Changing my eating habits

Like everyone else (99.9% of women) I've spent my life dieting and despairing about my body and how my clothes fit (or don't fit), about exercise (or lack thereof). As I've grown older wiser, I've realized that my body doesn't like carbs. My mouth and my head and my heart L.O.V.E. carbs, but not my body. My body hates carbs so much that it hangs on to them with this death grip and doesn't allow them to just give me energy and get burned out of my body. Oh no...my body insists on holding them hostage until in futile despair they turn into fat and decide to permanently set up camp on my butt, my arms, my shoulders and my back! (For some reason my legs always stay super skinny and if you combine super skinny legs with a chunky little body, well I look like a baby chick!)

So since January 17th I've been cutting down my carbs to only about 20 per day. You would think 20 carbs would be plenty but one slice of wheat bread has 10, one medium apple has 17, one home-made pancake has 20! And that's without adding syrup! My beloved tortilla chips have one carb per chip and I've been known to eat the whole bag...oops, did I just tell the world that? Well no, cause only about 7 of you really actually read what I write, so it's all good!

So if I can't eat carbs what do I eat? Well lots and lots of lean meat, especially chicken which I adore! My favorite way to eat it is in chicken salad; chicken, dill pickles, hard boiled egg, mayo, tiny sliced up fresh jalapenos, onion, salt and pepper...Yum! I could eat buckets of it. I've also been eating quite a bit of cheese, in cubes and string cheese and my favorite Babybel cheese rounds. Have you tried these? Delish!

I've also been eating lots of vegetables, zucchini, celery, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and a really odd one that I'd never tried before but find that I absolutely love it. Jicama!

Doesn't that photo look like a big, round, crusty piece of delicious, warm, fresh bread....*sigh*. But no, it's actually Jicama. Jicama is a root vegetable that looks like a turnip. I eat it raw, but I understand it can be cooked. It has the consistency and crunchiness of an apple so I'm finding myself wondering if it could be baked with cinnamon and perhaps some Splenda (to keep those evil Warlord carbs in check)? Anyone know?

I'm finding myself addicted to it. It's not sweet, but not without flavor either. It's hard to describe. In order to get to that white goodness you have to watch a youtube video instructing you on how to prepare it (at least I did cause I had no clue). Lots of people douse it in lemon juice and chile powder and salt, but since lemon has carbs and chile powder and salt would just add sodium (which I don't need) it's best just to eat it naked! Eat the jicama naked I mean... not me! Wow, somehow that still sounds bad doesn't it?

Eating this Atkins Diet based way has been fairly easy for me, but then again I'm not a sugar/chocolateholic, I'm more a popcorn/chips &salsaholic. I've lost 13 pounds so far and I've been riding my bike about 4 miles per day. I could probably do more than 4 miles but I tell myself I've given up chips & salsa, do I also have to do an extra mile? I find I can talk myself out of almost anything!