Back at it again

2014 was challenging for me.  Most of all, I fell off the wagon (there, I said it) on doing the right things that kept me on track. And as a result, I gained a lot of weight back.

I can't say I was eating that poorly.  But I wonder if I am in denial?

I wasn't eating a ton of sweets (hardly any), junk food, binging on carbs, no fast food really (maybe Chic Fila but that was mostly nuggets or salads), barely any bread.

If I look back, I know my downfalls were not tracking my food, not weighing and measuring, depression?

So, starting today, I'm back at it.  I have to do this.  I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired and gaining weight.   I know what to do, I just have to do it.

And I'll journal here as I go to track progress, history, etc.

So starting today, I have done and am doing the following:

• Weighed and measured.  Will do this weekly again (Sunday) and track it.
• Cleaning out the pantry from questionable foods
• Starting a strict low carb diet again, for 2 weeks, close to Induction levels
• Tracking my food online
• Making my food weekly and eating it
• Starting exercising

I did it before, I can do it again, I know what to do.

Determined.

Update:  Today, I accomplished the following:

• Weighed, measured and entered in on My Fitness Pal
• Track all that I ate on my Fitness Pal
• Did not cheat
• Cooked all at home, including food prep for the week
• Did a mile on the treadmill (first real exercise in perhaps 2 or more weeks)
• Properly under-ate but I did get up late.  I did stick to 20 net carbs today
• Renewed my determination to stick to this this week

Health "facts" truth-a-meter #1: Number of fat cells

So this week, I heard 3 health related "facts" that I made me wonder, "is that really true?"  So in the form of a truth-o-meter, I will dive into some of these every now and then as it really annoys me how much people take what they hear or read as "gospel" and don't question the truth or go research it a bit to see if it's actually true.  With Internet, Bing and Google, there's no excuse other than laziness and denial. 

A big part of my weight loss journey, especially in the past 18 months or so, has been spent researching, reading, questioning, pondering, and trying to get a better understanding of metabolism and not only have my body works, but the body in general.

Fortunately, we have Google and Bing nowadays and can look up so much information on this.

Unfortunately, we have Google and Bing and there is a TON of misleading and sometimes outright wrong information out there, including actual so-called "medical studies".

So I do not believe everything I read and dive into the actual medical studies that were done, how the studies were done, etc. because this really does matter.   Even then, new studies can make older studies obsolete or prove them wrong.  Thus, it helps to keep looking, and to keep an open mind.

So 3 things for fact-checking.  I will tackle just one today on "fat cells".

"When you've been so very overweight and then lost the weight, you still have more fat cells and that makes it easier to regain weight and you have to work harder with diet and exercise to keep weight off"

I had to go look into this.  Did I ruin my body forever by being overweight for so long?

True or false? Depends but more toward being false.

If you are obese as a child, when fat cells are forming and growing as you head toward adulthood, then you might end up with more fat cells but not necessarily.  Thisk, among many other reasons about auto-immune conditions, setting up good eating habits and knowledge, etc. is why it is important to eat well and healthy and exercise as a child.

As a adult who then became obese (more typical), no.  You do not add more fat cells when you gain weight.  You just fill the ones you have.  When you lose weight, you empty them. 

Fat cells do die off and get recreated, but the total humber does not change.

Link to this:
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080505/full/news.2008.800.html

Two questions I will dive into later are:
If we could just get leptin injections, it would be much easier to keep weight off when you lose it.

And:
Red meat takes longer to digest which is why we shouldn't eat so much of it.

Looking for fast weight loss? Move along!

One of the biggest issues with obesity here in the U.S. is everyone is looking for the quick and easy fix to losing weight, as fast as possible, without alot of work, and damn the consequences of such a feat, assuming it even works to begin with. Or if it does work, it doesn't work for long as it's really hard to keep the weight off again once you lost it.

Losing weight in a healthy manner so that you not just lose the weight, but also learn how to keep it off for good takes time, patience, diligence, and most likely a dramatic change in your habits that will take time to implement and adjust to.

Yet instead, people look to fad diets, pills, injections, and even things as dramatic as permanent body-altering surgery to fix their eating and weight issues.

Everyone knows someone, even themselves, that "just couldn't lose weight no matter how hard they tried."

Bullshit.  (And I dont' swear hardly ever).

Until you're willing to look within and fix the problems that made you gain weight to begin with, you will not be able to lose the weight and keep it off.

No weight loss program will work with it.

How do I know this?  I was once there myself.  And then lost 175 pounds without any fad diets, pills, surgery, or doctor's help.

So if you're looking for tips for losing that 25, 50 or 100 pounds or more of fat as fast as possible, this isn't the place you're going to find them.  What you will find here are healthy tips and advice to change your life and habits so that the weight comes off slowly and permanently and in a healthy manner so that it stays off and you feel great as a result.

Denial and facing your health and weight issues

Wikpedia description of denial is a pretty good way of describing the mechanism that most of us take when not addressing our health and weight issues.

I know I did it for many many years, decades even.  I knew I was gaining weight, not eating right, that I had a history of diabetes and heart disease in my family and I was going to end up the same way one day.   I kept trying to lose weight and eat better, but routinely failed, not only due to lack of willpower, but because it was hard, if not impossible, to stick to a weight loss plan where I was hungry and tired and miserable all the time.  I had been fed the line that I had to count calories, points, eat low fat, sugar-free, etc. for so long, since childhoo when my parents "dieted" that it was all I knew about how to lose weight.

But I was still in denial and it kept me from facing my problems.  I ignored mirrors, didn't even own a scale, hated going shopping for clothes and didn't pay much attention to how I dressed and what I looked like for the most part beyond the basics of brushing my hair and putting on a little makeup.  My bloodwork was always "okay" so I figured I wasn't that bad off, right?

Now, looking back, I see how I was denial about my health and weight problems.  I was coasting by barely, but kept gaining weight.   I was developing insulin resistance on top of my fibromalgia, arthritis and thyroid problems.  Fortunately, I was able to finally face myself, knowing I HAD to do something about my health before it became too late.  I didn't have all the answers to fix it but knew I needed to start somewhere, somehow.  I decided to try Atkins and do it right as my last resort (short of surgery) and thank goodness I did.  It saved my life and gave me hope.  Slowly I lost the weight and my health improved dramatically.

So today, when I deal with others, I see them denyying the same things I once did.  It's interesting when people notice your weight loss the variety of comments you get.  Lots of folks say they need to lose some weight themselves, or eat better, or haven't seen their doctors and gotten bloodwork done in a long time because they know the numbers aren't good.

But one of the biggest challenges to "getting started" to better health is facing your issues.  Stop denying you have a problem.  Look in the mirror, weigh yourself on a scale, take measurements with a measuring tape, see your doctor and get your blood work done and read your results.  And then these things, print them out and put them on your mirror or fridge or anywhere else where you cannot avoid them nd realize you need to do something about them.

Start today.

And how?  I can tell you that a High Fat, Low Carb diet is the best way to fix all of the above.  You can lose weight, get healthy, eat great and dramatically change things so you can look in the mirror and see a smaller, healthier you, have numbers that will make your doctor smile, and start living life again with lots of energy again just like when you were young.

I've done it.  You can too.

I'm here, I'm getting lean and I'm MAD

Welcome to my new blog.  I went searching out there for a cool blog name and sadly, alot of the ones I found on weight loss, getting skinny or thin, for motivating themselves to lose weight with a blog, etc. had been taken and many of them, long since abandoned by whoever created them in the first place.

There's a graveyard of abandoned blogs and forgotten efforts out there.

I have to wonder if these people ever succeeded in their weight loss. 
Anyway, I am here to tell you that I have lost the weight, I'm still working at it, and I intend to tell the world how I did it (without surgery) and see if I can save others from the same fate I was once heading for.

So instead of "losing the weight" or "countdown to thin" or something like that, my blog is from someone who HAS done it, most of the way at least.

As for being MAD, yes, I am very angry.  At the news media, doctors, medical community and government that had been feeding us the WRONG nutritional information for decades now.  For it resulted in me being overweight, hungry and miserable for so long.

Don't get me wrong.  I personally take some of the blame as well, but I thought I had to starve myself, count calories, cut out fat, exercise, count points, drink shakes, and whatever else I did to lose weight only to fail miserably every time and keep putting on more weight.

Thankfully, in 2004, I discovered Atkins.  And that I could eat high fat, low carb, eat great and lose weight.

And I did.  175 lbs down.  About 30 or so more to go.  My journey hasn't been perfect, but I've learned lots along the way.

And I'm here to tell my story, share news and research, and let you know you can still eat great and healthy and lose weight without surgery.

There is HOPE for those who want to lose weight.

Find me on twitter and stay tuned for more!