For the love of carbs.

Granola bars come in boxes
 of 100 at Costco.  Not good
for moderation!

It's time for me to admit it.  I am a carb addict.  I love them.  My daily struggle is when I start feeling hungry: string cheese, full of protein, or a granola bar?  Full of carbs.  This may not seem like a big deal, after all, the calories are close to the same.  That would be all good and fine, if the granola bar were not followed by three more granola bars.  Could I eat the string cheese in the same fashion, one right after the other?  No way, I'd get sick of it, and I may even feel full (so I hear, I wouldn't know.  The carbs get me every time).

Mmm..Twinkies.  

Now, I know that weight loss is all about calories in vs. calories out.  This man's experiment: Twinkie diet proved it to my satisfaction.  The guy ate all his calories in twinkies and candy, and he ate a can of green beans and probably a horse-sized vitamin pill every day.  He then lost 27 lbs.  Now, 1600 calories in twinkies doesn't go nearly as far as 1600 calories in celery, so I guess that's where the healthy food theory comes from.

Ah, my sweet and salty Chex mix.  

Back to the subject at hand.  Carbs.  Ah, sweet, sweet, beautiful, delicious carbs.  The reasoning in my head is as follows: "I simply can't feel full without carbs!"  But, unfortunately, I also know inside my head that I could sit with an entire bag of Honey Nut Chex Mix and consume the whole thing.  All 1700 calories and who-knows-how-many carbohydrates.  I could, and I have.  On multiple occasions.  For that reason, when I walk by those little bags of sweet and salty deliciousness, I stare straight ahead and try not to look at them.  It's very sad, I miss my chex.  I just can't buy them, no matter how much they beg and cry.  Sigh.

Back to the subject at hand.  I think that I can't feel full without carbs, and yet I could eat them all day.  How is that even possible?  One thing is certain, a chicken breast is much less satisfying than my beautiful Chex mix.  I mean, bleh.  All that healthy protein.  But seriously, I need to quit the carbs.

Or at least cut them down, because I can't fit into my pants yet.  Josie is ten months old, I thought I'd be in my old pants by now for sure.  I have seven stubborn pounds that won't go away, and at least some of that is due to the carbs I'm eating.  And my beloved Chex mix.

Josie drinking breast milk
out of a sippy cup.  

While I am a whole hearted believer in the Twinkie diet, cutting calories is simply not an option for me until I am no longer nursing.  Until Josie turns one (and is no longer relying on me for her main source of nutrition), I don't want to risk cutting my calories to the point that it will affect my ability to feed her.  BUT, I can be smarter about the calories that I am eating.  Example: when I got hungry between breakfast and lunch today, I ate THREE of the rolls I made last night for dinner.  (Very good recipe: Allrecipes: Sweet dinner rolls) They are so delicious, but I most certainly did not need to eat three of them.  The carb trap is never ending.  Plus, I was looking at cupcake recipes on cooking blogs this evening.  Now I really want a cupcake.  What is wrong with me??

Because of this problem, I am publicly declaring my goal to eat only FIVE carb-based items a day.  As much as I would like to count all three rolls as only one carb-based item, the fact that there were three of them means that I should have probably counted them as three.  I wasn't counting today though, and I'm sure I was over that limit!  After one week, I will report back as to how much - or little - I have lost.  Good luck to me!

And here's a Lolcat to add to my inspiration: