Surrounded by Temptations

Carb-laden offerings abounded at our conference this morning.

The last time I posted, 17 days ago, I'd lost only 1.2 lbs after my first 3 days of Fat Fasting. I was a bit discouraged, but I kept stubbornly plodding along. Now, 17 days later, my total loss is 10.2 lbs. It's still not as much as I'd hoped for, but not bad for just 3 weeks of eating right.

And that means I'm 35.2 lbs lighter than I was while visiting Atlanta 14 months ago!

I imagine the weight loss has been slower simply because I haven't been faithfully applying the Fat Fast principles. Most days I've done Fat Fast breakfast, lunch, and snacks, but I add more protein to my dinners. Dinner has always been my favorite meal, the time when I want something more substantial to eat. So I've been doing a hybrid Atkins Induction/Fat Fast, which is definitely working, albeit oh so slo-o-owly.

Meanwhile, I encounter temptations at every turn. This morning we had a 4-hour, multi-district teachers' conference in Snowflake. At the end of the first session, the planners distributed goody-bags to each participant. I was afraid to look inside, with good reason. As can be seen in the above photo, along with a mini-composition book, a pen, and an "I teach...what's your super power?" bracelet, the bag was filled with sugar- and white flour-laden junk food. 

Luckily, I'd anticipated the usual high-carb conference foods and brought my own snacks: 1.5 ounces of mixed nuts and a bag of chocolate candies by Atkins. They got me through the morning just fine, thank you very much! I even managed to make the tiny bag of Atkins-style M&Ms last for a full 30 minutes at the end of the final session. My 17-year-old son Dylan enjoyed the bag of bad goodies after I returned home.

Let me also note that I was able to fit comfortably into the student desks we occupied during the sessions. Many of the other teachers had a harder time of it, with the writing surface cutting into their bellies for hours. That would have been me 35 lbs ago. Even 10 lbs ago I'd have been less comfy. 

One of the recruiters introduces our speaker.

Last Friday, we teachers at Blue Ridge High were invited to a presentation by our local Army recruiters. To entice us to attend and learn all about the virtues of ASVAB testing, they promised us a free lunch. I gritted my teeth and joined our faculty at the cafeteria, hoping for something I could eat but promising myself to sneak out at the earliest possible moment and run home for lunch if not.

Each teacher was gifted with an Army folder, writing pad, and pen.

And a gazillion carbs on the side.

The free lunch turned out to be HUGE subs from Subway. And I don't mean just in length. The bread was super-thick. When I got in line, a teacher from my department quipped, "How about some bread for lunch!" And, for good measure, there were bags of chips and decadent chocolate chip cookies. My favorite. Groan. 

My bread-free lunch plate.

But I stayed strong. I peeled the meat, cheese, and vegetables off the bread and plopped them on my plate. It was rather messy, since the recruiters had seen no need for forks, but it was a tasty lunch. One additional plus was being spared the afternoon carb-crash that inevitably follows a carb-heavy meal. I had plenty of energy left to work away the afternoon in my classroom.  

My healthy breakfast at Darbi's.

The previous week was the morning I went to breakfast with two friends, Karen and Liz. Before I met them at Darbi's, I gave myself a firm talking-to. I pre-planned ordering an omelet and nothing more. Naturally, the price for the omelets includes two sides from a selection of breads and a selection of potatoes. Being frugal as I am, I weakened, not wanting to pay the price without receiving every item I paid for. Besides, I would dearly have loved some hash browns paired with biscuits and gravy. Instead, I asked our waitress about alternatives, and I ended up with a side of cottage cheese and tomatoes, and a side of fresh fruit.

All of that food would still have been too many carbs if eaten in one sitting, so I enjoyed my spinach, avocado, bacon, and provolone omelet while visiting with my good friends, and then I asked for take-home boxes and enjoyed the cottage cheese, tomatoes and fruit for lunch later in the day.

I gave Dylan the melon slices (yuck) and ate the strawberries and pineapple chunks.

Thus far I have avoided falling for a single temptation that has come my way. Not a bit of sugar or flour or potato or corn or rice or any other high-carb food has passed my lips for the past 22 days. I feel better. And I know my health can no longer afford to be bombarded with an unhealthy diet. That is my focus and my mantra!

Day Three: Work Days Are Hard!

Day 3 Breakfast, 7:00 a.m.: 2 Devilled Eggs. 75.8% fat

See Day 1 for specifics.

This morning's reading of the scale was somewhat disappointing, but a least it still moved downward. A loss is a loss. Today I was down 0.2 lb, bringing my 3-day loss to 1.2 lbs.

 

That brings my total loss since Atlanta to 28.2 lbs.

 

This is the point where it starts to get difficult, where I begin to ask myself whether the effort is worth it. This is where the lure of forbidden foods becomes the irresistable song of the Sirens, when I beg those chocolate chip cookies, the fudge brownies, the M&Ms and Whoppers, to jump into my mouth.

Only two things are stopping me from from running down to Walmart for a shopping bag filled with sugary goodies. One is the fact that our California trip is a mere 53 days away. I can endure anything for 53 days. The other is this blog and my commitment to write down everything I eat, right up until D-Day (the D stands for Disneyland). So thanks for sharing this experience with me. You matter!

 

Day 3 Lunch, 11:30 a.m.: Spinach and Baby Kale Salad. 84% fat

I forgot to make my salad the previous night, and in the rush to get to work

I just threw into the bowl whatever was left in the spinach-and-kale bag.

It was closer to 3 cups than the usual 4, so that means slightly fewer calories 

and a slightly higher fat percentage, which is a good thing.

See Day 1 for specifics.

It is so much harder for me to stick to a diet at work than it is at home. With a classroom full of teens noshing on cookies, crackers, chips, and bags of goodies from McDonalds, Taco Bell, or Subway, food is continually before my face. (They aren't alowed to eat in class, but they still walk in with it.)

 

And you'd think being super-busy would take your mind off of food, but it never works that way in reality. At home I literally get lost in my favorite projects, and I'm shocked when I look up and notice how much time has passed. At work it's more like, "Is it time to take a break and eat somethng?" and then you realize it's only been 20 minutes since your last feeding.

 

So yesterday, after lunch, I had an unplanned snack and surpassed my 1,000 calorie mark again. As on Sunday, it was not a true cheat. Still Atkins-friendly and all. I ate a 1.2 oz. sugar-free, low-carb Ross candy bar. Oh, so yummy!

Day 3 Snack, 1:30 p.m.: Ross Dark Chocolate Bar. 61% fat

180 calories (110 from Fat), 2 g protein, 3 g fiber, 2 net carbs.

Way too low in fat for the Fat Fast, but dark chocolate is still good for you!

I used to be able to buy these at Walmart, but now I can only find them online.

I buy them by the case, which lasts me up to 2 years.

When melted, they makes delicious dipped strawberries and MacTurtles!

Day 3 Snack, 4:30 p.m.: Tuna and Mayo.  76.3% fat

I didn't wrap it in lettuce at work. I ate it right out of the container

while working at my desk after school.

See Day 2 for specifics.

Day 3 Dinner, 7:15 p.m.: 4 oz Broccoli sauteed in 2 Tbsp Butter. 61% fat

I like my broccoli still a bit crisp after I cook it!

Dinner is served.

Except for the dark chocolate, I was completely faithful to the Fat Fast yesterday. The candy bar really shouldn't have impacted my diet too much. I'm thinking my body is just a little slow kicking into ketosis. For the past seven months I've been giving up too easily. But I'm going to hang in there this time until I finally see the results I want!

Day 3 Dessert 10:00 p.m.: Hot Cocoa with Heavy Cream. 88.9% fat

Day Two: Sunday Dinner

Aug. 10, 2014: Danielle drags Dylan to dinner from his bedroom.

Mi familia: Sarah, Jacob, Dylan, Danielle, and Jacob!

Our family gets together for dinner every Sunday night, and I love it. But I knew going in that it would create problems with sticking to the Fat Fast. I decided that I'd allow myself to enjoy 4-6 oz. of whatever meat the family was enjoying on Sunday evenings, but nothing more. The Fat Fast is short on protein, so in this way I'd be getting a bit more of the protein my body needs while I Fat Fasted.

 

Still, I'd hoped that this first week I could stay strong and not indulge, especially since we were only serving unexciting hamburgers. My resolve lasted only until the scent of Jacob's frying burger patties wafted to my nose. I buckled. So I cheated a bit on Fat Fast, but I was still true to Atkins. 

 

I was a little nervous to get on the scales this morning, but it was okay. I lost 0.4 lb more, bringing my 2-day loss to exactly 1 lb.

 

That brings my total loss since Atlanta to 28.0 lbs.

 

Here's today's menu:

 

Day 2 Breakfast, 8:00 a.m.: 1 Egg fried in 2 tsp Butter and grease of 1 oz Sausage. 78.9% fat

213 calories (168 from fat); 17 g protein; 0 g fiber; 0.6 net carbs

1 oz of sausage is pretty tiny!

I prepared 2 weeks' worth of 1-oz sausage patties the day before.

I sliced up a roll of sausage (12 oz makes 12 slices, etc.)

with a deadly-sharp knife. You get cleaner slices if the sausage is frozen.

Then I put the slices in snack-size baggies and replaced them in the freezer.

Day 2 Brunch, 10:30 a.m.: 2 Devilled Eggs. 75.85% fat

See Day 1 for specifics. Remember, I made a bunch of these the day before.

Again, I hardly ever have eggs twice in the same day, but it was so convenient!

Day 2 Lunch 2:00 p.m.: Tuna Lettuce Wrap. 76.3% fat

219 calories (167 from fat); 16 g protein; 0.5 g fiber; 0.6 net carbs

A 5-oz can of tuna makes two feedings.

Each is 2.5 oz tuna in water (drained), mixed with 1 Tbsp mayonnaise.

I wrapped half the tuna in lettuce leaves for lunch.

The other half  went in the fridge to take to school the next day.

Day 2 Dinner 5:00 p.m.: Green Salad. 83.9% fat

I left out the tomato this time. See Day 1 for specifics.

And then, like the Hobbits, Second Dinner at 6:15 p.m.: 74.7% fat

My son-in-law's plate on the left and mine on the right.

 

I was really tempted by the chips and dip my family were devouring (except Sarah), so I put the dip on my burger. It was a 4-oz ground beef patty, with about 1 oz of cheese, a thin slice of tomato, and maybe 2 Tbsp. toasted onion/sour cream dip. No bun, no potato chips.

 

Here's the breakown:

4 oz. patty = 290 calories (210 from fat), 20 g protein, 0 g fiber, 0 carbs

1 oz cheese = 110 calories (90 from fat),7 g protein, 0 g fiber, 1 carb

1 slice tomato = 8 calories (1 from fat). 0.5 g protein, 0.5 g fiber, 1.5 carbs

2 Tbsp sour cream = 60 calories (50 from fat), 1 g protein, 0 g fiber, 2 carbs

Scant dip mix = 2 calories (0 from fat), 0 g protein, 0 g fiber, 0.4 carb

 

Totals: 470 calories (351 from fat), 28.5 g protein, 0.5 g fiber, and 5 g carbs.

 

WAY over my 1,000 calories, by about 500. And the scales still moved downward! I can't be doing that everyday, though!

Day 2 Dessert 9:30 p.m.: Hot Cocoa with Heavy Cream. 88.9% fat

See Day 1 for specifics.

I have to give kudos to my daughter, Sarah. Like me, she has gone back and forth on dieting. But she's motivated to feel healthier for Disneyland, too, so she got back to it a week ago today. She's doing straight Atkins, and she lost 6 lbs in her first 6 days! GO SARAH!

Day One: the Basics

Day 1 Breakfast: 75.8% fat 

At 9:00 a.m.: 2 eggs fried in 2 teaspoons of butter.

(It's not much butter, so use a good non-stick pan!)

207 calories (157 from fat); 12 g protein; 0 g fiber; 1.2 net carbs

Yesterday I got started on the Fat Fast. I was hoping for a big loss after the first day, the kind you often get because of excess water being flushed out of the system, but I guess I already did that by eating low carb before starting the Fat Fast. So today my loss was 0.6 lb. I won't complain. If I could lose half a pound per day for 8 weeks, I'd be one happy thin lady!

 

That brings my total loss since Atlanta to 27.6 lbs.

 

After today, I will use two milestones to chart my progress. First, how much I've lost since starting the Fat Fast (Saturday, August 9) and, second, how much I've lost since hitting my highest weight during our trip to Atlanta, Georgia in mid-June 2013.

Day 1 Lunch: 78.2% fat

At 1:30 p.m.: 4 cups green salad with half of a medium tomato.

(See specific recipe with next photo.)

234 calories (183 from fat); 4 g protein; 4 g fiber; 6 net carbs

And now, regarding the Fat Fast, let me begin with a caution. The Fat Fast is not a long-term diet. In fact, Dr. Atkins only intended it for those few people who were completely resistant to all other healthy weight loss methods. It is very low in protein and, thus, should only be followed for a limited time. Some people do it for 3 to 5 days to jump-start ketosis and take off a few pounds, and then return to their usual controlled-carb way of eating for a week or two before doing the Fat Fast again. Many have done the Fat Fast longer with no ill effects.

I think it's a personal choice. However long you Fat Fast, monitor your own health and adjust accordingly. I have done up to 2 weeks at a time and felt great, with excellent blood sugar and blood pressure readings. I do not recommend anything longer than that without a break.

You can use any kinds of greens you prefer for this salad.

My salad: 2 cups of iceberg lettuce; 2 cups of baby kale and spinach

(available in a bag at Walmart; normally I dislike kale, but this is pretty good,

and it's a nutritional powerhouse, one of the highest in antioxidants);

1 Tbsp + 1.5 tsp extra virgin olive oil; 1-2 Tbsp red wine vinegar;

and I added half a tomato that was left over from dinner the previous night.

Ordinarily you don't add the tomato during Fat Fast. Without it:

217 calories (182 from fat); 3 g protein; 3 g fiber; 3.5 net carbs,

raising your fat percentage to 83.9%

 

If you're interested in Dr. Atkins's original explanation of the Fat Fast, you can find it in Part 3, Chapter 20 "Metabolic Resistance: Causes and Solutions," on pages 272-274 in his book Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution, published in 2002 (at least, in the version I own).

 

Day 1 Dinner: 75.8% fat

At 8:00 p.m.: 2 eggs, devilled (4 halves).

(See specific recipe with next photo.)

207 calories (157 from fat); 12 g protein; 0 g fiber; 1.2 net carbs

The objective of the Fat Fast is to force your body into ketosis, the state in which your body burns its own fat instead of sugar (provided by carbohydrates). That's a simplification, but I'll share more of what I've learned about ketosis in future posts. Both past and recent research is showing surprising health benefits to ketosis.

 

For people with relatively healthy metabolisms, ketosis can usually be achieved through a typical low-carb diet. That's how I used to be able to lose weight so easily each time I strictly followed the Atkins diet. However, with the onset of menopause I became more metabolically resistant. Thank goodness, a bunch of low-carbers who are smarter than I am managed to figure out both the problem and the solution. 

For 2 eggs: 2/3 Tablespoon of mayo, and season to taste.

For 14 eggs (that's how much I usually do at a time):

1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp mayonnaise.

To achieve ketosis, the Fat Fast suggests keeping to about 1,000 calories per day, usually through five small feedings (there's not really enough food to call them meals) of roughly 200 calories each. It is certainly possible to modify this as you wish. For instance, you could have four feedings of 250 calories per day for 1,000 calories, or even five 250-calorie feedings for 1,250 calories per day. You know your body best, and you can adjust as you see what works.

 

The most important feature of the Fat Fast is the fat makeup of each feeding. For each 200-calorie feeding, between 75 and 90% of those calories need to come from fat. The closer you get to 90% fat calories (which can be hard to achieve unless you like to eat mayonnaise right out of the jar, yuck!), the faster you will lose weight. As you can see, my percentages ranged from 75.8% to 88.9%

I don't usually eat eggs twice in the same day, but since I was whipping up a batch...

I hate peeling eggs, so when I do devilled eggs I take time to do a week's worth.

The amount of mayo in these left the yolk mixture a little dry, hard to spread.

Next time, I might experiment with adding a bit of Dijon mustard.

You'll notice that I only had 4 feedings yesterday: 2 fried eggs, a green salad, 2 devilled eggs, and a cup of hot cocoa. I was so busy yesterday that I literally forgot about eating. And, no, I actually didn't feel hungry until I remembered to eat. Fat is a natural appetite suppressant. 

That said, you really don't want to skip feedings. In fact, that may have contributed to my small 0.6-lb loss. I only ate about 873 calories. It's important to avoid your body going into "starvation mode" and refusing to part with those pesky pounds. It kind of defeats the purpose, you know?

Day 1 Dessert: 88.9% fat

At 10:30 p.m.: hot cocoa with 1/4 cup heavy cream

I use Swiss Miss "Sensible Sweets: Diet" hot cocoa mix.

This is my favorite bedtime treat. I have it nearly every night.

225 calories (200 from fat); 2 g protein; <1 g fiber; 7.5 net carbs

My schedule at work is so busy this year that I won't have the time I'd like to devote to this blog. Most days, especially during the school week, I may barely have time to post my daily menu and nothing more. But I'll try to share more information whenever possible, especially if anyone posts specific questions. If I don't know the answer, I promise I will find out.

And so it begins!

Fat is My Friend

The USDA Food Pyramid, officially introduced in 1992.

 

Repeat after me: "Fat is my friend!" No, no, not the kind of fat that creates jiggly jowls and blubbery bellies. One look at some of the horrific fat photos below and you have to know that I hate that kind of fat, rolling around under my skin, quivering when I laugh or cough, getting in the way when I tie my shoes, and forcing me to move my favorite clothes to the back of my closet.

No, I'm talking about healthy dietary fat, which has been given an undeserved bad name since the USDA started publishing its guidelines for a "healthy" diet in 1972. By urging more consumption of grains and "sparing" use of fats and protein, those governmental guidelines have created more obesity, heart disease, diabetes, celiac disease, and metabolic syndrome (and that's just for starters) than probably any other fad in the history of humanity.

 

Thankfully, over the past 10+ years, more than 60 well-executed research studies have demonstrated the health benefits of low-carbohydrate diets that include healthy fats. The real culprits have been identified as sugar (in all its varieties) and the overuse of grains, especially refined grains, in the typical American diet.

 

As for the dangers of wheat in particular, well, that's a whole other blog topic. For that, I'll refer you to Dr. William Davis's excellent book, Wheat Belly.

May 1969: That's me at age 14. Not fat!

(With my old boyfriend Carl in Fresno, California.)

 

I was only 13 when I first became convinced that I was fat. Old pictures and videos prove that I actually had a nice figure, but I was a big-bosomed girl at the height of skeletal model Twiggy's popularity, and so I felt freakishly large. However, when I was 25 I really did start putting on some poundage. By the time I was 26, I was 40 lbs overweight.

In the summer of 1982, when I was 27, I started having anxiety attacks and other strange issues. After a series of doctor visits, I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia, aka low blood sugar. Since it was a condition barely recognized by the medical profession at that time, there was little to guide me. Some doctors were even (erroneously) telling hypoglycemics to eat sugar when they felt a spell coming on! So I rolled up my sleeves and did my research.

 

Ultimately, I developed my own hypoglycemia diet, which I followed religiously for years. Not only did all my weird symptoms vanish, but the weight began to melt off. Within 4 months I had achieved my dream weight and I felt amazing. 40 lbs were missing, and I wasn't looking for them! What I didn't know then, but I know now, is this: without realizing it, I had put myself on a low-carb diet.

October 1987: The weight was still gone when I was 33!

 

Then I got married in 1989 and started having babies. As a new teacher whose husband was an unskilled laborer, and living in a resort community with a higher cost of living, there wasn't much money to spare. I was hit by a double-whammy: my metabolism took a nose-dive and our diet began to consist heavily of cheap grain-based meals like macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, and Ramen. With cheap ice cream for dessert. The weight crept back on over the years.

 

By Christmas 1999, I was 65 lbs overweight. I wanted to cry when I saw myself in family pictures around the Christmas tree. I was so frustrated. I'd been knocking myself out to lose weight since my second child was born in June 1991, and now it was 8 years later and I was bigger than ever. I'd restricted my fat and calories, as dictated by the wisdom of the 1990s, until I was living on as little as 800 calories per day, feeling weak and crabby all the time (just ask my family). I might lose a few pounds, but within a week or two I'd gain it all back plus a lot more, while I was still starving myself.

Thanksgiving 1998: Hiding behind the kids didn't help!

Dylan (16 months old), Mark, Sarah (age 9), me, and Jacob (age 7).

 

In February 2000, my doctor called me in to talk about my cholesterol, which had hit 250 for the first time. He showed me his own cholesterol test results, which were even higher than mine, and then showed me his second test results. He'd cut his cholesterol in half in just 2 months. He explained how a low-carb diet works and recommended that I read Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution.

 

That book and I were inseparable. I started the diet the very next day and immediately saw results. In 6 months I lost 56 lbs and felt the best I'd ever felt in my life. My LDL cholesterol came down to 199, my HDL went way up, and my triglycerides all but disappeared. Again, I kept the weight off for years. Occasionally, especially around the holidays, I'd cheat and gain some back, but I could always get back to low-carb eating and take the weight off. I think I was a little bit in love with Dr. Atkins.

 

Until my metabolism changed again...

September 2000: Thanks to Doctors Paxman and Atkins, I'm 56 lbs lighter.

Sarah (age 10), Dylan (age 3), me (age 46), and Jacob (age 9).

 

By the time Mark and I divorced in 2006, I was almost 52. I'd returned to my old eating habits, cheating on breads and sweets and Lay's potato chips, and so I was putting on weight again. Again! I blamed the stress of the divorce and becoming a single mother, but I was sure I'd be able to take the weight off quickly when things calmed down so I could get organized and focus on eating right. Guess what? It didn't happen this time.

 

I really tried. I'd read everything ever written about low-carb eating and I knew how to do this. But try as I might, I couldn't make it work. As long as I controlled my carbohydrate intake, I'd lose a couple of pounds and then stay at that weight. If all I'd wanted to do was maintain, it would have been perfect. But after a few months I'd get frustrated and start cheating, regaining those few pounds and a few more, repeating that cycle over and over again. 

 

By my 55th birthday in 2009, I'd hit my highest weight ever. I was 90 lbs overweight. On top of that, I was having heart problems. I had developed a benign arrhythmia during my last pregnancy, in 1997, but now my heartbeat was sometimes so irregular that I'd end up in the hospital. The nurses couldn't even get a blood pressure because there weren't enough beats in a row. My cardiologist told me sternly that this would keep happening as long as I was morbidly obese.

October 10, 2009: Me (ugh!) with Sarah (age 20) at Meteor Crater.

I started the hCG diet exactly 3 weeks later, on Halloween.

 

Morbidly obese! No one wants to hear those words. And it wasn't as if I weren't trying. I didn't know what else to do, so I started praying. 

 

First, my cardiologist invited me to a nutritionist-guided clinic for weight using the hormone hCG. I told them I was interested. My sister-in-law Dana had told me about hCG 6 months earlier, but I thought it sounded crazy. However, if my cardiologist okayed it... As it turned out, I never did participate in the clinic, but after that I met several people who'd lost a lot of weight on hCG. As usual, I did my research and decided to give it a try. My experience with hCG is chronicled in another of my blogs, HCG and Me. Click here if you want to check it out:  HCG and Me

 

The hCG diet surpassed my wildest dreams. Between Halloween 2009 and May 14, 2010, I lost 77 lbs. Again, I felt wonderful and I swore to myself that my days of yo-yo dieting were over forever.

May 14, 2010: I'm pretty proud after losing 77 lbs!

That's also the day I met my second husband.

 

Alas. After I remarried in 2010, my new husband and I took an Alaskan honeymoon cruise and immediately started off on the wrong dietary foot. After that, for the three years of our marriage, we traveled a lot. It's hard to eat right when you're on the road, especially when you weaken at the sight of sugary sweets and fluffy breads. And it didn't take long to discover that Ed and I should have spent more time getting to know each other before we rushed into marriage. The stress in our home was almost unbearable, and we both comforted ourselves with food.

 

By the time we took our final trip together in June 2013, to Atlanta, Georgia, I had regained every single pound of the 77 I had lost. What can I say? The South really does have the best hash browns in the world!

 

13 June 2013: Ed and me at Hard Rock Cafe in Atlanta, Georgia.

By then I'd gotten back to my heaviest, at about 90 lbs overweight.

Then, just 3 weeks after our return from Atlanta, our marriage ended violently. Ed moved out and I spent months grieving what could have been but never was. I also lost my appetite for the first time in my life. What the heck, I decided to go with it. I still couldn't lose weight on a low-carb diet, and though I'd retried hCG a few times during our marriage, I could no longer make myself stick with a 500-calorie-per-day, low-fat diet. Plus, the FDA had made it almost impossible to get the hCG hormone. So I pretty much quit eating while I grieved.

During that time, I began reading about other women of my age, dedicated low-carbers who were having the same problems losing weight as I was. Apparently a typical low-carb regimen can become less effective for some women as they hit menopause, and some adjustment is needed. This means decreasing the amount of protein and increasing the amount of healthy fats. In fact, a number of people had begun experimenting with something Dr. Atkins called the "Fat Fast," just a few short paragraphs toward the end of his book, and they were having good results. One of these women had just released a new Fat Fast cookbook.

 

So I ordered the cookbook and started eating again. Not much, because 1,000 calories on the Fat Fast isn't a lot of food...but I get ahead of myself. I'll share more details about the Fat Fast in future posts. For now, I'll just tell you that it really worked. Between late June and November 3rd of 2013, I'd lost 45 lbs and felt very good.

29 Sept 2013: That's me after losing 41 lbs in 15 weeks.

Five weeks later I'd lost 4 more lbs, for a total 45-lb loss!

I wish that were the end of the story. Unfortunately, the holidays hit, the divorce turned ugly, Jacob moved his mad baking skills back home, my stepson and his wife moved in with us for 5 months (along with their southern-style comfort cooking), there were two weddings to plan, and there was more traveling, among other huge life changes and stressors.

 

In the end, I regained all but 20 of the 45 lbs I lost. But I did keep those last 20 off, so it wasn't a complete failure! Since March I've been struggling off and on to stay low-carb, and I've actually lost another 7 lbs, so my total loss since June 2013 stands at 27 lbs. Not much, but a start. 

 

That brings us to why I started this new blog, dedicated to the low-carb lifestyle and, for those of us post-menopausal women who need it, the Fat Fast.

 

You see, exactly 8 weeks from today, I will be driving with my children to Anaheim, California, for a lovely 8-day vacation. And I am determined to lose 20 lbs before we make that drive. I don't want to be hobbling around Disneyland with my current lack of energy and achy joints and stiff back and shortness of breath. I want to feel great when I curl my toes in the sand at the edge of the Pacific Ocean and run laughing from the waves. I don't want to avoid the camera when we immortalize our good times.

 

To achieve my goal, this is my strategy: I intend to document every bite that goes into my mouth for the next 8 weeks. You'll help keep me honest, and together we'll watch to see whether the scales move down as quickly as I hope they will.

 

I started back on the Fat Fast today, so let the ride begin...!