Nathaniel is ONE, so time to get myself back... *ENTER BANTING*

Long ramble below, but the question is in BOLD below, so please just read and answer that if you don't want to read the rest..? THANKS.
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So I'm doing a Banting type thing. Not super strict as I don't have a lot of weight to lose, and I don't think I am insulin resistant (yet), but I had got into a terrible habit and downhill spiral of simple-carb addiction. So while I have always eaten well and consciously previously, in the past year since living here and having baby, I would eat sweets, cakes, biscuits etc. pretty much with abandon. And for the most part my metabolism could handle it - because of breastfeeding. YAY! So no harm really. But I got to the point that I was almost justifying eating so much crap. 'About to exercise, so some chocolate is fine!', 'I just exercised so this muesli bar is good'... blah blah bullshit.

Anyway, with running 50-60km a week, and BF'ing and not getting enough sleep I was always tired and/or hungry and because I can't sleep when I want or need to caffeine and sugar are the quickest and easiest 'drugs' to try to 'buy' energy.

But then I started weaning, and then injured my heel at around the same time. Now that doesn't mean I did nothing. I went to the gym EVERY DAY (to do yoga, pilates, power-plate, circuit whatever I could). I tried to eat less, and found I was less hungry anyway without all that cardio. Yet I started gaining weight and bloat, esp around my middle, and alarmingly fast too! I literally put on 2-3kgs in a week or 2!! And I wasn't being a pig (well not overtly anyway). If I am honest I was still eating a fair amount of crap in there. (Don't tell A I called his brownies 'crap') ;)

So I decided something had to change and that my body must actually be a bit out of whack. I guess a pregnancy, breastfeeding and diet change, weaning etc etc over 40 will do that to you huh?!

Watching 'That Sugar Film', Spring season starting, Weaning baby, and him turning 1 years old (I can really no longer use the excuse that 'I have just had a baby' I haven't!) and wanting to FEEL good in and about myself and and and seemed the perfect timing to consciously make a change.

I started last Tuesday and have gradually improved each day with being more conscious and aware of what I am eating and then adjusting that to make better choices. I am by no means doing the whole proper Banting thing, but I am eating 100% more consciously and probably 90% more healthily (in the Banting definition of that).

I am not yet at the point of thinking beans, chickpeas, peanut, raisin, tomato sauce or 70& Dark Chocolate etc are 'bad', but as and when I have that kind of thing I do it in moderation and consciously and I think that's good.

I have successfully, and easily passed up on cupcakes, biscuits, muffins, toast, potato, Lindor chocolates, brownies, cookies, jam, cereal, left over party sweets, Tim-Tams, Nutella.... My life and this house is just FULL of this stuff! Even the YUMMY Butternut Panzeroti everyone else ate last night (I was going to eat it and then though, nah, I really don't need it at all). PLUS I have stopped just eating what the baby discards - which is big for me and I think I did that impulsively without even really noticing!

And I have discovered my heel can cope with spinning so I have some cardio back too which helps in all sorts of ways also. BUT I am not ravenous from it or out of control guzzling carbs, YAY.

For me a BIG mind shift is to thinking and believing that Fats and Oils are OK! I would previously have done low carb AND low fat. I steam veggies, fry without oil, use only lean eat etc. SO actually adding olive oil and butter to stuff I would usually have cooked and eaten plain is a bit of a mind shift for me, but I am giving it a try.

2 things I have noticed so far:
- I used to flavour my foods a LOT. Heaps of salt, pepper, herbs and spices. Now I am seeming not to do it and am just eating stuff quite plain and liking the actual taste of the thing.
- And things taste DELICIOUS. A and I shared an omelette yesterday and the spinach and tomato inside it tasted DIVINE. I couldn't stop commenting on it. I am sure it WAS delicious, but do think a week or 2 ago it would have tasted that good to me. I think more so my taste buds have become more sensitive again and I can tastes and appreciate flavours better.
I had a cappuccino too with no sugar/sweetener or anything and I liked the taste of that too. Last week I would have been reluctant to drink it.

So anyway this is starting to make sense and I can't refute that even though I didn't get either of my usual lie-ins this week-end, I was willing and able to wake up when baby did and don't feel drained and exhausted any more, and I think that was probably mostly carb hang-over now..? And I don't feel hungry, irritable, fuzzy headed all the time either. So I want to give this a decent go now, since I think I am over the initial hump and it's making sense and seems to really 'work'.

So my question is:
Do you HAVE to eat breakfast??
- I'm more of a cup or 2 of coffee when I wake up person. I don't want to eat until about 10-11am anyway (even on high carbs) so now I am really not hungry when I wake up...
Yesterday I went to do a 90-min spin-class at 08:30am and then did a 90-min yoga class after that and only ate at 12:30. But felt fine doing that.
- So can you skip breakfast and eat later on (mid-morning or early lunch) whether you are exercising or not, or is breakfast considered important and really necessary for some reason?

TFR!