I don’t really diet. Dieting to me feels temporary. Instead, I looked at my weight loss journey as a lifestyle change. And it was–a complete change. The way I was living wasn’t working anymore. My body was rebelling. It was developing diabetes, my blood pressure was so high I’d have dizzy spells and almost blacked out too many times to count. In other ways my body was letting me know that extra 100 pounds on my body was hurting me. Achy joints, back pain, constantly catching every cold/bronchitis/flu that was going around. I wasn’t healthy, period.
If you are new to the blog, check out these two posts I wrote about weight loss plateaus and cheat days: Why Wednesday – Why I’m Not Losing and Why Wednesday – Why I Don’t Have a Cheat Day.
While I didn’t diet to lose 100 pounds, I have tried a few different diets over the years. After maintaining my weight for awhile, I wanted to try something new.
The first “diet” I tried was the Slow-Carb Diet.
The Slow-Carb diet didn’t work for me for a lot of reasons. The biggest challenge was not being able to eat fruit. Fruit is healthy. Eliminating it entirely from my body seemed unhealthy. Also, I didn’t really see any benefits of this diet. While Michael lost a good amount of weight doing this diet, I did not. Clearly my body didn’t like it! Here are some of the posts from that experience:
The Four Hour Body Diet Experiment
Four Hour Body Diet – The Beginning
My Thoughts on The Four Hour Body Week
There are things about the Slow Carb Diet that I agree with. I think it’s beneficial to limit bread and pasta and stuff like that. Those things seem to make my body want to gain weight. I LOVE bread. Love it. I crave it. But if I stop eating it, those cravings go away and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. However, the second I eat some bread after not eating it for awhile, it’s like crack. It becomes the #1 thing I want to eat and I get kind of obsessed. Yikes!
The second “diet” was going gluten and dairy-free.
The reasoning behind this diet actually came from my mom. She was having some different issues and going dairy and gluten free helped resolve those issues. In my reading I found that the diet cleared up acne for many people, as well as sinus issues. It was worth a try and the fact that my mom was successful on this diet (and lost a lot of weight) gave me hope. Once again, I didn’t see any significant change or improvement. The sinus issues didn’t go away. I lost about an inch around my waist–which IS significant but I didn’t lose any weight. It didn’t fix my acne, either.
In the end the diet seemed more of a struggle than anything and since I wasn’t getting the results I wanted, I stopped it. One thing that stuck around is trying to limit the gluten and bread I eat. We found some gluten-free bread at Costco that is actually REALLY tasty and that’s what we buy now.
When The Diet Stops Working
This post is about the moment when the diet stops working. If you’re just hitting a plateau, you need to do something to shake your body out of it’s habit. Check out these posts: P is for Plateaus, Busting that Plateau and Why Can’t I Lose Weight? They will give you some good ideas on how to bust that plateau and get back to losing.
If it’s NOT a plateau and you just simply aren’t losing weight, then CHANGE IT. There is absolutely no benefit or reason to continue something that doesn’t work. The Slow-Carb diet didn’t work for me, either did the dairy/gluten-free diet. If the diet itself is more of a struggle and misery and you aren’t getting results, TRY SOMETHING ELSE. There is no shame in quitting and trying again. Everyone is different and what works for one person, may not work for you.
To give you another example, I have a friend who has been trying to lose weight and fix her diabetes for a long time. After trying so many different things, high protein diet, dairy-free diet, counting calories, going vegetarian…what ended up working for HER body was going vegan.
Find what works for YOUR body and stick with it!
Courtney @ Don't Blink. Just Run.
I’m off to check out those other articles. I’m plateauing and can’t figure out why. I work out 6 days a week (3 running, 3 strength) and track my calories in MyFitnessPal so I can keep track of what’s going in. I was steadily going down until last August and then it started creeping back up without me changing anything and now I just seem stuck where I am. Maybe your other articles will spark some inspiration.
Lisa Eirene
I love that you are trying to figure out what works. Sometimes just changing things up helps a lot.
Deb
This is my second week getting back on track with WW and my plan of attack seems to be working. I’ve cut out pasta, bread/tortillas (don’t eat bread anyway really), white potatoes, and rice. Beans and sweet potatoes are in, I’m on the fence about oatmeal. Anyway, down 2.4 pounds the first week, I have yet to feel deprived, and I’ve still got to have a few splurges. The sweet potatoes are carby enough to not make me miss the carbs, and have enough fiber to feel good about eating them. Hoping the next few weeks will go just as well. 🙂
Lisa Eirene
Good for you! I like your plan–cut out the breads, potatoes and rice. I need to do the same. I went a little crazy lately with the bread. I also agree that sweet potatoes are an excellent way to get the carbs without the bad stuff.
Jess
What works for me has changed, so even if something has worked for ages it might not work anymore! I lost the majority of my weight eating lower carb, moderate protein, high fat. It worked for ages, and I naturally ate that way anyway. I put some weight on lately and I started purposefully adding more carbs into my diet – unlimited fruit, a bit more bread and pasta – and the weight is falling off me again. My lesson is to listen to my body and adjust if needed!
Lisa Eirene
Isn’t it interesting how your body changes and reacts to different things at different stages of your life? I agree with unlimited fruit and veggies. I think those things are good for you, even if the fruit has sugar in it.
Andrea@WellnessNotes
So true, you have to find what works for you! And you also may have to change things up as you age, etc.
When I stopped eating gluten, my life truly changed as all my painful stomach issues went away. My husband, on the other hand, has much milder reactions to gluten and therefore would never think of giving it up completely.
Lisa Eirene
That’s so great that it worked for you! You and your hubby are like Michael and me. I saw zero difference cutting out gluten and Michael had life-changing results.