Reprograming

I started a new diet Monday. I wasn't excited about it. To be honest, I was working on being happy where I was. Ok, so it wasn't happening, but I was working on it. Steve has been unhappy with his weight so he decided he was going to try this new program. It cost us over $100 to buy the package and I guess at $60 each to lose weight it's cheaper than Weight Watchers.

But it's not like Weight Watchers at all. Instead of me deciding what I'm going to eat, I have a list of exactly what I can eat and when I should eat it. Instead of flexible points, I have a set menu. Ok, so there is variety within that menu, but not a lot. For example, we must have a protien at each meal. steve gets 4oz I get 2oz (cooked weight.) we can have chicken, turkey, and fish, every once in a while we can choose beef but we can't have as much. For three meals we get a carbohydrate. Now in this diet, we get potatoes and white rice as well as oatmeal and a whole bunch of grains that no one actually eats like barley, millet, strange African grains that can only be purchased in specialty stores in large cities and not anywhere near Bedlam, ID. (which is not a real town, btw. Bedlam is a state of mind and only achieved after years of motherhood.) Veggies three meals and Fruits three meals and yet once again, the aproved list has like five each that we can actually find here and the rest are weird things that are only added to round out the cards and make it look like the diet has lots of variety to it.

Why do these diets think they can get away with this? really, who actually ate Jicama until Dr. Atkins came along? millet? do you ever say to yourself "now what I"m really craving is a nice big bowl of millet!" So you get this big ol' list with your diet of all the food that you are allowed and at first glance you think "hey! this is good! I can have potatoes!" then you start reading the list. I don't live in Alabama, I doubt i can buy okra around here.

This diet also treats salt like a posion. we must avoid it at all costs. It's crazy. So all of the sudden, the potatoes which looked wonderful two minutes before now don't look so good. ever eaten potatoes without salt? yeah. exactly.

No dairy. aparantly "Milk is for making baby cows fat." since I am neither a baby nor a cow nor intending to get fat, aparantly milk is not for me. however, since I have a baby who needs to be fat eating from what I eat, I have added milk back into the diet. She was starting to get more demanding and asking for food more, so I decided I needed to be sure I had enough of the right nutrients for her.

So after all that complaining you may ask "why the heck are you still doing this crazy diet? why didn't you sell the thing back and go buy yourself something cute with that money?" Because I've lost five lbs in five days. Because my sweetie who is perfect with the diet and never cheats has lost ten. Because I have to be seen in a bathing suit at the beach in five weeks. Because I'm tired of my shadow looking like someone took scalloped deco scisors to the side of it.

I'll stick with it for awhile longer and see where it gets me. It's amazing what you can do with chicken, oatmeal, potatoes, and egg whites. ;)