Listen to Your Instincts

Yes, it's true. It's been a solid month since I posted anything here. And I'm a little embarrassed about the reasons.

Basically, I'm a slacker.

And when you are a slacker, it's all about making excuses, isn't it?

The good news is that the scale has remained steady for the past month. But the bad news is that it's at a number I'm not happy with. Big surprise, right?

(As a little side note, I think the only thing that has kept the weight gain from being more than it is...is that I've actually been exercising fairly regularly this month. Do with that information what you will)

After I got done with my little pity party, I did what I always do. I started reading and researching...looking for some new answer to the question of my increasing waistline. And for a few days, I got sucked in by the lure of the glycemic index. With what I know about my own body chemistry it all seemed to make a lot of sense to me. Eat things that keep your blood sugar constant. I was all ready to drink the proverbial sugar free Kool-Aid.

But as I started studying the food lists and the glycemic index itself, I had a REALLY hard time wrapping my brain around the concept of being able to eat foods that I have not eaten in nearly a year (bread? pasta? bananas?).

I tried REALLY hard to talk myself into it. I went so far as to make a grocery list of things that would now have a home in my refrigerator.

And in the meantime, I kept looking for web sites and blog entries that would convince me that this was the right weight loss plan for me. There's an awful lot of promotion for a low GI way of eating but I wasn't finding the proof I needed. If you look hard enough, you can find anyone who will say anything. It's a matter of, who do you trust? Then I found this article on Regina Wilshire's blog and I came to my senses. So while I think that there might be some value to the glycemic index for people suffering from diabetes, I don't think its going to be any great shakes for me as a weight loss plan.

Now, what was I going to do???

Enter the voice of reason (aka my husband).

Last night as I rambled on about my findings and struggling with the part of me looking for answers and the part of me feeling more than a twinge of doubt about a new plan... he says,

"Why aren't you just doing what you know has worked before?"

DUH.

Good point.

How many times have we talked ourselves into something that our instincts knew was just plain wrong? It's like those driving directions you print out that has that one turn on them that seems to head you in the wrong direction. You KNOW it doesn't seem right but you follow it anyway because it says it...plain as day...right there on the page...that you should go THAT way. Only to find out down the road that you should have followed your instincts and stayed on the path you were on.

Well, I've obviously lost my way a bit the past few months. And while the damage is not horrible ...not irreparable... it does need to be addressed immediately.

A controlled carb plan works for me. Why did I consider straying? It wasn't that the plan wasn't working. It was that I wasn't working the plan.

AH.

Profound, huh?

This little exercise was the good kick in the pants that I needed. Today it was back to Induction for me. By the end of the week, I will have my confidence back!

Stay tuned for less of me.