Monday, January 12, 2009

Commitment Issues

I have a confession to make. I have diet commitment issues. Oddly, my problem isn't the ability to stick to the diet so much as choosing which diet to be faithful to. In this day & age of choices, I'm really at a loss to narrow it down to just one plan. I was pretty sure that sticking to 1200 calories a day (preferably by eating 200 calories 6 times a day) was the best way to go. Then, I started questioning whether that was really enough. I have the book The PH Balance For Miracle Weight Loss. It claims that if my PH balance is off that I won't be able to lose weight. Which makes sense to me. So, what if I'm killing myself on 1200 calories of rabbit food a day and it doesn't work because those 1200 calories weren't alkaline?

My friend Kelly made an excellent suggestion to try the Blood type diet. Only, I keep forgetting to get the book. I did look it up online and it made a ton of sense. I'm gathering from certain traits that I have that I'm in the gatherer group, but I can't remember for sure what my blood type is and so I'm questioning whether I'm really putting myself into the right group or not. I thought about going to the Red Cross blood drive so that they would tell me my blood type, but they won't take my blood since I'm anemic right now... Hmmph. So, for now I've been keeping that in mind as I make food choices and trying to eat somewhat gatherer like while hoping that I actually am a gatherer.

I thought about simplifying things and just going with a pre-packaged plan like Nutrisystem. I truly love built in portion control. Only, I don't love that when I read the ingredient list for several of their entrees there were so many chemicals and additives. Deep down, I have to believe that it's better for my body to eat real food than to eat processed stuff even if it is in the right calorie range. I've always kind of been a whole foods girl at heart. Besides, too much soy and sodium make me feel sick. Same thing for Slim-fast. Love the premeasured readiness of a chocolate can of goodness, but the sugar sends my body on a blood sugar roller coaster which for me = more food cravings, moodiness, and exhaustion. Not the way i like to lose weight.

A lot of my friends have been having great success with Weight Watchers. While I understand what they mean when they say they prefer to count points, I just don't like counting points myself. Why I don't know. Somehow to me, checking the calories, carbs, and/or glycemic index is fine but counting points is annoying. Weird, I know. I also have several friends that are seeing a registered dietitian. This, I'm strongly considering. If I could only get past the $$$ shock part I would go to her in a heart beat. Sure, the fact that you have to strip down and get measured at every visit sends me into an anxiety attack, but I'm sure it's worth it. If only for the fact that she would be giving me precise instructions to follow as to what to eat and how to work out. Maybe that would take the difficulty out of making a commitment to a diet plan?

For now, (this week) I'm committing to the low carb thing. Basically just because it was something that I had the ingredients for on hand. Also, I want something that will give me rapid results (I have to step on the scale at the Dr. 11 days from now, after all.) I know that as long as I COMMIT to a low carb plan that I'll drop a decent amount of weight. Right now, I'm desperately craving refined carbs and cheese. For some reason, a tuna melt sounded awesome, only I just had the tuna and pouted over the bread. And don't get me started on how bad I want Taco Bell's fully loaded nachos. What is it with these cheesy things that's calling my name? I was way too excited when I read the nutrition info on the back of my lunch meat package and found out that there are 0 carbs & that I could have some. Here I was sad because I thought it was honey ham and would be off limits and it turned out I'd actually bought smoked turkey after all! I'll tell you what, there's nothing like depriving yourself to make you appreciate some strange stuff. Never before in my life would I have cheered about lunch meat.

Maybe after a couple weeks of ketosis, I'll branch out to the PH Balance diet or something. We'll see. I do have commitment issues, after all. With so many choices, I just don't know which one to choose! All I know is that I have to actually stick with one long enough to get the desired effect but I'm hoping that doing a little of each is better than not doing any diet at all. Maybe they'll have some sort of cumulative effect? What is your favorite way to diet?

7 comments:

Jenn said...

I LOVE the Atkins diet. For a few reasons:

1. I lost something like 45 lbs on it when I first did it.
2. Whenever I go low carb, I feel amazing, like there's not a jiggly bit of water retention in my body.
3. The results come fast, and I lovvvve watching the numbers on the scale drop.

I'm currently doing the 1200 calorie thing, and it's okay. I don't feel deprived (usually)... though last night had a handful of pretzels and some kashi crackers after I'd already hit my caloric limit... I just am psycho and want to see results SO FAST.

I don't like waiting.

~J (Ex Hot Girl)
http://exhotgirl.blogspot.com/

J. Baxter said...

I'm feeling your pain. You know I use weight watchers as a general rule, but right now I'm trying to branch out in the hopes that something new will be motivating. The result? I'm floundering around with you in the sea of Indecision. Let me know if you find solid ground anywhere!

Kelly said...

I totally understand how you feel. And then I read more and more and get more and more disloyal to any diet while I jump around like crazy-completely unable to commit to anything.
My mom has the library of all libraries on health books. Atkins, Fit for Life, The Fat Flush Plan, Body for Life, Suzanne Somers, Body Type Diet (the one I was telling you about...there's a Blood Type Diet too?!), Calorie counting, the grapefruit diet. Honestly.

I think she mostly likes books about getting healthy to lose weight. Whenever you decide which diet to do, you should get on over to House of Koni and check out her collection before you buy anything.

I am shooting for the Atkins/low carb thing right now too. Mainly because I did some of the Fat Flush plan last month and got pretty used to life without major carbs. Thought I'd throw some Atkins my way for a change. I hope I have as much success as your first commenter.

Sorry about the LOOOONG comment!

Sabs said...

I am the same as you when it comes to make a commitment to a diet, but what I have realised is that almost any diet programme will work if one just sticks to it over the long-term.

JavaChick said...

I keep coming back to calorie counting - and doing my best to make healthy choices. I do find it takes some trial and error to figure out how to best use my calories, and I find I have to give myself one day/week off from counting where I just try to be sensible.

But, after a while I still get tired of the counting. Then I end up stopping. Eventually I always seem to come back to it though.

Melissa said...

I know exactly how your feeling! My husband and I started diets at the first of the year, we have just been keeping our calorie intake under 1200 and exercising everyday..three weeks later, he has lost 25 pounds and I have lost only 4 pounds and I lost that the first week and the last two weeks I haven't lost anymore. I feel like I am sacrificing so much and then when I see that I am not losing anymore I get so discouraged, So like you I am now thinking that I need to try something different but I have no idea what to try next...its so frustrating!

Wei Sic Meow said...

I feel your (commitment) pain, I have the same problem. Right now I'm low carbing too. But you aren't eating cheese? For me it's the biggest advantage of low carb diets over low fat diets. I can't stay off that yellow crack!

Good luck. I hope you make it to a satisfactory number for your Dr's visit. And find the right plan for you.