Going against the Grain....

So, about a month ago, we had a bit of a health scare.  Well, not so much a scare as a reality check.  Big L had been suffering with high blood pressure and refusing to go the doctor.  I eventually gave up nagging him.  But when his headaches got so bad that he was throwing up, I put my foot down and went ahead and made the appointment.

The doctor did blood tests, gave him meds for his blood pressure and basically told him he had to lose 25 kgs.  The blood tests showed that his liver and kidneys were healthy and the doctor said he was surprised.  I think this was a huge wake-up call to Big L who suddenly realised the severity of the damage he could have inflicted on his body.

This all occurred, quite serendipitously, around the same time that I decided that I HAD to do something about my weight.  I’ve never really been a skinny person – I’ve always been well-padded and curvy – but over the past four years I have just gotten fatter and fatter.  And I’m not talking “I just can’t seem to shake these last five kgs” fat, I’m talking really, really fat.  Like 35kgs overweight fat.  I was revolted by my own body and it had seriously affected my confidence and self-esteem.  At various times I had tried eating healthy, drinking more water and exercising, but my weight just wouldn’t budge.  So I would give up. 

In a “diet or die” kind of speech, the doctor recommended that Big L go on the Tim Noakes diet, which is basically Banting – high fat, low carbs.  No bread, no rice – basically no grains of any kind.  Also, no potato. (how can I live without potato!)  

Now, we don’t do diets. (clearly)  You will never hear us talking about carbs or calories or doing cardio.  We are just not wired that way.  But individually we both knew that we had to make a change, for the sake of our health if nothing else.

Obviously we had heard about the Tim Noakes diet.  It’s the latest hype in dieting – EVERYONE is talking about it.  And honestly, if Big L’s doctor had not suggested it, I don’t think I would have ever chosen to do it.  It kind of goes against everything I've ever been told about healthy eating.  (I mean, how can eating more fat make you less fat?!)   But we got the book and I was tasked with reading it.  And it made sense.  Like, REALLY made sense.  And something about the way it was written changed my mindset from a feeling of being deprived when I can’t eat certain foods, to a sense that, by not eating the “bad food” I am actually helping my body.

So, we've been on this healthy eating plan (I dislike the word “diet”) for 4 weeks now and it is going well.  The first week was tough; I’m not going to lie.  In the book they warn you that as your body adjusts to life without carbohydrate you will feel awful, but nothing prepared me for the utterly horrendous way I felt.  But man – after that first week, I felt amazing -  full of energy, with a spring in my step and a gleam in my eye!  The other thing that I found challenging was the amount of work involved in preparing and cooking our meals.  It required a major change in mindset and a lot of planning to transition from throwing together quick and easy meals (with lots of starch), to preparing healthy food, using a massive amount of fresh vegetables.  There’s lots of chopping involved.  But, like any lifestyle change, we have become used to it and it is now part of our routine.

Random photo of a ladybird on my salad.  An auspicious sign?

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this way of eating and there are loads of opinions out there.  But for us, it’s working.  Big L has lost 10kgs and I have lost 8.  We feel better, we have more energy, we’re sleeping better.  And feeling like we are on the road to a healthier way of life and a sense that we CAN actually get down to our goal weight just feels goooood.  Plus, we get to eat bacon. J