(I forgot to mention last week, that while dropping sugar seemed to make a difference in the kids behaviour, that was probably something to do with the preservatives and un-pronounceable ingredients in a lot of those foods.)
So now for the selfish actions. I’m completely ok with this by the way. It’s perfectly alright to do something for yourself!
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ” John 6:35
This is a truth for which I am forever thankful. Jesus is the bread of life everlasting. A life which I am confident I will have. However, the bread you find in the supermarket, well it turns out, it’s not for me!
By cutting out fructose I lost 5kgs in about 5 weeks. Then I didn’t loose any weight for about 4 weeks. Then I started putting weight back on. Not. Happy. Jan! Something else has to change. About the same time I heard about Christine Cronau. Her family were featured on a TV show as being on a “Butter Diet”. Everything she said fitted well with what I’d learned from David Gillespie, but she gave me another thing to focus on. People who’ve been on many diets over the years may have done damage to their metabolism. This means that simply cutting fructose probably isn’t going to bring a great change in weight. She suggested looking into lowering carbohydrate intake. This was a bit of a bummer for me. Chips, pasta, rice, BREAD, all the cheap things we’d been using to fill us up, were on the list of things to reduce. But, I had to do something. In the 6 years since getting married, I’d managed to gain 20kg. TWENTY KILOS!! I can’t even really blame the kids for that. I didn’t gain a lot during pregnancy, I seemed to accumulate weight in between pregnancies.
As I didn’t see any reason to stop the rest of my family from enjoying pizza, pasta, toast, sandwiches, all the foods they enjoyed, I cut back carbs for myself. I lost another 5 kgs in about 5 weeks, putting me about 7kgs down from my start weight, because they just wouldn’t stay off!! And what do you think happened? The kilos started creeping back on! Argh!! What gives? Never fear, there will be a third installment to this journey, and currently I’m 16kgs under my start weight, so I think it’s working!!
Cutting back carbs, essentially all grains, starchy vegetables etc, I lost something else that I wasn’t expecting. I lost the brain fog I’d been living in for years! Mental clarity, complete thoughts, the desire to learn new things, all returned! This may have also been due to the increased vegetable variety and volume I was consuming. Depression has also been an issue for me for a number of years, but since taking this particular step, I haven’t had one bout. I’m not claiming that diet is the answer to all depression, but it’s worth looking into. We recently watched a DVD called Food Matters which has a lot to say on the matter, and which helped clarify for me that this completely selfish thing I was doing, was the best thing I could possibly be doing for myself, and for my family. Please note, I don’t ascribe to all the views shared on the Food Matters DVD, but it has a lot of great info and I do recommend you check it out.
Do you have something you do just for yourself? Families are wonderful, but everyone needs to step out and take time for themselves from time to time.
