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Well I said on Monday that I was changing. I have been too. This is day four of my diet, a non-hyped low carb diet. This isn’t a diet for everyone, and frankly it has to become your complete life. I have been on various diets before and this is the only thing I have ever been able to do long term. Faced with that and knowing I carry the family fat gene, there was very little other choice.

Oh I know some of you are going to say that low carb diets don’t work. Others will say it is unhealthy. Other will try and share their plans. But none of that matters. Everyone has a path to weigh less and the one thing every weight-loss guru will tell you from Jenny Craig to Robert Atkins; from the South Beach guy to vegan mystics spouting mumbo jumbo, that one thing they will all tell you is don’t be dissuaded by the non believer. Here is how I know this is the right path for me.

The first time I went on a low carb diet it was the official Atkins plan. I went from 305 pounds to 250 in roughly three months and then it pretty much quit working. I modified the plan and cut out all the premade Atkins goodies and switched mostly to if I couldn’t make it from scratch I didn’t eat it. I would say 95% of the food I ate was that way. There were also official cheat days where I ate all those horrible goodies I occasionally got the craving for and was then good for several more weeks. It took me 4 months to get down to 200 pounds and I maintained it for nearly a year. I fell and couldn’t exercise and then our income changed for the worse and I had to switch to a more affordable diet. A make it yourself low carb diet isn’t really expensive, but spaghetti, ramen noodles, and big bags of breakfast cereal and what ever you can get from the food pantry are still a lot cheaper. Does this plan work, well when I stepped on the scale this morning it said 337.4 pounds. I know that most of that is water weight loss, but that is still nearly 4% of my body weight that I am not carrying around.

For those who say this isn’t a healthy all I can say is neither is being fat. I am a diabetic and for the longest time my fasting blood sugar was over 160, the last three mornings it was 140, 128, and 111. With reduced blood sugars I am not always tired and will soon be fit for exercising again, which will keep me low through out the day and speed the weight loss. For those concerned about cholesterol my previous experience shows that I went up a little from 140 to 150 total, but I did almost a complete reversal in the ratio of bad and good, which made my doctors very happy.

For those who want to mention other plans they have tried and worked for them I hope this doesn’t sound rude, I don’t care. Low fat and low calorie no matter how good the taste leaves me starving and feeling the need to gorge. Feeling unsatisfied is one of those things that always lead me to depression which being bipolar to start with is not a good idea. The other thing about low fat is they are usually high in carbohydrates and even worse for my blood sugars than they are my moods. For the record the last low fat plan I went on was weight watchers and followed the doctor’s suggestion of 1500 calories. In four months of following it to the letter I gained 35 more pounds, had erratic blood sugars that neither insulin nor pills could fix, and ended up in the hospital with a 650 blood sugar and an A1C over 12. For non-diabetics who don’t know those are very bad numbers.

In the end I can’t recommend anyone following my path, because it is my path and not yours. You have to figure these things out for yourself. Is this the right kind of diet for you? I don’t know. What I do know is I am putting this down for my own validation and to one day give my kids some kind of idea of the things I am struggling with. If what I say offer you hope, then Great! If the tips I find work for me work for you, then Great! If all you want to do is complain, whine, or challenge what I have to say, then Piss Off! This blog isn’t about you!