Advice about eating without carbs? (I swear I'm not dieting!)

[dancingsinging]

So I'm starting this medication which will cause pretty bad gastric distress if I eat carbs. (I took it before and boy did it.) This is cramping my fat activism style/endangering my precarious "I love my body and don't freak out about food" balance and it also presenting some logistical problems. If any of you have advice, I'd love to hear it.

About the not freaking out about food--have any of you ever managed to cut out a whole swath of food you like without setting up a nasty deprivation/temptation/binging cycle? If so, how did you do it? (I managed to go about five years during my adolescence and teens without letting fat or concentrated protein pass my lips except on weekends by focusing on all the things I could eat, but that whole lying to myself ("I love brown rice!" was ultimately rather self-harming and also I can't give myself weekends off this time.)

About the logistics--I have no idea what the fuck I'm going to eat! Like, cobb salads and chunks of meat with veggies are working for now, but I bet that's going to get old fast. Also, I have this weird experience where I eat a bunch of food and then am full and hungry at the same time. I'm going to have to experiment to see whether I can tolerate a moderate amount of whole grains or legumes eaten in conjunction with protein and fat (the gastric thing is related to the glycemic load) which will probably help a lot if I can do it. But I'm wondering if any of you have experience with something like a strict Atkins diet and can provide some practical advice for pulling it off without feeling all meated out and gross? I know I could probably google up some Atkins forums or whatever, but I really don't want to expose myself to a lot of fat-hating dieters, you know?

About the loving my body--I am a little worried that I will lose a little weight as a side effect and then get tracked into thoughts like "OMG, I will be so hot if I keep this up and then totally I could go bikini shopping next year and everyone will be so nice to me when I'm skinny!" It's just so fucking internalized and so easily triggered and I hate it because ultimately it makes me feel awful and actually ends up de-motivating me to continue the behaviors. But I don't know how to avoid it. I mean, I am amazingly good at lying to myself and being some gestapo-bitch to myself with the "that thought is wrong and you will be punished" stuff. But that doesn't so much serve me. Anyone got alternatives?

About the fat activism--l really love how good I feel when I wander around the water slide park in my jiggly, round-tummied self looking and feeling happy and like "this is what a human body looks like, people!" I love publically chobbling down on a big ol' mess of french fries that I'm totally digging. It's like, genuine, authentic actions are so much more powerful than words. And I'm bummed to let go of that. Thoughts?

If any of you have help or suggestions or even encouragement and understanding, I would so love to hear that.

Comments

[wild_irises]

I don't have any practical suggestions right now, but I do have encouragement and understanding in bushels. I think one thing I would do is make a list of all the sources of protein and think about how to have them take turns (but I love meat, so that part wouldn't be hard for me). Also what crunches? What has the mouthfeel of the things I'm missing?

How long are you going to be on this med?

[dancingsinging]

Re mouthfeel--do you have any idea where I can get that texture of a soft cookie? You know how it's like a little crispy at the edge and like resists being chewed just enough? It is driving me crazy!

I think I'll be taking this med for at least a year or so. :(

[jesse_the_k]

Damn, I bet that we could come up with something working with whole nuts, diced nuts, and dried fruit — are those in the possible list? There's a GF treat called "Bumble Bars" or more prosaically, "Sesame Peanut Butter Coconut Chews" cause that's what is in 'em. They're baked in a very slow oven, and the edges have that wonderful "I'm a cookie!" quality, and the center is chewey like a good brownie. The down side is one must use honey or they fall apart (I spent a very aromatic two days trying substitutes to no avail.) I've got the recipe if you're interested.

[dancingsinging]

It sounds delicious, but I don't think I'd do well with the honey. You tried agave? Nuts are great, and dried fruit I can do a little of.

[rydra_wong]

As an FYI, agave is possibly kind of problematic because it's essentially heavily-processed High Fructose Cactus Syrup.

The fructose makes it low-GI, but there are concerns about how the liver reacts to fructose if you dump a huge quantity of it into your system at once (without the buffering effects of the fibre in fruit).

Which sucks, because it's quite nice.