Low-Carb Lifestyle

I love bread.  And pasta and rice.  But as it turns out it's not so good for someone who has insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.  I've known I've had it for awhile, but I didn't really understand what it was and as a teenager if it wasn't gonna kill me and it wasn't really Diabetes then I didn't think I had a reason to care.  But now that I'm old enough to see what happens to people who don't take care of their health issues, I've decided to step it up.

I'm not one for diets.  The concept is temporary and after watching my mother try every fat-free food on the planet with unsuccessful yo-yoing weight that still is an issue for her to this day (I've seen her go from a size 12 to a 4 and back to a 10 in 6 months or less), I just don't believe in it.  You can loose weight and get healthy but you should try to stay that way.  Diets don't do that, but a change in your lifestyle can.  I believe in little things like taking the stairs, walking when you can and looking into healthy yet tasty food options.  If you hate what you're eating, you're going to overcompensate one day and binge on a batch of cookies and fried foods and in your food-gorging ecstasy decide to give up forever.

Portion sizes and understanding how your body works and not how the hottest celebrity keeps her trim figure is important.  People metabolize food differently.  Insulin Resistance was recently explained to me like this "It's like having high blood pressure, but instead of your heart working over time, it's the insulin in your body."  I know that envisioning pieces of bread, rice and pasta into mini-heart attacks may be dramatic but it was the kick I needed to understand how my body handles the kinds of food I eat and to get me to take the steps I need to be healthy.  My best friend had been telling me about a no-carb diet her co-worker had done.  She said she tried it and lost 5lbs in a week eating butter, cheese and all kinds of fatty things but said it was hard to keep up.  Because this is a lifestyle change, I don't want to get used to piles of sour cream on everything I eat.  I still intend to moderate the amount of fat and calories I take in (my light butter has no carbs), but I'm glad to know I don't have to give up cheese!