Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Greg's Dieting Willpower is Strong Enough for Both of Us

I can't imagine going weeks upon weeks without bread of any sort, with no potatoes, no rice no PASTA!!! I should be able to though, since I've watched Greg do it for the past few weeks.

He's weird, is Greg. He's wanted to lose weight for awhile now and when we went to drop the kids off at his parents' house a few weeks ago he saw that his sister had lost weight. She told him about the Dukan diet and two days later he had bought the book. Another two days after that and he had turned his back on carbs in favor of protein, protein and more protein (alternating with days he could also eat vegetables).

So he's awesome, he's losing weight and I can't really believe he's doing so well. His also-dieting sister came to visit and when I made cranberry white chocolate scones (thanks, Kim!) she took a bite of one. Just a bite. And Greg didn't. He hasn't sampled any of the brownies, chocolate chip cookies, Boston Cream Pie, peanut butter brownies, blueberry muffins etc. I've made while he's been on this diet (I know I'm cruel, but I am not on a diet yet and I can't yet live without these things. Plus the kids and I eat them in the kitchen when Greg's not around and I bake everything in the downstairs kitchen so he doesn't smell it too much, either.).

That's another weird thing about him. He "doesn't get" why people go on a diet and then cheat. If you're going to diet, DIET, he says. If decide to do something, just do it. It's that all or nothing perspective that I respect so much about him. It is his major strength or a great contributor to many of his strengths, I think. (It's also the hardest thing to deal with in other ways, but that is another post for a never day.)

Making dinner is proving to be very time consuming these days. I'm not really the type to just switch right over to feeding the family on Greg's diet. It's heavy on dairy and fish and I'm doing low-dairy-nursing and I don't like fish. Still, I try to adapt our dinners for him. It means making most things twice.

For example on Sunday it was sweet and sour chicken. His chicken had to be marinated separately and breaded in only corn starch -- no flour, like ours was. It had to be "fried" without any oil. His sauce couldn't have regular sugar (or pineapple juice) in it and I am anti-sweetener, so the sauces had to be made separately, too.

When Greg came home in the evening and saw sauce and vegetables on the stove I could tell he needed it. He looked about dieted out and I could see the fear in his eyes that this was not a diet-friendly meal. He sat down in front of The Sound of Music with the kids and I brought him his riceless version of the dinner. He ate. He enjoyed.

Then he said something that very clearly illustrated his near desperation. He said, "If I hadn't been able to eat that dinner I would have broken my diet."

Woah.

And I have to thank him for more than loving the skimpified versions of favorite meals I'm making for him. I also seem to have dropped almost three kilos since he started his diet. As I have not been eating any more healthy than before I can only attribute it to the strength of his dieting. He does it SO hardcore that even those around him are losing weight. Now there's a diet I can handle! (the kind that requires you to be around your dieting husband. Period.)

14 comments:

Lara Neves said...

Definitely impressive.

I wish I could tap into that "not needing to cheat" thing. Although, I guess at the end there, maybe he did understand. :)

Karen E. said...

I think I slept in on the day that God handed out willpower.

Andi Kate, Children's Author said...

Way to go Greg! I do not believe in dieting. That is why I ate peanut butter brownies for breakfast. I'll send you the recipe if you want, but not Greg. :)

Barbaloot said...

No potatoes!? I could maybe live without bread and pasta---but not potatoes. I need those in my life!

I'm very impressed with him. I'm usually great on diets...for about two hours.

Nathan said...

You are right about Greg's major character trait, Lisa. Of course you don't need me to tell you that, I'm just concurring...

Kazzy said...

I am with Greg on this one. I have also been on a low-carb diet recently and have dropped 12 lbs in 3 and a half weeks. I have had zero desserts or refined sugar. I am fiercely strong-willed with this stuff and can go a whole year if I see results. I actually think of chocolate every now and then, but I feel and look better without it, so I am able to block it out of my mind.

Erin said...

I LOVE your sweet & sour chicken. I would have broken too. You were so nice to make him a special version.

Ironically, fish is one of the few things my kids all LOVE. I don't cook it very often because it is hard to get fresh for a decent price and I just don't enjoy the frozen stuff much.

Melanie Jacobson said...

I think you must be a very patient wife. And he has amazing will power.

By the way, a returned missionary just spoke in my ward on Sunday. Elder Brown? He knows you. He even told about a meeting he attended in your tiny branch. How small of a world is that!

Alison Wonderland said...

That's a fantastic diet!

I may know a sister missionary that you may have known. How long have you been in Poland?

Becky said...

That is a powerful diet! Does it work across oceans? :)

I'm not an all-or-nothing gal. I need to allow cheats because otherwise, I have days where I totally lose it and consume my full day's worth of calories before noon. Not a pretty sight, my friend.

Give your husband a high five for me. (Are those still cool?)

Heather said...

Cool! I can't wait to find out if you keep losing weight by just being around him.

ncheshire said...

"He's weird, is Greg. "

Truer words were never spoken.

Lesley said...

He's really the Superman of dieting, isn't he? Awesome! I'm sure it helps that you are making meals that are diet-friendly for him. If I had someone doing that for me I'd do much better too! Kudos to both of you!

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

Wowza...I could never do anything like that. I luuurve carbs. Good for him (and for you!).