
Personally, I can eat one bite of sugar free chocolate most of the time
and then turn around and walk away. You
may not be that person.
So . . . this may be the world’s longest disclaimer, and
some people out there may still
think I’m setting a bad example with my hedonistic approach to low carb. But, as I’ve said before – Paul and I have
stuck with it for nine years; we must be doing something right!
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