What's this all about, eh?

It all started..... well, there is no point where it all started actually. The past 10 years I've been gaining weight, sometimes slowy, sometimes at a more advanced pace (when I quit smoking for example). The past year I've been trying to adjust my eating pattern, I've switched from white bread to whole weat bread, dropped from 4 slices at lunch to 3, stopped my sugary cereal breakfasts and replaced them by muesli with yohgurt, fruit and a bit of honey.

To my frustration it was all to no avail, my weight didn't drop at all, instead I've gained another 3-4 kilo since the beginning of 2009.

This summer I got talking to a friend who pointed out that proteins are a real filler and the calories they give cannot be stored in your body. But one casual remark by a friend doesn't make you change your eating style overnight. It can get you thinking however.

A month ago I got myself an appointment with a dietitian. She advised me to stop chocolate. Cold Turkey. Which is a sensible remark, since I'm quite addicted and trying to lessen it will probably not work. Besides that she'd like me to switch to a normal diet of bread for breakfast and lunch with low calorie spreads, meats and cheeses, fruit and raw vegetable snacks and a dinner with less meat than I eat now.

That's where I instinctively revolted. Less meat! That doesn't sound efficient when you want to lose weight! So I started browsing and researching and I got from Atkins to South Beach to Paleo Diet. Atkins basically is a free for all on fat and meat and a no-go on glucose, fructose and starch. South Beach is less severe on the carbohydrates, but instead goes for lower fat intake. Paleo diet can be interpreted in different ways. One way is to only eat what a caveman would have eaten and to not look at modern food sciences. Another way is to not eat things a caveman wouldn't have eaten, but also not eating wrong types of fat. Then you can choose to eat seasonal fruits and vegetables only or not. To eat biological or not. Etc. The main thing however is that you don't eat any grains, non-green legumes, starch-rich roots and diary. And ofcourse no modern world drinks and snacks like Dr. Pepper and candybars.

Tuesday I had an appointment with my dietitian again. I talked to her about the Paleo Diet. She's not in favour of it, for several reasons.

1. It leaves out two entire food groups. I'll have to be very carefull that I won't be missing out on essential nutrition.
2. It's rather extreme and requires a lot of work in food preparation. A salad for breakfast simply takes more time to make then cereal.
3. She probably has more reasons, but I'm not aware of them.

But inspite of her reasons agains she will support me with it. Again for several reasons.

1. I will be more motivated with a diet I pick myself.
2. It might work out as a way towards a more balanced diet.
3. leaving out two of the five food groups for a short time won't do much harm.

So I've decided to change my way of eating starting January 2nd. It's not that I'm too chicken to start it before Christmas, but I do need some time in preparing. Read up more, find recipes, etc. I figured I could use December for that. And yeah, it would be nice if I could still have some oliebollen and appelflappen at new year's eve and new year's day.