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  #31   ^
Old Tue, Mar-15-16, 02:34
Grav Grav is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,469
 
Plan: Banting
Stats: 302/187/187 Male 175cm
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: New Zealand
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Hats off to you Ken. I'd be proud of even making it halfway to what you have achieved. Well done.
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  #32   ^
Old Sat, Mar-26-16, 19:49
khrussva's Avatar
khrussva khrussva is offline
Say NO to Diabetes!
Posts: 8,671
 
Plan: My own - < 30 net carbs
Stats: 440/228/210 Male 5' 11"
BF:Energy Unleashed
Progress: 92%
Location: Central Virginia - USA
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Thank you everybody for the wonderful comments and accolades. It has been an amazing ride and I'm not sure that I could have done it without all the wonderful support and information that I've received from this wonderful forum. I plan on sticking around. I've got a maintenance goal to accomplish.

I surpassed my original goal weight of 210 pounds this week and I'm still losing. And to cap an awesome week, I had that doctor visit that I mentioned in my milestone and it was a very happy visit. The results were in with my new cholesterol numbers. IMO - the results could not have been any better. Here is an update of my cholesterol chart with the added numbers.


One thing I didn't mention in the milestone was that I did have an NMR done in December 2015. That test actually measures LDL cholesterol as opposed to the estimated LDL/VLDL numbers on a standard lipid panel. An NMR also measures partial size where the standard test does not. The results were good and as expected for a low carb diet. The particle size was large and fluffy and the count for small, dense (bad) LDL cholesterol was very low. All good news. But my LDL particle count was still very high. I'm sure would be better now given my most recent lipid panel.


The results from the NMR:

LDL-P was at 1577 -- at the high end of the "Borderline High" range.

The other results from the NMR were as follows:
  • My HDL-P was 29.7 (a little lower than normal)
  • My LDL Size was Pattern A - Large (which is good)
  • My Small LDL-P was < 90 -- which is outstanding. Low (which is good) has a cutoff of <117 and the 50th percentile is 527.
  • My Insulin Resistance score was < 25 and the cutoff for low is < 27. I'm not sure how meaningful this score is, but the results were very good.

I don't know if my high cholesterol issues was a cardiovascular risk or not. But I'm still glad that I was able to change my numbers for the better. I chose the "better safe than sorry" approach to this. My doctor was happy about the results of my year long experiment. She was amazed in fact. Twelve months ago she was talking about prescribing a strong statin. There is no talk of that now.

Last edited by khrussva : Sun, Mar-27-16 at 13:46.
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  #33   ^
Old Sat, Mar-26-16, 21:05
Dignity's Avatar
Dignity Dignity is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 59
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 310/305/210 Male 185cm
BF:
Progress: 5%
Location: Asia
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You make me happy. Every time I read your update I feel that there is hope. So rarely in this world do we see the oppressed rise to freedom. Okay my words are a bit extreme but that's how I feel about all things including the battle for health that so many face daily. You put a smile on my face. Thank you for the story, again!
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  #34   ^
Old Fri, Apr-01-16, 00:32
Bintang's Avatar
Bintang Bintang is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 258
 
Plan: MyOwn:CHO<90g/d
Stats: 207/149/150 Male 169 cm
BF:40%/17%/18%
Progress: 102%
Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by khrussva
I surpassed my original goal weight of 210 pounds this week and I'm still losing.


Ken, congratulations on your achievement. It is really fantastic and should be an inspiration to a lot of people. I remember the BBC documentary series of about 2 years ago called the "The Men Who Made Us Fat" and "The Men Who Made Us Thin" in which the interviewer comes to the conclusion after talking to doctors and researchers that 'diets never work and are doomed to failure'. I wish I could tell the interviewer that he was talking to the wrong people. He should have talked to people like you.

I have a couple of questions:
1) Have you done any monitoring of your uric acid levels? If so what changes did you see?
2) Would it be possible for you to share with me an excel file with your detailed weight versus time data as I would like to analyse the trend mathematically. Am happy to share any of my own data in return if it is of interest but its nowhere near as impressive as yours.
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  #35   ^
Old Fri, Apr-01-16, 04:15
Bintang's Avatar
Bintang Bintang is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 258
 
Plan: MyOwn:CHO<90g/d
Stats: 207/149/150 Male 169 cm
BF:40%/17%/18%
Progress: 102%
Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by khrussva
Here is an update of my cholesterol chart with the added numbers.


Ken, I have another question about your data. It is clear from the table in your
post that you have been monitoring your calorie intake. When you started on low carb did you deliberately try to restrict your calorie intake or did you eat until satisfied and then for the record tally the calories you consumed?

The reason I ask is that it appears that as you have been losing weight your calorie consumption has actually been increasing. This is something I have experienced myself and I have been wondering whether it is just me or whether it is a general response to low carb eating.

When I started low carb 10 months ago I found initially that with a high fat consumption I was pretty satisfied on around 1850 calories per day. But as my weight has dropped I found myself needing to eat more so that now I consume between 2100 to 2200 calories per day. The incremental calories are primarily fat calories with a little bit extra protein.

And I wonder if the reason this happens is because in the obese state at the start of eating low carb one's body suddenly has access to a large fat store for food but as weight is lost and the fat reduces there is less for the metabolism to use and so your brain tells you to compensate by eating more.
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  #36   ^
Old Fri, Apr-01-16, 05:20
GailA65's Avatar
GailA65 GailA65 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 351
 
Plan: Blood Sugar Solution
Stats: 278/215/140 Female 5' 4"
BF:
Progress: 46%
Location: Central Texas, USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bintang
And I wonder if the reason this happens is because in the obese state at the start of eating low carb one's body suddenly has access to a large fat store for food but as weight is lost and the fat reduces there is less for the metabolism to use and so your brain tells you to compensate by eating more.

Interesting. I'd like to know about that as well.

Ken, congratulations on the great doctor visit. Thank you for sharing more wonderful and helpful info!
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  #37   ^
Old Fri, Apr-01-16, 08:14
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GreekRibs GreekRibs is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,747
 
Plan: Protein Power
Stats: 212/169/150 Female 5'9"
BF:
Progress: 69%
Location: Saskatchewan
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Wow, your pictures say it all. I also enjoyed reading your journey ... all the NSVs along the way, and the mental processes we have to go through in order to stay the course. I'll be reading your post a few times. Like you, I often gave up after 2-3 months in the past. It's extremely helpful to read your story. Thanks so much for sharing it.
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  #38   ^
Old Fri, Apr-01-16, 20:24
khrussva's Avatar
khrussva khrussva is offline
Say NO to Diabetes!
Posts: 8,671
 
Plan: My own - < 30 net carbs
Stats: 440/228/210 Male 5' 11"
BF:Energy Unleashed
Progress: 92%
Location: Central Virginia - USA
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For this one I answered your questions inside your quoted text in bold...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bintang
... I have a couple of questions:
1) Have you done any monitoring of your uric acid levels? If so what changes did you see?

No I have not. I never have had gout that I am aware of, so I've never had any cause to monitor uric acid.

2) Would it be possible for you to share with me an excel file with your detailed weight versus time data as I would like to analyze the trend mathematically. Am happy to share any of my own data in return if it is of interest but its nowhere near as impressive as yours.

I weigh at least twice daily and I have done so for a while. But I do not log that data in any spreadsheet. For the first 50 (or so) pounds that I lost I was too heavy for any scale that I had. The doctor visits were my only source. I logged my weight in my journal sporadically in the beginning. I got more consistent with it as time went on. I joined the TDC weekly weigh-in thread more than a year ago. You are welcome to browse through that thread if you want more data. At least there you will see that my losses have not been as linear as the graph I posted shows. I tended to update the data in that graph only once a month or so. It was the trend I was looking for anyway. What happens daily or even weekly does not accurately reflect the fat loss.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bintang
Ken, I have another question about your data. It is clear from the table in your post that you have been monitoring your calorie intake. When you started on low carb did you deliberately try to restrict your calorie intake or did you eat until satisfied and then for the record tally the calories you consumed?

The reason I ask is that it appears that as you have been losing weight your calorie consumption has actually been increasing. This is something I have experienced myself and I have been wondering whether it is just me or whether it is a general response to low carb eating.

What you are not seeing in my data is my increased activity over that time. In the period where I was eating 1800 calories I was recovering from a broken foot. I intentionally dropped calories to keep the scale moving. If you note on the graph, my weight loss slowed at or around December 2014. That is when I broke my foot. As the foot healed, I started walking more and more. Also note that the period where I ate the most calories I lost the least amount of weight (only 10 pounds from the previous doctor visit). I know that CICO is sacrilegious on this forum, but even Dr. A said that calories do matter. I eat low carb and I watch the calories. As you will see in my post below, I believe that have to. I cannot rely on feeling "full" to tell me I'm done eating.

I've learned through this 2+ year long journey that I am not an "eat when hungry, stop when full" kind of guy. My satiety "stop" signal takes too long to kick in. I've learned that there are several other forum members here that experience the same thing. We all arrived at the same solution... we plan what we are going to eat in advance and stop eating when we finish what we planned on eating. I recently did a post about this elsewhere. I'll post it below.

Quote:
Originally Posted by khrussva

Quote:
Originally Posted by cotonpal
So, today I am thinking about the advice people give other people. With all the best intentions, people often over generalize from their own experience. I especially notice this on a number of topics where my experience does not fit the norm. The top one for me is when people assume that everyone experiences a dramatic enough reduction in hunger so that eat when your hungry, stop when your full becomes the universal advice. It doesn't work for me. Hunger is not a reliable indicator for me so I have to use portion control or I would probably eat beyond what I need. Certainly eating low carb has helped significantly in reducing hunger but it hasn't eliminated it as a problem.

Coincidentally, I just measured this effect with my breakfast today. I had a doctor visit at 8am and needed to be fasting for some labs. I had a breakfast consisting of a chocolate flax muffin, breakfast sausage, and coffee with CO & HWC at 10am. I was finished by 10:15. The hunger I was feeling before the meal was still there and the pleasure of the food actually heightened my desire for it. I wanted more. Had I put twice as much food on my plate I would have just continued eating it. That is pretty normal for me. It is one reason I make a habit of planning my meal before hand and getting up and doing something after I finish my meal. My STOP signal just takes too long to kick in. Somewhere around 11am I noticed that I was feeling satiety start to kick in. I was no longer hungry and I was not thinking about eating anymore.

There are many reasons that we overeat. I see Jean, me, and Jo as being very similar in both our hunger issues and our methods to resolve them. We found a solution and made it work. Perhaps that is one reason why we've become good LC buds over time. We share a lot in common. I'm sure there are others like us. They just may not have figured themselves out yet.

I know there are other buddies of mine on this forum that don't experience the same things. I can tell by their responses to some of my messages. They didn't really "get" my point because they don't have that issue. It is only human to interpret things by your own experiences. Hunger may be defined as a desire to eat, but there are many causes of that. What makes me feel hungry may not be the same thing that you are talking about when you say you are hungry. That is why having one universal "healthy" diet concept based on the experiences of the naturally weight stable is such a bone-head idea. It was a square peg in a round hole for me. The solutions they provided to "feel full" never worked for me. They don't have the same experience with the food that they eat. I had to find my own way. The Ken diet works pretty well. For me, anyway.

Still, sharing our experiences here on this forum is incredibly valuable. I'd see someone have success with something. I'd try it myself. Sometimes it worked for me. Sometimes it didn't. I snagged ideas from books, videos, various studies, etc. and finally found a workable solution for me. Now that I found success, I believe that much of what I do and share will help others. But I know that my way may not be the best way for them. That is one reason why I always talk about what I do and don't often tell people what they should do.

For the first 3 or 4 months of the diet my biggest objective was to eat exclusively on-plan food and TRY to stay under 30 net carbs. I only did spot checks on carbs and most days I was under that carb limit. At my weight I was losing just fine with that approach. My appetite did fall over that time and I did start eating less. But from my spot checks, I found that I had settled into a regular pattern of eating 2800 to 3200 calories a day eating < 30 net carbs. I noticed that my weight loss started to slow down fairly significantly at around 8 months into the diet. I'd lost 100 pounds. My energy needs were going down but I continued to eat the same amount of food. I was still losing, but I felt it was going to continue to slow down if I didn't curb the eating. I was over the hump with this WOE. It was much easier to stick to plan. But still had some bad eating habits. So in the fall of 2014 I intentionally started cutting back on my eating.

I found it hard to cut back at first and it took me a couple of months to get it done. I worked on eliminating snacking between meals. I experimented with intermittent fasting. I joined the TDC 90 day challenge to help me stay accountable. Eventually that lead to me tracking my food daily. After the cholesterol issue happened, I got a little Type-A about my tracking. I found I actually liked logging my food and I loved the data it provided. I wanted good data so I made an effort to be as accurate as possible. I've done it ever since. It really came in handy as I tweaked my diet to try and bring down that LDL cholesterol number.

That process worked for me. I was "dieting" within my way of eating and ultimately landed on my maintenance diet. Logging food, tracking of my macros and aiming for my goals consistently was teaching me how I needed to eat. I've practice that for a long time now and how I eat is becoming second nature. I won't need to track everyday. I know what the right food is and I know (within reason) how much of it I should be eating. I have satiety between meals. I don't go to bed hungry (most days, anyway). I'm still losing weight. Life is good. That is not how things worked when I was addicted to junky carbs.

FYI: I use this forum's MY PLAN feature to log food. If you click on the MY PLAN button on the bottom of any of my posts you will see the food and exercise data. I've logged food there for over a year and I've logged my exercise for at least 6 months.

Last edited by khrussva : Fri, Apr-01-16 at 21:05.
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  #39   ^
Old Fri, Apr-01-16, 21:27
MickiSue MickiSue is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 8,006
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 189/148.6/145 Female 5' 5"
BF:36%/28%/25%
Progress: 92%
Location: Twin Cities, MN
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Ken, FWIW, I have a similar, but not identical issue with fullness.

I can eat beyond comfortable satiety, if I eat quickly. And, if I'm really hungry, I eat too quickly. I'll eat my serving, then think, "Hmmm. More." and eat that, as well.

By the time my satiety cues kick in, at about 20-30 minutes after I start eating, I'm stuffed.

So I try (not always successfully) to do two things. First, I choose, like you and Jo and Jean, and many others here, how much I am going to eat before I even put the plates on the table.

And second, I try to eat slowly. Cut the food into small pieces. Have a conversation while I eat. As Husband works very long hours, and is in training for a half marathon, that "conversation" is frequently here.

It slows me down, and my stomach has a chance to become aware of the fact that it's comfortably full before it's UNcomfortably full.

It doesn't always work. But it's the best I've got, and it works most of the time.
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  #40   ^
Old Fri, Jun-03-16, 07:57
andante andante is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 178
 
Plan: Atkins 20
Stats: 237.6/150/155 Female 5'9"
BF:
Progress: 106%
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Thanks SO much for sharing this, picture and all! I am a relatively new LCer... just 2 months in. I have lost 26 pounds, and just this week started going above 30 carbs a day and dealt with major cravings for the first time last night, so reading about your journey was inspiring and helpful. Losing the first 28 pounds has made such a difference in terms of general "getting around" energy and ability to move, but I had my first "OMG how am I going to stick to this?" moments. Congratulations, and thank you!
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  #41   ^
Old Fri, Jun-03-16, 08:12
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Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,842
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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Wow, you're so amazing, Ken. And I just love how you keep track of everything. Are you an accountant? If not, you missed your calling!
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  #42   ^
Old Tue, Jul-12-16, 07:20
pivoine's Avatar
pivoine pivoine is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 415
 
Plan: lchf + if
Stats: 230/169/130 Female 5' 5-1/2"
BF:
Progress: 61%
Location: France
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Truly astounding. It is so good to come back here after an absence and to find that you have reached goal. The pictures are fantastic and all you have shared is so very helpful. Thank you for sharing your journey with us !
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  #43   ^
Old Sat, Jul-16-16, 06:08
Aliz Aliz is offline
New Member
Posts: 5
 
Plan: LCHF
Stats: 233/135/130 Female 66
BF:
Progress:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by khrussva
I've been low carbing for 2 years now and I'm STILL not at goal. For crying out loud! I give up. I think I'll try Weight Watchers. At least then I can have bread EVERYDAY and I do miss bread. Uh, wait a sec. I don't miss bread anymore. Not at all as a matter of fact. On second thought, I think I'd better stick with what I'm doing. Somehow I don't think I'd be where I'm at today if I was still eating bread.

Joking aside - on with the real story...

I've been thinking about doing a new milestone for a few months now. I first considered it when I reached 200 pounds lost, again when I reached the 2 year mark with this WOE and finally when I became half of my starting weight (220 pounds lost). A lot has happened this past year, including getting my life back. I consider that a pretty big deal. So I think it is time to write up what has happened this past twelve months and do a final milestone. I'm only a few pounds from goal, so the next one should be a "Success Story" post some time later this year.


At the end of my first year eating low carb I'd lost 147 pounds. I did a Year 1 Report Card post in the milestone section. I gave myself a grade of A-. I felt that I had done well, but I could have done a little better. This year I'm not doing letter grades. It is pass or fail. I passed. It wasn't all smooth sailing, yet I continued to make progress and I stuck to my rule number one: I refused to cheat. Sometimes I did eat too much on-plan food. But I ate no candy, no bread, and no junk (except maybe those Atkin's bars). At the second year mark I'd lost another 72 pounds and I'm now just a few pounds away from my originally stated goal weight. As great as that first year was, the second year was even better. My only regret is to wonder why it took me so long to figure out what I needed to do. I wasted a lot of years. But that is water under the bridge. I'm back. I'm me again and I'm loving it.


Wow - I have a neck again

Here is a summary of my second year eating LCHF (starting February 2015)...


Weight: 293. I started the year down 147 pounds from the previous year. I still had a ways to go.

March 2015 - For once I was actually looking forward to going to the doctor for my annual check-up. I was eager to see my latest A1C results. I was diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic in March of 2014. At a follow-up appointment in June I'd lowered my A1C to the pre-diabetic range (6.0). I was sure that my next A1C would be in the normal range, but I still wanted to see the number. The doctor visit went well for the most part. I did have a normal A1C (5.1), my liver inflammation had cleared up and my hypertension had improved enough that my doctor took me off of my BP meds. No more prescriptions!


However, my LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol had skyrocketed. The June cholesterol labs were taken 5 months into the diet. My cholesterol numbers had actually improved. Inexplicably, 9 months later my LDL had almost doubled (248). There is high and then there is WTH? This was beyond normal and my doctor could not believe it. She ordered the labs done again. The results were the same. My doctor was very concerned. She said that the standard procedure would be to prescribe a strong statin like Crestor. That got me concerned. I did not want to do a statin. I didn't go the statin route. I spent the rest of the year tweaking my diet trying to figure out how to resolve the problem on my own. Long story short... I was able to figure it out. I found out that I was one of a very small percentage of people who get alarmingly high "bad" cholesterol from doing a very low carb diet. Due to a broken foot and sudden lack of exercise I had tightened up the diet in the months preceding the March 2015 labs. I was eating far fewer carbs and calories than I had been the prior June. I found some information about this unusual condition online. It offered some dietary tips for lowering LDL & total cholesterol. I made some changes and by the end of the year I seemed to have taken care of the problem. My cholesterol numbers were pretty good. I had my labs taken every 3 months and I also tracked my food. Here are the results:


Increasing my fiber intake and adding back a few more healthy carbs seems to have done the trick. I also cut back a little on saturated fat and used more olive oil. I was happy eating VLC. I am just as happy eating how I am now. I think I've found my maintenance diet. I'm having my labs done again in March. I've been eating more fiber than ever, so I will be curious to see if the numbers continue to improve. I'll know in a month.


In April I went camping in the Shenandoah national park with my youngest daughter. We had not been camping in years. My daughter had enjoyed the camping trips we took while participating in the YMCA's Indian Princess program. She had been bugging to do it again for a long time. I told her that we would someday. But with my weight and health issues mounting in recent years, someday never seemed to come. I finally delivered on that camping promise. It was a fun trip. We did a little hiking along the Appalachian Trail as well. It was quite a workout for me, but I was amazed at how well I could keep up. I'd come a long way in just one year.

Back in our Indian Princess days each new member of the tribe got to pick an "Indian name" to go by. My daughter chose Howling Wolf and I named myself Two Bucks. The humor of my name choice was not lost on anyone. Well, I'm happy to say that one of those bucks has melted away. I guess I'm just one normal sized Buck now.



Camping food - All on plan


Here is a post from my Journal that I did on May 2nd. It was about one of those moments where I realized that I wasn't in Kansas anymore...



In May 2015 I flew off to Oregon to witness my eldest daughter graduate from college. I was 270 lbs at the time, but I did fit comfortably in the airplane seat for the first time in decades. Graduation was great and so was seeing family. I did enjoy spending time with my daughter. We took several walks together, including a little hiking trip in the mountains to see Drift Creek Falls. In 2013 I couldn't walk from my recliner upstairs to bed without having to stop for a rest. I wouldn't have considered doing that hiking trip before losing the weight. We had a great time. This whole trip was awesome.


Below is a post that I made last September in support of another forum member that was having a hard time staying the course. It was a post that covered the process I went through to find the path to success. It was suggested that I add this to my journal or my next milestone, so that is what I'm doing. I cleaned up the grammar a bit (I could no longer edit it where it was) and made it a better read. It is, however, essentially the same thing I said I that original post.



Halloween through New Year's Day was always diet killer season for me. If I had managed to accomplish anything earlier in the year it was always undone by the end of the year. Birthday celebrations were always trouble, too. Holidays and birthdays were an automatic cheat day for me. Tradition always trumped the diet. But for the 2nd straight year I made it through the holidays without cheating. I stayed on plan through every birthday as well. I made cheating not an option. I planned ahead and always had good, healthy food ready to go. This is what I had for my Thanksgiving dinner (plus a slice of LC cheesecake - not shown)...


Doing a LCHF/Atkins diet is not about eating "nothing but meat" as the rumor goes. That is such a myth. It is about eating fewer carbohydrates. It is about eating healthy, whole foods and not eating man made processed junk. My body works fine when I eat good food. Eating junk breaks me.


By Christmas I was looking pretty darn good, if I do say so myself

January was month 24 since I started this way of eating. On New Year's Day I weighed 221. That was one pound away from being exactly half of my starting weight. For each of the first 23 months I weighed less at the end of the month than I did at the beginning. That streak ended in January.

I let my guard down after Christmas. I started having LC deserts more frequently than I normally do. I began having them every day. I'm talking about treats like 90% cacao dark chocolate with peanut butter, Breyer's Carbsmart ice cream topped with peanuts, and those dang Atkins bars. I did OK with moderation for a week or two. But soon I was eating more than I wanted to. I was exceeding my targets for both carbs and calories. I was eating junkier carbs. I found myself eating 2 or 3 Atkins bars in one sitting. That was binge-like behavior! I could feel that I was starting to lose control of my eating and I didn't like that feeling. I needed to put an end to this ASAP and that is what I did.

I stopped having the LC goodies in mid January. Within a few days I had a good handle on my eating again. My weight was up several pounds. It was mostly water weight from eating too many carbs. I had shed most of that by the end of the month. But not all of it was gone, so January was a gain month. I'm back in the zone now with my eating and pushing on to goal. I just hope I've learned my lesson on this. Staying in control of what I eat is paramount to my success.

I've had problems with Atkins bars in the past. I have trouble stopping at just one bar. Because of that I had been avoiding them. After this last episode it is clear that Atkins bars are a problem food for me. I now consider them an off-plan food. If I stick to my rule #1, I won't be eating them anymore.

A few days ago I had one of those moments in life that just slap you upside the head like a V8 commercial. Here is the post about it from my journal:



One of my LC buds responded to that post with the following questions...



I thought they were great questions and I've been thinking about them for days. Interesting that she should mention the sailboard (aka wind surfer). I think giving up windsurfing back in the late 1980's was the beginning of me losing myself to my ever increasing weight. Being 10 or 20 pounds overweight is more a vanity/self-image thing. I was overweight for many years - most of my young life, in fact. Though I may not have liked how I looked in the mirror, though I wouldn't run around with my shirt off like the buff dudes did - those pounds didn't physically stop me from doing anything that I wanted to do. When I got too heavy to windsurf... that is when obesity took over and I started losing the ability to enjoy life as I once did.

After that it was being denied insurance at work for weighing too much. Soon I started filling and then more than filling an airplane seat. And yes, I even had to ask for the dreaded seatbelt extender a few times. As time passed and the pounds piled on even tying my own shoes became difficult. Trimming my toenails was next to impossible. All the while, I considered myself a healthy fat person. I tried to put a smiley face on it. I'd blame age, a sore back, or just plain "I don't want to right now" for not wanting to do things with my family. The real reason was due to my weight much of the time - but I never acknowledged that to myself. I could diet some of it off from time to time, but I could never stick with it and the pounds rolled back on with more to spare within a few short months. The transition from being "normal" to sitting out life on the sideline was slow and incremental. Most of the time I hardly noticed it. But over time the impact was great. I was athletic and active when I was young -- and I was anything but that just a few years later. My size consumed me and I wasn't me anymore. A few years ago the health issues started piling up and I was no longer that 'healthy' fat person. I was sick and I was way more than just fat. Life was becoming miserable.

The epiphany the other day was realizing that all the physical restrictions and limitations of being obese were now gone. Almost from the start of this WOE things have been getting better. Diabetes related issues were resolved quickly. As the weight came off and I got more active - one by one the things that I could not or would not do became possible again. If I want to do something now, I just do it. I've stopped looking for shortcuts. I've stopped looking for places to sit down and take a load off. I'm dreaming of the possibilities of life again. And I'm going to be here for my children, grandchildren and maybe even a few great grandchildren. This is my normal life. I got it back and I plan on keeping it this time.


I may have to dust off the old windsurfer this summer and give it another try. I hope it is like riding a bike.

And finally (yes - my posts can get wordy) - the THEN vs. NOW photo...

I avoided the camera well in recent years, so I didn't have many head to toe photos of myself. My wife snuck this one in a few years ago. I wasn't my max weight, but close enough. I can't believe that I'm going to put this photo of me out there. But this post is about where I was and how far I've come - full disclosure. SO here it is...


Above, in the current photo of me, I'm showing off my latest Goodwill find... a like-new pair of size 35 Levis. I didn't even know they made a size 35. The size 36 jeans that I shrank into a few months ago were starting to get loose & baggy. I am a size 35 and the new jeans fit great. In the photo on the left, I'd have been wearing size 56 (or so). My goal jeans that I've had since the 1980's are size 34... Just 1 inch to go!

210s pound was a fantasy goal 2 years ago. I didn't think I'd ever really get there. Now it is only a few pounds away. I'm still calling that my goal weight -- but now I want more. I plan to just stick with what I'm doing and just see where the scale number finally lands. The 190's would be great. The 180's would be flippin' awesome. I'm an LC lifer now. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. From what I hear, maintenance is hard. I hope I do it and do it well.

__________________

So have you got a lot of weight to lose? What are you waiting for? Ditch the excuses, stick to your program, and get it done. This is your life we are talking about. Make the most of it. Change how you eat and find a healthy WOE that works for you. You can get your life back. You will thank yourself later, trust me. Bread, pasta, cake & candy -- or -- life, happiness & good health. What is it going to be? After the year I just had I know which one I'm choosing.

I got my life back and it is a wonderful life. If I can do it, you can do it, too.

So inspirational ! ☺️
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  #44   ^
Old Sat, Aug-27-16, 01:17
svdude svdude is offline
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Posts: 28
 
Plan: atkins
Stats: 410/320/260 Male 68 inches
BF:
Progress: 60%
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Hey Ken,

Thanks for posting this. I am one month in and was at a similar starting point as you and a few folks nudged me in your direction.

Hope to be in a similar place as you in a year or so.
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  #45   ^
Old Tue, Oct-04-16, 22:11
Jamackarch's Avatar
Jamackarch Jamackarch is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 3,567
 
Plan: hflc
Stats: 166/157/125 Female 5'2"
BF:
Progress: 22%
Location: Pacific Northwest
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Well, what can we say?

Ken, you are an INCREDIBLE inspiration to us ALL!!!
Just read it all, again.
There aren't enough positive adjectives to describe you and your mind-blowing accomplishment.
Cheers,
to an amazing human!!!

jams
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