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hi! I found this forum earlier today and have spent most of the afternoon & evening reading over, like, EVERY thread! I have decided to embark on Atkins after reading two other books - The Yeast Connection and Nourishing Traditions. I'm 32 (though I stopped counting after 25) and was always in good health until a few years ago. How I was in 'good' health for so long I don't know since I spent my teens and 20s smoking, drinking, eating terribly (or not at all) and using other substances. Despite this I was, outwardly, the picture of glowing youth. Then somewhere around 26-27 I started experience painful, swollen joints. I was living in San Francisco and chalked it up to all of the walking I was doing. The swelling would come and go so I didn't think much of it. When I moved back to Texas to be with family the imflammation started again and I saw a doctor and was eventually diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. That was the first bombshell.
I saw doctors every few weeks for about a year and a half there with not much improvement. Since the drugs weren't helping I started researching alternative therapies and this took me to take my vegetarian lifestyle one step further and became vegan. I thought this was the healthiest thing I could do. About a year later I went for a medical appointment for results on some routine labwork. The doctor looked at me very concerned like and asked if I was feeling okay. I said I was a little run down but that was typical. He then showed me my thyroid test and the number was off the charts. It had been going up, up, up over the last year then there it was: I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism at 30.
I started on Synthroid and felt confident that the 25 lbs I had gained since moving from CA to TX would fall off. When I gained a few more lbs over the next few months I thought, this is it. I should just accept that I have a thyroid problem and will always be fat. I stopped thinking about losing weight until I was reading the new blog of an old livejournal friend. She had a baby and couldn't breastfeed and in trying to find the best way to care for her daughter she came upon the Weston A Price Foundation and the cookbook by it's founder and president, Sally Fallon. That book is Nourishing Traditions. When I read the blog entries it hit home. The modern diseases caused by modern (refined, sugary, starchy, lowfat, low calorie) diets. Diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, hypothyroidism, and, my newest, fibromyalgia. And one of the biggest culprits was modern soy foods. Exactly what I had been living off of as a vegan.
I soon bought a copy of NT and made the gradual transition into omnivore-land. First with real bone broth made from organic chickens, then eating the chicken meat, then eggs and butter and so on. The difference I felt in just adding the bone broth was astounding. I had found the cure!
Unfortunately it didn't last long. Being an omni again I found myself at chinese buffets and Wing Stop and Taco Bell eating pretty much whatever. And I am a sugar ADDICT. I liken it to heroin addiction. There have been times I needed a fix so bad I would just eat a spoonful of the white stuff. Pure, sweet devil's sugar. Every now and then I could kick the sugar habit for a week or two and then cave. The funny thing is that as soon as I consumed some I would immediately get a flu-like reaction. That tells us something! REFINED SUGAR = SICKNESS!!
Despite all of the knowledge I've gained over the last year or so I haven't really changed my diet much. At another routine doctor's visit (I have a lot of these) I was informed of my elevated glucose. I was sent to an endocinologist who informed me that I have Polycycstic Ovarian Disease.
Talk about the nail in the coffin. I mean, what was next?
The first thing he said was weight loss is key and suggested Weight Watchers. So I tried the dub-dub for a couple of months with minimal success. See, I wanted as much food as possible without using all my points and that meant a lot of nutritionally-empty high-carb foods and one carb-induced binge after another. I quit. However, during this time I started taking water aerobics to help with joint pain and realized - I love it! I haven't exercised for pleasure in so many years and my body was (and is) just eating it up. I started swimming and walking as well and have lost 10 lbs - from 235 to 225- since December.
Now, about Atkins? When my migraine headaches started getting more frequent and more debillitating I consulted my mom who also has them. She loaned me a migraine 'diet' book (basically just how to find your triggers) that mentioned the Yeast Connection. I read the Yeast Connection and realized that book was written about me! Also the diet is pretty much Atkins only minus things like mushrooms and cheese for the first few weeks. So I'll be doing a hybrid of the two I suppose. Focusing on protein and good veggie carbs, and add in some (organic raw milk) cheese. And basically go from there.
So congratulations if you read all of this. And HI!
I saw doctors every few weeks for about a year and a half there with not much improvement. Since the drugs weren't helping I started researching alternative therapies and this took me to take my vegetarian lifestyle one step further and became vegan. I thought this was the healthiest thing I could do. About a year later I went for a medical appointment for results on some routine labwork. The doctor looked at me very concerned like and asked if I was feeling okay. I said I was a little run down but that was typical. He then showed me my thyroid test and the number was off the charts. It had been going up, up, up over the last year then there it was: I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism at 30.
I started on Synthroid and felt confident that the 25 lbs I had gained since moving from CA to TX would fall off. When I gained a few more lbs over the next few months I thought, this is it. I should just accept that I have a thyroid problem and will always be fat. I stopped thinking about losing weight until I was reading the new blog of an old livejournal friend. She had a baby and couldn't breastfeed and in trying to find the best way to care for her daughter she came upon the Weston A Price Foundation and the cookbook by it's founder and president, Sally Fallon. That book is Nourishing Traditions. When I read the blog entries it hit home. The modern diseases caused by modern (refined, sugary, starchy, lowfat, low calorie) diets. Diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, hypothyroidism, and, my newest, fibromyalgia. And one of the biggest culprits was modern soy foods. Exactly what I had been living off of as a vegan.
I soon bought a copy of NT and made the gradual transition into omnivore-land. First with real bone broth made from organic chickens, then eating the chicken meat, then eggs and butter and so on. The difference I felt in just adding the bone broth was astounding. I had found the cure!
Unfortunately it didn't last long. Being an omni again I found myself at chinese buffets and Wing Stop and Taco Bell eating pretty much whatever. And I am a sugar ADDICT. I liken it to heroin addiction. There have been times I needed a fix so bad I would just eat a spoonful of the white stuff. Pure, sweet devil's sugar. Every now and then I could kick the sugar habit for a week or two and then cave. The funny thing is that as soon as I consumed some I would immediately get a flu-like reaction. That tells us something! REFINED SUGAR = SICKNESS!!
Despite all of the knowledge I've gained over the last year or so I haven't really changed my diet much. At another routine doctor's visit (I have a lot of these) I was informed of my elevated glucose. I was sent to an endocinologist who informed me that I have Polycycstic Ovarian Disease.
Talk about the nail in the coffin. I mean, what was next?
The first thing he said was weight loss is key and suggested Weight Watchers. So I tried the dub-dub for a couple of months with minimal success. See, I wanted as much food as possible without using all my points and that meant a lot of nutritionally-empty high-carb foods and one carb-induced binge after another. I quit. However, during this time I started taking water aerobics to help with joint pain and realized - I love it! I haven't exercised for pleasure in so many years and my body was (and is) just eating it up. I started swimming and walking as well and have lost 10 lbs - from 235 to 225- since December.
Now, about Atkins? When my migraine headaches started getting more frequent and more debillitating I consulted my mom who also has them. She loaned me a migraine 'diet' book (basically just how to find your triggers) that mentioned the Yeast Connection. I read the Yeast Connection and realized that book was written about me! Also the diet is pretty much Atkins only minus things like mushrooms and cheese for the first few weeks. So I'll be doing a hybrid of the two I suppose. Focusing on protein and good veggie carbs, and add in some (organic raw milk) cheese. And basically go from there.
So congratulations if you read all of this. And HI!
X16 
Check out this forum just for folks with your yeast issues and on Atkins 
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