6XMom
Mon, Apr-14-03, 14:42
I've been lurking for a time and have so appreciated the encouragment, information, and support offered through these forums. I finally decided to come out of the shadows and introduce myself.
I just set up a journal, so I guess I'll just give you a few facts about myself and then repeat my first journal post. It sums things up pretty well for me so far.
First of all, I'm in the second half of my forties ;) and have struggled with my weight most of my adult life. I went on my first diet at the age of 10, not because I needed to (I see in retrospect), but because I was following the lead of my yo yo dieting mother. My only hope now is that I will continue to follow the lead of my mother who finally beat her weight problem in her fifties, and now just battles an occasional gain of 5-10 pounds or so. Anyway, back to me at 10. I was perfectly normal for my age and body type--I was just hung up on comparing myself to other kids who had completely different body types, something that I finally recognize I will never achieve because it isn't how I'm made. Not that I'm made to be chunky, just that I'm a short, curvy type, not the long, lean type.
Pictures tell me that I remained normal (whether I could see it or not) up until high school when I began to accumulate weight, finally running about 25 pounds over where I probably should have been. I continued to try every new diet that came out, with short term success since I had youth on my side.
In my early twenties I achieved my lowest adult weight and I did it on my own. I read an article that explained the effect of insulin on appetite, and recommended saving starches and sugars for the final meal of the day to help control appetite and calorie intake. I was in a time of life when it was really easy to be structured in my eating because of my work schedule, activity level, and the fact I didn't need to cook for anyone else, so I devised my own routine of juices, fruits, yogurt, and protein with lots of water at regular intervals throughout the day, and a frozen Weight Watchers TV dinner along with a baked potato, slice of buttered bread, and glass of wine for dinner. The result--I reached a size five and looked so thin that my brother actually told my mother he thought I'd gone too far! Unfortunately, I then moved into the management training program at work which moved me into a far more sedentary work situation, along with a tremendous amount of stress and pressure. That combined with breaks and lunches eaten out with other managers led to me putting on weight again.
I continued to gain and lose about 30 pounds over the next few years, but was looking pretty good when I married my husband, although even then I wasn't satisfied. At one point I was creeping up again so I resorted to one of those national chain weight loss clinics which will remain nameless. Big mistake. Did I lose weight? You bet. I nearly achieved my adult-lifetime low again, but my metabolism was shot. I couldn't lose the last 10 pounds I wanted (which was unrealistically low for me anyway), and worst of all, for the first time in my life I was having uncontrollable binges. I was hiding food, sneak eating, and miserable.
My weight began to climb, and my frustrated husband made an appointment with a nurse in the eating disorder department of a local hospital. She took one look at me and asked to speak to me alone. After asking a number of questions her assessment was that in her opinion I looked to be at a normal weight and my husband's and my expectations were perhaps not reasonable. She informed me that the diet I had been following for the previous year at that weight loss clinic was a starvation diet, and my body had finally rebelled out of self-preservation, hence the uncontrollable binges in eating.
After that came years of not being able to diet at all. I just couldn't make myself stick to any kind of regimen, and slowly the weight accumulated. I was probably 40 pounds overweight when I became pregnant with my first baby, and although with every pregnancy I gained only the recommended weight, and always lost it all within the first six weeks after delivery, I would creep up over the following year or two, so I went into each pregnancy heavier than the one before. Now, six babies later, I'm nearly seventy pounds over a generously upward adjusted weight goal, and I know there has to be a change.
After decades of losing the struggle with my weight, I've played around with low-carbing for the past two years. Results? At the beginning of March I was the highest I've ever weighed, even pregnant. Why? Because I was only playing around, and couldn't stick with it for more than 2-3 weeks at a time. When I deviated "only for today," or "only for this special weekend," I'd be off the wagon for months. My husband was never unsupportive, but he was definitely skeptical since he was not seeing results in me.
At the beginning of March I was appalled to see the new height my weight had reached, and I was also peeved by the visible success my sister-in-law (down 60 pounds) and my mother-in-law were having (down 20). Not peeved with them--I know how long and how hard they have struggled with weight loss, but peeved with me, because they showed that if you just stick to it it will work. I resolved to stay the course this time.
At the same time, God gave me an invaluable key to success--my husband's participation. As I mentioned, he never paid much attention to my comments about the need to eat low-carb because I wasn't showing any results. About three weeks ago he came home from work to tell me that for three days running he had been taken to lunch by three different men, ALL who were on Atkin's, and all of them were having great results and were very enthusiatic about it. He said he wanted to read the book to see just what this is all about. He also began to move in that direction with his own eating. Now that he is halfway through the book he is totally fired up, eating strictly according to the plan, and having wonderful results with his weight and even more incredibly, his blood pressure. He has measured in the borderline-high range since his early twenties, and after only three weeks of reducing carbs he is registering consistently in the mid-normal range for the first time ever. He's sold.
What a difference it has made to me to have a companion on this journey. I'm now six weeks or so into my new resolution, and have only lost barely 12 pounds, with no weight loss at all last week, but I feel no pull to abandon this plan. My pounds lost aren't all that many, but I have lost 5 inches total in bust, waist, and hips, and that means more to me than the scale.
This is the first week that I've not had any loss at all, and last week I only lost 3/4 of a pound, but I'm hoping that is about to break. I'm certainly having the symptoms of a "whoosh," feeling hot in a cool room, sweating at night, hungrier than usual... I just hope it translates to the scale one of these days.
Onward and downward--my new motto!
Thanks for listening!
:wave:
I just set up a journal, so I guess I'll just give you a few facts about myself and then repeat my first journal post. It sums things up pretty well for me so far.
First of all, I'm in the second half of my forties ;) and have struggled with my weight most of my adult life. I went on my first diet at the age of 10, not because I needed to (I see in retrospect), but because I was following the lead of my yo yo dieting mother. My only hope now is that I will continue to follow the lead of my mother who finally beat her weight problem in her fifties, and now just battles an occasional gain of 5-10 pounds or so. Anyway, back to me at 10. I was perfectly normal for my age and body type--I was just hung up on comparing myself to other kids who had completely different body types, something that I finally recognize I will never achieve because it isn't how I'm made. Not that I'm made to be chunky, just that I'm a short, curvy type, not the long, lean type.
Pictures tell me that I remained normal (whether I could see it or not) up until high school when I began to accumulate weight, finally running about 25 pounds over where I probably should have been. I continued to try every new diet that came out, with short term success since I had youth on my side.
In my early twenties I achieved my lowest adult weight and I did it on my own. I read an article that explained the effect of insulin on appetite, and recommended saving starches and sugars for the final meal of the day to help control appetite and calorie intake. I was in a time of life when it was really easy to be structured in my eating because of my work schedule, activity level, and the fact I didn't need to cook for anyone else, so I devised my own routine of juices, fruits, yogurt, and protein with lots of water at regular intervals throughout the day, and a frozen Weight Watchers TV dinner along with a baked potato, slice of buttered bread, and glass of wine for dinner. The result--I reached a size five and looked so thin that my brother actually told my mother he thought I'd gone too far! Unfortunately, I then moved into the management training program at work which moved me into a far more sedentary work situation, along with a tremendous amount of stress and pressure. That combined with breaks and lunches eaten out with other managers led to me putting on weight again.
I continued to gain and lose about 30 pounds over the next few years, but was looking pretty good when I married my husband, although even then I wasn't satisfied. At one point I was creeping up again so I resorted to one of those national chain weight loss clinics which will remain nameless. Big mistake. Did I lose weight? You bet. I nearly achieved my adult-lifetime low again, but my metabolism was shot. I couldn't lose the last 10 pounds I wanted (which was unrealistically low for me anyway), and worst of all, for the first time in my life I was having uncontrollable binges. I was hiding food, sneak eating, and miserable.
My weight began to climb, and my frustrated husband made an appointment with a nurse in the eating disorder department of a local hospital. She took one look at me and asked to speak to me alone. After asking a number of questions her assessment was that in her opinion I looked to be at a normal weight and my husband's and my expectations were perhaps not reasonable. She informed me that the diet I had been following for the previous year at that weight loss clinic was a starvation diet, and my body had finally rebelled out of self-preservation, hence the uncontrollable binges in eating.
After that came years of not being able to diet at all. I just couldn't make myself stick to any kind of regimen, and slowly the weight accumulated. I was probably 40 pounds overweight when I became pregnant with my first baby, and although with every pregnancy I gained only the recommended weight, and always lost it all within the first six weeks after delivery, I would creep up over the following year or two, so I went into each pregnancy heavier than the one before. Now, six babies later, I'm nearly seventy pounds over a generously upward adjusted weight goal, and I know there has to be a change.
After decades of losing the struggle with my weight, I've played around with low-carbing for the past two years. Results? At the beginning of March I was the highest I've ever weighed, even pregnant. Why? Because I was only playing around, and couldn't stick with it for more than 2-3 weeks at a time. When I deviated "only for today," or "only for this special weekend," I'd be off the wagon for months. My husband was never unsupportive, but he was definitely skeptical since he was not seeing results in me.
At the beginning of March I was appalled to see the new height my weight had reached, and I was also peeved by the visible success my sister-in-law (down 60 pounds) and my mother-in-law were having (down 20). Not peeved with them--I know how long and how hard they have struggled with weight loss, but peeved with me, because they showed that if you just stick to it it will work. I resolved to stay the course this time.
At the same time, God gave me an invaluable key to success--my husband's participation. As I mentioned, he never paid much attention to my comments about the need to eat low-carb because I wasn't showing any results. About three weeks ago he came home from work to tell me that for three days running he had been taken to lunch by three different men, ALL who were on Atkin's, and all of them were having great results and were very enthusiatic about it. He said he wanted to read the book to see just what this is all about. He also began to move in that direction with his own eating. Now that he is halfway through the book he is totally fired up, eating strictly according to the plan, and having wonderful results with his weight and even more incredibly, his blood pressure. He has measured in the borderline-high range since his early twenties, and after only three weeks of reducing carbs he is registering consistently in the mid-normal range for the first time ever. He's sold.
What a difference it has made to me to have a companion on this journey. I'm now six weeks or so into my new resolution, and have only lost barely 12 pounds, with no weight loss at all last week, but I feel no pull to abandon this plan. My pounds lost aren't all that many, but I have lost 5 inches total in bust, waist, and hips, and that means more to me than the scale.
This is the first week that I've not had any loss at all, and last week I only lost 3/4 of a pound, but I'm hoping that is about to break. I'm certainly having the symptoms of a "whoosh," feeling hot in a cool room, sweating at night, hungrier than usual... I just hope it translates to the scale one of these days.
Onward and downward--my new motto!
Thanks for listening!
:wave: