So, I guess this is getting to be more of a periodic report. With my piano class and Bauhaus concert this week, I didn’t have much time to post.
So far, I’ve lost between 3 and 6 pounds depending on what time of day I weigh myself. I am getting just a little bit obsessed with that, feeling that if I am sacrificing so much I need something dramatic in return. I received a great deal of validation last night when I got home. Amy greeted me at the door and remarked that my face looked skinny. I’ve always gained and lost weight in my face, so that was good to hear. It’s not that I’m turning anorexic or anything; I’m just really curious to see if this diet does what it claims to do. I’ve never tried to stick to anything like this before, so I view it more of an experiment that a chore. And, so far, it seems to live up to its claims.
My cravings for “bad” food are virtually absent. I went out for lunch with my staff on Friday and sat amongst deep-fried mozzarella sticks, french fries, juicy hamburgers, bread sticks, etc. and felt nary a pang despite the fact that I had skipped my mid-morning snack and was really hungry. The restaurant had an almond chicken salad on the menu, which I ordered without the sweet ginger dressing. I ate about half of it (a normal SBD-Phase 1 portion, according to my estimates) and did not feel much of a desire to finish it.
Today (Saturday) was sort of tough since I didn’t have work to distract me from hunger. But, I found, a 2-year old can serve that function pretty well!
Speaking of Ray, one observation I’ve had is that he tends to crash hard mid-morning and mid-afternoon. I mean, how often do you get tired-looking toddlers coming up to you and telling you it’s nap time? Based on the theories of the SBD, I tried lowering his sugar/carb (high-GI foods) intake this morning. I gave him half his usual amount of (part-buckwheat) pancakes today and accompanied it with a 1-egg omelette with some rice cheese (good proteins). Sure enough, even though he got up early, he was not asking for a nap around 9:00 and stayed awake and alert and happy until after 11:00! His nap sucked, but only because he has a bad cold.
I know you’re not supposed to be hungry on this diet, and I’m generally not, but I don’t always feel filled up after I eat a meal. Over time, I end up feeling OK, which signals to me that I don’t normally give myself time to digest the food I eat and let it work through my system. I’ve noted also that I have the instinct to start foraging for snacks as soon as I feel even the tiniest bit peckish during the day. At work, I decided to address this by buying what I thought were generally healthy snacks to eat at those times (trail mix, apples, carrots, etc.) — all of which, it turns out, have a high GI and cause blood sugar spikes.
So, I’m learning a lot about my eating habits and how to overcome the bad ones, as well as picking up nutritional tips that help me not even want snacks in the first place.
One side effect of this phase (which has been noted by others, Amy has found) is that our refrigerator is jam-packed with produce (making it hard to find anything) and every dish and pan we own is in the dishwasher from all the cooking and food-prep we’re doing. Under normal circumastances, we’d buy produce for 2-3 meals a week and either eat out or eat poorly (or both) the other nights. It’s a lot of hard work to have a good meal every day; no wonder people don’t do it.
