Low Fat versus Low Carb

Ye gods, what with having company for a month (vegetarian high starch diet) and a trip to the Berkshires (pecan pie bars and lots and lots of food), the scale crept up.  And up.  And up.  Now, Grapeshot never met a fat gram she didn't like, and drastic methods were called for, so we went back on a modified South Beach Diet/Dr. Atkins Diet, the only "diets" I've ever lost weight on except for starvation, and I gained that back so fast your head would swim.

The South Beach Diet has some really tasty recipes.  We love the lone dessert, the veggie-egg cups for breakfast and some of the main dish salads and entrees.  I have some low carb recipes  I alternate with these dishes, and we eat a lot of grilled chicken, veggies and fruit.  Of course with ripe tomatoes, there's a boundless supply of Insalata Caprese.   In 4 days I lost the accumulation of 7 weeks.  Not bad.  We allow modest treats occasionally, and work out.  I intend to keep this up until an October vacation, and I'll be posting occasionally to report progress or a lack thereof.

Next on the menu are roast beef sandwiches on rye crisp, tuna salad and then fajitas (no sour cream) with steak and shrimp.  We use corn tortillas instead of flour.  Flour tortillas lack fiber and do have fat, whereas corn is a low cal treat with fiber.  And it actually tastes like something.  Oils from avocado are good.  Just don't overdo it.  We make one avocado last for 2 meals, which means one is eating 1/4 of an avocado.  So delicious.  So satisfying.  I flunked out of Weight Watchers 4 times because of the stringent lipophobic menus.  Weight Watchers is for carb lovers.  I can take carbs or leave them.  Naturally, fresh fries, garlic mashed, baked potatoes with the works are wonderful lovey foods, but I can say goodbye to them for long periods of time.  

Summer makes for easy dieting because of the grill, fresh produce, wonderful main dish shrimp and chicken salads, and hot weather.  No need for pot roast or chili con carne or those darned baked potatoes in summer.  Actually, I knew someone who could eat a baked potato plain, and another woman who liked it with non-fat yogurt.   Ecch!   Non-fat anything to me tastes like chalk.  Once we bought non-fat cottage cheese by mistake and it was almost inedible.

Years ago, I ate some Weight Watchers macaroni and cheese and it tasted like detergent.  This was a while back, and I hope they fixed the recipe in the meantime.  But you get the idea.  Some people will eat chalk and detergent if they can just get to those carbs underneath, but not me.  To each her own diet.

It costs more at the grocery store, because produce and lean meat are expensive, and carbs (pasta, rice and beans) are cheap.  Not that you can't add a few black beans to the fajitas.  Or to a salad.  Moderation in all things.

In the meantime, we discovered grilled fennel, grilled portobellos and other exotic grilled veg.  We will also be doing grilled peaches and grilled plums.

Yup!  In the good old summertime, dieting isn't such an ordeal.

Grapeshot