Hello, my name is Sara. Welcome to Low Carb Bliss! This is the story of my battle with obesity and my success by using a Low Carbohydrate diet.
I've been dieting since puberty it seems. It's about that time in my life that I became chubby. Raised in Louisiana on deep fried, cream covered, rich southern food, it wasn't difficult to put on a few pounds. By the time I was in seventh grade, I was extremely self-conscious of my weight. I weighed 175 pounds at a height of 5'6 and felt miserable. That summer I went on my first real diet. I counted the calories of everything I ate and tried to keep them around 1000 for the day. I would run around the house or do jumping jacks, every time I ate. Basically, I starved myself. At that age, 1000 calories were far too few. I lost 40 pounds that summer. My family, worried about me, made me begin eating more and I gradually settled around a healthy weight of 150 pounds. I stayed in that range for the remainder of high school, at a height of 5'8 and between 145 and 175 pounds. I walked regularly for exercise, played soccer, and resorted to a low fat, low calorie diet in times of weight loss need. The weight came and went, and it seemed I had control. When I began college I was in decent shape, but wasn't exercising. A diet consisting of fast food and beer quickly began to take its toll on my figure and health. While a full time student, I also began a full time job. The long hours, poor diet, and lack of exercise did me in. Determined to lose weight, I went on another low calorie, low fat diet. I began taking Metabolife and again cut the calories to 1000 and fat to 10 grams a day. I lost 20 pounds and then gained back 40 when I stopped abusing Metabolife and returned to my regular eating habits. By the time my graduation came around, I weighed 200 pounds. I was completely worn out, and out of shape. I knew I had to do something, so once again I implemented a low calorie, low fat diet. (That's the only way to lose weight right!) I began exercising regularly and gradually lost 25 pounds. At that point the weight loss stopped and I was incredibly tired of starving myself. I began eating regularly again, counting calories some days and eating pizza and mexican fare (unfortunately my favorite) on others. What to do? I love to eat. I love good food. I still have a goal to lose weight and get in shape. I guess I'll just have to diet again, next week, right?
Well, this past August, my aunt came to town for business and paid me a visit. The women in my family are always trying some new type of diet and/or exercise regimen. So when my aunt told me that she was on the "Atkins Diet", I was very interested. Obviously, I wasn't getting very far with my low calorie, low fat diet, so I was ready and willing to try something new. I was a bit reluctant though. The thought of a diet that did not contain WOW tortilla chips, low fat yogurt, or diet microwave dinners made me nervous. The thought that they would be replaced by bacon and eggs just didn't seem right. Regardless, when she told me that her new diet made her feel better and she'd lost 20 pounds, I had to give it a try.
Saturday evening, August 19, 2000, I went to Barnes and Noble and purchased Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution. That evening, after reading about success after success, I was ready to begin. The following day, Sunday, I began my new low carb WOE (way of eating). I made a wonderful excel spreadsheet to track every item I consumed. Of course, I wanted to keep an eye on my carb count. More importantly to me though, I wanted to keep an eye on my calorie and fat count, just to see what happened. Following Dr. Atkins rules of Induction, I kept my carb count below 20g for the first two weeks. The first few days were the most difficult. I found myself desperately craving something sweet. But after the first 48 hours, the majority of my cravings stopped. I found that I wasn't nearly as hungry, and my energy had increased. I had searched the internet for recipes and suggestions, and was beginning to form a books worth of information of my own. Well, I kept up on my chart and watched my fat count soar to over 100g for one day. While my calories, surprisingly, stayed safely between 1000 and 1700. Keep in mind, I was not eating according to calorie or fat count. I was only counting carbs, and eating until I was full. I lost 15 pounds while on Induction, another 5 in the following two weeks, and another 5 after that. I'll admit that I have not been completely faithful to my low carb diet. A month into it, I went on a vacation and slipped. I've now gone off of the diet twice more, but only for a day on each occurrence. I still haven't reached my goal weight yet, but 25 pounds are gone, I'm wearing two sizes smaller, and I feel great.
Updates
03-15-01
Well, I'm still on the diet and feeling great. I had a slight detour over the holidays, but came back as soon as it was 2001. It's so easy to gain the weight back when you return to eating high carb processed foods! I'm finding more and more low carb foods on the market and loving it. Take a close look at your local grocery store and I bet you'll find a dozen new low carb products. Also, for convenient food tracking, check out Fitday.com. It's free and allows you to keep track of foods consumed, activities, and even tells you how many calories you're burning and at what rate you're loosing weight.
01-27-04
Hello, It has been quite a while since I've updated my story. I completely fell off of the "low carb" WOE, and as the cookie crumbles, gained back every pound PLUS. It's refreshing to see that this WOE has gained such popularity over the past few years. It should be easier than ever to live the "low carb" lifestyle. I just want to tell you all that this way of eating will provide you with weight loss success and, as long as you can keep up the lifestyle, it is possible to maintain and eat very healthily. Power to all of you that have taken the steps to end the turmoil of obesity and yo-yo dieting. Good Luck.
