Diet food
Originally uploaded by Nicole Lee.

Generally speaking, I’m happy with how I look. But I know I looked better a few years ago and I’m feeling myself getting further into the sedentary rut. So I figure it might be time to get into the dieting habit again and see how it goes. Plus I’ll be in Hawaii next month, where people tell me there’s too much good food to be had, and I don’t want to risk ballooning up that much. Unlike other people, I find it a lot easier to start with the dieting and then moving on to the exercising — going to the gym is still one of those things that I just haven’t gotten down to a regular habit yet. Plus I’m anticipating some hiking in Hawaii, so that would help a bit.

And so it was that in mind that I went low-carb starting last Monday. Following the South Beach Diet methodology (but tweaked slightly), I cut out all carbs from my diet, while maintaining the five-vegetable-servings-a-day rule. Every once in awhile I would drink soy milk, which has some sugar in it, and sometimes I’ll give in to a few chips in a restaurant. But it was all in small enough amounts that it didn’t have a huge impact. By the end of the first week, I lost 1-2 pounds, but I’m sure that was mostly water.

Now it’s the second Tuesday and I’ve really stuck to it. After this week is over, instead of going full throttle in Phase 2 (which allows carbs but mostly in the whole grain form), I’m going to go low-carb for two meals out of three, which I’m calling Phase 1.5. This is to prolong Phase 1 just a tiny bit longer, to provide a “cushion” period before the vacation. At the same time, I’m stepping up the exercise — heading to yoga about 1-2 times a week, and sneaking in 20-30 minutes of cardio when I can.

After Hawaii is over, I’m going back to the low-carb phase, and repeating the above process. It’s strange, but after all the diets I’ve tried, this is the only one that I’ve ever stuck with. For the record, this method is the same exact method I used three years ago when I lost over 30 pounds. I know this works because I’ve been through it. The only problem was that I got too comfortable and stopped exercising.

I know, low-carb diets are a fad, but I’m trying to go about it the smart way — only doing it for short periods of time, while supplementing other parts with healthy carbs like whole grain foods and fruits.

‘Course this is all fun and games until I’ve actually stuck with it. I’ll try to give a regular progress report on how it’s going so that I can mentally psyche myself into it. Now that I’ve publicly announced it, I’ve got that much more encouragement to stick with it, right? Well, we’ll see.