Diet decisions, little things

After writing yesterday that I was not as excited about a low carb diet as I was about encouraging Mama, she and Kim Cantrell had a very long discussion and came to the conclusion that there are better, less faddish ways to change our diet sufficiently enough to lose the weight that is troubling both of us. As stated yesterday, I do not do well with a high protein, high fat diet. For some reason, my digestive system cannot process proteins or fats in the quantity required to sustain that diet – and, believe it or not, I do not lose weight on that diet. Though counting carbs is an easy way to monitor intake, it has never worked for me. I do far better if I fast; if I just quit eating. However, that does not work for Mama. And it is not a good long-term diet plan. I know Mama realized that I was struggling with the low carb diet. I was doing it to help and encourage her. And it worked.

Over the years Mama has gotten several books outlining various diet plans but none have been effective in the long run. She would follow one and lose a significant amount of weigh only to gain that weight back after reverting to “normal eating”. We have always needed a diet plan for a lifetime. A change-of-life diet plan. I believe in this renewed effort to find a solution, Mama may have stumbled onto something workable. It is far too soon to tell for sure, but we are looking at a couple options that focus more on the overall attitude toward food, both in consumption and preparation. Not only what to eat but how to combine foods in beneficial ways as opposed to creating weight control issues through unhealthy combinations. Mama is excited about a renewed focus on something we can do that will change our eating habits, not just jumping on a fad diet that cannot be a life-long pattern of behavior. We will see how this turns out, but I am encouraged, and my digestive system is relieved.

Last night Mama attended a party at Erin Echeveria’s. it was a “Ditch Your Bra” party selling bras that were not called bras. Not sure how that works, but she had an interesting time. She did not order anything if that is any indication of how impressed she was with the product and the prices. I am sure she was tempted to buy just to support Erin, but I had cautioned her to avoid spending any money. We have way too many other things to do with money that are not discretionary expenditures. She did share a couple things with me about the party, but I had to shut her down when she got a little too graphic about the fitting portion of the product demo. I go to church with all the ladies that attended the party.

While she was at the party I worked outside. Last week we brought home four file cabinets from Rick’s. I had emptied those cabinets, but they needed to be cleaned of the dirt, the mouse droppings and mud dauber nests. The shop vac made easy work of that. So, I began to fill the drawers of the largest of the four with items that were sitting on the floor of the shop and on open shelves. At least in the cabinets they will stay cleaner than out in the open. The cabinets still need to be painted, but two of the four are in the place where they will sit for the foreseeable future.

Once that was at a point that I felt I had spent enough time on tidying up the shop and packing items in the cabinets, I got the weed eater and made some more adjustments to see if I could make it less awkward and painful to use. I still need to work with it, but I have finally gotten to the point that I can use it for more than thirty minutes at a time, but I am not there yet. It still hurt my back to use the weed eater, but not as quickly as in the past. Maybe I made a little progress. Time will tell.

After my mile walk to the end of our road and back, I was done for the evening. Or at least I thought I was. When Mama got home, fairly late, she was in the mood to talk. Mostly about what she was reading in one of the two books she is working her way through in her study of a workable diet plan for us. It was interesting enough and she was excited enough about the information that we were up until almost 11pm.

By that time, I really was done.