It’s been fun – really fun. I like food, and for a number of reasons that are really just excuses, I’ve not been eating low carb and put on a considerable amount of weight – my ideal weight is 175 and I’m now 215 – that’s 40 lbs of fun.
Along the way on this road of not following my own advice about eating low carb and getting fat, I’ve had my heartburn return full force and have been sick with a head cold and a chest cold for over a month. I never got sick when I did low carb – now I can’t shake this cold.
And on top of this, a person who eats in a low carb fashion while still eating carbs sets themselves up for the high cholesterol that can give you that heart attack that people who don’t follow low carb think we’re all in for – it’s the combo of the carbs and the fat that does it. Lay off the carbs and my bloodwork is fine – I’ll bet you it’s a Godawful mess right now. I know my blood pressure is through the roof.
I have again proved to myself that low carb is the only way for me to maintain my health because I certainly proved that not following low carb doesn’t work for me.
So December 31 – with my vacation over, I started low carb again. I chose not to make New Years’ resolution (nobody follows them) so I made a December 31 resolution instead.
I went out with the family to PF Changs and had the ribs and the Shanghai cucumber – less than 20 grams of net carbs. Skipped dessert, went home, watched the ball drop and went to bed.
So here I am – 40 lbs over my goal weight and now I’m going to go back and reread my own advice. I think I had a number of good points – and now I’ll put them to the test.
If my credibility is ruined for you folks that do read this, there are plenty of other sources of info out there for low carb living. Thanks for stopping by.
For those of you that are curious, I’ll be posting my progress – I’m interested myself to see if I can pull this off again. Am I a one-trick pony? Is low carb bullshit – and I’m just another example?
We’ll see…
Low Carb Confidential 
OMG, I knew something was up with you! This is one of my favorite sites and I get so bummed when I see you haven’t updated anything. I know, I’m lame, but I really depend on you guys to keep ME motivated. I truly believe that the only way to be successful at this WOE is to have failed many times. This is my 5th time to try low carbing and at 52 it does NOT get easier, but something has clicked and I’ve got some sort of weird willpower I never had before. I’ve only lost 14 pounds, but I don’t want to go back. I’m so proud of you for fessing up and I can’t wait to see your progress. You will truly appreciate it all again, I promise, especially the acid reflux stuff. Please, please please don’t give up and please keep going, because I love your sense of humor and your sense of practiciality. I need everyone on these sites to keep me going and I think we all feel the same way. Congrats on starting over and keep blogging!!!
Welcome back to the wagon. I’m sure you’ll do great!
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Hi Ohyeah,
Thanks for the encouragement and the comments, but I don’t need another diet – I need to just follow what I already know.
As to the diet you mention, there’s certainly enough info out there on other sites that discuss it in excruciating detail, so I’ll let them do the excruciating.
Regards,
LCC
Hi Denise,
I’m OK – really – thanks for the nice comments. As I don’t beat myself up over this sort of thing, it’s not the end of the the world – just time to get back on the horse.
Regards,
LCC
Hi LCC! Found you while searching for reasons I stopped losing after 3 induction days. Of course, I read your July 2007 blog first, didn’t know things had taken a wrong turn later. This is my 5th attempt at re-induction after 4.5 years of lo-carbing, but the other attempts were really faux inductions. I lost 30+ pounds the first time around in 2003 and maintained that for many months until my doctor switched my blood pressure medication to Clonidine (nothing else was working). My metabolism and energy took a nose dive and within 2 months I’d gained back 12 pounds even though I hadn’t changed my diet. Although I stopped gaining after switching to a different med, I couldn’t shake the added weight despite trying a couple semi-inductions. Then, a year later, for some foolish reason and with a lot of denial, I started eating a bag of microwave popcorn every night for a snack. Not weighing myself due to complacency, I found my clothes very snug after 2 months, and after working up the courage to get on the scale, found I’d ‘discovered’ another 10 pounds. Can you say, “Stupid?” After a lot of work I was able to drop about five of those, and then this past summer they opened a Red Robin burger joint near us. I succumbed to the “all you can eat” steak fries and then just threw caution to the wind for six months, eating bread and potatoes when eating out, gaining back the five and another two “bonus” pounds during the holidays. And so here I am, with a disgusting belly I’ve tried to ignore (my wife kindly points it out to me as often as possible as an incentive), and a determination that I am going back “full bore” on Atkins until I get back to where I was. The thing is, I have been overweight my whole life, and despite trying everything both zany and sensible to lose it, I could never keep anything off for long and would always rebound to my body’s “memory weight.” The only thing that ever really worked was Atkins, and even though I gained back 22 of the 30 pounds over a four year period, I STILL weigh less and HAVE weighed less for long periods of time than I would have if not eating controlled carb. I shook my snacking habits, my addiction to sugar and carbohydrates, and lost that sleepy mid-afternoon droop I always used to get. My backsliding episodes for the past few months are nothing more than fluff because I made a change in my lifestyle years ago that became a natural part of me; all I have to do is stop acting like a schoolboy sneaking cookies behind Mom’s back and get back to business.
On that subject, regarding my “stall”… I do weigh every day (I find it helps). I’m tracking (maybe foolishly) my progress compared to my first time around with a corrected line graph, and I was losing like gangbusters four and a half years ago compared to today. Okay, it’s only been five days, but back then I’d lost 6 pounds versus 3 this week (half as much initial water weight maybe?) I was doing Ketostix back then too, and my color was not appreciable (my wife’s was pretty dark compared to mine), but I did have SOME color. I think I need to get some stix today after work. The only thing I’m really doing different this time from the first time is I’m still drinking half-caff coffee (maybe three or four cups during the day) instead of straight decaf. I never knew if that was making a difference back then, and I’ve been drinking half-caff as a result for a few years now, but could I really have a caffeine sensitivity? Atkins said about one in four people do.
So, I know it’s too soon to start carping about stalling. I stalled several times over the course of a year first time around, but slow and steady won the race, and every once in a while something would happen to shake things up and I’d lose a bunch more before stabilizing. This should work again, and I’m hoping what I’ve read in the past about the “Golden” time is wrong, that is, that after doing induction once, the body never lets you go into ketosis and get those results again for some reason. I’ll check in again in a while and let you know how it’s going. Thanks for being there, and thanks to everyone else out there replying, it’s gratifying to see there are still people who believe in this way of life. Happy New Year!
Hi Megamas,
I recall hearing about the ‘golden time’, but I don’t believe it – I think that staying in the groove of induction is harder than getting there, we forget just how hard it was the first time round, and think it’s not possible. Thst is the feeling that I’m having right now.
But I can remember during my first go-round, after the first 20 lbs came off, that it took me months of experimenting with my diet to find my groove. I think I can shave some time off that, but right now I find myself eating low-carb bread – good, but not good enough for induction. I just have to keep working at it.
Your story sounds somewhat like mine, and it’s easy to backslide – hey – carbs are *addictive* and you never lose your craving. I do agree the ketostix are critical – I checked a few days ago and no color change – that made me realize there were some things in my diet that you can eat in maintenance, but not induction – I’d forgot.
Regarding the BP meds – I’d love to create a list of medications that stall people – I’ve heard valium can do it, as well as medications for asthma – I wonder if there’s a list already out there somewhere – I’ll have to look sometime.
Thanks for writing and hang in there. I won’t wish you good luck because I believe people make their own luck.
Regards,
LCC
Well, reconsidering today after more website searching, I realize I’ve been downing a couple or more Snapple diet iced teas every evening. Maybe I am my own enemy. I’m off the caff tea now and am picking up a special order of ketostix tonight (the local call for them apparently dropped off since 2003, and they wanted to sell me 20 stix last night for more than what 50 would cost, can you believe it?) We’ll just see what my color is and get this party started!
On the carb craving issue, I was amazed at how little I wanted them after getting into Atkins, and I don’t believe I was craving carbs during my backslides, I was just falling back into old behavioral patterns. Hell, eons ago I quit smoking for two years and went back to it as soon as a couple crises hit at once, and it was like getting back on a horse (or bike). I went to vacation resorts for two years after I lost the 30# and ignored the fries and other garbage, sticking to my new WOE. Never missed them. When I started sliding this past year, I didn’t want the junk for any reason other than my old psychological deficiencies (IMHO).
Hanging in as recommended, you do the same. I’m going to go home and make some luck now! Talk again soon.
Megamas