Karen - Day 122 - Burbank, CA
Lunch
To let myself off the hook about what I "think" I should be eating or doing is like a vacation. I've been on so many diets for so many years I have a suitcase full of ideas from the world of "they say".
The no carbs diet, the blood type diet, the grapefruit diet, the cleanse, the shakes, counting calories.....I've tried it all. They all worked. For awhile. I would reach my goal. (I love a goal.) And then I'd reward myself by eating all of the things I had denied myself. You know where I'm going with this. I'm nothing if not a cliche.
But I'm not an idiot. I knew deep down this is where my answer was. I fought hard against this being the answer. I would have rather walk 64 miles a week and mindlessly go up and down 640 flights of stairs instead of this being the answer. If I had started this experiment with no breakfast except a pot of tea, the lunch above and the same thing for dinner I would have been depressed for weeks. It would have felt like another diet. To me, Diet=Denying myself.
This is not a diet. I was not hungry at breakfast so I did not eat it. I was actually excited when I started to get hungry around lunchtime and enjoyed thinking about and deciding what I would have for lunch. BBQ rib dipped in sauce. (I love to dip.) Fresh baguette with butter and cheese. I made some iced jasmine tea to go with it. (I know, Michele, tea with lunch is not French!) The joy of eating is important. I have missed it. Now that I have it back, I'm hanging on for good.
It's interesting that "I" tried everything I could think of for 119 days before I finally asked for some divine guidance. Divine guidance brought me to science. Science brought me these 2 facts.
1. If I ate 10 hamburgers a day or 1/4th of one hamburger a day, my stomach would get used to this in 3 days. Which means I have been eating what I have deemed the right portions for myself and I can change that. In 3 days. I will not be denying myself anything because I will be full, just like before.
2. People only "taste for flavor" for about 3 or 4 bites of food. I've been trying this and for me it's really only the first 2 bites. After that it's just eating to fill up.
Shaboom told me that in France it is unheard of to eat standing up. Stores are closed for hours to enjoy lunch. It becomes an event. (Now, it's not going to take hours to eat French Skinny portions so I can only imagine what shenanigans are going on after lunch in a locked store! Ah the French.....)
