I'm back after a six week shift to a different approach where I found zero progress.

My fight with the "sense" of LCing versus my doctors found me on my doc's side. I tried calorie counting (using FitDay) and managing my exercise.

My spinal injury screwed me when it came to exercise, and managing calories simply didn't work. I would either feel like I was starving all the time, or I'd eat more than the doc gave me (2200/day).

Even when I'd exercise consistently, I saw ZERO weight loss. . . and the clock was ticking the whole time. I needed to drop 2# per week to be able to push surgery down the road.

So this weekend I got my wife on board and she's 100% behind me and she's my primary source of accountability. I've been back LCing for a couple of days and am already starting to feel better. Been exercising (walking only) and am making that part of my day; in other words, until I get in my hours walk, my day hasn't ended.

I need to be under 381 by April 2nd. I'm not sure where I am now, probably around 391-393. Don't have ready access to a scale that'll handle my size; but it doesn't matter. As long as I do what I gotta do, I'll get the results I need to get.

All I want is a fighting chance at dropping weight consistently so that we can postpone surgery until early summer, where I'll weigh in 50-60 pounds lighter and come through anasthetia more successfully.

If I can drop 20 in the next three weeks, then 2-3 per week thereafter, I'll be there by July 1.

Hi Dogbert...

You can do it. I love your attitude of your day is not done until you get your walk in.

You are in my prayers..

I double that.

Dogbert- You tried something new. It didn't work. Lesson learned and moving on. Stick with it and you'll be at that goal in no time! All the best to you!

Pullin for ya bud! Keep on with the LC and you should see results without excercise even. I was over your weight when I started last November and I ate 4500 calories and 4000 calories and lost weight on LC. You can do this. Just remember to get lots of fat and meat into your plan, eat some veggies, take vitamins, and drink lots of water. Keep the carbs low. I stayed on mostly induction levels for a long long time, as I read one of the LC docs say that if you were morbidly obese (and *that* would be ME) you could stay on induction levels longer.

I know that everyone is a little different, but am hoping you find the solution you are looking for with the LC Way of Eating (I won't use the word "Diet").

Good Luck. Keep your chin up. YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Go DOG Go!!

Rolled outta bed this morning. . . day three, and wanted to go back to sleep. Forced myself to do a workout video (Biggest Loser DVD low-impact day).

After finishing it, getting ready for the day, I threw myself back in bed for much needed rest but I wasn't tired.

Lunch was a can of green beans and half a roasted chicken. Forgot how much fun eating like this is.

Tracking everything on fitday still. Need to figure out a fun way (or a tasty way) of upping my fiber without using Metamucil.

So it's been a good six hours since lunch and I'm ready to cannibalize something soon. My folks are in town and made a stew with lotsa noodles (thanks a lot Dad).

Guess I can gripe in here as long as I'm not in there eating bad.

Gripe here you sure can do......you're doing great...keep up the good work. you'll make it..

Hey Dogbert!

Good luck with getting the weight to come off. We all know this program will work if we do the work.

I actually wanted to post about the surgery and anethesia.

I had my gall bladder out back in 2000, before I started low carbing, so I was around 480. I did just fine with the anethesia, but my healing was slow and my pain was high.

I just had abdominal surgery again. I did very well with the anethesia again. But this time, having prepared myself by being regular with my workouts for the last year, and very, very strict with the low carbing for the 2 weeks before hand, I'm healing super fast, and my pain has been much more manageable. I was out of the hospital a whole day before the original planning figure.

So, do everything you can to get into better shape for the surgery, BUT, know if you have to do it soon, that just eating low carb and keeping the inflammatory, immune system depressing sugar out of your body will help your body heal and recover to the best of your natural ability.

I honestly wasn't going to respond to this thread given the history that you and I have had with butting heads, and the way I sometimes feel like I'm shouting into deaf ears when I talk to you, but Dogbert, I want you to succeed. You know that. Your posts on here remind me of me before I changed my mindset so much that it's scary. I really, truly do want you to beat this thing. But I also know that in order to do that, you are going to have to change some fundamental things about your approach. For instance:



Yes, it does! Get one!!! I've been saying this FOREVER! WHY WON'T YOU GET ONE?! Seriously, it is NOT that big of an investment, and it pays HUGE dividends. This one:

http://www.amazon.com/Tanita-HD-351...73977829&sr=8-1

is the one that I and a lot of other people swear by.

If you are going to succeed, you MUST BE ACCOUNTABLE. The scale will keep you accountable in a real, ongoing way. People who are committed to doing this weigh themselves regularly and under constant conditions (always the same time of day and with the same clothes on/off),

I've noticed over my year+ on here that people who don't succeed have certain basic things in common. (1) They give themselves excuses when they do something off plan ("there wasn't any food in the house," "I was at a restaurant and I had to get..."), (2) They make up excuses *to* go off plan ("It's my birthday," "I'm under a lot of stress," "I don't have time right now..."), (3) they delude themselves into believing and try to convince everyone else that they know more than the plan does, and they make up their own "variation" instead of sticking to what an expert - whichever one, from south beach to atkins to whatever - has to say, and (4) they get combative instead of being open to advice from other people.

All four of these have nothing to do with WHAT people eat on their plan. They have everything to do with why they eat and what their underlying issues with food are. Without working on those (HARD) issues, I honestly think that those four things will stop anyone from succeeding.

In the past, we've had disagreements about all of those points. So I hope that this time it sticks, I really, truly do. But I don't think it will if you don't start working on the real problem, and that has nothing to do with *what* you're eating.

So I'm still here with advice any time you want it, and I'm still hoping very, very much that you succeed. It's just that it's getting to be time for the actions to match the words.

-j.

For me, I just really believe in Atkins; I really believe it works, and I really believe it works for not only me but obviously by the amount of success stories on this site, for a lot of people.

I lost 85# 3 years ago on Atkins, and then I let myself make excuses, give in to my poor choice food cravings, and eventually just not care anymore, and gained it all back. And very quickly I might add. It was the diet that failed me; I failed myself.

So this time, I did a major soul search, realized how terrific the plan is and how well it works, and basically just embraced it wholeheartedly. It's my lifestyle, it's the way I eat, so I don't look for ways to bend it---it works great the way it is.

You have a goal, Dog, that is very serious, but instead of concentrating on the goal, really think about the rest of this. Without needing the surgery, you still need to lose weight for other reasons, all of which you know----health, energy, fitting into an airline seat, whatever.....but most of all because you deserve to feel great each day, you deserve to look the way you want to look, you deserve it!!

I wish you every success in this....I support you wholeheartedly!!

I'm sorry--a correction---it wasn't the diet that failed me!!!

Thanks all. . .

J! Nice to see you again!

I'm not looking to butt heads with anyone this time around. I'm out of excuses and have nothing but reasons now.

Reasons to train.

Reasons to lose weight.

Reasons why I CAN exercise, even when the weather is bad, even when it's late, even when. . . even when. . .

Today is day four and I haven't cheated. I'm feeling clearer, thinking clearer, and got through the sleepies yesterday.

The weather in Texas is gorgeous and I'm getting into the habit of changing into workout clothes the minute I get home, BEFORE I even visit my daughter.

I've gotten in the habit of putting her in the stroller and taking her for a 3/4 mile walk within ten minutes of coming home.

And I know I'm needing to build more and more habits LIKE that.

See, there you go---making it a lifestyle and embracing it and making it work----good going, you!!