Can some people just not eat carbs?

Carbs – processed carbs – don’t work for my body.

Foods like rice, potatoes and quinoa are okay – although they’re quite addictive and I really have to be careful with my intake.

Processed carbs are completely different. Pastries, biscuits, bread, pasta – these kinds of foods are hugely addictive for me. I start eating them, and my body has no idea when to stop.

I could quite easily each a couple of loaves of bread and it would only be when my stomach actually hurt because it was so overloaded that I would realise I’d had enough.

Carbs are cheap, plentiful and useful, especially if you’re on a budget with a bunch of kids to feed, but if you’re overweight they can be a huge impediment to losing weight.

These days I see overweight people on the street, and I don’t think “that’s a greedy person”. I think “that’s a carbohydrate addict”.

I’m starting to doubt whether it’s even possible to become overweight without basing your diet on carbs.

I think this is why poor people are fatter in Western society – carbs are cheap, so the poor eat more carbs. Then they get fat. Then they get sicker, fatter and poorer. A vicious cycle.

So these days I avoid carbs and the fat is pouring off me. I’ve upped my protein intake, found cheap veggies I enjoy, and I’m feeling and looking so much healthier.

Avoiding carbs works.

I don’t measure green veggies

These days, everything I eat is portion-controlled.

Except green veggies.

They contain so few calories that they never need to be weighed or measured.

So I use green veggies as a filler. They bulk out a meal, at next to zero calories.

I call that a win! 🙂

Diet coke with your burger and fries?

I was that person. The one who would order a “hunger buster” value meal (Big Mac, cheeseburger, large fries, chocolate sundae, large soft drink) and ask for a diet Coke with it.

I can be really dumb sometimes.

My logic was that I could easily avoid the calories in the drink, but I still wanted my junk food. It was non-negotiable.

Then I’d get on the scale at the end of the week, and wonder why I hadn’t lost weight.

Things have changed. These days, when I get a craving for junk, I go a cheeseburger or a whopper jr. That’s it. And it’s enough.

I make sure I always have a water bottle on me, so I don’t need a drink. And when I don’t need a drink it seems a bit pointless to have a meal deal (add-on fries and soft drink) when I don’t need or want half of it.

A small burger is enough. By itself. I get my junk food itch scratched and I’m happy. *And* I’m a lot thinner and still losing weight!

What I realised is no matter how much junk food I ate, it was never enough.

Junk food is not about portions with me. It’s about getting a fix.

I knew – when I began to be honest with myself – that no matter how much I ordered, I’d always want more. I’m perfectly capable of eating two hunger busters, probably. Maybe three. That hole inside me never seemed to get full, no matter how much junk I shoved down my neck.

I realised – and admitted – that I’m an addict. Just like an alcoholic can’t control their booze intake, I can’t control my food addiction.

However, if I only have a burger, by itself, I seem to not go so nutso on the junk food.

I can’t control having large amounts, but I seem to be able to manage small amounts.

Plus, to be honest, I really believe the addictive part of junk food isn’t the burgers. It’s the fries and drinks.

That’s the case with me, anyway.

So these days, if I go with friends to a junk food place, I just order a small burger. Nothing else. I enjoy the experience, and my eating stays in check. I get my fix – because I’m still an addict – but I’m happy.

A whopper jr contains 340 calories. A McDonald’s cheeseburger contains 313 calories. That’s about right for a lunch for a woman who is trying to lose a few.

Compare that with the calories in a McDonald’s “hunger buster”: 1587. Or a Burger King whopper meal: 1620. Either is my whole day’s calories in a single meal. No wonder I wasn’t losing weight!

I know it’s not socially acceptable to believe we can eat the occasional burger and still lose weight.

I know it’s also true that some people are so addicted that they can’t even have just a burger yet avoid going nutso.

I find that this works for me. Maybe it will work for you too 🙂