Re: 5 1/2 cups a day + lengthy treatise on getting it! & seeing the light?

[Guest guest]

Right.

I found my book last night and went searching through all the underlinings and

reading

the whole thing all over again, looking, like a mad woman, for that reference.

You're right! I sure didn't find it.

I think what must have happened was that, in coming here from Weight Watchers, I

was

used to counting, since I didn't fully " get " the whole of what Dr. A was saying.

I understood the concept, wanted to do it,, but had not INTERNALIZED its

meaning.

(This is something that has taken time for me to accomplish because it

involves " faith, "

and " trust " on my part, which is something I had precious little of after having

gained

weight on some other diets.

So much did I not want to " gain " here that I figured if I followed everything

to the letter

of the law, I wouldn't. . . . so . . . I probably counted up the servings and

came up with a

total daily requirement. Ala If a serving of green and leafy vegetables is one

cup, which it

is, and if we're supposed to have two servings of veggies at dinner and two at

lunch, and a

half a serving at breakfast, and if snacks of beans (a serving is half a cup)

are encouraged

twice a day, that's 5.5 cups.

Without pointlessly going through the archives to determine whether anyone

actually

TOLD me to eat that many cups of veggies a day, I will assume that I probably

just added

it all up and said to myself: " Ye, gawds . . . thatsa lotta veggies! "

Anyway -- the UP side of all of this -- has been that in combing through Dr.

A's words

AGAIN last night, I am hearing them differently. The melody is a little

different.

The first time or two through, I was hearing the marketing in his language,

which might

be necessary to sell a concept to most people, but which turned me off -- even

though I

could see the value of what he was saying.

This time through, I could hear more of the real intent behind the words, more

of his

philosophical " lifestyle " message.

It spoke to me differently.

It said: " RELAX, girl! You're gonna be okay with this. Because, if you're

really eating the

right foods, after a little while, your appetite will undergo a transformation

and, even if

some of your cravings ARE psychological, the urgency of them will be lessened

and your

cravings won't seem so insistent! And you should NEVER go around feeling truly

hungry.

And if you do, you probably aren't eating enough, so go ahead and eat and don't

be

hungry. "

The first time through I had read ALL the same words, but last night when I

read them,

they carried a whole new meaning. There was a lot of " good will " mixed in with

his

message. IT sounded more congenial last night -- less commercial.

The first time, it was like: " Okay. I know you've been weighing and

measuring for a

whole year. . . and while it's true that this might have been the only approach

that worked

for you out of all the various ones that you tried in the past, just listen to

me and I can

make you lose. In fact, we're just going to take that whole weight and

measuring and

portion control concept and throw it out the window. And after a few weeks,

you'll even

be able to eat chocolates, if you want them. And we're going to start over with

my eating

scheme where you can " Eat all you want and still lose 10 pounds the first two

weeks, and,

meanwhile, you're gonna be losing the ugliest part -- your stomach -- FIRST!!

Sign up

now, folks. "

Now that sounded appealing, but way, way, way too good to be true.

(Remember the anecdotal letter from some case study in the book about the

woman who

says she eats two dove chocolates a day, and he tells her that's a good choice

for her if it

doesn't make her blood sugar spike?)

Anyway, tThe book, and this website's file sections, both refer to this way of

eating as a

new lifestyle, and I can see that it is because with Weight Watchers I truly

ruined my whole

diet and gained every time I went to a restaurant..

But, Dr. A insists that that is NOT the case here, and he uses examples of

people who

eat at restaurants several times a week.

I honestly could NOT believe that it would be okay to eat in restaurants,

especially after

my experience of working so hard to lose all those pounds on WW, and then

gaining half

of them back during a one-week business trip where I had to eat in restaurants

and did

my best to do so according to the plan,

The other very, very, very scary thing about SBD for me was HAVING to trust my

own

eating instincts, to determine whether I was hungry or thirsty, or craving

something

besides food, which Dr. A does not really get into, but which a lot of people do

talk abot

on WW.

Cravings are mysterious forces becuase they're feelings -- sometimes very

impulsive

feelings -- and feelings many times do not translate well into words. But, I

can see now

that if I am truly feeling satisfied in my stomach (which has not necessarily

been a given

before as per Dr. A's chapter on foods that make you hungry and want to eat

more) and if

I am NOT experiencing low blood sugar, then chances are less that I'll resort to

food as a

means of soothing hurt feelings or assuaging anxiety.

" Chances are? "

See, I didn't want to leave it at: " Chances are. "

I did NOT want to gain back one single hard-earned lost pound.

So trusting that suddenly now, I could eat to " satisfaction, " which, to me,

meant a nice

feeling in my tummy, was a big, big, big leap! In fact, I am STILL not really

sure it's going

to work, since I honestly have a hard time thinking I can eat two eggs, a piece

of Canadian

bacon, three ounces of flaxseed meal, and have a little soy milk for breakfast

and STILL

lose weight.

But, I am going to suspend disbelief for a while and see.

And, insofar as using food as a crutch, as I'd been used to doing (especially

to get me

through bill paying, or deadline work projects), if I " m used to holding a rice

cake in hand

(thinking it hasonly a few calories so it's okay)., then the thought of putting

down the

" pacifier " is scary. I was afraid that maybe it was impossible.

When I stopped with the rice cakes on WW (because I discovered I had been

devouring

too many of them and they were adding up to too many points), I thought: " Okay,

then

what ELSE can I hold on to? "

( " A bowl of spinach won't work. Celery stuffed with unsalted, natural peanut

butter only

gives me one or two sticks' worth. Regular celery? To me, it gets boring after

a few days.

Carrots? Too high on the glycemic index? Dried tomatoes? Well -- even THEY

start to add

up after a while. Raisins? Definitely too sweet? " )

OR, SO went my thinking.

BUT! Just having eaten a nice, filling protein breakfast, if I start to do my

finances right

now -- holy cow -- I would not WANT ANYTHING TO EAT, except, maybe some

sparkling

water to sip on.

So, maybe that's Dr. A's point. If you're satisfied, you won't need to use

food as a crutch

so much. (Ah, such poetry.)

See -- I had been telling myself: " I don't think this SBD can work if I

don't control how

much I eat here . . . and just allow myself portions. "

BUT -- reading the book AGAIN last night, Dr. A is SO VERY insistent that

portion control

NOT be used.

In other words -- if I don't reach that point of " satisfaction " when I eat

breakfast, then I

am STILL going to want to be putting more food into my mouth while doing other

things.

That's the message I got last night.

AN EPIPHANY!

It's like you have to " let go " before you can " see the light " and stop trying

to control

things.... which -- woo hoooo --- is really rough when you've gained by doing

that

before.

It's like first you have to be a " believer, " and I question everything.

As a skeptic, a person can like a concept, and evem buy into it

wholeheartedly, but still,

when it comes to implementing it, employ behavior designed to " protect against

failure. "

Anyway -- I am not sure whether having this nice, satisfied feeling in my

tummy this

morning (after a breakfast of two eggs and a piece of Canadian bacon and three

tablespoons of flaxseed meal and 1/2 cup of bean sprouts) is going to get me

through

the task of going through my finances -- without having cravings -- or not.

Well -- after exerc ise and a snack -- I suppose it will be put to the test.

And I can see that if I'm going to HAVE to hold onto SOME food, I could just

stretch out

one of those " in between meal " snacks. I COULD see, for example, a combination

of

celery, broccoli, jicama, and carrot sticks with hummus.

Or get some of my mock guac (made by using asparagus/pea puree instead of

avocado)

on veggies in a guacamole recipe.

Or, just sip diet soda or plain soda water with lime.

So, this is not just a " superficial change " in what I eat or how.

For me, it IS a whole different way of relating to the most crucial aspect of

life that

sustains our survival: Food. And that, for me, requires major, consuming and

overwhelming reorientation.

So maybe, in addition to losing cravings during Phase 1, this also will be a

time for me

to recast my thinking a bit.

Whoa!

(Oh . . . . oh . . . .oh . . . oh . . . [silent prayer to the god(s)] please

that I do not gain back

lost weight meanwhile....)

{I mean, is this diet REALLY going to work for an old woman like me? Who

finds it almost

impossible to lose???}

(Don't answer that! I asked it before, and we saw what happened. I tried too

hard on P1

and had to start over. So don't answer it. Also.... I see I can keep it going

for up to a

month if I really need to or want to.)

> >

> > I too went searching through my SBD book for this " instruction " ,

> since

> > I certainly don't remember reading it. While it is true that if you

> > add up the sample menus, you'd come up with about that amount, I

> > bristle at the idea of keeping track of how many cups of vegetables

> > I'm consuming per day. Getting away from " measuring " and " keeping

> on

> > track " is one of the main reasons I've embraced SBD as a way of

> life,

> > and abandoned " dieting " . Plus, it implies that if one consumes 5.5

> > cups in one sitting, the " requirement " (uck!) has been met. Again,

> if

> > you review the sample menus, there are vegetables at most meals,

> which

> > I think, is more to the point.

> >

> > Don't get me wrong! Guidelines to help us make sure we're

> > " South-Beach-Getting-It-Right " are great! And portion size is very

> > important.

> >

> > Mari<-sneaking vegetables into all kinds of goodies!

> >

>