Sheena's stats

Starting weight on May 29, 2006: 290

Weight last week: 248

Weight this week: 246

Total weight lost: 44

Weekly milestone: I've ignored the siren call of the Honey Bunches of Oats in my store-room pantry for nearly two weeks.

I'm a full week into my low-carb diet and I've discovered something.

I can't do a low-carb diet.

It's put me back in a place where I'm thinking about food in an unhealthy way - I picture myself tearing into a piece of bread or slurping down an entire plate of spaghetti and then I obsess about it.

That's a place I used to be with all food. I feel like I've just overcome that behavior, and I don't want to go back.

But I found I can manage a significantly reduced carb diet.

For the past week, I've given up my morning cereal, sworn off sandwiches for lunch and severely limited my pasta intake.

I'm now eating more yogurt, cottage cheese and salads than ever before. But I'm not completely denying myself carbs in flour form. I ended up at an Italian restaurant last weekend. I ordered a vegetable dish and didn't eat any of the pasta. But that didn't stop me from eating a few slices of the whole wheat bread.

I started the whole diet because my body is already insulin-resistant, and I want to help it lose weight as easily as possible.

Without carbs, though, I've been exceptionally moody and constantly tired. So, I started putting some of them back in my diet. I've avoided any fad diets because I'm not just trying to lose weight, but rather create a lifestyle change that I can maintain until I have great-grandkids.

What I really need to regulate is how often I eat, according to Julie Metos, the program director of the coordinated master's program in nutrition at the University of Utah.

She told me that spikes in blood sugar are what can hurt my ability to lose weight the most, and that I should be eating smaller amounts throughout the day instead of large meals a few times a day.

I also need to be careful about what I'm eating.

Yes, a bagel is a bad choice, but so are watermelon, cantaloupe and dates. They are all foods that have a high glycemic index value.

So, instead of mangoes, a handful of cherries or some apple slices are a better way to keep my blood sugar steady, she said.

So, I'll keep forgoing my morning cereal for yogurt and my lunchtime walk to Caputo's for one to Big City Soup, but that doesn't mean I'll deny myself a small helping of pasta in the evening.

For now, it's all about finding a balance I can maintain for the rest of my life.

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* SHEENA MCFARLAND can be contacted at smcfarland@sltrib.com or via her blog "The Incredible Shrinking Sheena" at www.sltrib.com/blogs. Her phone number is 801-257-8619.