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!