The Voice of Mom

I have a love/hate relationship with peanut butter.  When I would try to diet, it was forbidden, which meant many late night spoonfuls.  When I would inadvertently lose weight, I would eat more of it, since I had a few pounds to spare.  So, did it affect my weight loss at all?  That is the million dollar question.

About six months after having my son, I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  However, I was still about 10-15 pounds away from my “goal weight” (aka wedding weight).  I attempted to follow Atkins (for about a week), but the restrictions led to many, many cookies (and maybe some pizza).  Eventually, I settled on mainly salads, grilled chicken and fish and vegetables.  The weight did begin to melt away, but every now and then my appetite would get the best of me.

I know you’re wondering…to what did I turn for filling support?  That’s right, my old friend, PB.  This time, however, I used a single (although whopping) tablespoon to ease my growling stomach a couple of times a day.  And, to my pleasant surprise, my hunger subsided, and in two months, I had reached my goal weight.

So what if you detest peanut butter or aren’t obsessive compulsive like I am?  Well, hopefully you’ve gleaned that the point to my overly-dramatic (yet true) story is that depriving yourself of every food you love all at once sets you up for disaster.  Unless you have will power of steel, which most of us do not, you should reward yourself every once in a while for eating a healthy, well-rounded diet.  And, choosing something like peanut butter, which isn’t completely horrible for you (not loaded with sugar and carbs) seemed to work for me.

I’m far from a nutritionist, but I do know from personal experience that finding the right meal plan for you is the key to getting healthy and losing the weight you can live without.

Health Writer Dee Devine also writes her own blog, sproutstyle, as well as for La Vie Cherie, Swami Baby and Barefoot Mommies.

Photo credit: somadjinn from morguefile.com