Not Even Closely Related

dontleavethepath, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Back on the Hamster Wheel:

I find it totally amusing that I have been doing the diet yo-yo for about 10 years now. I lost weight accidentally when I started skydiving (down to 117 pounds); bloomed back to 135 (about my normal weight forever), then the wheel began. Am I mixing my metaphors? Sorry.

Here's the thing: I gained an enormous amount of weight during my pregnancy. Once Brenden was delivered and everything settled down, I weighed in at over 170 pounds. It took about a year and a half but I was able to get as low as 129. It wasn't slow and gradual; I would bite the bullet, eat low calorie, lose about 15 pounds, take a break, gain 5 back, and the process repeated itself.

I could not get below 129. It wasn't because I hit a plateau, I simply got sick of starving. I hit 129 at the beginning of this year and once again I slowly expanded to 149. I tried what I tried before but I was hit by something I didn't have that many problems with before and I was hit by constant ravenous hunger.

It's not a mystery; I had a secret weapon in my arsenal before and it was ephedrine (not ephedra, ephedrine. There is a difference). I can't take a drug like that indefinitely so part of why I bloomed back is because I was no longer taking it. Every time I made the determination not to diet with it I couldn't handle the hunger (ephedrine dulls appetite).

I decided I wouldn't be able to lose weight until I got the appetite back under control, but ephedrine this time around was giving me headaches so I stopped. I had to find a non-pharmaceutical way of controlling my appetite.

I told you that to tell you this: I read this blog entry and it convinced me to go give a low-carbohydrate diet another chance.

Yes, I've heard plenty of stories of people getting sick on low carbohydrate diets. But I don't intend to let myself get sick. If I start feeling bad, I will modify what I'm doing.

As of today after 3 weeks I'm down to 138. After 1 week of feeling pretty awful (most lowcarb advocates claim it's normal to feel crappy as your body gets used to the switch) I have felt 2 side effects that have convinced me to keep going:

1) I'm not hungry. Matter of fact I'm so not hungry that I am keeping a journal of the food I eat to make sure I get at least 1200 calories a day. I started it because I felt faint the first time I worked out. Making sure I get enough has stopped that.

2) I can think clear. That sounds strange, doesn't it? I have had so many memory and thinking problems since my pregnancy ended it scared me. It affected my work - no it affected everything because I have had a horrible time concentrating. But I literally woke up and went to work exactly one week after starting this diet and I recall sitting there, stunned, at how calm I felt. My short-term memory has improved, my mood has improved, and I am no longer constantly tired. Sometimes I don't get enough sleep because Brenden doesn't like to sleep through the night, but I am able to cope much better. In other words, I might be dog-tired from only 5 hours of sleep but I can still function. Before I would have had to write off the entire day.

Before anyone emails me their horror stories of people getting sick on low-carb diets, do you have any idea how grateful I am that I have my mind back?

I'm not following anybody's plan. I'm eating adequate protein (at least 60 grams/day), all the damn veggies I want, taking fish oil and a general vitamin supplement as insurance, and if I'm not hitting my calorie count I eat CHEESE BABY, CHEESE!