Onwards and downwards

Am feeling that this is working. I was thinking back to my first diet in the 1960's. I had to weigh everything. I think I lost about 35lbs in about 6 months. So that averaged about 6lbs a month but I struggled. I had cravings. I had to go to bed early as I was hungry. I never left the table thinking I had eaten enough. It made me miserable even as I was getting thinner.

This time I am losing between 5 and 6lbs a month. I have a lot further to go this time. All those low calorie low fat diets messed up my metabolism so much I now have 70lbs to lose but 30 of those have already gone.

This is so much easier. It makes me happy. I leave the table feeling satisfied. I am never hungry in the evenings. I enjoy my food and I dont weigh anything.

Went rock climbing and swimming yesterday as we went on a picnic for GD 12th birthday. I think I even surprised myself with what I could do.

I am going to eat this way for the rest of my life and just maybe I might find I have a size 12 body somewhere in here. I have seen it once, a very long time ago for a very short period of time!

Fat percentage 39.9

Finally am seeing some changing numbers on the fancy scale I bought. I though it was stuck in the 40's as I have been seeing over 40 for the past 2 and a half months. This morning was 39.9% so making progress.

Cooked a mutton leg roast yesterday and have kept all the fat that came out of the tin. My grandmother used to do that. So now I have some fat I can use in cooking. On my low fat diets I would have thrown the fat away that came out of the roasting tin. Now fat does not worry me as I know I can consume quite a bit and still lose weight every week. My body much prefers to get it energy from fat rather than from glucose.

Was reading Idiot Proof Diet yesterday. They took a year to lose 70lbs each. I have lost 30 and have another 40lbs to go. So may take me another 9 months but I am enjoying this so much it does not worry me. This is the diet for the rest of my life.

Obesity caused by lack of fat in the diet?

As Gary Taubes has written in his books our bodies need fat in the diet. But good fats and not the bad transfats or masses of processed grain oils.

Adding calories from butter to my morning eggs has made such a difference to my diet and how I am able to cope with it. I measured the knob of butter yesterday and it is 15gms which is about 100 cals plus 2 large eggs gives me a breakfast total of 240 cals. That holds me without being concerned about food till around 12 when I start thinking about lunch.

My afternoons are now productive. Instead of trying to distract myself from my cravings and tendancy to binge I now get on with projects and tasks without any drifting towards the food stores for another little something. My tendancy to nibble while I am preparing food is also under control. I sit down and eat one plateful, no seconds and am happy to leave the table feeling satisfied and know there is another nice meal coming up in 4 or 5 hours.

Got into a new pair of jeans yesterday. Looking forward to a few milestones in the next month or so. Getting under the 30 bmi, getting under 40% fat on the scale and getting the weight loss up to 30lbs in 4 months.

This has to be the easiest diet I have ever attempted.

Background diet

This is the diet I have been looking for all my life. When I think back to the misery and struggle and sense of failure I had over the last umpteen years trying to get my weight under control I feel a sense of disbelief that in fact it can be so easy.

On this, I feel satisfied when I leave the table, I never pick and and nibble at food when I am preparing meals, I dont binge in the afternoons. I dont feel hungry between meals.

This way of eating is almost becoming automatic. I dont think about it much. I dont obsess about food. I eat my nice fatty meals and then food becomes unimportant until the next meal.

I have not had a stall once in nearly 4 months. This month looks like being about a 6lb loss again. Month before that was 6.6lb loss. I can now slide my rings off my fingers. I read about someone on the internet who lost 50lbs in 3 months on Atkins. I will never ever lose at that rate. Think it is better to do it slowly and give my skin time to adjust. I hope I dont get saggy and baggy. I am feeling my skin is more elastic because of my high fat level. Will just have to see how it goes.

Was ready about vanity sizing. What used to be a size 16 40 years ago is now a size 12 in UK! The clothing manufacturers have increased the size of the waist and hips on their clothes to accommodate the growing size of the ladies!

Eggs and Butter

I was reading the other day that this is the breakfast that the American explorer who went to live with the Eskimos ate with his wife every day. It is now the breakfast that I have 2 eggs and half an ounce of butter. It is amazing how that little can keep me from being hungry till about 12 or 1 o clock. I have now got my D and GD on the same breakfast. The menfolk are still going for their cereal as well as the eggs and toast.

I ordered 3 copies of Dr Clark High Protein Fast Food Diet yesterday. Going to give one to each of my D and keep one copy for myself.

We all have issues with eating too much carbohydrate. One D went back to induction yesterday. She had gone travelling, missed breakfast so bought fritters and then it was all downhill for the rest of the day and she struggled the next day to get the control back over her eating.

Once our bodies get that taste of sugar from the carbs it just wants more and more and wont use up the fat stores.

How I wish I had found this information years ago. It would have saved me a fortune on clothes. I would not have the fat, medium and slim wardrobes that I have now. Fat items are being put on one side as I know I am never ever going to need them again.

Changed personality

Dont feel I am the same person than I was 5 months ago.

For a start I am 2 stone lighter. I am more confident about myself now that I have finally got a handle on a) why I found it impossible to control my weight and my eating habits and b) what I needed to do about it to finally lose the weight and more importantly keep it off for the rest of my life.

I have finally stopped feeling apologetic for exsisting! and feel I have earned the right to make time for my own needs.

Next week I have booked in for the 3rd facial in my life! I need to start caring for my skin which has had 60 years of pretty hard life.

Can honestly say I am enjoying this way of eating and am never going back to bread at every meal.

Ketone test

Yesterday I had no milk at all. I am a big coffee drinker about 6 mugs in the morning. One after lunch and dinner and tea in the afternoon.

For all of those yesterday I had cream instead of the usual milk. When I tested with the ketone strips in the afternoon I was on the next block of colour and not the usual pale pink. So giving up the milk did make a difference. So as long as I have cream I will use it. Not sure if I will carry on once the weight has gone. That will be my first introduction of carbs. To put whole milk back in the diet.

Used fitday yesterday. 1561 cals and 28gms carbs. The page is much easier to use now and is much quicker on a dialup connection. I had given up as it was so slow to find the foods and get the quantities sorted. I will go back there another day to check my food intake.

Milk

Well that was unexpected. Have lost 400gms in the last 2 days. The only thing I have changed in my diet is when I have coffee outside mealtimes I have been putting cream in it rather than milk. I have not been taking cream regularly because it is sometimes not available. I did not think it would make that big a difference but it seems I am wrong.
Will keep on with the experiment and see what happens. I have read that milk is very insulaemic it makes your body produce more insulin from the gms of carb in the milk. That is why babies get so round and fat and cuddly on just milk!

So good review point. Scale showed fat % of 40 this morning so will be good to see that drop into the 30's soon. 4" off hips and waist and 3" off chest. Total of 13kg or 28.6lbs or 2 stone since I started this 4 months ago.

I was assuming that the weight loss would slow up soon. I still have at least another 40lbs to go. But maybe if I can watch my milk intake it might be faster than I thought. Would be good if I can keep losing at 6lbs a month.

Rings will now slide off my finger whereas before I could not move them!

Booked a hotel booking for Sept with my mother. Asked if they can have berries and cream in for my desserts while mother is tucking into cheesecake! Then I could also have decaf coffee with cream and not feel I am missing out.

Snakes and Ladders and Steps

I was thinking yesterday that my previous diets have been more like a game of snakes and ladders. I would go up really short ladders when I was losing weight and then would be overtaken by a binge and down the long slippery snake I would come. It is amazing to me now that I managed to lose the amount of weight I did on these low calorie low fat diets. It was a major fight between what my body seemed to want and what I wanted to happen. Once I had lost the weight I would no longer have the incentive to fight my body and my weight would come storming back with extras.

The weight loss seems much slower this time. I am happy to see the scale move down by 100gms a few times a week. Certainly not every day. But I feel that each little drop is permanent. Because I no longer have the urge to binge I am not frightened of finding I have put 1kg back on overnight. My body is steady on the next step of the ladder before I drop weight again.

I like projecting weight loss. Looks like another 2kg by the end of this month so that is 4.4lbs. So at this rate will take me 3 months to lose a stone which is 14lbs. I feel better, look better, can fit into more of my smaller clothes. For the first time I can see what my diet is going to be when I finally find the slim me under the flab I have been carrying around for years. So its a win win situation.

Goals

I like to have some goals that I can achieve quickly as well as some long term goals. The 2 goals I am aiming for at present are to drop off the obese BMI and I need to lose about 6lbs to do that. The other is to have my fat percentage on the new scale drop below 40.4 which is where it is at present. I expect the 2 things are linked but have no idea which will come first!

I have set up a spreadsheet showing kg lbs and st and lbs plus the BMI figures. So as I drop 100gms at a time I can see what the equivalent is in the other scales.

My new scale does not have an option to weigh in lbs or st and lbs. In a way only being able to weigh in Kg is actually a help as I have no connotations linked the kg weights. Whereas the st and lbs weight I can remember weighing that weight at my wedding or that weight after the birth of my first child.

Kg weights are clean somehow. So I just get on the scale. See if the weight has gone down or not and there is no baggage attached to it.

Felt I have less fat on my jaw line and noticed my lower calves have emerged from their layer of fat. This is definately working. Bit slower than my usual low calorie diets when I try to eat even less to see the scale go down faster. That does not seem to work on this plan and I know if I try it I would binge. So nice not going to bed hungry! This is going to take time but I have the rest of my life to get it right.

Blip up

Had an upward blip on the scale today when I expected a downward one. No reason for it as far as I can see. Food choices were good yesterday. I did have tinned trout as a treat rather than tuna. Very expensive and only 3 small fillets in the tin and I had all of them! Used the oil as well. In fact I think there was more oil than trout and it may have had more salt than my usual tinned fish.

So for today will blame that and expect the extra lb to go over the next couple of days.

Wearing my jeans regularly now and the muffin top has almost gone. Still deciding the fate of my elasticated trousers. Do I give them away? Burn them. Keep them in case I need them again!! I dont think so. This is the eating plan for the rest of my life. I have never found a way of eating that suits me so well and heads the binges off at the pass.

My binges were solely caused by a lack of fat and oil in my diet. Once I allowed myself the fat and oil the binges went away.

Did another couple of hours in the combine yesterday and can now do the augering and off loading soya into the trailer.

I would never have had the confidence to try this when I was at my top weight. I would have had difficulty getting up the ladder! If you want to completely forget about food drive a combine! There is so much to think about on the controls and the grain and what is in front of you.

nearly 2 stone

Worked out by the end of the week will have lost 2 stone or 28lbs since mid January when I finally put fat back into my diet after 50 years of low fat meals.

There is no doubt in my mind that the added fat and finally shown me that I can successfully lose weight and that the binging episodes I suffered from were caused by low and unstable blood sugar and not some character flaw.

I still have another 40lbs or so to go but feel confident now that I will get there and stay there. As long as the out of control eating episodes do not return then life can only get better and my body slimmer.

Looking forward to getting back to the slim end of my wardrobe and all the nice clothes I bought 4 years ago when I was at my smallest.

Zips

Starting to get into some of my trousers with zips. For the past 2 years I have been in elasticated trousers so was very chuffed this week to find I could get back into these trousers. Remember buying the pair I wore yesterday in Cape Town 4 years ago.

Yesterday felt I needed more food after supper. Maybe I did not have enough for supper. Have not eaten outside mealtimes for a while. Went to the fridge and got some cold meat and cheese and was happy with that.

I have to keep my fat intake up or the binging and munchies will come back.

Another 100gms gone this morning. This is a much slower diet than anything I have tried before but then I want this to be my last successful diet. I never want to put on 60lbs again. So another 40 or so lbs to go, 4oz at a time!

Ticker

Just realised I have a problem with my ticker.

I have been using the UK system for dates with the day first then the month then the year. Just noticed ticker is set up for USA system with the month first then the day then the year! Trying to change the data but it wont accept it. Also went through and deleted a lot of old data. Before I was using lbs as I had a scale that worked in lbs. the new scale is in KG but I used the same ticker data so I had lbs and kg showing together. Hopefully I have got it right now and will try and do the dates correctly from now on. Does not seem to affect the display at all.

As I had hoped the scale is moving downwards again. Have not seen 87kg before. So making slow progress. I remember reading about a lady in one of the Atkins books who would only lose 5lbs a month so stayed on Induction nearly the whole time. I think I am going to be doing the same. I have a serious carb/insulin problem.

But I am happy that I dont see the scale go up as my eating is no longer out of my control. So each week I lose about a 1lb. This is very slow compared to my previous dieting attempts when I wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible so would try and starve my body into slimness. This time I am working with my body. It will get rid of the fat at its own pace and I must not try and hurry it.

I am not looking too much at calories now but a 1lb a week weight loss is around 500 cals per day of fat used up. Which is 55gms of fat or about 2oz. But once this fat has gone it has gone for good.

See UK is worried about the out of control obesity over there. This is the one and only answer. Not move more and eat less. Not shakes and slimming potions. Just get back to good plain natural protein, healthy fats and oils and low carb vegetables.

Michelle

slow but sure

I am now getting used to this way of eating and not finding it too difficult. I can see that I am now satisfied with less food but it is more nutrient dense food. They had a silly weight loss system I read about once where you eat more food with less nutrient density to 'fill you up'. That to me now would be a recipe for overeating which I used to do often.

You either leave the table not feeling you have eaten enough and find yourself binging a few hours later or you eat too much low density food to try and get the nutrients your body needs.

My body is satisfied with smaller high fat meals. I eat less and can go longer between meals and am satisfied.

Yesterday was a wedding and I managed to get into a suit I had not worn in a couple of years. I felt I looked good. I had a cheese salad at 12 and then a few pieces of biltong around 5. I felt that was the less harmful of the snacks on offer. Half a glass of champagne and a plate of meat and salad at 8pm. Was in control the whole time and made good choices.

This is the way my body was designed to run. Not on that endless glucose roller coaster.

Confidence

There is something about not being enormous that gives me confidence to start chatting to strangers.

At my heaviest I would try and not be noticed as I felt embarrassed about my size. Now I am feeling thinner I will strike up conversations with people in queues etc.

Made good food choices on business trip and another 300gms gone since I got back.

Getting into jeans now.

Sugar Addiction

I have just ordered some books on sugar addiction as I am sure this was part of my problem.

With cutting out fat, which is what I did for years, I ate more complex carbohydrates to try and fill me up. Trouble is it did not work. All that glucose just made me more hungry after meals and I ate more bread to try and feel sated.

Some of these books are also advising on what I have already discovered. My body is much happier on a higher percentage of fat and I dont put on weight as long as I dont eat grain carbohydrates. At present I am continuing to lose weight.

I dont know where this is going to stop and what I am going to look like when my body weight has stablized. I can already see fat has gone from my forearms and face and the bags under my eyes have gone.

Maybe I was never supposed to be obese but the dieting advice I received over the years was completely wrong for me. Eating bread and pasta and potatoes even though they are low calorie just fed my sugar addiction.

Now I am on a medium calorie eating plan with added good fats and am feeling so much younger than I have felt for years.

My body is thanking me every way it can for finally stopping the sugar diets!

The Fat Diet

This is the most phenomenal diet I have ever tried. It is just amazing how well it is working for me when I have failed at diets so many times.

This diet/way of eating fixes the underlying problem with my metabolism. I dont handle sugar well and have problems with low blood sugar in the afternoons if I have a high carb low calorie lunch.

This is not a low calorie diet. I am eating about 1500 cals per day and am adding butter and good oils back into my diet after being fat phobic for 50 years. I also have between 20 to 30 gms of carbs each day from milk and vegetables.

It is so wonderful to sit down to a meal and feel free to eat as much as I need and leave the table feeling satisfied and know that I am not going to feel hungry again for at least 4 hours. Next time I am hungry is time for another good meal.

For me this is a one way street. Knowing what I know about myself now I can never go back to eating the way I did. Trying to go low calorie so eating carbs with very little or no fat. I did not even enjoy it but thought I had to eat that way to try and keep my weight down. Guess what it did not work.

This is not a crash diet. I am presently losing 1 and 3/4lbs each week but it is very steady. I rarely find the scale going up. Just a nice steady almost effortless weight reduction.

Something I never even dreamed was possible. I thought the obesity and struggle was my lot for the rest of my life.

Jeans

Got into a pair of jeans yesterday. Glorious day.

Yes they are my biggest pair but 2 months ago I would have been no where near being able to zip them up.

Have got a rack of jeans in various sizes so will be great to work my way back through them.

In a few months these jeans may be too big!

I never thought I would be free of that behaviour around food in the afternoons. It has been so much a part of who I thought I was. It was just something I had to live with and fight every afternoon. That burning desire for calories in the afternoon. When I was dieting I would have a reason to try and ignore it but when I was off the diet or feeling weak I would give in and the diet would be a complete mess till the following day when I would start all over again.

Even now having not binged for 3 months I still have that waiting feeling around 3 or 4pm to see if it is going to start again. Whether my blood glucose will drop too low and I will be back in the pantry or the fridge. Every afternoon I make myself a cup of tea around that time and there is no desire to eat abnormally.

To me this is the biggest breakthrough. I always knew how to lose weight, only this is the easiest method I have tried. But with the out of control behaviour I was concerned about putting it back on again as I have done so often in the past. Now I have understood that behaviour and am eating so it never happens I have faith that the weight I am losing will never come back on again.

It is all about reactive hyperglycaemia and insulin. This is a cure.

Normal relationship with food

In 50 years I have never had a normal relationship with food until now. Food, especially carbs, had such power over me. If I knew there was left over chocolate cake, or dried fruit with museli cereal I could not relax in the afternoon until it was all finished or till I was so stuffed I felt sick.

I know now that was a symptom of a disordered carbohydrate metabolism. I ate too many carbs for lunch and as it was low calorie and low fat it hit my system very fast. I ended up with high glucose, followed by high insulin. The glucose would be stored in the fat cells but there was still too much insulin and my glucose blood level would come crashing down and I would have reactive hyperglycaemia. Then I would binge and the whole sorry process would start up all over again.

I believe know that the problem was caused by a) lack of fat and b)too many carb grams.

I am consuming around 30gms of carbs these days. Mainly from milk in my coffee and vegetables including tomatoes and onions.

I have increased my fat intake from zero ( a left over reflex from my years of low fat dieting) to around 50gms per day of butter, olive oil and coconut oil.

It seemed totally counter intuitive to be adding calories back into my diet when I want to lose weight but I had tried everything else I could think of and was still 100kg. It was a blind act of faith and boy is it paying off.

This is just a breeze. Weight is dropping. Another 200grms over the past 2 days. I am eating well and leaving the table satisfied and can forget about any food in the pantry or fridge till the next mealtime. Carbs have lost their hold over me. Free at last!

New You Atkins cook book

The above book arrived from Amazon yesterday. It is a 2012 one so quite up to date.

What is useful is that the recipes are graded as to whether they are suitable for Atkins phases. 1 2 3 or 4 and whether they are quick weekday dishes or weekend dishes that need more time.

They say that you can now have up to 5 cups of low carb veg on Atkins even in the early stages. Some of the recipes need baking mix which is only available in USA and UK but if you stick to the meat veg meals ( rather than the desserts and baking) all the ingredients are readily available in most supermarkets.

Yesterday I made DH some fish fillets dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried in olive oil. For mine I did egg and dessicated coconut ( unsweetened) and fried till coconut brown in crispy and the fish cooked. It was delicious and something I will do again.

I am really beginning to see progress here. My face is much less round with fat cheeks as it was before. I worked out I need to get down to around 85kg to drop under the obese classification and be simply overweight.

I have so much more confidence in myself and my ability to finally do this. All due to putting fat and good oils back into my diet. It may not be fast but it is steady and fairly consistent.

I want to be slim!

Is that too much to ask. To be a 'normal' weight after 50 years of yoyo dieting. For a few brief moments I have been under the 70kg but most of the time I have been up in the 90's.

For the first time, on Atkins, making sure I add the fat, I am beginning to think that maybe it is going to be possible.

To finally lose the weight and keep it off.

The struggle to lose weight is not building up day by day as it does on a low calorie low fat diet.

I take each day as it comes and my blood glucose is remarkably stable. I do not get binging moments or cravings.

I look forward to my meals. Am satisfied as I leave the table and often dont think about food for the next 3 to 4 hours.

I made a ratatouille the other day with olive oil, herbs and some spice. Am having that for supper with half a tin of pink salmon, some grated cheese and some of my hung yogurt cheese. Heat up the lot in the microwave. Quick supper and very tasty.

I am having tomatoes and onions every day and it is not affecting my weight loss at all. I could not live on a diet that bans tomatoes and onions.

My downfall food is bread and cereal. Any grains and I know I would be back on the binging wagon instead of this slow drift weightloss which seems to happen by magic.

7.7lbs a month

That is what I lost last month. This is not so much as losing as normalizing my weight. I dont feel on this diet that the less I eat the lower my weight will be. I eat a good 3 meals a day with added fat and oils and wait to see how my body is going to react.

Before I would be trying to punish my body by with holding food to get a lower weight the next day. It would all end in tears when I lost control around food and went for a binge.

It is amazing to me how that destructive behaviour has gone. It had been part of who I was for so long, since childhood. That daily battle with food every afternoon never went away. I was always waiting for it to start. I would buy 3 chocolate bars in town, eat 2 on the way home and then share the last one with DH!

Now I dont do that any more. Not once in nearly 3 months. It is not that I am resisting the craving. I just do not suffer from them any more. I can easily go 5 to 6 hours without food without any distress whatsoever.

The answer for me was not pills or potions or injections. It was the healing power of good fats and oils. Just adding in around 300 cals of butter, olive oil coconut oil has been enough to cure my eating disorder I have had for over 50 years and I have dropped 11kg in 10 weeks. Only 20 kg to go to get to a normal body!