Weigh in and questions

Black Friday was honestly a lot of fun for us ! I think that the reason it was so was that we do not do any gift shopping till the week before Christmas. When you are not looking for the hottest toy or so forth, you can take advantage of the deep discounts at odd places on the day. We were on a quest for pointsettias, strings of lights, whole cloves and oranges, and so it was pretty delightful getting out and about in the energy of the day that kicks off the Christmas season. For us it is the kick off to Advent- the season of waiting in hope. The house will be decorated slowly, activities will be done a few at a time so that the whole affect will be like living one gigantic advent calendar with a new surprise behind each door. A supposedly non traditional approach to the holiday, but it works for me.

It seems non traditional works well for me in other ways. Weight loss is one. The conventional wisdom says use only healthy fats in minimal amounts, eat high fiber, restrict calories and do a lot of weight bearing and aerobic exercise. It also says that in the holiday season the average person will gain 10 lbs. Then it says weight loss is simply a mater of watching the number of calories in , expending more and the scale will move. I tried this approach for 2 years. Our diet journey began 2 years ago this weekend. It was on the Saturday after Thanksgiving that we went shopping, the bench broke and we instantly changed our lives. At first , following the conventional wisdom resulted in the scale moving, but then it stopped. For me it resulted in playing with the same 10 lbs for over a year. Then I stopped listening to the conventional wisdom and things started moving again. The guys still feel best listening to conventional wisdom, so it is a split house. This morning was our weekly weigh in- the results after Thanksgiving, following our own programs.

Me- DOWN 3.4 ( would have been more but I am experiencing a little constipation this morning)
Hubby - UP 3.6 ( followed his calorie intake, but still eats grains)
Son UP 3.4- also followed his program but is still eating grains.

I got no exercise other than moving some furniture and housekeeping. Son got in a lot of dancing and Wii fit plus. Hubby got in a lot of walking. So if it is a matter of calories in /calories out, why these results ? Or is it more a matter of eating a food substance that is naturally resistant to insect infestation and has been so genetically modified that it is now a substance that our very DNA does not know how to deal with without injury ? Is it due to a diet based on a foodstuff that has been altered to not only survive but yield 500 times more than nature ever intended it to ? I am not a scientist, but simply a mom who has listened to conventional wisdom , seen the results and is really searching for the strand of wisdom in that convention. Grains have been linked to digestive disorders, autism, arthritis, insulin resistance and more. Several have also suspected it is a major cause in obesity as well. It's these unconventional folks that my gut tells me to listen to.