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Hello-
I am new to Adkins. I found this forum earlier in the month, while searching / researching just what I was going to do to get my weight and life under control once and for all.
I have been lurking here for two weeks, without introducing myself, gaining information and inspiration from all of you- your wonderful advice, support, tips, and caring that you all so generously share with each other . So, its time I tell you a bit about me.
I have been battling weight my whole life, at times like a foot soldier, gritty in the trenches, at other times like a retreating army abandoning all efforts.
I remember being the “chubbiest” girl in 1st grade, though looking back at pictures I looked like an average 6 year old and not really fat. All of my siblings were average size or skinny, and everyone thought I had “big bones”. For years our family doctor would give me diets to follow and shame me over my weight gains, and that is when I learned how to sneak food. I was a kid ! I shouldn’t have been “dieting” ~ I should have been changing how and what I eat and exercising ! By 6th grade I had gotten up to 160 pounds and my mother insisted I go to weight watchers. It was a relatively new program at that time. I lost 30 pounds on that diet. (I had pudged up just before puberty and then grown something like 5 inches- so that really helped change how I looked, too). We all discovered then that I didn’t have big bones. I had become slim and stayed that way by severely restricting my food intake & as a result began the metabolism slow down. I would eat cereal for breakfast and an orange for lunch, no snacks then a small portion of dinner. It worked for a while. By 9th grade I had started to eat more snack foods and more food in general and for the next 4 years yo-yoed up and down the scale trying most of the fad diets of the day….even the iceberg lettuce diet. By high school graduation I topped the scales at 220 pounds, my highest weight at that time and was miserable. I went away to college where having unrestricted access to food (and no mother commandant to enforce) was a mixed blessing, I was in control of what and when I ate, and lost some of the weight at first, dropping to about 190 pounds by the Christmas break . The rest of my time at college was more of the same ……up and down the scale (though usually, if not always, regaining the weight lost “and then some”.) The next phase of my life, at 20 years old, I stopped going to college and was at 235 pounds. I then moved south, to a resort town, and began a new, healthier way of life – eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, walking to and from work and then to and from town at night to “party” really helped me. (walking 8+ miles a day, biking, swimming, diving, windsurfing) I lost 85 pounds in about 7 months. I looked and felt great. It didn’t last, though. For the next sixteen years, through jobs, moves, a marriage and two children I had gained and lost weight on every diet imaginable. It was November 1994 and I was back up…….now to 240 pounds. Then came phen-fen! In less than 7 months on that, and monthly visits to the “diet doctor” I had shed 95 pounds! The only problem, again, was that I was hardly eating anything!
Going forward…14 years of eating, not eating, dieting, not dieting. In January of this year, I got on the scale for the first time in probably a year. I weighed 246 pounds! The fattest ever! Denial, not just the river in Egypt! I had been gaining weight, feeling hopeless, wondering how or if I would ever conquer my weight problems. My regular doctor (an internist by specialty) had been urging me to undergo gastric bypass surgery for the last couple of years. Even at my annual (or sometimes semi-annual…cause I hated going to the doctor) check-ups I would refuse to get on her scale. (I have the good genes in that I have no cholesterol issues and have good BP, something like 115/68 normally.) She was concerned that I was heading for diabetes; no surprise there given my weight, inactivity and preference for all things carbs and sugars….my food of choice. Even that didn’t scare me…..though it should have. Without even discussing the surgery option with my husband or any of my family. I met with a bariatric surgeon and gastroenterologist and found that I am a candidate for that surgery, or even the lap band procedure, BUT, I had to quit smoking first, before any of the other treatments would even be considered. My insurance also required that I have documented dieting under a physician’s care to prove the need/eligibility. I quit smoking in January after 35 years of smoking and enjoying it. I never, ever wanted to quit or even tried to quit, I liked it!
All year, I had been leaning toward getting the surgery and was reading everything I could about it and what to expect. I needed to diet and needed to begin some kind of exercise program. I couldn’t even walk up a flight of steps without becoming winded!
I lost my job in June due to downsizing. I began walking. Really slowly at first. I couldn’t even walk up the street (very slight incline) 4 houses without being out of breath. I watched what I ate, primarily keeping low fat and low cal starvation mode, and tried to walk 3x a week. In 2 months I had lost 13 pounds.. I became disgusted thinking it will take me nearly two years to loose the weight I want at this rate and I am starving all of the time! Surgery was looking better and better, so I stopped “dieting” , walked occasionally, ate and drank what I wanted…… with the twisted thinking/belief that after surgery I wouldn’t be able to eat _________ (fill in the blank), might as well enjoy it now! I was worried about the “carb dumping” after surgery.
In September I started walking again, now making myself walk every day. I felt better, and mood improved, but I was still eating way more carbs than my body could possibly burn. In early November I “happened” to pick up a First Magazine in the grocery store check out line, my eye catching the line “Always craving carbs? Lose 32 pounds by Thanksgiving” ( I say happened to, because I just don’t believe there are any coincidences.) Reading that article was like a light bulb going off! I knew that this made sense! I felt that this is it ! This is just the kind of eating I should be doing. I am definitely addicted to carbs! That led me to read more about low carb eating. I don’t know how I had avoided doing Adkins in the past, but I think I had always thought of it as being unhealthy……Like I was the picture of health anyway? I found lots of good sites, and then found Adkins Diet Bulletin Board, and read all I could for days! I went out and bought New Diet Revolution and read it cover to cover. (My mother, yes, still giving advice, suggested South Beach diet instead claiming it’s so much healthier and even sent me her copy of it! ) I read that too and don’t think that’s for me. I know in my heart & soul that Adkins is the way I need to live. Carbs, especially in the form of grains and breads, pretzels and Danish, candies and cookies only make me eat and crave more carbs.
So after reading DANDR cover to cover & some chapters more than once, I cleared out my pantry of things that I (and by extension my daughter and husband) wouldn’t be eating in the near future. My husband, being the good guy that he is, joined me in beginning this way of eating on November 15th. [My daughter (17) not able to wrap her brain around this new way of thinking…. believes all the brainwashing that low or nonfat is the way to be healthy….is eating as she always has….and seems to work for her, for now. I was not a good role model when it came to good eating habits. I never made my kids eat things and never made them eat when they weren’t hungry, so fearful of creating issues with food!]
We are doing strict induction. My husband, who is probably 30 pounds or so overweight, lost 12 pounds these first 9 days. I am not going to weigh myself but once a week, I can’t do the emotional ups and downs of daily weigh ins. Starting weight, on 11/15, an all time high of 257! Current weight 249 (as of Sunday). Woo hoo! There is something to this! I am in for the long haul and am not even considering surgery any more. I have found a new way to live and am so excited about it!
I am a little confused, but I guess that is to be expected. Am I correct in the understanding that during induction I am more concerned with keeping carbs under 20 gr and eating lots of fat and protein? In some of these forum pages/posts, it seems like quantities of fats and salt are being monitored, too.
I am so grateful for this forum. Each of you is so inspiring ! I’m glad you all are here.
Pam
I am new to Adkins. I found this forum earlier in the month, while searching / researching just what I was going to do to get my weight and life under control once and for all.
I have been lurking here for two weeks, without introducing myself, gaining information and inspiration from all of you- your wonderful advice, support, tips, and caring that you all so generously share with each other . So, its time I tell you a bit about me.
I have been battling weight my whole life, at times like a foot soldier, gritty in the trenches, at other times like a retreating army abandoning all efforts.
I remember being the “chubbiest” girl in 1st grade, though looking back at pictures I looked like an average 6 year old and not really fat. All of my siblings were average size or skinny, and everyone thought I had “big bones”. For years our family doctor would give me diets to follow and shame me over my weight gains, and that is when I learned how to sneak food. I was a kid ! I shouldn’t have been “dieting” ~ I should have been changing how and what I eat and exercising ! By 6th grade I had gotten up to 160 pounds and my mother insisted I go to weight watchers. It was a relatively new program at that time. I lost 30 pounds on that diet. (I had pudged up just before puberty and then grown something like 5 inches- so that really helped change how I looked, too). We all discovered then that I didn’t have big bones. I had become slim and stayed that way by severely restricting my food intake & as a result began the metabolism slow down. I would eat cereal for breakfast and an orange for lunch, no snacks then a small portion of dinner. It worked for a while. By 9th grade I had started to eat more snack foods and more food in general and for the next 4 years yo-yoed up and down the scale trying most of the fad diets of the day….even the iceberg lettuce diet. By high school graduation I topped the scales at 220 pounds, my highest weight at that time and was miserable. I went away to college where having unrestricted access to food (and no mother commandant to enforce) was a mixed blessing, I was in control of what and when I ate, and lost some of the weight at first, dropping to about 190 pounds by the Christmas break . The rest of my time at college was more of the same ……up and down the scale (though usually, if not always, regaining the weight lost “and then some”.) The next phase of my life, at 20 years old, I stopped going to college and was at 235 pounds. I then moved south, to a resort town, and began a new, healthier way of life – eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, walking to and from work and then to and from town at night to “party” really helped me. (walking 8+ miles a day, biking, swimming, diving, windsurfing) I lost 85 pounds in about 7 months. I looked and felt great. It didn’t last, though. For the next sixteen years, through jobs, moves, a marriage and two children I had gained and lost weight on every diet imaginable. It was November 1994 and I was back up…….now to 240 pounds. Then came phen-fen! In less than 7 months on that, and monthly visits to the “diet doctor” I had shed 95 pounds! The only problem, again, was that I was hardly eating anything!
Going forward…14 years of eating, not eating, dieting, not dieting. In January of this year, I got on the scale for the first time in probably a year. I weighed 246 pounds! The fattest ever! Denial, not just the river in Egypt! I had been gaining weight, feeling hopeless, wondering how or if I would ever conquer my weight problems. My regular doctor (an internist by specialty) had been urging me to undergo gastric bypass surgery for the last couple of years. Even at my annual (or sometimes semi-annual…cause I hated going to the doctor) check-ups I would refuse to get on her scale. (I have the good genes in that I have no cholesterol issues and have good BP, something like 115/68 normally.) She was concerned that I was heading for diabetes; no surprise there given my weight, inactivity and preference for all things carbs and sugars….my food of choice. Even that didn’t scare me…..though it should have. Without even discussing the surgery option with my husband or any of my family. I met with a bariatric surgeon and gastroenterologist and found that I am a candidate for that surgery, or even the lap band procedure, BUT, I had to quit smoking first, before any of the other treatments would even be considered. My insurance also required that I have documented dieting under a physician’s care to prove the need/eligibility. I quit smoking in January after 35 years of smoking and enjoying it. I never, ever wanted to quit or even tried to quit, I liked it!
All year, I had been leaning toward getting the surgery and was reading everything I could about it and what to expect. I needed to diet and needed to begin some kind of exercise program. I couldn’t even walk up a flight of steps without becoming winded!
I lost my job in June due to downsizing. I began walking. Really slowly at first. I couldn’t even walk up the street (very slight incline) 4 houses without being out of breath. I watched what I ate, primarily keeping low fat and low cal starvation mode, and tried to walk 3x a week. In 2 months I had lost 13 pounds.. I became disgusted thinking it will take me nearly two years to loose the weight I want at this rate and I am starving all of the time! Surgery was looking better and better, so I stopped “dieting” , walked occasionally, ate and drank what I wanted…… with the twisted thinking/belief that after surgery I wouldn’t be able to eat _________ (fill in the blank), might as well enjoy it now! I was worried about the “carb dumping” after surgery.
In September I started walking again, now making myself walk every day. I felt better, and mood improved, but I was still eating way more carbs than my body could possibly burn. In early November I “happened” to pick up a First Magazine in the grocery store check out line, my eye catching the line “Always craving carbs? Lose 32 pounds by Thanksgiving” ( I say happened to, because I just don’t believe there are any coincidences.) Reading that article was like a light bulb going off! I knew that this made sense! I felt that this is it ! This is just the kind of eating I should be doing. I am definitely addicted to carbs! That led me to read more about low carb eating. I don’t know how I had avoided doing Adkins in the past, but I think I had always thought of it as being unhealthy……Like I was the picture of health anyway? I found lots of good sites, and then found Adkins Diet Bulletin Board, and read all I could for days! I went out and bought New Diet Revolution and read it cover to cover. (My mother, yes, still giving advice, suggested South Beach diet instead claiming it’s so much healthier and even sent me her copy of it! ) I read that too and don’t think that’s for me. I know in my heart & soul that Adkins is the way I need to live. Carbs, especially in the form of grains and breads, pretzels and Danish, candies and cookies only make me eat and crave more carbs.
So after reading DANDR cover to cover & some chapters more than once, I cleared out my pantry of things that I (and by extension my daughter and husband) wouldn’t be eating in the near future. My husband, being the good guy that he is, joined me in beginning this way of eating on November 15th. [My daughter (17) not able to wrap her brain around this new way of thinking…. believes all the brainwashing that low or nonfat is the way to be healthy….is eating as she always has….and seems to work for her, for now. I was not a good role model when it came to good eating habits. I never made my kids eat things and never made them eat when they weren’t hungry, so fearful of creating issues with food!]
We are doing strict induction. My husband, who is probably 30 pounds or so overweight, lost 12 pounds these first 9 days. I am not going to weigh myself but once a week, I can’t do the emotional ups and downs of daily weigh ins. Starting weight, on 11/15, an all time high of 257! Current weight 249 (as of Sunday). Woo hoo! There is something to this! I am in for the long haul and am not even considering surgery any more. I have found a new way to live and am so excited about it!
I am a little confused, but I guess that is to be expected. Am I correct in the understanding that during induction I am more concerned with keeping carbs under 20 gr and eating lots of fat and protein? In some of these forum pages/posts, it seems like quantities of fats and salt are being monitored, too.
I am so grateful for this forum. Each of you is so inspiring ! I’m glad you all are here.
Pam
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