Monday, April 4, 2011

Goodbye to weight watchers, low fat, calorie counting and near-starvation diets!

Hello new lifestyle! 
Yes, I'm done with those diets, i've done them all!  First of all, I must share the movie/documentary that changed my life.  It's called "Fat Head".  It's a comedic documentary about how the gov't doesn't really care about our health, they push high carb diets because grains are cheap. (and if we have health problems, then hey, that helps out the medical/medicinal people, along with others.) (( I think it's important that we keep in mind that unlike what we'd like to believe, the gov't doesn't always have our best interest in mind.  All they see is money signs.  Just because they give you a nutrition pyramid to follow, doesn't mean it's correct.))  It even shows how the highly popular documentary "super size me" is just a lie and in "fat head", he eats fast food for 28 days and loses weight!  It's def worth a watch!

So, after watching this documentary on friday, march 11th 2011, I started the Atkins diet on march 13th.  I wouldn't have even probably watched it on, but my husband was working a swing shift, the boys were in bed, so i found i flipping through netflix.  Since starting, i've lost 8.3 pounds.  ((BTW, if you wanna watch the documentary responsible for my change of mind, go to http://www.hulu.com/ and type in "fat head" in the search bar.  It's about an hour and 44 min, it should pop up)).

You may wonder, what diet are you on to make you lose 8lbs in less than a month. 
It's the atkins diet.  NO, it won't kill you and NO, Dr. Atkins (the founder) did NOT die on his own diet (a popular myth).
The basis of the diet is high fat, moderate protein and low carb.  You are supposed to get a majority of your carbs from certain veggies and fruits, not grains.  No bread, pasta, rice, cereal, beans and sugar it sounds tough, but it's just  a matter of retraining your mind, cravings and taste palette.  Now you have to teach your brain that fat is GOOD for you!

There are lots of alternatives on this diet:  instead of high carb bread, if you must eat bread, there is a recepie for the highly coveted recepie - a "MIM" (muffin in a minute, there are many enjoyable variations you can find thru google or the atkins website) and also, there is a bread made by "Julians Bakery" and it's a wonderful tasting 1-carb-a-slice bread ( http://www.julianbakery.com/).  If you like mashed potatoes, there's a recepie called "fauxtatoes" (even my husband likes them) and if you love pizza, then there's a recepie for that as well! ( http://blog.yourlighterside.com/2009/05/low-carb-pizza-dough-cauliflower.html).  Kroger chain grocery stores sell a low carb yogurt that i'm a fan of and you can still have sweets, thanks to russell stovers sugar free items.

So now you want to know: "how do i get started?".  Check out the atkins website for videos on the 'stages' as well as some info you can read up on, the documentary I mentioned and the new version of the atkins book, "A New Atkins, A New You".

One thing you need to remember is that this diet isn't really a diet, it's a LIFESTYLE CHANGE.  If you decide once you lose your weight that you wanna go back to your old ways, you WILL GAIN IT ALL BACK.  Now, that's not saying you cant have a cheat meal once a month or so and maybe once a week once you reach your goal weight.  If you are like me, you might find yourself not missing the dear foods you didn't think you'd be able to live without.  I think it's very important to watch "fat head" to get a full understanding of this lifestyle. 

If you are looking for a big support network, join the atkins facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=16921&post=79739&uid=51386773550#!/AtkinsDiet).  They offer great tips, you can share your success with them and they really care.  you also get lots of opinions if you post something. 

Now that I got all of this explaining out of the way, the rest of this blog will be mostly of recepies, my weight loss, tips, exercising, links to other blogs i like and whatever else i decide, but the main vibe of my blog will be Low Carb.

***update***Dec 15 2011** when I started Atkins, I was 213lbs.  I am now about 175lbs - all thanks to atkins.  My total weight loss since having my son 1 year and 2 days ago is 75 pounds, thanks to atkins, i'll be able to keep it off.  Below is some info on my weight to put things in perspective :)
179 - my lowest ever in high school (I lost 100 pounds during my sophomore and junior high school years)
186 - meps ship-out weight
200 - bmt graduation weight (either I ate too well or a ton of muscle gain, maybe both)
214 - when i found out I was prego (I was doing security work and cured boredom with food, bad choice)
255 - what I weighed 2 weeks post pardum
220 - my weight when I got prego with baby #2
250 - 2 days post pardum
213 - my weight when i started the atkins way of eating in march
175 - my current weight. 
my goal was to meet my lowest high school weight, i've beat that, so my new goal is 169.

3 comments:

  1. Founds you on Atkins fb page. I recently started a low-carb journey & blog as well. You can find me at www.mcbridemayhem.blogspot.com

    Hope to see you and your success around.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So awesome girlie!! I'm so excited!! :) Can't wait to watch that movie!!

    ReplyDelete