I had some potassium problems in the past too with leg cramps.

I was (and still am to a lesser extent) going through a period of fatigue. I had found a few articles that potassium can also help with fatigue. So I took it, and I no longer have any leg-cramps, but I had a noticable improvement (small, but noticable) in my enrgy.

Chris

Glad to hear your into naturopathy. i tend to swing that way as well. I am ont a total health nut, but i do my fair shopping in health food stores and i believe in the power of herbs for healing.

The CKD approach integrates a ketogenic diet, with a few days of high carb eating, and intense excercise. I guess if your not inot intense excercise yet this wouldn't be for you. BUt I too at one time did not like to be active. Once i discovered excercise , i haven't stopped integrating it into my life. I can't even imagine my life without it now. It helps me in soo many ways. But if you want to check out a few books about CKD which is always agood thing: try "the ketogenic diet" by Lyle Mcdonald or "Body Opus" by Dan duchaine. I bought them both on amazon.com. Chapters and indigo didn't have them in stock , or any time soon. they are a great read!! take care

Piera

It's great to see discussion and tips being traded between all of us.. I am a member on a few other threads.. and they provide great support and knowledge.. it's just that it would be good to have the possibility of meeting them at some point.. unfortunatly, they are all over the world.. which is why chatting with you all is such a treat, you are all right here , going through the same things I am going through...

So I had my weigh in today.. not so impressed...

March 23rd - 252 ~ 49% = 123.48 lbs. of fat - after a month I fell off the wagon until restart.

Induction restart: July 1st - estimated weight - 243, ??bodyfat%

July 4th, 240 lbs. ~ 45% bodyfat = 108 lbs. of fat

July 7th, 236 lbs. ~ 40.5% bodyfat = 95.85 lbs. of fat

July 8th, 237 lbs. ~36% bodyfat = 85.32 lbs. of fat

July 14th, 235 lbs. ~41.5% bodyfat = 97.52 lbs of fat

I have to confess, I did follow the diet, but didn't do all the other things you must do to be super-successful these last few days (fri, sat) .. I didn't drink enough water or balance my caloric intake with fitday.com as I should (too many other things going on - at least that's my excuse) .. I'm going to redouble my efforts and see if I can't lose more weight in the upcoming week - whilst doing all the little things correctly (water, balance intake, etc.).

That's the update, folks - has anybody else gone through a slowdown in the weightloss, an if so, how did they make sure it kept coming off?

Christian

Hi Christian,

You should be impressed, because you are losing weight. Don't be in too much of a hurry to loose the weight. That's easy to say, but harder to do. I was at 232lbs for ages (more than 1 month) so I definitely learned some new patience skills. I just stuck to it.

And as you said, you did a few things that may not have helped. Just get back on track and keep working. At least you know that sometimes (maybe vacation time or something) that you can relax a bit and still lose a bit or weight at the same time.

hi Chris

i'm from toronto too! I can't believe how many Canadians especially Ontarians there are on this board! Its fantastic. I'll be visiting Toronto for the next few days. I'm currently living in montreal, but i can't wait to move back home to my beloved Toronto (which should be september 3rd). I must aggree this board is just indispensible for motivation, exchange of info and recipies, and meeting soo many people that do the LOW CARB WOL. I never knew soo mnay people actually have had this much success with it. It pumps me up!!

Your doing great..btw. don't concentrate on any set backs, we have them all time to time. Its natural. I'm a personal trianer and have had my own . The important thing i have learned is to pick yourself up again, and quickly. Don't let one slip, allow you to forgo the whole plan for days or weeks. Thats when it get difficult and frustrating. I have slipped once since restarting, which was about 2 weeks ago. The very next day I told myself to get back on track, drink some extra water, and take my supplements and get back into the gym. I didn't gain an ounce, and i actually lost some weight. Its when we let slips go for too long that we find we gain back weight .

A big tip after a slip... drink alot of water, and do some excercise!! the water will help get things going, and up the metabolism, and so will excercise. AND excercise will burn up any glucose in your system so you can get back into ketosis or the fat burning state even faster!! Are u excercsing at all? Really consider incorporating some activity at least 3 times per week. You'll feel even more on top of the world. Good luck.

Piera

Not too many people on the site lately ... all the threads are quite quiet.. I guess everybody is dying of the heat how are you all? I'm actually doing quite well, if I do say so myself.. I discovered what my problem was.. believe it or not, it was alcahol! ... I've been drinking my water and not drinking anything else.. I was feeling so good that I "snuk a peek" at the scale before my weigh-in-day and it was at 231.5 (unofficially).. that's a drop of 3.5 lbs from my last weigh-in .. and the lowest weight I have been in four years! .. unbelievable.. I just have to make sure I eat enough, now.. I'm never hungary hence I don't eat enough..

On the flipside, I checked my bodyfat on the Tanita scale as well, and it went up!.. I wonder if my rapid weight loss has me burning lean mass (I was mass-building all winter.. it was hard-won muscle.. don't want to lose it) what do you think, GOTTAMOVE? does anyone else have any advice, perhaps the mighty NATRUSKA?

Hope you all are well.. take good care..

Christian

Hi everyone - August 20 or 21 sounds great. I just got back from vacation so I'm behind in the threads (sorry). My vacation wasn't what it was supposed to be, my dh & I wanted to be out bike riding, walking around the zoo, etc., but the weather permitted that (heat stroke didn't appeal to us), so we went to movies and hung around the house.

GOTTAMOVE: My dog is a husky/shepherd mix named Damien, he's 7 years old and the love of our lives.

Anyway, when plans for next month are firmed, let me know. Looking forward to talking with my fellow LCers.

Vikki

Hey, can a Mississauga gal join in too?

I've been LC'ing since the beginning of this year, really seriously since May 1st. Had a recent setback but think that I've got a good gameplan to deal with it. that whole 10x body weight for calories thing does NOT work for me. Going to watch both calories and carbs for a while to see how I'm doing.

August 20 sounds okay. August 18 (Sunday) would be better. (at least for me). But I could do a Tuesday too.

Chris, your naturopath sounds interesting. How much did it cost to go? How did you find yours? what are doing regarding you r low thyroid?

I'm looking into it myself because even tho I'm taking care of myself, exercising, vitamins, etc, I keep getting sick. Mind you , I have a two-year old in daycare so she's bringing me all kinds of bugs, but not all the moms get sick. why can't I be one of those moms?

Just got to keep on keeping on.

Alena.

Yes, it has been pretty quiet.

Maybe the heat here is making everyone sleepy.... I know I have been.

Good to hear that you are doing well again Christian.

I haven't been doing too badly. I gave in a couple of times in the past week, but I'm not bothered by them.

I am however going absolute stir-crazy not being able to drink diet pop (I gave up aspartame 2 weeks ago now). Nothing seems to satisfy my thirst! Argh.

Chris

Of course you can LolaBug!

About my naturopath, she costs $60 per hour. I saw her a few weeks (two I think) at the beginning, but other than that I'm seeing her maybe once a month or month & a half. As I improve, we'll probably have appointments even less frequently.
I have an insurance plan at work that covers the cost of it, up to a limit per year. I told the naturopath this, and we are trying to spread out the appointments to help with the limit.
I found mine in a local directory/classified.

For my low-thyroid, right now I'm taking something called "TG 100". The ingredients are thyroid, adrenal, pancreas, thymus, & spleen. I bought it from a local supplement store for $24.
I guess taking these things stimulate my own thyroid, adrenal, etc.

The biggest reason that I'm seeing this doctor is because of fatigue. It's been going on for a couple of years now I guess. My family doctor wasn't able to help me much with solving this, so I'm trying a different avenue.

Chris

Hey everyone!

Just dropping a quick note. I live in Bolton and work in Toronto. Just started low carbing about 4 or 5 days ago. Interesting experience. Going on holiday soon but wanted to say there are more of us out here...guess you guys are going to a steakhouse eh?? hehehe...

Chris, how is your thyroid medication working.. is it actually helping? where can I get some? what is the company who makes it called?

Thanks,

Christian

Great to see soo many low carbers in the Toronto area. I won't be back from my trip to Aruba till the 18th, so anytime after that is good. However the 22-25 of august is out for me, i have a fitness conference to attend. So i am hoping we can all get together the 20th??

Glad to see there are other dog lovers out there too ) I can get enough of my puppy Chihuahua.

And Chris what exactly does a low thyroid cause in terms of symptoms?? Last year i went to my doctor to have a thyroid test I did so because i kept feeling cold, constipated, hard time keeping weight off, so I thought I might have had a thyroid problem. The test results showed I didn't. But I later found out that tests may not show a thyroid prob..so whats the deal??? How do I know if i have a thyroid prob?? and does that T100 you take available at the health food store?? and does it work for you Chris?

keep well all

Piera

Hello Torontonians!!!!

I cant say how thrilled I was to find this thread.
I joined this forum back in January, and like you Chris posted looking for Toronto low carbers, but had no response.

I know the initial idea was a small group of about 5, have we gone over that yet? I would REALLY REALLY like to take part. The 20th is perfect for me (usually a gym night but I'm flexible) I work right downtown, the only think I would hope is the meeting place be close to the TTC besides my feet, it's my only mode of transport.


A little about me, I've been dieting all my life, and after 3 grueling months of weight watchers AGAIN someone told me about Atkins. I was so blown away by the type of menu and the results (he had lost 60lbs) that I just had to do some research. So on January 7, 2002 I began induction, and really got back into working out at the gym. Not only have I lost just under 30lbs, my whole body shape has changed, energy level has increased, and I'm a much happier person overall.

This is a way of life for me, I still am amazed that I've not had any bread, pasta since I've started but I don't miss it at all. I am a true carboholic an honestly think that if I didn't find lowcarbing I'd still be struggling with my diet.

Christian - I really would like to know how you are calculating your Body fat?

Gottamove - my email is dissolvedgirl~hotmail.com, please add me to the list

Great to hear from you dissolved, thanks for the email adress...If all the torontonians could provide their email adresses I would be happy to give everyone a reminder to meet on the 20th of August, the day before. Is the 20th good for everyone? Let me know, so we can organize a time and place. I will be on vacation to Aruba from Agust 4th- 18th so we should try to establish the particulars soon

Dissolved its great to hear your doing soo well with the plan. I was skeptical too before low carbing and did my own research . It took me a full year to be convinced of the benefits. I read alot of books, talked to alot of people including trainers, doctors, and clients. I decided to give it a try and see HOW MY OWN BODY reacted to it. Because low carbing may not be for everyone. A majority of people do very well on it. And i am one of those YAAAA If you have any questions feel free to ask me anytimeMy own email adress is Belsicilia~aol.com. be well, and happy low carbing