Y’know that perfectly sensible advice they give you when embarking on any kind of diet; the suggestion that you clear out all temptation from your house?
Willpower is finite. See, most of us associate willpower with the kinds of steel-willed folks who force themselves out of bed at five am for that brutal bootcamp class before going to work, or the kind of person who always, always says no to cake, or never drinks more than one small glass of wine.
Willpower is much, much more than that, however. You need willpower for a lot of things in life. Getting up on a cold, winter morning to go to work (instead of phoning in sick, say), or managing to keep your mouth zipped shut when your annoying work colleague begins her daily litany of woes.
These everyday things require willpower so it is no wonder it runs out quickly – and no wonder that here at the Diabetes Diet we advise you to keep your house carb-clear if possible, so you don’t have to waste willpower on battling with the bread bin.
But then, I live with a carb addict.
He’s a West of Scotland man. Normal practice for him is to eat lasagne with chips (eeks, I exclaim, double carbs!). In fact, he tells me, in an ideal world, it would be lasagne, chips AND garlic bread.
(And presumably a nap afterwards.)
There is no way on earth this gent is going to put up with a house that contains no bread, no potatoes and no pasta.
Bread, potatoes and pasta aren’t tempting foods to eat in themselves. Heck no, plain bread without butter? Potatoes that aren’t fried, or also adorned with the glorious goldeness that is butter? Boiled pasta and nothing else? A big bowl of steamed rice? Not so nice and not nearly as tempting and easy to over-devour as a family-size packet of crisps.
So we compromise by keeping the house free from cakes, biscuits and chocolates – and most of the time, we don’t keep crisps or sweets in it either. (And certainly nothing that comes in a purple wrapper…).
Other than that, I cope by serving up my food without the accompanying potatoes or rice, and muttering from time to time about the folly of double carbs. Diet is a personal thing, and your health your own responsibility to a certain extent.
My West of Scotland carb addict must make his own decisions!
Diabetes Diet 
I, too, live with a carb addict. It can be the most frustrating thing, especially when he brings home salty snacks and eats them in front of me. I’m a sucker for those and sometimes I feel like I’m going to have a full blown anxiety attack. Though I realize it’s unfair for him to have to live low carb, so we compromise and he usually only brings snacks I don’t care for into the house now. Only usually, though. I found a bag of my favourite snack hidden in a high and hard-to-reach cupboard earlier in the week…
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Ah, the hiding places… I too have often stumbled across those. You’re right. I feel it’s unfair to oppose my low-carbness on my personal addict. From time to time, I can him to do fasting blood tests and of course they are perfect. Hey ho!
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