Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Game? What game?

I knew yesterday was a travel day, and the older I get the harder travel days are. That trip to Tennessee takes a good, solid seven hours. The trip TO my daughter's is less difficult – I'm excited to be going, I'm moving from EST to CST, so there's more day left when I get there, I have more energy starting out.

Coming home, though, I catch myself sliding onto the warning grooves at the edge of the highway. I literally have had to pull into a rest stop and sleep for a while the last two trips home. By the time I leave her neck of the woods and head toward mine, I've spent however many consecutive days on the go. This trip was an especially on-the-go one, punctuated at the end by building a bed, which was quite the project.

I didn't eat a single meal yesterday, only crappy gas-station-convenience-store snacks. Good thing I only filled up twice. And when I got home I knew I wouldn't be watching the BCS Championship game (congratulations, Alabama!) with my husband, even though that was my intent. I woke up at around 11 p.m. and watched less than five minutes of it – enough to see LSU fumble the ball on a 4th and long. It just wasn't Louisiana's night. And Alabama's defense was, apparently, awesome.

So. No comment-love about moving from calorie-counting to carb-counting. It's kind of ironic that I stocked up on grains and seeds at Whole Foods and am now contemplating putting them in storage.

The thing is, I really think eating whole foods of all kinds provides optimum nutrition. The vitamins and minerals and macronutrients in fruits, grains, vegetables, milk and meat are what we need for good health. Or at least that's what the FDA wants us to believe. I haven't been able to lose weight following the FDA guidelines, but my blood work looks good. I guess it's what's inside that counts?

My 5'6" size-four daughter dropped five Christmas pounds in less than a week. She's been low-carbing most of the time for several months and it's really working for her. I am, as Scarlett said, pea-green with envy. She doesn't work out. She works, goes to law school, studies, takes care of her house and children; there's no time for working out. She never seems to run out of energy to do the next thing on her list.

She's not following a paleo plan. She uses sugar-free creamer in her coffee. She eats sausage and bacon, cheese and beef stick, less frequently than chicken, but she has plenty of processed meats in her fridge. She eats lettuce and celery. A lot of lettuce and celery.

Size. Four.

You do the math.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There seem to be some people who lose weight when they eliminate a certain type of food, regardless of calories - for instance my husband, who never lost weight until he removed grains. It doesn't matter how many grains I don't eat, or anything else for that matter. As always, the mysteries of weight loss are baffling.

Unknown said...

I would have a lot of trouble sticking to that kind of plan but some people do quite well with it. Check out the Harvard healthy plate for another perspective.

Day Last

 Mike finished his chemo yesterday. The cumulative effects of four rounds beginning in early July are making him pretty uncomfortable, and t...