Me...on a diet.

Ok...seriously?

It has been almost a year since I've blogged. That's majorly sad. But, ummm, it HAS been an amazing year!!!

The most exciting this is...I'm getting married in a little over six months!!! I never dreamed a year ago that I would be where I am now. As always, God had a few things up His sleeve and, as always, has made my life uber-interesting. There's never a dull moment!

In three months I have my dress fitting. Well that's just coming up way faster than it's supposed to...and I'm not as skinny as I want to be! I've got a lot of work to do. I've been 'working on' changing my diet for several weeks now. I know a permanent change in my eating habits is what will keep the weight off, and some say that is what is most effective in getting the weight off. But a lot of people say a lot of things. The weight is not coming off. A shift towards healthier eating is not cutting it, not for me. It's going to take something a little (or perhaps a lot) more strict.

I maintain weight pretty well, especially if I eat fairly healthy. But I need something a little more drastic to get to a weight that I want to maintain. Some might say I'm wrong on this, some would also agree, regardless of what anyone says, though, that's what I know will work for me.

This, I believe, is the secret to getting to and maintaining a healthy weight: knowing your body. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books on dieting and healthy eating; even more can be found on the internet. There is so much information that you could spend forever searching for the perfect diet plan, just to find a contradiction to it. It's just downright confusing. But here's the thing: what works for one person may not work for another. Many diet books are written by Medical Doctors (which I am not) and backed by scientific research (sorry, none of that here), many more are written based on personal experience. I can tell you what works for me, however, and it may not work for you. So I'm not going to say “Here is the diet plan that will work! Here's what you need to do to loose weight! Follow these steps and watch the pounds melt off!” No, I don't have the answers.

I am here to tell you that you have to find your own answers. You can't read this and go away in a matter of minutes with the secret to happiness, well-being, and weight loss. No, it is a much longer journey than that. That's the bad news. But, through trial and error, you can find what works for you – and know your body better in the process.

The thought of the weight I need to loose seems almost overwhelming. I haven't been able to find a diet yet that delivers great results, much less the amazing results they all promise. I want easy, but easy has yet to provide results. I'm also not going to get results by simply researching diets. So I'm going to start...something...anything...now. I'm going to try a diet, and see how my body likes it.

I really wish I had figured all this out several months ago so that I had more time for trial and error, more time to figure out what my body needs to loose weight, but I didn't so I just have to work a little harder. That's okay, I've got pretty great motivation (my wedding!)

So here's my plan:

1. Start a diet (any diet) and see how my body responds
2. Keep researching diet and nutrition
3. Tweak: keep what is working about that diet and toss what isn't (toss the whole diet if necessary)
4. Start back at Step 1

and I will continue this until I figure out just what it takes for my body to loose it...the weight, that is.

So my first diet trial: "The Slow-Carb Diet" from the book The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/)

Basically this diet follows five rules...(http://gizmodo.com/5709913/4+hour-body-+-the-slow+carb-diet)

Rule 1: Avoid "white" carbs (or anything that can be white)

Rule 2: Eat the same few meals over and over again

Rule 3: Don't drink calories

Rule 4: Don't eat fruit

Rule 5: Take one day off per week and go nuts

This guy is not a doctor, but the "rules" are similar to many of the things I've read about 'skinny eaters' and the things I've been trying. So, pretty much, this is a more strict version of what I've been doing. Perhaps a little rigidity is what my body needs to get the weight off. We'll see. And if not, it's not the end of the world. I'll simply tweak it.

So...stay tuned!