It occurs to me that, if I have any dedicated readers other than my WIfe, I never updated with how my diet is going. Amazingly enough I’m still on it and have lost some 25 pounds. Had to buy new pants and everything. Still have some 20 or so to go but I’m still there.

More amazingly, I finally got used to Diet Coke. Diet Coke is something of an engineering marvel in that it has no carbs, calories or fat. It’s just that damned aspartamane you have to get used to. I couldn’t stand it for the longest time. I tried Diet Vanilla Coke and could tolerate it for a time but then I switched to Diet Dr. Pepper. I got sick of that but oddly enough by that time I could stand Diet Coke. Sometimes I even like it. The main reason I went through all of this at all (instead of, say, just drinking Crystal Light) is because these are the three non-water diet drinks my workplace supplies for free.

Now we have Coke C2. The unveiling of a new type of Coke usually has all the pomp and circumstance of a Rolling Stones release, but this rollout’s been sort of low key. Perhaps we’re just getting it here because we’re a big market. Anywho, the gimmick of Coke C2 is that it has half the sugar (corn syrup) of regular Coke, so it halves the carbs and calories. Neat – but at 19.5 carbs per can, it’s still too expensive for Atkins diets. I’ve tried it – it’s not bad. It’s kinda like hard liquor – you like it but you know if you’re smart you won’t drink too much.

I’ve noticed a lot of opposition to Atkins as a diet. I’m not strictly doing Atkins, I’m mostly just doing the low carb thing. The reasoning behind the backlash is simple enough (it flies in the face of conventional medical wisdom), but I think there’s something a bit deeper involved. Most people, like myself, wouldn’t diet previously because, besides not being obese (just overweight), diets are hard. But Atkins and low carb diets tell you lots of things you can eat.

You can eat A
But I don’t like A

You can eat B
I really don’t like B

Well you can eat C
Now that I can do! Hell, I’ll eat that morning noon and night!

C is of course something like a bacon cheeseburger with no bun, or a steak dinner without bread. As a result, if you like C and you don’t mind eating the same thing all the time, this sort of diet will work perfectly for you.

Of course to eat meat entirely is foolish, as is eating any one thing completely exclusively. I try to eat salads and chicken. I’ve yet to venture into too many vegetables.

But that’s not healthy eating
Well, was already eating really unhealthy – how can this be worse? Actually what I’ve found myself doing is consuming substitutes – and then much less of that. For example, the one “chip-like” thing that you can do without much carb consequence is pork rinds. So I ate the heck out of those things. Sure, it’s fried pork skins, but I figured if my weight loss stopped then so would I. Then I got to where I didn’t need to snack all the time. I never figured I was one of those “comfort eaters” since I never went home to eat while depressed – but turns out I was. I needed a Coke and some junk food to be happy. Now I can consume a little bit of food and a Diet Coke and be fine.

Plus being on a low carb diet is easier now than any time before. If anything out there is low carb, it’s very clearly marked. There’s low carb menus in most restaraunts and most things you like have a low carb equivalent. Quiznos does flatbread, Subway and Friday’s are actually on board with Atkins, and Frito Lay has a new soy-laced chip with fewer carbs. And some low carb items are pretty close to their equivalents – like the sugar-free Creme Savers and the low carb Russell Stover candies. Of course they feature the disclaimer:

Excess consumption may have a laxative effect

….

Well, there’s another way to lose weight I guess.

But as a result of all of this, low carb hysteria is at an all time high. So, people are resistant. I believe this is twofold. First, the natural reaction when overloaded with something is resistance. Do guys say they hate Jennifer Lopez and Brtiney Spears because they’re ugly? If anything their media overexposure should be a good thing. No, guys say they hate them because they’re so sick of them. But the other reason, I believe, is that as a result of all of the people on low carb diets, the number of people on diets has gone up exponentially. I’ve never been on a diet before (so lucky me that the first one worked), but now the odds of you knowing someone on a diet has gone up considerably. And if you’re someone who needs to be on a diet (as most people are – save for bodybuilders and the genetically lucky) then it’s easy to interpret the magnitude of people on these diets as a sign. And people really hate that.

But whatever. I’m one of like three people in my office on a diet, so I get cut out of certian things involving cake. And it’s somewhat asinine to have to limit yourself in a land of plenty. The one thing that concerns me about this diet is an “exit strategy” (obviously I can’t “go back”, so what then?) but in the meantime I’m going to go take a swig off of a Coke C2 and have thousand island on my salad.

Yeah, I’m naughty.