What is the CFL?

The CFL is my own acronym that I use to describe our lifestyle.  It stands for "Carb Free Lifestyle" or if you've know me forever, lets just call its "Carbless FunLisa" because I will always be ME!

The CFL isn't anything new, I definitely didn't reinvent the wheel.  After years of jumping on and falling off the different low-to-no-carb diets, when I got on the scale in January 2021, I was traumatized with my weight.  Like most of the world, I had been stress eating and not paying attention to what was happening to my body.  I was working from home, which meant that I no longer needed to wear fancy-pants, I had been wearing pajama pants and yoga pants.  

At Thanksgiving, I had purchased a new dress and it was size XXXL, when I put it on and saw how snug it was, I rationalized that "it was from Walmart and their sizes run small", "it's a Juniors size", and "maybe I needed "suck 'em in" panties"?  The reality was, I had let my body and weight get out of control. Yet, even after that moment of reality, I continued to stuff myself with Christmas cookies and meals consisting mostly of carbohydrates.  I was ending every meal with sweet desserts and basically not giving a shit about what I was doing to myself.

Fast forward to January 2021 and getting on the scale because I was really not feeling it...What I saw truly traumatized me. It was my highest weight ever and I knew that I needed to make a change.

I immediately purchased 2 containers of Slim Fast Keto meal replacement powder and a box of meal replacement bars.  We were going to make drastic lifestyle changes. No more calling this shit a "diet", we were embarking on a "lifestyle change".  No more carb filled meals.  Protein and non-starchy veg for dinner.

I knew from previous experience that I did not want to call this new lifestyle "keto" because I was not going to calculate macros and be focused on percentages of fat to protein.  I was going to look at labels and determine if the carbohydrate content in something was going to fit into my daily food plan.

I wasn't going to call this an Atkins lifestyle because I knew that sometimes the only way to give in to a sweets craving was to eat something sweet, like a perfectly ripe strawberry or a small handful of big sweet juicy blueberries...

I had briefly swam in the "dirty/lazy keto" pool and found that their philosophy didn't work for me either because I felt like I was constantly cheating. 

I knew that if I was going to be successful, I was going to have to do this MY WAY!  I had to incorporate the things that I know work for me.  Slim Fast shakes have been around since the 70's and I remembered drinking them in the 90's after I had my son, so I knew I had a personal success with them.

I was working from home and alone most of the day, so no need to make a mid-day meal, I was content to eat a snack and then make a dinner that was "limited to no carbs".  Thus, the "Carb Free Lifestyle" was born!

 

Why carb-free??

This past year has made me reevaluate our food choices.  I will go into more details about my decisions that led me to go carb-free, but today, I want to focus on my dad...

My dad is a diabetic and has been in "diabetic denial" for years. My mom let him take care of his diabetes and manage it himself. That was a disaster waiting to happen and in March 2021, he had a stroke and the doctors told him that he had to get his diabetes under control and he has to "cut out white food", guess what? Carbs are all white food.  Rice, bread, pasta, sugar and cows milk.

When my dad was first admitted to the hospital for his stroke, his blood sugar was a whopping 375!

Dad spent a few days in the hospital recovering from his stroke and when he came home, I stayed with them for the first couple weeks.  I had already been eating carb-free for a couple months, so it was easy for me to see what changes they needed to make.  I went through their pantry and freezer and threw away their boxes of crackers, cereal, frozen Texas toast, pretzels, cookies and no sugar added ice creams. While they thought they were making healthy choices, I knew better. 

While there, I cooked all of their meals. I introduced them to cauli-rice and zoodles. I showed my mom how easy it is to roast veggies on a sheet pan. While I making their meals, my dad's sugars were all registering within the "normal" range!

In this blog, I want to introduce you all to the CFL - Carb Free Lifestyle.  It's not "keto" because we don't count macros. It's not Atkins because we do eat some fruits. In my opinion, it's a hybrid of low and no carb diets.  It's not a diet because this is truly our lifestyle.  I want to motivate you that if I can live a carb free lifestyle, then anyone can!!

F**k Carbs!! Resist the Urge!!

Lisa Medina, The CFL Queen