Another diet Story..

    Hi, I am a teenage girl, struggling with life and with myself. I am realizing that at this age all I think about is how to impose myself on the world, and I suppose that that’s the case with most teenagers my age, especially the girls. I look at how to improve my physical appearance, I seek for perfection, and I try my hardest to fit to the measures that the world sets for individuals. I was sick about the way my stomach isn’t flat enough, and the way my hips look so large. I’ve recently began to realize how flabby my thighs are. In the late period, just before school was over, I have developed some really bad eating habits, the stress of studying and exams made me  crave all kinds of unhealthy bad foods, so I put on some weight, and by the end of May, my body was covered in ugly fat. I have once tried a carb free diet, and it worked for me like no other diet did before. It’s not technically a diet, as it only has one rule; cut down on added sugars and refined carbs, plus I came up with it myself, after I read an article on the Internet ,once, about the bad consequences of white sugar on health, and I realized that I was consuming too much of the stuff. I had the courage to stop eating sweets, to limit my consumption of useless carbohydrates, giving the fact that I am a sugar freak and that I basically live on sweet sugary foodies. It’s only right to say that to cut down on the sugar it took me “courage”. This was around last October. My stomach got flat, and I was enjoying the feel of a healthy person. I lost it after that. I couldn’t cope with stress without my sugary friends.

So, looking back, I couldn’t find any more suitable diet for me, I like to think of it as a lifestyle, because that’s what it is, really. But it isn’t easy at all; holding myself back of sweets is as hard for me as climbing a mountain. Specially that my family isn’t that helping; both my parents are overweight, and even my siblings don’t have any sense of careful eating. There always are biscuits or some sweet treat in our home. Bread is something that we can’t go a day without (although I am not that fond of the usual bread, the French baguette, but I go crazy for the special kinds like pita and the extra soft ones).

 It’s a real challenge!

I’ve decided to go through it anyway.

It worked great the first week, I didn’t find much temptation, I found an amazing strength in avoiding what I like and sticking to what I should eat. I’ve also included an exercise routine; since it’s hot outside, my workout has to be indoors.                                                                                                     

  However, it didn’t keep on going that well.                                                                                                           

First, there was the family night out, we usually would dine out on Saturday nights, and we would go to this restaurant at the port, such a delightful place! And frankly I love that night, I love the pizza that place serves, but this time I had to sacrifice and to make the safest choice and stay away from the carb trap of pizza, I had turkey steak, and I even got rid of the potato fries.                              Then, I had to assist a family reunion, sort of a party. You can’t hold yourself at a party, everyone is eating and indulging, and you can’t just act like the desperate person-on-diet, and you just can’t stop yourself, all along my stay, I ate cake, cookies, ice-cream and croissant and I drank soda and juice; things that I haven’t touched for so long. I promised myself that once at home, I would get back on track, after all,  this doesn’t happen every day.

I got back home. My cousin came to visit. So, I had to break the rules again; part of having fun and exploiting the very little time we could spend together since we don’t meet with her that often.

Once again, I was at the position to review my eating. Things went out of control, and the little effort I did the first days went in vain. I stood up for myself. I had to make it stop. It just isn’t easy; because everything has sugar. For breakfast, I got some “Bran flakes”; it said on the box that they’re whole grain and high in fiber, I checked the nutritional values table on the back, and I found it had around 5g of added sugar per 30g. It was impossible to get anything that’s purely sugar free, even the ones that claim to be so, have sugar substitutes, something I am not comfortable with at all.        I know, people on a low carb diet are supposed to eat eggs and ham for breakfast, but here is the thing, I tried it, I pretended to like it for a couple days, it just wasn’t my thing, eggs and omelets are great for lunch and for dinner, not for breakfast. So I am left with no choice, a little sugar for breakfast is necessary.

 Now let me go to the fruit debate, some say you should cut it since it’s such a high source of fructose, others say that fruits have such health benefits like vitamins and minerals and it’s unacceptable to stop consuming it, as even for the sugar they have –the fructose- , it is a natural element and it doesn’t have the same effect as white processed sugar, though some fruits like bananas or pears have higher amounts of fructose and are to be consumed in a limit. For me, fruits are something I can’t go without; I am such a  fruit-lover.                                                                               So, decidedly, the fruit stays but with some caution measures, the breakfast cereal as well, and just one small portion of bread. This would be perfect if I followed it to the letter.

Recently, I started to get used to the new diet, I eliminated all sources of added sugar, I am now better at fighting my cravings.  My father got us a box of almond treats covered with sugar, each piece surely has more than 10g of sugar, and do you know what 10g of sugar means? A disaster! Frankly I love those treats, they’re so good. So, I opened the box, looked at them, held a piece of the sweet stuff and carried it straight to my mouth. At such a point, the point where you’re about to break your diet and with it break every piece of resistance you’ve developed against food, your thoughts are messed up; your consciousness is telling you “You shouldn’t do this, don’t just go back to your old habits!” while your desire for the long-banned sugar is convincing that one little treat won’t hurt anybody. I took one bite, and then suddenly realized what I was doing; I put it back into the box and closed it back.

 Finally, it wasn’t about the sweets my father bought anymore, it’s more about putting my choices to test, if I am really insistent about this diet then I won’t allow any craving to step in the way, instead ,little by little, anything I shouldn’t eat must no longer present a craving. 

It’s been about 3 weeks since I’ve been on the low-carb diet; I am already starting to feel a lot better. My waist is thinner and my belly is flat.  I decided it was time to face the scale; it is very important to see your diet make some changes, it helps you feel strongly about it and hold on more to your goals. I experience a little bit of anxiety every time I am weighing myself, certainly because of the importance of the number on the scale, it might be wrong to think this way, but it is what it is.

Thankfully, It turns out I have lost around 4.5 lbs. ; it was amazing, it was all worth it! I must admit that there is more to it than the weight I lost: while cutting down on refined carbs and added sugars, I replaced them with low-calorie, rich in nutrients foods, like vegetables, fruits and nuts, and all that was fueling my body with the right nutrition I needed. I even learned how to cook those foods and I’ve come up with so many creative meals that tasted so much better than the unhealthy ones.    
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