Perspectives

 This poem was inspired by one of my favorite books.

Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life author: C.S. Lewis asin: 0156870118

Am I in it for the long haul?

The definition of hell is the 'you' that might have been, meeting the 'you' that is...
The saddest words of mouth or pen, are simply these: it might have been...
When will my reflection show who I am inside...
Don't die with the music still inside you...

One day I woke up and realized I was a girl.

Now that you've stopped laughing, let me explain. I always knew I was a girl, but one day I looked in the mirror and saw a feminine, slender, sexy person staring back at me. This person didn't want to wear baggy sweaters; she didn't want to go out without makeup; she didn't like the short, gnawed fingernails or clunky walk.

Webmaster's note: this article was originally posted to our forums by one of our members. It got such an outstanding response that, with her permission, we are making it a permanent part of our Low Carb Knowledge Base. Here's some wisdom from our wonderful member known as "granny"...

I wanted to share my thoughts on 'extreme people' and mistakes I have made on my lc journey and some hard learned lessons.

1. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. Being hydrated not only helps me lose weight, it makes me healthier.

2. There is such a thing as too much food -- and the nice thing about LCing is that I naturally decrease the amount of food I need because I learned what it's like to be full.

3. I have a food addiction -- and that addiction led me, for years, to feeding my problems and covering up stress, sadness, grief, and anger with my fat.

3a. There's no sense breaking one addiction and just replacing it with another -- which means the recovery process can get ugly.

Who are you? Have you ever really thought about it? This query goes beyond name or employee description. I want to know; how do you define yourself? I have found that when I am involved with something that is very important or dear to me, I tend to implement that thing as part of my personality — who I am.

"My name is Summer. I am a wife and mother — a homeschooling mom — I am a writer, a Historian, a kickboxer. I am a low-carber."

Anchors are powerful objects, but their very function poses a conundrum for those who use them. Employed correctly, anchors provide stability and strength against the strongest tides. But there are times when those same anchors can hinder the progress and compromise the safety of the very ship they mean to protect. A fierce storm will pummel an anchored ship to bits if steps are not taken to free the craft. In moments such as these, the captain of said ship must make the difficult but crucial decision to cut loose his anchors.

This is NOT the story of Sniff, Scurry, Hem and Haw, the characters featured in the popular management best-seller by Spencer Johnson. In fact, there are no boneheaded managers who speak in unintelligible metaphors they picked up while browsing the newsstands before their flight anywhere within fifty yards of this article.

No, this is the story of cheese.

In particular, who moved it.

Literally.

I am not Martha Stewart.

I am not Julia Child.

I'm not even Diane Sawyer watching Wolfgang Puck on Good Morning America. In fact, until I started low carbing, my kitchen was just that room between the den and the bathroom where I kept my beer and my Lean Cuisines. I mean, what would I, a singleton, need with a stove and oven? Everything I could ever want to eat could be nuked, or better yet, delivered.

And then, I became a low carber.

First, I had to become introduced to my kitchen.

Why is it that an epiphany always hits you like a ton of bricks? Never is it the soft caress of a cat against your leg or the light whisper of a summer breeze. No. It's always a pile of cinder blocks raining down on you from the heavens. I wonder why that is?

If you threw away all the pasta, rice, and cereal in your pantry and nobody whimpered but you-
If you always know exactly how much cheese you have in the fridge-
If your car is suddenly free of empty McDonald's bags

...then you might be a single low carber.