I spent the last two years weaning myself from processed foods and cooking everything from scratch. All that "healthy cooking" and I gained another 50 pounds. How did that happen?
Well I started examining that "healthy" cooking. I had cut out sodas, chips, crackers, bread and a few other items. I was forcing myself to eat blueberries, strawberries, grapes and other fruits that I don't like. However I was gaining weight!!
It took awhile but I finally found my secret nemesis - FAT or OIL. I don't eat many sweets - mostly chocolate and ice cream that I treat myself to on grocery day and nothing much the rest of the month. However I load butter and mayo onto and into EVERYTHING!!!!!
A pot of potatoes - divide into two bowls and load one with a stick of butter and milk for fresh mashed while the other bowl gets a few boiled eggs and tons of mayo. Yum! A can of peas drained and heated WITH 4 tablespoons of butter. That is 400 extra calories and, yes, I ate them all PLUS several pieces of meat PLUS a giant serving of the potatoes PLUS a giant serving of potato salad. We are talking 4000-5000 calories for one meal!!!
I hate most fruits but love veggies. I ate lots of cabbage and carrots every month because they keep and I can only go to town once a month. Sounds great but I chopped and grated them into salads with lots of mayo and raisins. It reached a point that I was using 4-6 lbs of butter and around 4 jars of mayo per month.
My mayo says 64 servings per container and butter says 32 servings per pound. Multiply that out by 100 calories per serving and you get a minimum of over 15 days worth of calories (at 2500 per day) and over 19 days at the 2000 calories maintenance I am working towards.
It didn't stop with butter. As I increased butter then mayo I also started to increase cooking oil by starting to fry things. I haven't fried food since the early 80's but I suddenly found myself battering and frying my chops and chicken instead of making it into stir fries. I'm a soapmaker so I have a cabinet filled with lard and various oils stashed away. Did I go for the olive oil? No, of course not, that is expensive and I am cheap.
It seems the more fat I let into my diet, the more I craved it. I made a few other mistakes but I really believe the fat was my major downfall and the main cause of the last 50 lbs. Tomorrow I will discuss what I am doing to get past this problem.
Happy Dieting
Linda B in TN:)
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