What a difference a healthy eating style can make! Once I made the decision to switch to real, whole, unprocessed foods I began to get healthier right away. Then I chose to follow a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet leaving out refined carbs like all grains, white potatoes, and legumes. Yes, that means no bread, pasta, crackers, tortillas, corn. The carbs I do eat come from non-starchy vegetables and some fruits.
Here is the story of how I got to weigh 269 pounds and what I did about it.
As a "chubby" child and teenager, I never fit the same sized clothing as my friends, but looking back I know I was not as "fat" as I perceived myself to be. It was in my 20's that I really put on weight. At age 28 I weighed 214 pounds and wore a size 22 1/2 dress.
At that point I took myself to "Weight Watchers" where I lost 88lbs and ended up wearing a size 10. It seemed like a miracle, until I moved to Alaska. It was difficult to follow the WW program that I had become accustomed to and the weight gradually began to sneak back on. My wedding dress was a size 16. My maternity clothing size 18. I never lost my "baby fat" even though I was trying to eat in a healthy way. What followed was years of trying every new diet book that came along. I'd starve my self on restricted calorie diets only to give up when I didn't get the desired results.
At age 70, I was in a size 26 1/2 and pushing 270lbs. I had high blood pressure, and a cholesterol level that my doctor didn't like. I was prediabetic and taking blood thinners. I really didn't want to have to take all those meds. So I started researching each of my meds. What was it for? What were the side-effects? Was there a natural way to solve the problem rather than taking a medication?
I found out loads and loads of information. Don't do this. Don't eat that. But the most common thread that ran through everything was eat whole foods and stay away from processed foods. As time went by I began to feel better. I lost a little weight. I felt well when I stuck to my new plan, but it was taking some getting used to. We moved to another area. My new doctor looking at all my medications wondered why I was taking so much. She took me off everything except a mild blood pressure med and aspirin.
Then my diabetic husband decided that he did not want to have to take insulin shots for the rest of his life. We started reading on the internet again and discovered all the Paleo, Cave Man, "Eat like your ancestor" sites. Basically they were all describing a "low carb" way of eating. To encourage him, I joined him in his experiment. In January of this year we began to serious follow what we were learning. The weight began to drop off. In the first four months, we each lost between 35 and 40 lbs.
I began to organize my kitchen to fit our new life style. I made up shopping lists and refined them to fit our needs. I wrote down food combinations we both liked. People began asking how we were "doing it" and I fond myself sending people to various web sites so they could read the articles I had read. This grew into a plan for a web site and the idea of starting a blog so that I could share what I had found and what had been so helpful to me.
I now weigh less than I did when my baby was born 40 years ago. And I am still loosing. I am not sure how low I will try to go. At some point I am sure that will know. In the mean time I feel better than I have in many years.
