My mother had five kids and all of her life has been about the same slim, trim size she was in her late teens and early 20s. Her mother was the same way. All of her siblings (my great aunts and uncles) were that way. Her brother (my uncle) is that way. All the cousins are pretty much that way. My brothers are all that way, and so am I -- I'm one size bigger than I was in my late teens, and I was pretty trim then.
I'll bet none of us have ever gone on a diet. Not once. I never have and don't recall my mom or grandmother ever doing it, or the aunties. Diets?
All were raised with the same eating habit, and those who stray get beefy and overweight, then hate it, and go back to eating the way they were raised. I don't know how they eat, but my guess is it's pretty close to this. We all kidn of eat generally the same. Adopt this habit, eat this way, feed your family this way, and you'll never go on a diet.
1. Sodas and sugar drinks are treats for special occasions. PERIOD. They are not a regular feature of the household. They are for parties. Even diet soda is dumb as a daily habit (been there; turns out the soda, sugared or not, makes you weak and wimpy. I think it leeches calcium. Bad for you.) Juice is for breakfast. The rest of the time drink water or tea or wimpy coffee, anything but juice or soda, just as habit.
2. Eat food you make yourself with simple ingredients. Meat, fish, fowl. Eggs. Tomatoes, canned or fresh. Frozen vegetables are fine, as good as fresh most of the time. Onions, garlic, oil, butter. Cheese of all kinds. Avocados. All that stuff. Butter. Lots of dairy (God willing you're not lactose intolerant). Rare if ever are there meals from packaged processed dried stuff, like "Helpers" and noodle-heavy junk (a notable exception is macaroni and cheese ... mmmm ... add bacon and panfried onions and shallots and some spices and maybe a few big fat shrimp ... yummmm ...) Fat content is irrelevant. I ignore it.
3. Starches like bread, potato chips, fries, potatoes, anything with flour, corn, rice, bread, bread, bread ... (!), are second or third attraction in a meal, usually only one (potatoes OR corn OR bread OR rice).
As for just normal everyday eating, it's simple for me, and it WORKS. When I veer from this, I put on the pounds. If I'm having a bag of potato chips, I skip the bread on the sandwich. Or skip the potato chips and have a nice big fat sandwich. But both -- too much starch.
Sweets are nice treats, even daily. Enjoy them. As treats.
It's worked for me! I look at people who go on diets and they're always, always, always battling. They're either feeling guilty because they ate something they weren't supposed to, or they feel deprived because they didn't. That's no way to live.
SCD, not South Coast.
SCD stands for “Specific Carbohydrate Diet”
“The Specific Carbohydrate Diet was developed by the Canadian biochemist Elaine Gottschall who published the book “Breaking the Vicious Cycle” - which is the book about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.”