Foodist

In the previous post I noted a blog, Summer Tomato, that really resonated. I got the associated book, Foodist, and have started reading it. According to the kindle, I'm 15% of the way through, and I'm loving it. But I'm trying to read it slowly, to really think about it.

I'm loving this because it exactly conforms to what I think. Her influences are my influences: Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, but also Willpower and the Power of Habit. Her experiences are my experiences, to a limited extent: Atkins, South Beach Diet. Her writing style works for me - she is a neuroscientist and is not afraid of the vocabulary needed to explain things, though she also puts them into more colloquial terms.  And I really like that so far at least, she has not sprinkled the text with little personal stories in boxes ("Janet was typical. She had struggled for years with her weight before coming to me...")  Instead, she runs to lists: "The Top Ten Most Overrated "Health" Foods".  I'm ready and ripe for a change from the mindset I've been in, and this book is helping me crystallize my thinking about what to actually do.

Spoiler alert: her prescription, so far, appears to be eat real food, mostly cooked at home, mindfully. I know this is the thing to do already, and so when not reading, I'm already engaged in an interior dialogue. "I can't cook at home, no time to shop and cook and clean."  At least my last two meals were made at home and featured vegetables and fruit, respectively.  But unlikely I would have done this if I had been going to work this week. Dinner took over an hour to prepare, using foods bought earlier that day that wouldn't have kept. She has promised to help with some of these obstacles, with practical suggestions. We'll see.

Here is how I would characterize my mindset: I've cycled through the same 4-8 pounds for three and a half years, essentially maintaining. This is not a bad thing, since it's more than twenty pounds below where I started. I don't hate the way I look in pictures.  But I'm not really ready to resign myself to thinking this is it for the rest of my life. Instead, I am constantly fixed on how I'm get to get those last fifteen pounds off. And I have found that not trying to lose weight seems to result in gaining weight.  The only way I have actually lost weight in the last three years is strict Atkins. I'm not wild for that now, because it generally works for 3-5 weeks, then fatigue from all the work and planning ahead sets in and I go off it.  I bounce off my rubber floor ten pounds from my goal number. The weight doesn't come roaring back but it does creep back, so back through those same 4-8 pounds I've been recycling.

I'm also tired of the rut I've been in, of what I eat and how I live. That's why I tried the extreme detox. After the detox, I tightened up for a couple of weeks on eating and exercise (following my usual very low carb eating, controlling the night time sweets), so that when I got blood work done for my annual physical, my doctor agreed it was ok for me to stay off the statins I quit some months ago. After the physical, I loosened my focus and had a few binge incidents. But I did away with my "no carbs during the day" rule and really liked how much easier it was to find food to eat. Part of the weariness of Atkins is simply trying to find takeout/convenience food that is composed of meat and vegetables, without bread, rice or potatoes.  Most food trucks, for instance, do not serve salads.  For the last month, I had several social engagements, and then traveled, and I just ate what presented itself. On this last vacation over-eating was not an issue. Finding something I wanted to eat at all was more of a problem, though there was always beer.  Partly because of "la petite maladie de voyageurs" I didn't gain or lose any weight overall.

I'm taking a few days of relative calm to read this book, do chores, and make a plan for the rest of the summer. I am looking forward to summer's bounty, but am uncertain how to cope once I get back to the hectic office.  We'll see.