Something weird is going on

I think I'm starting to eat like a normal person.

Whoever that is.

As you long-time readers know, I've been following the Glycemic Index plan offered by eDiets, which combines high-quality carbs with low-fat protein and limits sugar. Other plans are available, but I've long thought I was insulin-resistant, and the GI plan made the most sense for me. I get a flexible meal plan and shopping list every Monday morning, which also is my weigh-in day.

Lately, probably the last couple of weeks, I haven't been eating breakfast, other than coffee. I get up and get started with my day, and before I realize it the morning's gone. Sometimes I'm so busy I don't remember to eat until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. But even if I'm not busy, I'm not thinking about food or rummaging through the pantry. Frequently I eat my planned mid-afternoon snack instead of lunch.

I sometimes go for hours – hours – without once thinking about food, or feeling hungry. I frequently feel thirsty, and I'm drinking four or five half-liter bottles of water every day … without thinking, "Oh, I need to get all my water in."

This is new territory for me. The only other weight-loss plan I've tried was Weight Watchers – a good program, and one on which I initially lost 32 pounds after the birth of my son. At that time, more than 30 years ago, WW was a prescribed plan, with 'legal' foods, limited and unlimited foods and foods we never ate. We learned to mix tuna with mustard instead of mayonnaise, and we ate it, whether we liked it or not, along with liver once a week.

The thing WW taught me was to always be thinking about the next meal or snack. I couldn't wait for the next opportunity to eat. If I got hungry prior to mealtime, I had a long list of 'free' vegetables; I could eat as much lettuce, radishes, celery or French-style green beans as I wanted.

Yum.

What worked for me was the meal "prescription" – here's what you eat, and here's when to eat it. I've gone back to WW several times, and have not been able to successfully maintain even a small loss on any of the newer incarnations of the plan. That's not to say it doesn't work. It just doesn't work for me.

After six months of the Glycemic Index plan, I think my body has learned that I will feed it what it needs. I'm not binge eating, I'm not sneaking, I'm not tempted by things not on the plan.

The visit to my daughter's earlier this month, when she was going to do the intervention about the icing, was probably the turning point. When sugar is not part of my diet, I don't fight food. If that's what it takes to not fight food, then I'll do it gladly. In fact, I think I'm finally at the point where I can do whatever it takes.

I've fought with food since I was in grade school, and I'm tired of fighting. I'm feeling so good right now, so … normal. I've no idea if it will last.

I can only hope it will.