Making Changes: Weightloss is mostly in your food.

Wed, Feb. 8, 2017  256.6 Lbs

Hi, I am the Quarter Cajun Couillon, and I live where people are fat. I don't mean just fat, I mean they are fat fat (really fat for the outsiders). The food is wonderful, and I could eat it all day long and never tire of it.  And it shows round my midrift--a whole lot of belly fat. But, alas, I am a quarter Cajun, so northern desserts get me, too. I am an equal oppertunity absorber.

So, at the beginning of this year, I decided, totally not of my own free will (nah, I chose to do so, me...just wouldn't have started so quickly without family encouragement), to start controlling what I eat,  and getting off my butt to exercise and "lift weights".

And like most people who have to make a big lifestyle change, especially with seafood resturaunts like The Shack in Houma (the only place I know of where the onion rings are good cold!), it is hard to find the motivation to make dietary changes.

And I mean permanant ones, whole lifestyle changes. Part of it is that you cook the way your family cooked. Most Cajuns that I talk to do not follow recipees--and those that do, they rarely are exact.  (May God help someone that puts a gumbo recipee  down on paper that ain't Cajun enough.)

So, here I sit, needing to measure my own cooking, and needing to try out recipees, to see how much I dislike being told how long I should boil and sear meats for, and who gave these measurements out? (Don't you know they ruins it?!?!) And for the love of all that is holy, there is such a thing as spices!

But as most all the health nuts on my friends and family list say, more than just weightloss is in your food. And your wellbeing is actually more important than your weight.

So, here's to the month-long journey, so far, it's ups and downs:

Like a lot of plans, your meals and snacks should be automatic.  I buy a shake mix from a really good company, that frees me from having to think of 2 of the 3 meals you should eat a day. My snacks are mostly around 100 calories, often 2 a day: heavy whipping cream in rich coffee (if you see the bottom of the cup, it is a weak tea, NOT coffee), in the morning with no sugar. The middle snack is veggies, Harvest Snaps, or pistachios, and yes, the company has snack options. This leaves me with one 400-600 calorie meal to plan, a day.

I get intense arthritic style pain with highly refined amounts of sugars, so, that's a thing of the past, for me. I do not get them with any of the other assumed triggers. Bloating comes from breads, and isn't good for PCOS.

Other than 2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream, and they whey in the shakes, most days I do not have dairy.  Fats, I don't worry about--just avoiding high-glycemic foods, for the most part.)

Your first month you are, for the lack of a better word, detoxing.  Your body is used to all the things you are now denying yourself, the tastebuds are in the habit of tasting things a certain way, adjusted to all the crud you eat. Your palette will continue to change after this, but the hardest part is that first month.  This no sugar thing ruined the taste of soy sauce for me, forever. Switching over to aminos salvaged that situation.

The biggest culprit in  my weight gain has been poor eating timing. Skipping meals arbitrarily messes with your blood sugar levels and if you are not strict about counting calories, triggers overeating. I have actually scheduled my meals and snacks because I could not find a rhythm to my eating habits. I can guaranter that while I put on weight, a third of my days, I ate under 1000 calories.  But meals need to be closer to 400-600 calories.

But, it has lead to around a 13 lb weightloss since the beginning of the year.

Well, that's enough exposition, this is supposed to be food commentary, not my health issues!

Let's eat!