But this morning I was 20 pounds lighter than when I started back in March of last year, finally. It took a couple of trips to a new endocrinologist, but his approach to treating my diabetes is to get me to stop eating carbs and to lose weight. I have been really trying to limit my carbs for about eight weeks, but when he got me going on the harshest phase of the Atkins diet two weeks ago, I realized that I had still been eating way more carbs previously than this diet calls for.
In addition, the carbs I am eating come mostly from low-carb vegetables, and some dairy, and never from breads, chips, anything sweet, pasta, or even fruit. Things like broccoli do not have very many carbs in them, so I have to eat a decent portion of veggies with every meal to get enough carbs.
The toughest thing about a low-carb diet, especially the strict version, is that it's boring. After a short while, every meal feels like eggs again, ham again, fish again, hamburger again, along with tomatoes again, avocado again, salad again, and maybe a piece of cheese, again. They try to make the list of foods you can eat seem longer by listing twelve types of cheese and ten types of salad dressing, but the list of foods you cannot eat is longer. I can list 15 types of fruit, 18 products made with flour, and 20 desserts easy. Plus rice, corn, and pretty much everything. Plus alcohol.
The thing is though, my blood sugar readings are way down, and I am losing weight. So when the doctor asked me what I wanted to do now, I said that I would stick with the extreme version of the diet longer. To lose 20 pounds, I had to pass a magic weight that is very hard for me to get under. In the past, I have approached that weight many times, but it is very hard to cross below it. Right now though, I am five pounds under, and I think the only way to stay there or go lower is to eat very few carbs.
