Weddingbee Blog

One day, not too long ago, I was over at a friend’s house for a birthday party. It was a potluck and when my friends and I have potlucks, the food is always good. Not those crappy potlucks where people bring lame dishes in hopes that someone else brings something good. Nope. At our parties, everyone brings good food.

Well, I was going for my third Porto’s cheese roll when I said, “I probably shouldn’t eat this. There’s this white dress I need to make sure I can fit into in a couple months.”

A friend who is also getting married in June said, “Are you on the LGN diet too?”

“Huh? What’s that?” I said.

He laughed and walked away.

I thought and I thought and couldn’t figure it out so I asked one of our other friends if he knew what it was.

He, too, laughed at me and said, “the Look Good Naked Diet.”

“Ohhh. (pause) OHHHHH.” It took me a second.

So, I’ve never been really good at dieting.

I love iced caramel macchiatos from Starbucks, Popeye’s fried chicken, Korean BBQ, American BBQ, cheese, chocolate cake, chocolate in general, brownies, Coke, rice… you get the picture. There have only been two times in my twenties where I lost a significant amount of weight.

The first time was during winter quarter of my senior year of college. I think my metabolism sped way up right before it was going to slow WAY DOWN so I lost a bunch of weight without really doing anything at all for a month or two. That was so awesome.

The second time was a year ago when I found out I was prediabetic. My grandmother was diabetic and when I had a blood test done for a physical, my doctor said I was at risk of developing diabetes if I wasn’t careful about my food intake and exercise. I wasn’t really fazed by it at first until she said that I could lose my eyesight and limbs from severe diabetes. Well, that kicked me into high gear. I met with my best friend’s mom who is a nutritionist and she told me all about the diabetic diet. In 3 months, I lost about 15 lbs. just by changing the way I eat. So here are the main ideas of the diabetic diet.

1. Limit the amount of carbohydrates you eat. This doesn’t mean to NOT eat carbs, but to limit them to 6-9 servings a day. A slice of toast is one serving. A venti iced caramel macchiato is five servings.
2. Change your carb intake to whole grains and oats. It’ll keep you full longer. Eat more of your carbs during the daytime where you’re more likely to burn it off. Avoid eating a lot of carbs at night when all you do is sit there and watch Grey’s Anatomy.
3. Indulge in a small amount of sweets ONCE in awhile. If you say you’ll NEVER have any of your favorite chocolate cake or caramel macchiato, you’re sure to break your diet. Have it in very small portions, very infrequently so that you don’t hate life.
4. Eat lots of vegetables. Eat fruit too, but remember, fruit has sugar which is just like carbs. This counts for juice, too. Juice often has as much sugar as soda!
5. Eat 4-5 small meals during the day rather than 3 large meals. This speeds up your metabolism since there’s always something to digest and you don’t overeat at each meal.
6. Yes, I have to say it. Exercise regularly. Although, at the time I had lost the weight, I was exercising about 2 times a week for an hour at a time.

And just to remind you, although I did this a year ago and lost 15 lbs., I haven’t… er… uh… started yet.

Do you have any other tips to add to the LGN Diet?