The Dieting Diaries

My freshman year at college I remember making fun of my roommate as she stuffed as much sugar-free, fat-free ice cream as she could into a 1/2 cup measuring cup. She was trying to splurge with sugar-free fat-free ice cream...isn't that an oxymoron? This roommate actually had a great success story losing weight by counting calories. Well, she didn't have a lot to lose, but she went down a couple sizes by keeping track of her caloric and fat intake and running. There were six of us living in that apartment that year, and just about each of us had a different style of eating/dieting.

There was another roommate on the Atkins diet. She fried bacon every morning, and the rest of us went to school smelling like it. She sent away for oily, flavorless Atkins brownie mix. She was really trying to lose weight so she was on the strictest version of Atkins avoiding carrots even. I am so glad the Atkins fad is dying down. To her credit, she actually lost a lot of weight that year. The next roommate followed a kind of diet that kept her in touch with her body. She had some food allergies so she started off with a safe, basic kind of meal. She ate rice, grilled chicken, and vegetables because her body felt good with that combination. She would try adding some other variations and explore what kinds of foods helped her feel healthy and energetic. Moving on to roommate number four, she didn't really diet at all, or need to, but we decided her eating style was to make a lot of food, and give it away to other people.

Roommate number five was my eating buddy. We kind of learned how to cook together that year. We have a picture of our first casserole, and then another one of us feeding it to the ducks. It was a great casserole. Of course I considered myself and this roommate the only "normal" eaters in our apartment. But really, we had our quirks too. My eating buddy liked to balance out all the "bad" things she ate with "good" things. Good things were frozen peas and corn. I tried to balance out eating bad food by running. And our apartment was not unique in it's dieting/bingeing at BYU, or the rest of the nation. Our society has so much quick preparation, unhealthy yet yummy food within reach that we have to come up with crazy ways to deal with it.

Right now I'm not trying to lose weight don't worry. But Britton and his friend Peter decided to lose some pounds by keeping track of calories. Often I think we don't really don't realize how much we eat. So they started sharing this Google document that keeps track of how many calories you consume each day. It looked kind of fun so Nikki and I joined it too. I thought we were close before, but now we know each crumb everyone eats every day. Nothing like peer pressure to change your habits. We also use this force to get us going to the gym every morning. No one wants to be the one to call and back out. Anyway, Britton and Peter are slowly changing their eating habits and working towards their goal. They want to be able to play ping pong downstairs without shirts. And do walking handstands. Very lofty and noble goals.

So what kind of eating/dieting style do you have? Any experiences with diets? Any successes?

The Website of Britton

Yes, Britton has outgrown our little blog, and now he has a website and blog of his own. You can find him at stanford.edu/~bolson As a result, this blog might be more focused on girlie things like tutus, babies, and ravioli. Which speaking of, I will be having our first baby in the beginning of September. I was going to post the first ultrasound picture of our cute little blob, but I realized I accidently threw it away along with Britton's birthday card. Typical me... So if I can get it re-printed it will be posted.

Old Testament...check

So it's taken about two years, but I've finally acheived my goal of reading the entire Old Testament. Yep, I even read the Song of Solomon which has been called biblical smut. It was actually a short book and had some interesting phrases that can be used in corny poetry like, "Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead." A flock of goats eh? There were some disturbing stories that I don't want to go into detail, and others were inspiring stories I haden't really heard of before. As in, I might have heard about them in early morning seminary, but they couldn't penetrate my brain at that hour of the morning. One story was when Israel was passing over the Jordan River to enter the promised land. Joshua performed a miracle like Moses had, and he parted the river for them to cross over. I learned about important holy days for Israel like the passover, the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tabernacles. I heard the detail that went into King Solomon's ornate temple. There were lots of stone pomagrantes and palm trees for decoration. I realized that even though David made one huge mistake, he lived the majority of his life humbly and obediently. He also made one of his wives embarassed by dancing through the streets. Later in Israel's history there were many prophets prophesying about the destruction of Jerusalem. Finally Jersualem is destroyed, and the people are STILL stubborn and don't follow what the prophets say. There were a lot of prophesies from the prophets later in the Old Testament that I'd heard of, but never read myself before. One of the last prophecies I read that has stuck in my mind lately is by Zechariah. And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. Taking the prophecy completely literally I was kind of confused. I looked up a explanation about the Feast of Tabernacles, it celebrates an abundant harvest at the end of fall. It's supposed to be the most joyous of the feasts. The tradition is that families go into the wilderness and live in tent like structures to remember the journey of the Children of Isreal in the wilderness. Living away from the comforts of home is supposed to help them remember the blessings God has given them, and teach them they must rely on God. So taking Zecharaiah's prophecy literally I was thinking we would have to travel to a middle-eastern wilderness and camp out with our families each year. Obviously that's unrealistic. A modern-day Feast of Tabernacles I've experienced is Trek. Pulling handcarts in the sun for miles during the day, and sleeping under the stars at night really made me appreciate things like a soft, comfy car seat and any food that doesn't invlove cracked wheat. It also helped me appreciate God's creations and learn to rely on Him more. So maybe that will count...except I don't do it every year. I did go camping twice this year though. So I'm glad I made it through the Old Testament, and I learned a lot from it. God really is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I think I will have to read it many more times to feel like I actually understand it. But for now I need a break.