What is your diet - i.e. are you a vegan?

[ladyVet]

68. I eat meat.

I try to reduce carbs as much as I can, but being poor limits me in what I can afford so the family is full and satisfied. We eat dinner, and if there are leftovers that's lunch the next day. Sometimes we have Ramen or grits for lunch. I've had a cheese stick and some peanuts, or a tablespoon or two of peanut butter many times when there wasn't anything else.

I was a vegetarian for a year on doctor's orders. I gained 60 pounds, and my health deteriorated. Turns out, carbs are not good for me. I've tried just about every diet a doctor could point me to, and a couple from women's magazines. This was before gastric bypass, liquid diets and other stuff.

After that, I rebelled by eating at McDonald's three or four times a week, with processed junk for the rest of my meals (and my kids'). Blood pressure and cholesterol still very good, but the weight was starting to inch up.

Through all that, my blood pressure stayed low, so low that it once freaked a nurse out during a checkup. My cholesterol was so good the doctor always did the tests twice, just to be sure. My weight was a little high, but not bad, about 30 pounds over my "normal".

I was convinced to go low-fat again, because I was overweight and getting older. I only lost weight when I ate less than 800 calories a day and exercised like a fiend. My health continued to worsen.

I can't tell you how depressing it was to eat nothing except low-fat, low-calorie foods for years. No butter, oil, milk, cheese. No salad dressing. Turkey instead of beef or chicken. Tofu. Oh dear god. I tried and tried to like it, or just tolerate it. I shudder to think how much I threw out, because it was just nasty.

I exercised daily, walking for miles after work, using weights, on top of having a physically demanding job and taking care of two kids and a house by myself.

What really killed me was getting pregnant with my third son. Oy, did I gain! Even though I was sick the first three months and barely ate, I gained 80 pounds. I eventually lost most of it, again on a starvation low-calorie, low-fat diet.