The ELF Diet

A friend of mine just posted about being back to pre-baby weight thanks to the ELF Diet. I was curious, being in a bit of a standstill weight loss wise, so I looked it up. My curiosity led to complete frustration after reading a few of these types of posts:

Why does this drive me batty? Because when I look at my diet, I just don't see anywhere else to cut from! I haven't had a flavored drink from Starbucks in at least a year. And in the last 10 years, probably 12 total? On very special occasions. Usually its a dark coffee with milk. No sugar. I haven't had a sugar soda in ages - I did drink sugar soda when pregnant as the better choice over diet, but non-pregnant me goes for the Diet Coke or La Croix, or even just Club Soda.

I eat fruit and veggies all day every day. And bread and butter is reserved for a nice steak dinner out, that happens maybe 4 times a year.  

Ice Cream, Cookies or Brownies? What? Dessert happens once a week, if that. I like to have an apple with peanut butter, and feel guilty about the peanut butter! 

FOUR THOUSAND CALORIES?!?! 4000? How was this lady not 700+ pounds? When I track my calories, I am usually in the 1700 - 2000 range. Sadly, whenever I calculate what I need to go down to to lose weight, the calculators tell me 1400. :( 1400! Guess I should be feeling guilty about that peanut butter. Hah. 

Finally, this lady went from completely sedentary, to walking a mile or two, then walking some 5Ks, with a little running mixed in. Well I am for sure screwed there. I already have a few 5Ks under my belt and hit the gym 3 times a week and try to choose fun activities (pool, park, walks) to do with the girls so we aren't all just sitting around eating. 

Anyway, the ELF diet is simple. E.L.F. stands for "Eat Less, Fatty" and basically rather than going on a special diet program, you just eat less, and especially eat less bad stuff. I guess if you already don't eat bad stuff (ahem, wait, I forgot about the peanut butter), then you just eat less. According to the lady whose blog I screen grabbed from, she lost 40 lbs in 5 months. Well shit, when you eat 4000 calories a day, of course that would be easy to do! 

I honestly don't like the put-down that comes with the name "fatty" - that's not fair. I'm not a fatty. Not by any means. I just don't fit into the clothes I want to wear. 

Welp, after reading that, I just had to vent. While nothing comes of saying "its not fair," sometimes you have to allow yourself to say it. And good for this lady, she probably needed to make a huge life change like this, and I am glad it worked for her. Last night I had a subway sandwich (and not the chicken parm or meatball one, one of the healthy ones, as usual) and went ice skating with my friends. It was really hard, since I haven't been in a while and need to rebuild my confidence, but it was fun, and a reminder of yet another activity that doesn't involve food. Whatever, slowly but surely.