Project Slim!  

Psssssst - Listen up, current low carb dieters - You must have patience to succeed. I lost 40 pounds between the first and second pictures - and only 15 between the second and the third!!!! SCALES ARE FOR FISH. Forget the number on the scale, and instead concentrate on how you feel and how your clothes fit.

This is me at age 15... saying "No, I will NOT pose outdoors in this ridiculous outfit, I am WAY TOO FAT!" I didn't speak to my future sister-in-law for weeks after she snapped that picture. (Thanks, Laura. I am very glad to have it - now!) WHAT A JOKE!! I obviously wasn't fat then, but I thought I was.  (Thank you very much, Twiggy!) In all fairness, though, Twiggy was simply the *first* model that I recall who had an unrealistic body shape. This trend, what I have come to think of as the "anorexic model syndrome",  resulted in a severe skewing of society's perception of normal. This affected the self-esteem of millions of girls and women and gave rise to millions of eating disorders. [For related info on this important subject, go to About Face]

Now, in this second picture, taken in January 2000, less than one month before my 35th birthday, well, yes, I am fat. "Morbidly obese", to be precise.

And as I had always considered 70 years to be an average life span, this particular approaching birthday made me stop and reflect on lots of things.

Like the fact that my life was more than likely at least half over. And that since I had started smoking at the ripe old age of TEN it was pretty unlikely that I would live to my idealized "average" age, anyway! I have quit smoking at least a half dozen times, once for all of five months. But each time, when I gained weight, I gave up and started puffing again. Better to be fat and be smoking, than to quit and get even fatter, I figured.  Either condition is supposed to be a death sentence.....

I knew that my cholesterol had been seriously elevated for several years. My weight had been increasing steadily since the birth of my first child in 1985, after a toxemic pregnancy. Successive efforts to lose weight (long term) by dieting were unsuccessful. Attempts to treat my dangerously high cholesterol (triglycerides over 400) with medication resulted in triglyceride levels of almost 900. I was informed that they couldn't even measure cholesterol accurately at levels that high. The doctor then suggested adding another medication (since the first one had worked so well??)

I quit going to that doctor - and I quit taking the medications. I cut calories down to no more than 1000-1200 per day, and exercised regularly, and I shed 25 pounds in five months. But my cholesterol was STILL high, (though slightly improved)  and just about then I realized that my quality of life really SUCKED! I  began to have an occasional beer or cake/cookie, and BAM! Not only did I gain back all the pounds I lost, I packed on an additional 20 pounds on top of the originals. (Again. This was just the latest repeat of an all-too-familiar pattern.)

Four times losing weight and gaining back MORE and I had landed myself  in the "morbidly obese" category. So I determined not to EVER do that to myself again. I mean, my ass barely fit in the seat of the Mind Eraser roller coaster at Six Flags as it was!!! I couldn't afford another "diet". Not ever. So I gave up trying to quit smoking and lower my cholesterol, and I gave up trying to lose weight.

And then I realized that I was about to turn 35. Wait a minute. I am not done living! I am not ready to start the downhill slide into old age and infirmity. I can still out-ski my skinny friends! I still cut quite a swath blazing down the highway in black leather on my big bad motorcycle! I don't look that bad .... Do I? So I really started looking. And I realized that Yes, I looked that bad. And all any of this soul searching did was depress me. Because the basic facts hadn't changed. I didn't think I could live on 1200 calories a day for the rest of my life. Not without ending up divorced and friendless. And what good would that do? I sank deeper into my funk.

And then one day, my husband came home and changed my life forever. Just because he doesn't like to read ~ and he decided he wanted to lose some weight. He had run into a friend who had lost 45 pounds on the Atkins diet. "But that's not supposed to be safe" I protested. "How do you know?" he asked. I realized that I really didn't know enough about it to have an opinion. So I agreed to purchase and read the book on his behalf. After all, I loved to read, and if he was going on a diet, I, as the cook, would have to be briefed.

By the time I finished the first chapter, I was in tears. Dr. Atkins was describing ME. What's more, he swore there was an easy, healthy way to regain the old me. I finished the book, and I read it again. A few days later, three days before my 35th birthday, I started a low carb diet combining principles from Atkins and Protein Power. Five weeks later, I smoked my last cigarette. My cravings for food had gone away. Why couldn't it work for nicotine too? I don't really know if it was the diet that helped me get over my cravings for cigarettes, or the fact that the diet eliminated ALL my food cravings, which meant that I could safely quit the cigarettes without pigging out, but either way, I was able to quit smoking for good on March 4, 2000, and after the first three days, it was easy.

Eight weeks into this diet I had my cholesterol tested. It was within "norms" already! This is not a diet. This is a life change that this yeast bread baker and worshiper has found incredibly easy to commit to. Once you give up refined carbohydrates, and find a hidden well of energy you NEVER knew existed (even as a child) once you witness your own always-lackluster and weak hair and nails begin to grow out luxuriously strong and healthy, once you begin exercising not out of any sense of obligation or guilt but out of sheer enthusiasm for how good you feel, why, you find that sugar and flour do not tempt you. Not that I will never eat any again. Don't misunderstand me. It is just that I will never blindly eat either one again. I am now aware of the deadly chain reaction they cause inside my incredibly efficient body. And I am losing weight that I will NEVER gain back. And as God is my witness, I WILL NEVER BE HUNGRY AGAIN. I have never once been hungry since I went lowcarb. Not once. This is nothing like every other time I tried to do the right thing for myself and my body. This is different. It is unthinkable to me to ever go back to the way I was. I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that I WILL reach a "normal" weight. It may take a while, but it will happen. It is a side effect of my new way of life, you see. An unavoidable, very pleasant side effect!

Postscript re: cholesterol: I want to be perfectly honest with you. I have been retesting my lipids regularly and I did go through some variations. But after years of low carb eating, I can confidently say that my ratios are better than ever and the ONLY number that is even borderline is my LDL, which is a little higher than the "ideal". As I said, however, my RATIOS are very good, and many doctors consider those to be much more important the "just the numbers". 

If you need to lose weight, lower cholesterol, control diabetes, high blood pressure, or acid reflux, quit smoking, rid yourself of migraines, heartburn, or allergies, ease the pain of arthritis or gout, or you just want to feel generally better, then I strongly urge you to investigate the low carb way of eating for yourself!

Read Dr. Atkin's New Diet Revolution.  Read Protein Power. Read Life Without Bread: How a Low Carbohydrate Diet Can Save Your Life. Read Neanderthin. Read The Schwarzbein Principle. Or pick another plan - there are more every day, a sure sign that this way of eating WORKS! And buy The Corinne T. Netzer Carbohydrate Counter to help you figure out a low carb plan that works for you. Consult a doctor regularly along the way. And never be fat or go hungry again!

Yes, you read it right. I weigh the SAME in both pictures. I swear.

Oh, and by the way - my husband is doing very well on this way of eating, too. He lost his 60 pounds in a matter of months, and he still weighs less than when he graduated from high school. He has been able to discontinue one of his blood pressure medications entirely. His average blood pressure is much better than it used to be, even with less medication. He has not suffered from gout or heartburn since he went low carb. And just look at him! I mean, I know how he lost the weight, I was the one cooking and advising ~ but how did he end up looking ten years younger, to boot?