A few events of note passed without notice – I thought I’d mention them:
6-Years On Low Carb
6 years ago this past September, I sat down one Saturday and read the Atkins Diet book. I tried it for 2 weeks, lost 20-lbs., then decided that low carb was not for me – and went back to my previous way of eating.
I felt so awful, that I immediately went back on Atkins and have tried to live on some form of carb-restricting diet ever since.
I never tried another diet - I did get some pointers from the TNT Diet, but I considered it an addendum to Atkins.
I’ve great respect for the Paleo diet, with its emphasis on natural foods, but feel it too restricting – just because cavemen didn’t eat cheese – why shouldn’t I?
I lost close to 90 lbs (for like one day) from my high weight of 265, but after 6- years, I’ve kept at least 50 lbs. off for almost the entire time. I’m 215.4 at this exact moment.
That constitutes a ‘hit-the-ball-out-off-the-park’ success in anyone’s book.
I’m about 40 lbs. off of where I want to be, but I’ll just keep trying – it’s what I have been doing for 6-years, so in a strange way, my long and persistent string of failures has actually been quite successful.
Maybe if I didn’t set such an unrealistic goal, I would have never achieved what I have achieved.
2+ Years of Low Carb Confidential
It started as a way to keep my recipes in a place I could access from work so I could get some ideas on what to make when I got home.
I never thought anyone would ever find the thing – I thought it would ‘hide in plain sight’ – but an odd thing occurred - people started visiting.
There’s a problem with this, of course. You can start ‘playing to the crowd’. And I suppose I did that for some period of time.
But it wasn’t really why I was doing this. Stats and visit counts, and all that other stuff is an interesting diversion that can get in the way of what this blog evolved into – a kind of online diary of sorts that tries to be brutally honest and records the good, the bad and the ugly of what my 6-years of low carb looks like.
With all the great resources out there, I still don’t quite understand why anyone comes here. I try not to over-think it.
It is what it is, I suppose.
In that time I’ve lost some of my evangelical zeal – and have come to realize that low carb is not for everyone, and tend to keep my ruminations on low carb here – as opposed to blathering about it to anyone trapped in a conversation with me. I’m not trying to save the World anymore.
I’m just a schmuck trying to lose a few pounds – who writes off-the-cuff meandering prose of varying quality that maybe exorcises some inner demons of mine. If any of the stuff here has been of help to some of you, then I can also say I’ve ‘given back’ something to the community – which might be another reason why this still exists and I still write.
200,000 Page Views
I don’t know when, exactly, but some time back I hit 200,000 page views. Right now, I’m at 215,000. That’s kinda weird, considering I wasn’t really trying. For a brief time, I tried promoting it – but what’s the point? I’m not really sure what the point of the blog is. Something about low carb, assuredly – but other than that?
Enough self-indulgent clap-trap. Sorry to bore you with this.
Filed under: Atkins, Change, cooking, diet, Dining Out Low Carb, Goals, low carb, Self-Experimentation
I’m glad you’re still at it. Use it for yourself in a way that’s useful to you, and those of us that get something out of it will get something out of it without you really trying, if you know what I mean.
Intelligent, reasoned discourse is so rare these days that it’s valuable on that basis alone!
WOO HOO and CONGRATULATIONS on both your Atkins weight loss and blogging success. It’s gratifying to know you are reaching out to people who need to hear the message that healthy low-carb living is the way to go. I’m so very proud of you and am honored to have you as part of the low-carb community. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!
Hi Jimmy,
Thanks for the kind words.
I am also glad that you are out there, providing a great resource for people curious about low carb, or to those of us who need info and support as we plug along while living low carb.
As I know how much work I put in just to keep my paltry postings coming, I know how much work you must put into this – and I am humbled.
Keep on keeping on.
Regards,
LCC
Low-carb works initially because it lowers blood sugar and insulin levels accordingly. Since it triggers higher levels of insulin resistance, it makes carbohydrates increasingly fattening for the low-carber. So you, in effect, run but cannot hide from carbs.
Unfortunately, the basal metabolism typically lowers over the long haul with low-carb dieting, which creates the unbreakable plateau. Then weight loss typically creeps back in, and the cravings you still battle become stronger, and stronger, and…
To go “all the way” you have to cure yourself of insulin resistance. I think it can be done, and the current experiment I’m doing on my blog is a big piece of that puzzle.
http://www.180degreehealth.blogspot.com
Matt,
Let me first say I admire your self-experimentation. You seem to take theories and put them to the test – and get real empirical (though anecdotal) info out of them.
I think that sometimes, anecdotal data from a human is better than well-designed studies on mice.
To be honest, I can’t quite wrap my head around a high-carb diet ‘conditioning’ a person to not be as insulin resistant, though I do have some understanding of up-regulation and down-regulation, and in that sense I can see some logic in it.
Is is possible though that it works for some and not for others? I’m more of the mind lately that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ diet, and that some of us might respond better to one diet than another. Michael Pollan’s book ‘In Defense of Food’, makes the point that many different cultures have varying diets, and all of them are healthy for them – except the standard American diet, which, sadly, seems to be getting adopted by most of the world.
I myself have taken 8 lbs. off doing low carb in the past 6 days. I’ve been in ketosis for three, and my appetite and my cravings have reduced, while my energy has increased. Interesting, though – my blood glucose (which I measure as part of my own self-experimenting, though I am not a diabetic) has remained in the same 10-point range.
I’ll be sure to keep tabs on your current experiment, and I recommend anyone reading this to check out your blog, as your experiments are fascinating – both high carb and low carb (or the zero carb diet you went on), and you are a very lucid and engaging writer – though readers should be warned that they face the potential of their own sacred cows getting gored in your writing – but that’s part of what I like about it.
Thanks for writing.
LCC