As I reach around 40 kilos (90 lbs) of weight loss I’ve been
reflecting on how it has happened.
I didn’t mean to lose weight. Don’t get me wrong – I was
delighted, but it was accidental, in the main. And easy. In the main.
Because I needed to sort out my blood sugar, I started
eating a low Gycaemic Index diet (low GI). Sod losing weight, I mean, heaven
knows I needed it – still do come to that, I hardly look like the after pic in
the Before and After stories, but that could wait. The blood sugar was the
priority and to make sure I got that under control the weight loss would have
to come later. Except that is not how it worked out.
Firstly I needed to get my head around what a low GI diet
meant. Broadly it is low sugar or food that will convert easily into sugar in
the blood. So sugar, flour, rice, cooked root veggies, tropical fruit,
sweetcorn and pumpkin, fruit juices and other mixers, beer, and a host of other
favourites were all now on my seriously portion control list. This had to be a
lifestyle so nothing was going to be forbidden – if I was self proclaiming a
ban on certain foods, it would virtually guarantee I couldn’t stick to it, so
nothing was out, but I wasn’t going to eat them on a daily basis any more,
either.
Then there was the processing, and what it was eaten with.
Broadly, the less processed the better, and that included chopping and cooking
times. Cooking breaks down the cellular structure, making the food easier to
digest, and therefore increasing the GI. So, carrots eaten raw are low GI,
whereas cooked they leap up in GI points. If I wanted, say, spaghetti, it
should be al dente and skinny spaghetti, but also served with an oily sauce –
carbonnara or bolognaise, for example, since the fat means that there is less
of an impact on the blood sugar. So, higher fat! I had no idea.
It also isn’t necessarily the same for the same food – an apple
might have a very different GI from another of the same variety and size; or
for different people – what is high GI for me, may not be as high for you, and
vice versa. Just to compound this, the low GI thing is also hard to get your
head around as there is so much nonsense online about it. Anyone can set up a
website or a facebook page and produce a glossy recipe selection of low carb
and low GI foods and so many are just wrong. Rice cakes, breads, and pasta
feature so often in these 20 (or 50; or 100) favourite low GI dishes that it
can get confusing.
And then there is the classification. Glycaemic Index is
divided into low (under 56), medium (under 70) and high (above 70). Glucose has
a GI of 100 and everything else is then measured from that. Now, the problem I
had with this, is that, strictly speaking, I could eat entirely from the low GI
range but still eat too many carbs as the upper end of that range isn’t
actually that low. So, I decided to try to eat almost entirely from the under
30 range, giving myself the leeway to have a dessert, or chocolate, from time
to time. And this has worked well for me.
So, that first week I tucked into pork belly (without the
potato accompaniments) and cheeses (without the bread or biscuits) and veggies
and steaks and houmous and crudités. I drank wine and tea, gallons of tea, with
full fat milk. And to my utter amazement, the weight fell off. Hugely that
first week. Largely due to the water retention that sorted out in a week of low
GI eating.
It took a while to get used to not having the carb sides –
leave the bread, no noodles for me, and potatoes. Like a smoker who has got as
far as quitting buying cigarettes and now bums them from friends, I’d have a French
fry from someone’s plate. After all, it was better for me than a jacket or
boiled potato – at least from a low GI standpoint! And the weight kept coming.
Portion control has really been the key. I crave a gin and
tonic, so have a sip from a friend’s. A spoonful of rice when the curry is too
hot (and I’m a total spice wuss so this is more often than I’d like!), a
spoonful of mac and cheese at a kid’s birthday party.
When I first started eating low GI, weight loss wasn’t my
goal, but once I realised it was so very much easier than I’d ever found it in
the past, that changed. At the beginning, losing weight involved practically no
effort. I ate within my self imposed rules and lost weight easily. Soon a
pattern emerged. I would lose a chunk of weight overnight, generally on an
evening I’d stayed home and eaten very little for dinner the night before. The
following day most of that weight would be back on and I’d slowly get down to
that magic number I’d landed on the week or fortnight, or even month, before.
Then the pattern would start again. This meant that most of the time I would be
trying to get down to where I was before. Until I realised and relaxed into
this pattern, that was quite a downer. Understanding that – and as I plotted my
weight on Excel, I was able to produce graphs at the touch of a button which
showed it so clearly – really helped me.
I knew Christmas would be a problem. I have such a sweet
tooth and I was compounded by the fact that I was going to be making mince pies
and cakes for people to buy over the Christmas period. All that temptation. So
I bought the most fabulous cheese selection. I indulged massively, putting on
weight (huge amounts of cheese!) but managed to keep my blood sugars under
contol. That was the most important. It took six weeks to lose that weight and
get back on track with more weight loss but I’m there. Back on the slow bumpy
downward slide of the graph towards a normal(ish?) weight.
The weight loss has been fabulous, but it isn’t the only
side effect. I’ve got energy. I’ve got spark. I’ve got an enthusiasm for life
again. Some days I practically bounce around the room like Tigger, struggling
to keep the energy at bay. Not by any means all the time, but certainly a lot
more than before. Before I didn’t want to get up. Ever. I’d practically stopped
moving. Clearly this is not good.
Now I’ve filled my computer with cheesy songs that get me
dancing. I bounce around the house. I walk more – not enough, but more. I try
but generally fail to do my 10,000 steps a day, I sometimes use a step machine,
though not enough, and the stationary bike, though... It’s not enough, but it’s
a lot better, and it’s improving all the time. From time to time I screw up – I
got cocky about how much fitter I was and the lump on my Achilles tendon hasn’t
gone down yet. I need to take it slowly, and I’m doing that, so I don’t beat
myself up over it. I just make small steps all the time in the right direction.
Buying new clothes (and getting out the old clothes I’d
grown out of) was wonderful. I felt better, I received heaps of compliments, I
loved it. And that spark. The more energy I have, the more weight I lose, the
more compliments I receive, the better I feel about myself, the more the spark
is there. And it ends up with an upward spiral where it gets easier and easier
to move, so I move more, and I eat less and I feel better and I get more
compliments and I lose more weight and it gets easier to move and so it
continues. I have a zest for life again. And what could be better than that.
To this
And on it goes.
