I bought the No S Diet book for my kindle and took it with me on my little vacation. The seminars were all in Hebrew, so I thought the book would come in handy since my hebrew is lousy. My husband's hebrew is even worse and he usually sleeps through classes, but at one point I saw that he was just sitting there bored, so I passed him my kindle, opened to the No S Diet. I regretted it, because he literally LOL'ed at something Reinhard wrote!
... the line about not worrying about antioxidants when you're 50 lbs overweight.
I just finished the chapter about no sugar, low carbing, and starches. My husband's answer when people ask him how he lost so much weight, is to say that he simply quit drinking RC cola. It's really no joke. He was pumping himself full of sugar and calories with all that soda.
The stuff that Reinhard wrote about starches is interesting. He hints at the question I've asked myself, is low carbing, namely ketosis, really that safe? I dabbled in and out of ketosis for the last year and then finally made up my mind not to go so low carb as it really affected my moods. But, I do identify and choose to be a low-carber in general because it's a definition or boundary for myself that reminds me that carbs mess with my blood sugar. I grew up eating low fat, high carb, and I couldn't go two hours without feeling faint or being very hungry. On low carb, high fat, I not only eat the healthiest I've ever eaten, but I can go for 4 or 5 hours without food, which is just awesome to me.
I also want to point out that Reinhard mentions that people on maintenance find his diet to be helpful. That's me. I dieted and was successful losing 30 pounds, but what I didn't have is normalcy. I've never had normal eating times and was a grazer, and until the No S diet, food was taking up so much of my time. Now I have my four meals a day, and it's just so simple.
This post is getting really long, but one more thing: I recall years ago, one of my kids asking why we don't sit down together for dinner every day like some families. I would eat in the kitchen (in peace and quiet), then serve the kids at dinner time, and my DH preferred to eat in his home office while working. Also, I didn't grow up with meal time being family time, as my parents divorced when I was pre-teen and then my mom was busy working 3 jobs. So, I wasn't used to it, and I didn't think to ever make it a goal for my family. On the other hand, we did make 3 formal family meals for Shabbat, and I often found those annoying because the kids wouldn't behave (they still don't!).
Enter the No S Diet. Keep in mind I've only been doing No S for maybe a month now. In that short time, I've already started planning real meals rather than eating a my snack foods all together and calling that a 'meal'. Further, since I only get three meals a day, I started wanting those meals to be more formal, or rather, at least not sitting in front of the computer, and instead, at the table. And I wanted to savor and chew the food, rather than just inhale it all in three minutes or less, so in order to drag them out, I wanted to engage in conversation or even do a little learning with DH.
Apparently, something has changed in my home. What seems to be happening now, is that instead of just planning out a menu for DH and myself, I'm finding that I almost need to plan out weekday meals that include everyone (who's going to be home), because suddenly and without forcing anyone, I see that my teens are joining us at our meal time, as if it was the most natural thing to do. They are engaging us in conversation, and they are interested in whatever it is we are studying together. Just, Wow! Meal time is now becoming a positive social event, something like "quality family time." Who would've thought.
Sad face only because my tummy hurts. It was such.good.food. 