My Story

I am a middle aged Canadian that has been overweight since the age of three.  I have tried most of the various ways of losing weight, and have given up completely at times.  Once my weight problem became several serious health problems I decided I should do something about it. I read almost everything I could get my hands on regarding this problem, and have found a solution that is not only very effective, but relatively easy to maintain.

I was always fat.  I cannot remember a time when I wasn't.  By the time I turned 15 years of age I was 235 lb at 5 foot 6 inches in height.  A visit to the Doctor when I had some viral illness led to my first round of weight loss.  He gave me the standard 1200 calorie diet from the hospital dietician, and monitored me monthly.  This was my first real experience with what I call 'brute force' dieting.  It worked.  I lost 80 lbs over six months.  I did it by following my own version of the 1200 calorie diet, and by walking 6 miles every day (to school and back, then the same in the evening).  The reason the diet worked is because I went through what it said, and then picked out a very few foods - bread and cheese basically, with some pineapple - and ate the same thing at the same time every day.  It controlled the amount that I ate, and I now know that it cut the amount of carbohydrate down substantially that I was eating, and it worked.  Unfortunately from a biological standpoint I didn't know why it worked.  I assumed it was the calorie thing.  When it was 'over' I asked the Doctor what I was to do now?  He really didn't have an answer.

The weight stayed off - for five years.  Then I got my first car, the amount of walking I had to do disappeared, and my weight floated up to 192 lbs.  I started again, watching how much I ate carefully and walking a great deal (I have moved to Calgary and left my car behind).  In six months I got down to 175 lbs.  Seemed like very little return for all that effort...  but that was what my 'normal' weight had settled into so perhaps it should not be such a surprise.  Then I went and retrieved my car.....

My weight ballooned over the next year, quickly.  By the time I started teaching in Fort McMurray I was over 200 lb again. Various attempts to lose weight failed.  By 1993 I had floated all the way up to 250 lbs.  I decided to go back to basic principles, and followed the regimen I had as a kid, bread and cheese twice a day.  And it worked!  In six months I got down to close to 200 lbs.  And I was hungry the whole way.

In October of the same year I made the mistake of taking a Hallowe'en chocolate my daughter offered me.  That was the end of that.  I decided that this diet stuff was all a waste of time; I was going to be the size I was going to be and nothing seemed to matter that I did other than sitting around starving to death....  so I quit trying.  By 1999, I hit 300 lbs.  I was driving regularly to Toronto from my home in Wiarton, and I had to stop two to three times to sleep at the roadside on the way.  I decided I better do something, so I started carrying water to drink in the car instead of juice and pop...  about two litres per trip!  Anybody see the warning signs here?  I didn't....

My weight came down - I thought easily and somewhat naturally - to about 260 lbs.  Again I did not see the danger sign.

In December of 2002 I saw the doctor because I was having difficulty breathing.  I was in fact in very serious Congested Heart Failure.  I started heart and blood pressure medication, and was told my blood sugar was 18!  I was type II diabetic. Thus began my third round of weight loss.  This doctor also gave me a dietician's diet to follow - 1500 calories this time - but he also talked about this other diet, where bacon and eggs was a good breakfast....  "You mean Atkins?"  "Yes...."

I followed a modified version of the Atkins diet for the next six months, and one day I actually saw the scale tip below 200 lb. Unfortunately during this time I also developed a kidney stone. NOT from the Atkins diet!  I had been given Lasix as part of the treatment for Congestive Heart Failure, and one of its lovely side effects can be the accretion of kidney stones.  This was the second I have experienced.  That messed up what I was doing to a certain extent.  I stayed with the principles - but not always the practice - of the Atkins regime since, and my weight tended to hover in the range of 210 - 220 lbs.

All this time I still did not really comprehend the mechanics of how my body processes foods, so I kept making mistakes. By the spring of 2009 things had broken down rather completely, I was back up to 260 lbs, and my sugar addiction was in full force.  I had continued to read, voraciously, about these problems, and had just finished Gary Taubes "Good Calories, Bad Calories", when everything clicked into place.

I cannot eat carbohydrates!  My body responds to tiny amounts of carbohydrate with massive amounts of insulin.  So, this time, I decided to tackle the problem differently.  I would not try to lose weight.  I would do everything I could to minimize the amount of insulin my body was producing.  This meant:

- NO carbohydrates of any kind, no fruit, no bread, no starch, no vegetables

- meats, cheeses and eggs in any quantity

- exercise - I have an old exercise bike and began riding it -gently - every evening

- supplements known to alleviate Insulin Resistance

By February of 2010 - eight months - I was down to 178 lbs!  My old weight from high school!

I know now that I cannot eat carbs in any quantity at all.  I have progressed to eating Gundersen Larvik's Bran Crispbread as the major staple of my diet.  A package of 10 crackers per day - with cheese, peanut butter, whatever else I want.  No, it is not 'normal' but it is both filling and satisfying.  When I want to eat meat and eggs, I can, and do.  If I wanted to eat some '5% vegetables' (broccoli, cauliflower, salad greens) I would but I don't yet.  I continue to take vitamin and mineral supplements to make sure that I have all the necessary building blocks.

My weight has stayed stable for four months now, and shows no sign of changing.

Oh - I almost forgot.  I am NEVER HUNGRY.  Ever.  Not since Day 3, May 18, 2009.