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Hi my name is Jim, and I am a 6'1" 54 year old from Florida.
I have been a lurker around the boards for months, seeing many stories of weight, weight loss, triumph and despair...nearly all of which parallel my own experience in some way.
I did Atkins for the first time about 5 years ago. I went from 235 to about 195-200 and felt pretty good. The diet was hard for me. I had done NO reading about Atkins at all, but someone had given me a copy of the Atkins Diet...not the book, a one-page summary of the initial diet. They didn't know what it was either...and what they gave me was a one page summary of just the Induction Phase. So, by mistake I did only the induction phase for 3-4 months!
By the end of it I was so upset at the diet I just quit. The idea of a life without vegetables...fruits, any bread or pasta was just too hard to bear. I am amazed to this day I had the willpower to do strict induction for a third of a year.
I restarted Atkins October 1st , 2007 (after getting the books and reading and re-reading them) and watching this board. As nearly everyone else has said the board, you the people here on it, are a tremendous source of inspiration for success. More importantly you seem to be there for us when we fail too, when we gain a couple of pounds even tho we didn't cheat AT ALL (sigh!), and when we wonder if it is worth it.
When I started 50 or so days ago I weighed 261. So in five years my weight crept up from 235 to 261, a gain of 26 pounds or over 10% of my body weight. At my age and my family history (father died on his 11th heart attack) and my sedentary lifestyle, I knew this was a death sentence...maybe many years too early. I have two daughters (16 and 21) that I want to be around for.
In the 50 days I have lost 25 pounds, down to 236 now, or about where I was five years ago. My mini-goals are to get to 230 by Christmas and 220 by my birthday at the end of February. After that I hope to be 200 (ok really its 199!) by 4th of July. At work they are naming a urinal after me since it has become my "remote office"
I struggle with the diet at times. The water is just very hard to consume all the time...I NEVER drank water before (Pepsi) but fortunately have some very good local bottled water here (Zephyrhills) which I like. I am hardly ever hungry and changed my lifestyle a lot. I eat breakfast (never did before), eat lunch (often skipped) and no longer eat a huge dinner late at night. I do not eat anything after 7 PM. I DO have a little more energy and losing the 25 pounds have improved my knees...they dont hurt getting up and down anymore.
I still dont excercise and still want Lasagna and Portugese Sweet bread...but I am going to try and stay with it this time. I do realize that I am not really "on a diet", that this is the way I am going to eat basically for the rest of my life.
Next week I go to the doctors to see if they can reduce my high blood pressure and cholesterol meds. Wish me luck!
I have been a lurker around the boards for months, seeing many stories of weight, weight loss, triumph and despair...nearly all of which parallel my own experience in some way.
I did Atkins for the first time about 5 years ago. I went from 235 to about 195-200 and felt pretty good. The diet was hard for me. I had done NO reading about Atkins at all, but someone had given me a copy of the Atkins Diet...not the book, a one-page summary of the initial diet. They didn't know what it was either...and what they gave me was a one page summary of just the Induction Phase. So, by mistake I did only the induction phase for 3-4 months!
By the end of it I was so upset at the diet I just quit. The idea of a life without vegetables...fruits, any bread or pasta was just too hard to bear. I am amazed to this day I had the willpower to do strict induction for a third of a year.I restarted Atkins October 1st , 2007 (after getting the books and reading and re-reading them) and watching this board. As nearly everyone else has said the board, you the people here on it, are a tremendous source of inspiration for success. More importantly you seem to be there for us when we fail too, when we gain a couple of pounds even tho we didn't cheat AT ALL (sigh!), and when we wonder if it is worth it.
When I started 50 or so days ago I weighed 261. So in five years my weight crept up from 235 to 261, a gain of 26 pounds or over 10% of my body weight. At my age and my family history (father died on his 11th heart attack) and my sedentary lifestyle, I knew this was a death sentence...maybe many years too early. I have two daughters (16 and 21) that I want to be around for.
In the 50 days I have lost 25 pounds, down to 236 now, or about where I was five years ago. My mini-goals are to get to 230 by Christmas and 220 by my birthday at the end of February. After that I hope to be 200 (ok really its 199!) by 4th of July. At work they are naming a urinal after me since it has become my "remote office"
I struggle with the diet at times. The water is just very hard to consume all the time...I NEVER drank water before (Pepsi) but fortunately have some very good local bottled water here (Zephyrhills) which I like. I am hardly ever hungry and changed my lifestyle a lot. I eat breakfast (never did before), eat lunch (often skipped) and no longer eat a huge dinner late at night. I do not eat anything after 7 PM. I DO have a little more energy and losing the 25 pounds have improved my knees...they dont hurt getting up and down anymore.
I still dont excercise and still want Lasagna and Portugese Sweet bread...but I am going to try and stay with it this time. I do realize that I am not really "on a diet", that this is the way I am going to eat basically for the rest of my life.
Next week I go to the doctors to see if they can reduce my high blood pressure and cholesterol meds. Wish me luck!
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