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Atkins for the eating disordered and drug addicted
I thought I would write a little more about my struggles with weight loss and the extremes to which I went in order to lose weight. This in turn will illustrate how the Atkins diet has improved and enriched my life. I will try not to be verbose.
As a child I was always rail thin. I could eat anything and everything and remain a waif. I entered high school at 90lbs. When I was 17 my doctor determined that I was underweight and as a result had not yet fully gone through puberty. My doctor put me on hormone treatments to expedite the process. I gained 40lbs in three months. The weight gain, the hormones and bad self esteem in general threw me full speed into an eating disorder.
I have struggled with bulimia and drug addiction since then. Both of these would help me to lose weight successfully but only served to hurt my self esteem, my health and spirit even more. Every time I would get help for these other issues, I would gain weight. This would restart the cycle. My weight has fluctuated dramatically in the last five years. At one point I lost 35lbs in two months only to gain it back a month later.
I got clean from drugs almost 6 months ago. After this, my eating disorder kicked in. I knew I would gain weight and I was distraught. I struggled (really struggled) for a few months with it until I sought help through counseling. Although counseling helped, I still couldn't stop the obsessive thoughts over food. The shame and guilt eating caused was consuming and overwhelming. I felt helpless and hopeless. I tried tons of different starvation diets and techniques but I was spiraling out of control. I had already destroyed my marriage through addiction and was beginning to destroy a new relationship through my self-centered and disordered thinking. I knew I needed a big change.
I was talking to a coworker one day and he asked me about my diet. My diet at the time consisted of between 500-1000 calories of raw vegetables and fruit. No protein or fat at all. He asked if I had ever tried Atkins. I had no idea what it was. He told me to research it and that he had been doing it for 6 years and kept off his 40lb loss for that long. And best of all, he told me I didn't have to count calories any more. I was skeptical, but decided to check it out. I started the next week.
Although I have lost weight since I started, weight loss is not my biggest accomplishment here. I have gained freedom from the prison I've kept myself in for so long! I can eat when I am hungry. Seems simple, but I haven't had the ability to eat without tremendous guilt for more than 5 years. I don't obsess over food all day. I can cook dinner for my boyfriend and we can eat together. I don't cringe in fear at the thought of eating out. Such a simple change has given me so much hope. I feel good about myself. I don't feel like I need to be validated by another person to be happy. In a very short span of time Atkins has changed my life for the better.
I wanted to write this in hopes that someone else suffering through what I've been through might read this and gain some hope. It worked for me, but I had to be willing to put into it what I wanted to get out. I'm not saying this is a cure-all solution for an eating disorder - I still struggle every day. I am simply saying if you are desperate like I was, give it a try. I promise it won't hurt.
As a child I was always rail thin. I could eat anything and everything and remain a waif. I entered high school at 90lbs. When I was 17 my doctor determined that I was underweight and as a result had not yet fully gone through puberty. My doctor put me on hormone treatments to expedite the process. I gained 40lbs in three months. The weight gain, the hormones and bad self esteem in general threw me full speed into an eating disorder.
I have struggled with bulimia and drug addiction since then. Both of these would help me to lose weight successfully but only served to hurt my self esteem, my health and spirit even more. Every time I would get help for these other issues, I would gain weight. This would restart the cycle. My weight has fluctuated dramatically in the last five years. At one point I lost 35lbs in two months only to gain it back a month later.
I got clean from drugs almost 6 months ago. After this, my eating disorder kicked in. I knew I would gain weight and I was distraught. I struggled (really struggled) for a few months with it until I sought help through counseling. Although counseling helped, I still couldn't stop the obsessive thoughts over food. The shame and guilt eating caused was consuming and overwhelming. I felt helpless and hopeless. I tried tons of different starvation diets and techniques but I was spiraling out of control. I had already destroyed my marriage through addiction and was beginning to destroy a new relationship through my self-centered and disordered thinking. I knew I needed a big change.
I was talking to a coworker one day and he asked me about my diet. My diet at the time consisted of between 500-1000 calories of raw vegetables and fruit. No protein or fat at all. He asked if I had ever tried Atkins. I had no idea what it was. He told me to research it and that he had been doing it for 6 years and kept off his 40lb loss for that long. And best of all, he told me I didn't have to count calories any more. I was skeptical, but decided to check it out. I started the next week.
Although I have lost weight since I started, weight loss is not my biggest accomplishment here. I have gained freedom from the prison I've kept myself in for so long! I can eat when I am hungry. Seems simple, but I haven't had the ability to eat without tremendous guilt for more than 5 years. I don't obsess over food all day. I can cook dinner for my boyfriend and we can eat together. I don't cringe in fear at the thought of eating out. Such a simple change has given me so much hope. I feel good about myself. I don't feel like I need to be validated by another person to be happy. In a very short span of time Atkins has changed my life for the better.
I wanted to write this in hopes that someone else suffering through what I've been through might read this and gain some hope. It worked for me, but I had to be willing to put into it what I wanted to get out. I'm not saying this is a cure-all solution for an eating disorder - I still struggle every day. I am simply saying if you are desperate like I was, give it a try. I promise it won't hurt.
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