How did I get fat? Part 1: Childhood through college

I wasn't a fat kid growing up.  I wasn't skinny either, but probably about average

I remember weighing around 115 in high school at about 5'.  I remember being about 121 in college where I grew another inch or two up to 5'2".  Then college was up and down in weight, gaining 20 lbs (hello pasta, pizza and all kinds of crappy eating!), losing it, then when I graduated, I was probably close to 160.

I grew up in a rural area.  We always had a garden and my mom cooked at home almost all the time.  During the summer, we had fresh vegetables.  For dinner, she would send one of us out to the garden to grab some green beans, corn, tomatoes or whatever else was ripe and we'd have it for dinner.  Late summer, she canned and froze much of it so we'd have good food for the long winter.  Still mom's cooking during my younger years was yummy from what I recall.  We very seldom had anything from a box or package but most things were made from scratch.  I learned to cook with my mom to an extent.

Somewhere along the way, my parents got into the whole losing weight fad (they weren't very overweight but Dad started having BP issues and Mom wanted to lose "the baby weight" etc. and went low fat/low calorie.  And us kids along with them.  Low calorie bread, snacks, sugar-free everything, counting calories and heaven forbid you eat something high in calories.  I was suddenly being watched for what I ate and questions raised anytime I ate or wanted to cook.  Thus began my really bad eating habits.  I would binge when I could, especially away from home, and sneak food when I could. 

Breakfast was often 4 pieces of (low calorie of course!) bread with margarine.  Or a bagel with fat-free cream cheese.   I could never figure out why I was so hungry not long after eating that.    Lunch, well, sorry Mom, I probably didn't eat as many of those lovingly packed lunches as you think and I ended up buying lunch at school often, especially on the days they had food I loved like pizza, sub sandwiches and french fries.  But dinner was at home, something low-fat no doubt and I'd be hungry.  My best friend and I figured out how to get access to the soda machine at school and buy diet Coke.  Thus began my Diet Coke addiction (hey, it was 0 calorie!).  Otherwise, I would get food elsewhere when I could and learned to binge with those foods.  (Little did I realize I was probably "starving" from the carb overload and lack of protein and fat).  I could sneak crackers and bread at home when I just couldn't hold out any more from the hunger.  My best friend and I, once we were able to drive, would go out for very terrible meals followed by ice cream then snacks at the movies.  

I think the biggest reason why I didn't get too overweight was my youth and my lack of access to more food.

When I hit college, I had access to that food.  3 meals in the cafeteria a day, all the pasta, bread (oh I was a bread addict), cereal, bagels, french fries, and more that I could get.  Not to mention pizza!  I don't think I went all out eating  as I was still "trying" to watch my calories, but little did I know that all those starchy foods were bad for me.  I gained weight, lost it when I went home for the summer, gained it again.  But I still had Diet Coke, all I could drink, all the time!  (What is this water thing?).

I honestly wonder what my life would be like health wise if I knew back then when I know now.  I wonder if I developed autoimmune disorders (thyroid, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis) because of wheat, that I instigaged my other health problems because of margarine and Diet Coke and other sugar-free products.  That I began setting myself up for insulin-resistance with all those carbs.

More in Part 2 and how I continued the carb-cycle/low-fat/low-calorie and binging.

I Can't Give THAT up!

It's funny when I talk to others about my "diet" and the responses I get about how I eat.

No bread?

No cookies?

No pasta?

No bagels?

No cereal???

And they dig in their heels that they don't think they can "suvive" if they don't have these things.

What about Coke or Mountain Dew?  Or these fiber bars, they are healthy right?  Pretzels?  Popcorn??  Chips?

I once thought the same way. 

And I realized how wrong I was.

These foods are not healthy for many of us, especially those very overweight, insulin resistant, with diabetes and signs of heart disease.  I believe these foods also contribute to auto-immune disorders and worsen conditions like GERD, indigestion, IBS and more.

Sorry folks.  If you find yourself saying "I can't give up X."  It's a sign that you may really may need to.  Your mind will cling to these foods, even if not healthy, because it feeds the serotonin in the brain and your brain knows it.

So don't give in to the brain here.  It will steer you wrong.

Do without these foods for a while.  You don''t have to go hard core low carb.  But do without for a few weeks, make sure you eat some decent protein and veggies, and I guarantee you will feel better.

Even on the low carb diet, I've found myself revisiting foods to see if I was holding onto foods that might be holding me back.  If it was on the Atkins Induction list, it was okay, but OWL foods and things like sweetener, soda made with sweetener, nuts, and more came on the chopping block and got cut.

And I no longer obsess about bread or pasta anymore.  I'd much rather have the great foods I can and be healthy.  And honestly, my tastes have chaneged so dramatically, when I taste these foods again, they no longer taste the same, very bland and unappetizing.

So if you find yourself thinking you can't give up something, give it up for a while and see what happens.  You might be surprised.

My Annual Cholesterol Screening

So I got my cholesterol tested this past week.  Like a good patient, I get this done annually, typically.

Here's this year's results (fasting):

Blood Pressure:  120/80 *
Glucose:  87
Triglycerides:  56
Total Cholesterol:  184
HDL:  61
LDL:  112

* I believe my diastolic is borderline due to mitral valve prolapse (yes, I do see a cardiologist for it).  Could also be due to hypothyroidism and/or still having about 30 or so pounds to a healthy BMI yet.  But it's always been high.   Systolic has improved as I've lost weight.

My numbers have typically been fairly decent, even at my heaviest weight.  The luck of genetics I think, but I bet they would have slowly gotten worse if I hadn't fixed my eating and weight issues when I did.  But HDL and Trigs have definitely improved tremendously since changing my eating.

My Triglycerides/HDL ratio is 0.905, which from what I'm reading is a better way to measure your cardiovascular risk.

So like most on a high fat/low carb gluten and wheat-free, sugar-free, junk-free, limited processed foods diet, my numbers are excellent.  And I eat a TON of fat (65-70% fo my daily intake, alot of it is saturated because I love beef).  I eat lots of veggies too, don't worry.  But definitely high fat, about 25% protein, about 1900-2100 calories a day.

I thought eating all this fat and calories were supposed to be bad for you, LOL!