My Battle with Bread

We all think of bread as a staple in our lives. Bread, in fact, comes with everything. Every single food that you eat (and probably shouldn’t eat) has a form of that white, starchy goodness called bread. I decided I was going to ban bread for one week. This was to be an experiment and I was sure I would win. I thought to myself the night before beginning this trek: This cannot be that hard. I had read in magazine after magazine that it was one of the ways to lose weight. If everyone else is doing it then I should be fine. So I announced to my family that while I would still cook and cater for them that I would no longer be eating bread.

Day 1

This morning I woke up feeling persistent, feeling revitalized, feeling up to the challenge, and feeling hungry. Usually I would satiate this hunger by having a nice, big bowl of cereal with milk. This morning however I was going to have a banana and yogurt instead. That should take me through the day, I thought to myself as I head out the door for work.

Now, anyone who has dieted knows that for some reason you are starving while on a diet. This is not because you have succeeded in keeping your food intake down. This is strictly because you are on a diet. For some reason when we put the idea in our heads that we are going on a diet we educate our stomachs to feel like we’ve been locked in a room without food or water for one week.

By noon I am starving. I am thinking about everything under the sun that I would eat. NO! I tell myself as the 2 o’clock lunch hour approaches. I fight this urge to go to McDonalds and get a Big Mac, but instead as I pulled up to the drive-thru I ordered a side salad with ranch dressing and sneered at the grinning Big Mac. I had made my first good choice in this battle.

When I reached home I realized that I still had to cook dinner for my son and my husband. I had planned on making Sloppy Joes. I decided I would continue with this plan while realizing that meant that I could not have a bun with my meat, instead I would have mine on top of a salad.

After completing this dish and serving my son I see my husband out of the corner of my eye with a bun in his hand. The urge came over me to tackle him. I did not realize that this urge was the fuel to sustain my addiction to the starchy goodness that bread has to offer.

Day 2

Ok, so this has ot get a little easier. I have frowned upon cereals, fought against hamburger buns, and snubbed anything containing one grain of bread. I am a winner! No, I am actually just fighting every single urge I have to quit this stupid fight. But no instead I go with the banana.

Again a fun-filled lunch of sandwich meat and mustard. A turkey sandwich is not a turkey sandwich without the white-bread goodness it is normally wedged between. Finally another dinner with no wow, no pizazz, nothing that I truly want.

The Rest of The Week

By day three the pressure, and the need for bread had subsided. I felt better, and I didn’t feel groggy. I actually lost about 2 inches in my waist which was the most amazing thing. However I am not going to continue to bore you with my battle but I will tell you that as the days fell, and the crumbs dropped from my loved ones’ beautiful sandwichs it often crossed my mind to…………..eat a salad.