A number of years ago, I went through a bad eating spell. As it's been many years removed, I don't remember the cause- if I was just drinking too much, or eating too many rich foods for no good reason, or stress eating- and at this point it no longer matters. All I know is that in a matter of weeks I had put on 10 pounds and couldn't fit into any of my pants. I had muffin tops the size of which would rival your favorite baker's.
I immediately went back to my (mostly) healthy ways, and while the weight gain stopped I couldn't lose anything. Growing up I never really had weight issues so I wasn't quite sure how to manage this change. While I, like everyone, could gain and lose a few pounds here and there, I had never gone through such a severe weight gain all at once. I realized that I needed to go on a diet, and after some thought and research I decided that the South Beach Diet was the way to go.
At the time, South Beach was all the rage. I had known some people who had done it and raved about how well it worked and how easy it was. Also, I had rationalized that as my love of carbs was probably a big culprit in the weight gain (when I am absolutely starving I always want nothing more than a big, steaming bowl of pad thai), getting that vice under control would probably be good for me in the long run.
Long story short, South Beach did work. I lost the 10 pounds quickly and managed to keep them off.... for the most part. Hindsight is of course 20/20, and while I tried to adhere to the basic (but not the strict) tenents of a low-carb diet on an ongoing basis, I eventually learned that prohibiting a carb lover from eating most carbs was an inevitable path to failure.
My experience with South Beach did change some of my eating habits for the better, though. For example, it not only cured me of my addiction to vanilla lattes (a calorie trap if there ever was one) but cured me of putting any sort of sweetener in my coffee at all. I avoid refined grains like the plague and no longer stuff my face with a ton of rice and pasta at any chance I get. But, like most people who have done South Beach or Atkins or any of the like, I developed some bad habits, too. One of which is an unnatural fear of fruit.
That was always a problem for me on that diet- fruit is filled with so many great vitamins and goodness I could never understand why it was vilified so. (Well, actually, I do know: it's because of the high sugar content. But... fruit! I mean, c'mon.) So every time I wanted a banana or a piece of watermelon, two of the highest sugar-containing fruits, I felt like I might as well pull out the spanx right then and there because my muffin-top wouldn't be so far behind. And for the longest time I would still eat fruit, but I would limit my intake severely and feel this tug of guilt in the back of my mind, like I just ate a carrot-cake-stuffed-piece-of-poundcake-filled-devil's-food-cake.
I know that this is head-slappingly absurd. And you are probably thinking, "Jordana! You idiot! You run screaming from fruit but are apparently okay noshing on jelly bellies from the Evil Bar of Doom? Do you not see the folly???" Yes, yes I do. I don't claim to be the worlds smartest, most rational human being. But my point is-- and yes, I have a point after all this storytelling-- is that I am proud to report that I have kicked my fear of fruit. Really, is there anything more Au Naturale? I go organic whenever possible, of course, but I now keep a ready supply of apples, bananas, oranges and clementines by my desk. When the 3pm hunger hits, they are easy to reach for. I used to try to convince myself that they were the better snack option, but the "ugh, I just don't feel like fruit right now" excuse would win out every time. Now, it is easier to convince myself to go for the fruit over something like, say, jelly bellies, because they have the Au Naturale excuse. I can control my temptations, as I mentioned in my one-month reflection, because needing and wanting to eat Au Naturale instead is an easier argument to win than just "don't eat those because you shouldn't!" For the record, in the past two weeks I haven't even noticed if the jelly belly container is filled.
I know I have probably bored you with this post by stating the obvious: a three-pager extoling the virtues of fruit like it's new information. Let's just call this one of the food-diary-journaling entry days. I'm happy that I've realized that a way to quench my 3pm cravings was simply sitting in front of me this whole time and easier to implement than I thought it would be. Now that I have gotten that out of my way, let's see what we will learn this weekend, shall we? Stay tuned...
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