Tuesday. July 10

All I can say is Enough is Enough! Cecily needs to get to MI, so it is time for the powers to be to heal her!!!!!

I missed your good day! You must have another one super soon!

I hope all is well and your are already feeling better.

Checking in. Need to catch up.

No weight. Don't think I'll do it for a week or so. I was hoping to be as strict as Liz, but not off to a good start!

We're baaaack.. Vacay went about as I expected. Becca had more trouble with traveling than at home. And there is nowhere to escape with a crying baby. I feel sorry for the people in the hotel room next to us! I hated to tell my husband "I told you so" but I kinda did.

But it was okay and I'm sure we'll look back on it more fondly. It's just super stressful when your baby is wailing and you feel like you're ruining others' time.

Since this is a maintenance/diet thread, I have some musings.

My DSS was in a CRUDDY mood for most of the vacay, especially the first day, because he couldn't eat exactly what he wanted for his diet, and because he found out there was no gym. I think that's too bad that he had a hard time enjoying and was actually upset at the disruption of his routine.

Also, on our trip several in the group had lost weight recently doing a variety of things, primarily "intermittent fasting" and "keto." I dislike both of these. A lot of what I've rread about intermittent fasting involves waiting 8 hours or so between eating, however one in our group didn't eat for 72 hours once! This just doesn't seem healthy. And Tbh, it seems like a lot of adults eat only 2 meals a day in a sort of intermittent fast...and this skipping breakfast and just eating a couple large meals seems to be contributing to the problem! Keto. Hmmm. My friend says she does "lazy keto" and I inferred that she meant they do eat some carbs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think ketosis is a blood sugar (?) thing and in any event you're in or out--I thought it was very strict on carbs?! I'm just veeeeerrry skeptical of low carb anything if it's for the purposes of ketosis. I do think you can limit carbs and fill up on protein and that can be good. But I remember the Atkins days when people would drop 30 pounds and gain it back twice as fast!!

I just don't think you can cheat the system. What I believe in boils down to this: 1) something you can stick to (most of the time), 2) calories in/calories out.

But then again, I've always been fat, so maybe don't ask me.

I just get sad when I hear people having such strict diets nowadays that we can hardly have dinners together because everyone is on a different diet! (like my friend who does Whole30 every few months....in reality that's supposed to be an elimination diet to see what might be making you sick). I think all these diets are really unhealthy for our diet culture and our relationship with food. I think they are attractive because it's easy to go somewhere and tell someone "NO I cannot have that" rather than limiting oneself. But it's also just pushing the problem off. When can we just love food again?

But then again, as I sit here typing this, i'm having trouble dropping this baby weight. And I took the "easy way out." So...

Well said, Bonnie!

I agree with you completely on the diet thing. If there is anything I've learned in my uncountable diets over the years and with the success I've had over the last couple of years is that it comes down to moderation, not fads. Moderation in portion, in calories, in simple carbs, in frequency of eating... At the end of the day, going too extreme with any dieting just doesn't work. It just increases cravings.

There is clinical evidence for benefits of intermittent fasting for sugar control and weight control.

But, about our diet culture. It is fascinating to see so many varieties on your vacation. A diet zoo of sorts.

The American Diet is so messed up from farm subsidies to scientifically modifying terrible foods so that we crave them, to mass media marketing, to gigantic portion sizes, to a breakdown in the ability to throw together simple foods for simple meals, that it is no wonder that people do crazy things with diets.

A large portion of the population only knows crazy. They don't recognize moderation. They are only able to control calories by elminating food groups.

I think this is related to so many peeps wanting a pill for everything. Diet culture. Pill culture. (It has been a long day and I am now hallucinating....)

Traditional diets don't work. What works is changes in habits. The end. ds

Perfectly said.