Karla
Tue, Mar-05-02, 13:25
Hi everyone! This is my first post, although I have been lurking for about a week.
My name is Karla and I have been low-carbing since August 2000. Before that, over a period of five years I had gained close to 100 pounds without knowing why. I kept asking my doctor for help, but all he suggested was riding my exercise bike for 20 minutes a day. The only problem was that every time I tried that, it took about 2 minutes before I had that cold, clammy feeling you get just before you faint. It took moving to Vancouver, BC and a new doctor to discover that I was the new poster child for anemia and that my thyroid gland was napping.
Well, once those problems were solved I stopped gaining weight and felt a lot better, but I still wasn't losing weight. To be honest, I didn't try that hard because the food in Vancouver is terrific and it was a temporary move (excuse number 73, I think).
When we returned home to Massachusetts I tried to follow a low-fat diet, but couldn't stick to it because ... well, I don't have to explain that to y'all. I had never heard of low-carb diets until my father suggested that I read Dr. Atkins' book. After doing so I decided that I could follow any diet for two weeks and dove into the induction diet. My husband, partly to be supportive and partly out of curiosity, followed it too, even at work.
After two weeks we both noticed health benefits: our blood pressure went back to normal, my chronically puffy ankles deflated completely, his GIRD disappeared immediately, etc. We were hooked! and now his gout seems to have gone away as well. Of course we do love the fact that we can eat ice cream, cheesecake, nuts, cheese, etc.; all the foods we used to eat, but stopped because we believed all that low-fat nonsense.
In the first nine months I lost 45 pounds, my cholesterol dropeed 65 points the first month, tryglicerides plummeted, etc. I have another 45 pounds to lose. The reason I haven't done so already is that I foolishly decided to take the summer off so that I could eat a little more fruit (but not bread or french fries or pasta). That turned into spending over a year in maintenance mode. Well, I didn't gain any weight back (Halleluiah!!), but neither did I lose. So I started dieting again a few weeks ago.
I think that I'm losing so slowly this time because I've also been working out with weights, but the last pounds definitely isn't coming off as quickly as the first ones. I just tell myself to be patient.
My name is Karla and I have been low-carbing since August 2000. Before that, over a period of five years I had gained close to 100 pounds without knowing why. I kept asking my doctor for help, but all he suggested was riding my exercise bike for 20 minutes a day. The only problem was that every time I tried that, it took about 2 minutes before I had that cold, clammy feeling you get just before you faint. It took moving to Vancouver, BC and a new doctor to discover that I was the new poster child for anemia and that my thyroid gland was napping.
Well, once those problems were solved I stopped gaining weight and felt a lot better, but I still wasn't losing weight. To be honest, I didn't try that hard because the food in Vancouver is terrific and it was a temporary move (excuse number 73, I think).
When we returned home to Massachusetts I tried to follow a low-fat diet, but couldn't stick to it because ... well, I don't have to explain that to y'all. I had never heard of low-carb diets until my father suggested that I read Dr. Atkins' book. After doing so I decided that I could follow any diet for two weeks and dove into the induction diet. My husband, partly to be supportive and partly out of curiosity, followed it too, even at work.
After two weeks we both noticed health benefits: our blood pressure went back to normal, my chronically puffy ankles deflated completely, his GIRD disappeared immediately, etc. We were hooked! and now his gout seems to have gone away as well. Of course we do love the fact that we can eat ice cream, cheesecake, nuts, cheese, etc.; all the foods we used to eat, but stopped because we believed all that low-fat nonsense.
In the first nine months I lost 45 pounds, my cholesterol dropeed 65 points the first month, tryglicerides plummeted, etc. I have another 45 pounds to lose. The reason I haven't done so already is that I foolishly decided to take the summer off so that I could eat a little more fruit (but not bread or french fries or pasta). That turned into spending over a year in maintenance mode. Well, I didn't gain any weight back (Halleluiah!!), but neither did I lose. So I started dieting again a few weeks ago.
I think that I'm losing so slowly this time because I've also been working out with weights, but the last pounds definitely isn't coming off as quickly as the first ones. I just tell myself to be patient.