Zero Variance

I'm pretty sure that sometime around February last year, I blogged about Stuart and I starting out trying the low carb diet that my dad was having success with. We did quite well for several months and I was noticing some changes: I lost some weight, the mid-afternoon sugar crashes were diminishing, my skin was improving; it was generally good.

I don't remember exactly when or how, but we slowly fell off the wagon. Sugar started creeping back in and it IS an addictive substance, so once it started, there was no stopping the onslaught. In the last couple of weeks, under the increasing stress at work, I was back up to several cola's a week, plus desserts, chocolate, ice cream, the works.

And even when I was being super good about my food choices, the cravings for bread, sweets, etc. never went away. It was very frustrating that when I was planning meals, snacks, etc. my first thoughts were always of cola, crackers, rice, pasta and all the other things that I wasn't supposed to be eating. Many of the ladies over on a board I frequent are doing well with the Whole30 program, so I went to take a look. And I think I'm gonna try it. It's possible that part of my downfall was what they call "Sex With Your Pants On" food - that is, trying to recreate junk food with "paleo approved" ingredients.

Stuart is mostly on board - in that we'll plan our major meals and snacks appropriately and if he's going to cheat, he'll do it when I'm not around. So we spent the weekend eating most of the food in the kitchen that is not appropriate. The plan was to start today and I made the Chipotle Bacon Chicken last night for dinner. However, I couldn't find bacon without added sugar and after I poured in the bottled adobo sauce, I realized that of course it has sugar in it.  Argh. So I guess we're easing into this. I'm not going to call it Day One until I'm completely compliant though. I did make compliant fritattas for breakfast this week and this morning I had gen mai cha instead of my usual Dilmah black tea (I'm not trying to ditch caffeine at this point, but black tea just isn't the same without milk and sweetener!)

I fully expect to be cranky, grouchy and unhappy for at least a week or two. But lately I've been cranky, grouchy, unhappy, with bad skin, poor sleep and still carrying a bit more weight than I'm happy with. Changing my diet won't make work less stressful, but I'm hoping that in the long term, it will help me deal with that stress in a more healthy way.