Time For a Rant!

I need to rant.

People can be so helpful when you go on a weight-loss journey. People can also be a big pain in the butt: That's why I've chosen not to tell certain people in my life that I have started Weight Watchers again.

My best friend, who lives three hours from me, is one person that I'm not telling.

She's on the low-carb kick. That's fine, it's her life, it works for her. I tried that once for two miserable weeks. Hated it, not for me. My DH likes it, too. When he needed to drop a few pounds, that's how he chose to do it.

My friend also is on a whole food kick. Nothing wrong with that at all! That's a good thing. However, she thinks that Americans need more fat in their diet. She says that low-fat diets don't work, and they're very bad for us.

I say that that people who say they eat low-fat don't do it on a consistent basis. I am the perfect example. When I cooked, everything was low fat. Yet I had no problem eating out a few times a week. I guarantee you my favorite Mexican restaurant, McDonald's, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Wendy's are not low-fat friendly: at least what I chose to eat there, they weren't. Thus it wiped my low-fat eating off the map.

She refuses to listen to my opinion. The fact of the matter is that there is scientific proof that low-fat diets do work, they can even reverse heart disease.

Said friend has also insisted that I get rid of every non-fat and low fat item in my kitchen, switch to whole milk, eat eggs on a daily basis. She says it's good for me.

I have tried to explain to her I can't eat those unhealthy fats. She quips back that they are not unhealthy. She even gets kind of nasty in a bully-ish way. Well, I have high triglycerides. I have proof that bad fats are bad for me. I made a switch to butter instead of margarine a couple years ago. Butter was "more pure" than margarine, so that's why I switched. What happened? My triglycerides went from 300 to 600. Just from butter, and not that much. I didn't change anything else.

So I stopped the butter, added a daily fish oil supplement, and my triglycerides went below 300. I am also on medication for the triglycerides now. I can't eat that unhealthy fat.

The only time any doctor has ever mentioned drinking whole milk was when I had my baby. His pediatrician said to have him on whole milk until age 2 as it helped with brain development. So he was on whole milk from age 1 to 1. We were then advised to go to 2%.

Okay, back to the friend. She also believes in food combining. No carbs with a meal, only proteins, etc. It's enough to make my head spin. She says there is new evidence to out there that calories have nothing to do with weight loss. She says eating certain foods will cause weight loss. Huh?

I give up. I just won't discuss it with her anymore. She doesn't get it. It's called Thermodynamics. And according to Weight Watchers,

"The only scientifically proven method for losing weight involves burning more
calories than you take in. 1 This is known as the law of thermodynamics. Yet
only 1/3 of Americans trying to lose weight try to do so by using the
recommended method of eating less and exercising more – the fundamental
foundation of weight loss. 1 2005 Dietary Guidelines Advisory
Committee Report."

Imagine that, lowering your caloric intake coupled with expending more energy than one consumes gives you weight loss. Go figure.

And here's where I get mean: She's fat. She's been on these weird eating regimes for years and years and she hasn't lost an ounce. (And I'm NOT saying low-carb is bad--it's healthy especially for diabetics, or rather I should say choosing healthy carbs is the way to go.) It's just all the nonsense she insists upon, like food combining, eating certain foods to lose weight, eating high-fat dairy product, coconut and palm oil. She has both oils in her cupboard, I've seen them.

There's no miracle. There's no miracle food, no get skinny quick pill that one can take (healthfully). It's all science, and it's called thermodynamics.

Eating whole foods is the way to go, but we still need to be mindful of calories. My grandpa used to eat all the fat on a piece of beef...that's a whole food, but not something I'll ever do.

Said friend gets so upset about her weight. I do, too. Yet I know that it centers around calories. I know that as this journey progresses, I will get away from processed foods and move toward healthier choices. I have begun that process. I know there's no easy answer. It's hard work, takes planning, and for me, it takes Weight Watchers. They know what they're doing.

There, rant over.