I had an interesting Sunday afternoon, and I had to blog it. My husband went on a short golf trip to Florida, so my father-in-law invited me for dinner. Well, FIL’s sister invited me, but that’s just a technicality.
A little background: When their mother (my husband’s grandmother) was alive, FIL and his sister shared the caretaking duties and lived in the same house. It’s a huge house, where you could come and go and never see each other. Grandma had the first floor, FIL’s sister had the upstairs and FIL had a basement apartment. (He and my mother-in-law have been divorced for more than 30 years.) Grandma passed away some six years ago, but FIL now has health issues of his own and his sister looks out for him. It’s a nice arrangement, and one I understand since my own mother and one of her brothers had a similar closeness.
Back to the story. FIL’s sis (we’ll call her Auntie Em) told me we’d be having Pot Roast. I love Pot Roast and my husband hates it…so I only get it on rare occasions. But I know what goes with Pot Roast. Potatoes! OK, not a problem, because low-carb is my lifestyle not my diet. I can easily outfox a potato. I emailed Auntie Em and asked if she would prepare some vegetables for me. She wrote back “Carrots, onions and potatoes are cooked with the meat. In addition….you have a choice of frozen peas or corn.” Now, she wasn’t really trying to stick it to me, that’s truly what she had to serve us. But here’s my issue. My FIL is a diabetic. Why on earth would you serve a diabetic carrots, peas or corn? Why are these things even in the house?
The Pot Roast looked and smelled delish when I arrived, and there were plenty of onions and celery to enable me to avoid potato and carrot. She even had a bag of frozen zucchini from which I managed to snag a serving. All’s well, right?
Well, now come the snarky parts.
I have not mentioned my diet to FIL and Auntie Em since early January. The last time we were together (Ash Wednesday) we had dinner out at one of our favorite pubs and I ordered the wonderful blackened scallop salad. They looked askance at me for not eating bread and for having my now-ever-present club soda with lime. But otherwise no words were exchanged. So here I am at their house, and we’re sitting in the kitchen just shooting the breeze about any old thing. And somehow Auntie Em works into the conversation something about not giving up particular types of food and eating everything in moderation. It actually had nothing to do with the conversation, so I knew it was a jab at me. I didn’t take the bait. A few minutes passed, and I was asked if I wanted a snack. I asked for nuts. Auntie Em proceeds to tell me she has peanuts, peanut brittle, chocolate covered peanuts, and cashews. She knows damn well I’m not eating brittle or chocolate so I have the cashews.
As I’m chewing she asks, “So, how much have you let go?” We had been talking about cleaning house and giving away things we don’t need, so I don’t immediately make the connection. When I hesitate, she slaps her hip and thigh. She can’t even form the words to ask me how much weight I’ve lost. “Seventeen pounds,” I say gently, turning back to the cashews. I’m not looking for a fight nor am I looking to gloat. But as I’ve learned in the past nearly-20 years of dealing with Auntie Em, everything is about her. She doesn’t say anything except “Well, I’ve lost 23 pounds. And I did it eating chocolate and chips and everything I love.”
What she fails to mention, dear reader, is that she lost 23 pounds because she has had some serious dental work over the past 3 months and has hardly been able to eat anything unless it can pass through a straw. And at her weight of about 240 pounds, she was bound to drop a significant amount if she couldn’t chew.
All the while, I remained gracious and said, “Yes, I can see you’ve lost weight. It shows.”
She did not reciprocate the kind words. And believe me I knew my weight loss showed. I was wearing jeans and a black turtleneck tucked in, with a belt!
Then, I came across my first real temptation. After dinner, she put out some not-ripe melon that I avoided (yuk, unripe cantaloupe) and then proceeded to eat her favorite truffles. These were particularly nice looking, from a Valentine gift she’d received. I took the glossy insert that described each of the velvety goodies and began to read. They were Lindt – oh, yum! - and the ones that remained had dark chocolate, marzipan, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, and other delights that at one time I would have eaten with abandon. As in, shoved as many into my mouth as she would allow! I hesitated and stared for awhile at the one with the dark chocolate and macadamia nuts. Then I looked at the nutrition information, which thankfully, was on the insert. Just one of these lipsmacking treats had 22 grams of carbohydrate. That’s probably all the carb I’d had in the entire day. The perspective made it easy to hand back the insert and say “No, thank you,” with not a bit of regret.
I’ve really not cheated at all since beginning this lifestyle. Will I someday have a piece of candy? Probably. And it will be a wonderful treat only on a special occasion. Better yet, I’ll find a nice sugar-free goodie. But I won’t let non-believers try to derail my progress. Oh, how Auntie Em would have delighted in my transgression, had I eaten the truffle. That’s kind of sad, isn’t it?
Oh, one last snide remark escaped my Aunt. When I talked about playing with one of my cats by making him chase a laser pointer around the room (he’s the dumb one of my two felines), Auntie Em said, “Well, of course you’re doing that to him. After all, you’re doing all this working out yourself, aren’t you.” That was before she asked about my weight loss. Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, until I said, “Why yes. As a matter of fact, I walk about a mile and a half a few times a week in addition to my weight training.” Her eyes got big and round after that and she dropped the subject of exercise in a hurry. 
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OK, Trish: so where’s the evidence you mention in the post title? Oh, yeah, almost forgot.
I visited the Jonny Bowden Solutions blog, and happily read this post. I love reading about low-carb’s effects on type 2 diabetes! If you read the post, you’ll see another snarky attitude, this time from Dr. Joel Fuhrman, vegan champion. Come on, dude. If you’re vegan, admit you’re doing it because you love animals – not because they aren’t good to eat!
If you want to see more recent scientific evidence, check out this page on the About.com Low-Carb site. I do believe that diabetics are better served by a lower-carb diet. It’s nice to see studies being done and (perhaps) taken seriously. I truly believe sugar is my enemy and I can tell right away when there is sugar in something I’m eating, even if its just a smidge in tomato sauce.
I can’t wait to have my blood work done this month. I would love to be able to stop taking my cholesterol medication!
