My first 365 days of low-carb
September 5 is my one year anniverssary on Low Carb!
So, today I enjoyed a breakfast of turkey bacon and cheddar cheese. My daughter sat on my lap drinking a bottle and watching "The Wiggles". It has been a typical Sunday morning for us. I've browsed the internet for headlines; my wife is cleaning the kitchen.
A bit over a year ago, Chelli told me she was going on Atkins. I had kind of heard of it, but it hadn't gotten the huge push in the news it got shortly thereafter. I was aware of the idea, but it didn't make sense to me. Everything I'd ever read told me pork was death and steak was fat, and that you got heart attacks from eating fat. In my few attempts to lose weight, I'd cut down or cut out meat, to no real help.
Chelli went on the diet, but I decided that I'd wait a week because I had a work trip to Houston and wanted to eat well when I was on expense account. When I got back, on September 5, 2003, I decided to start the diet with her. It was a Friday, and we didn't have a scale at home at the time that could weigh me -- it cut off at 330. On Monday, I weighed on the pallet scale -- yes, the pallet scale -- at work and came in at 338.
That first weekend was difficult. It seemed to me to be a very Spartan diet. Meat, a bit of cheese, a few veggies. No bread. How I loved bread.
The thing was, I didn't miss it very long. Perhaps I am fortunate, in that I am a meat eater by nature anyway. Give me a perfect steak or a juicy chicken breast over a sugary dessert anytime. In October, we went on a weekend to Eureka Springs and we cheated with lasangna and a real Coke. I was mortified, but shocked to lose seven pounds the next ten days. By Thanksgiving, I was 310. I wanted to be below 300 (this was extremely important to me) by Christmas. I didn't make that until mid-January.
I've hit stalls, and broken them. I've seen four pounds vanish in a week (then come back). I have learned more about nutrition by reading these forums than I ever cared to know, before low-carb. I devoured anything about motivation I could find. I kept a journal, which helped immeasurably. It was catharsis; I'd never allowed myself to verbalize my feelings on growing up fat in a world that hates fat people. It kept me on track, but I rarely hit it anymore. Perhaps I've said all I have to say. It could be that I just got tired of it. I don't know.
The main thing I did was lose to 267 pounds, a touch over 70 pounds from my starting weight. At times, I am envious of others who lost more in less time, or sympathetic to those who do everything right and still don't lose much.
I don't know all the answers. I'm in a prolonged stall now, having hovered within a +/- five-pound range for three months. I'm concerned, but I'm not in panic. I have found a way to eat that fits me, that has helped me save my life, and will give my daughter a fitter dad. I still don't want her to remember me as fat, and I will break this long plateau, but I'm satisfied with what a year of low carb has done for me.
Best to everyone as you make the journey. Having as much weight to lose as many of us on this forum have is the challenge of a lifetime. But we're all up to it.
--Scott
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