Things have been turned around in the weight loss department. I have found the program that works for me and it feels great to be successful once more! Thank God!!
I had gotten tired of not being successful with my weight loss efforts, and gave up. I had worked hard and lost a little weight and that was the problem. I wanted more results. It was especially disheartening when I worked hard and lost nothing. I knew I had done things before that worked but now that I had reached my sixties it just seemed the goal was too elusive and I wanted to hide.
The other part that was disheartening to me was that I was rarely able to stick to a program one hundred percent. I would be doing low carb, but find myself craving chocolates, or ice cream, or candy in general. I would break down and eat what I was craving once a week, and then twice a week, and then every couple of days. Of course, I always felt guilty afterwards and would resolve to begin again and end up in the same place a short while later. It seemed that I was flawed and could do nothing about it.
I gave up on blogging, too, because I was tired of reporting a lack of success over and over again. Blogging no longer seemed to help keep me on track, it only served to shove my failure into my face, yet, again. It felt like a supremely useless effort so I turned my attention to other things. My last post was in July of last year, which is about 10 months ago. I was tired of writing about my failure and excuses and I was sure that no one else was interested in reading about my lack of willpower, too.
By October I had put back on all the weight I had lost over the past three years and I really had no idea what to do about it. I had changed my medical insurance and could no longer go to the doctor I loved because she does not take Medicare. I tried several new doctor's but did not find one that I liked as much as my old one. I was able to continue my medications for blood pressure that I needed, but never seemed to get the kind of support and coaching I needed.
My turning point came in October. I remembered how I started this blog following Dr Ripich's program which begins with a ten-day sugar fast. I remembered that the first few days were hard but by the tenth day I had broken the sugar hold, so I started there, once more. The same thing happened. I muscled through the first two days of no sugar, but after that, it just seemed normal and easy to do. When the tenth day arrived, I simple continued in the "no sugar" vein. I then added "no refined grains" to my list, too.
Right about that time Ty Bollinger came out with his "The Truth About Cancer" videos and I began watching them. There were nine episodes over nine days and I was getting inspired to begin to include more vegetables in my daily eating. As I listened and watched I began to want to make the kind of changes that would bring me better health. About the middle of January I decided to drop out meat and dairy and become a vegan. Right away I lost eighteen pounds with no effort on my part. I was thrilled, to say the least.
During that time I began listening to Dr. Micheal Gregor's short videos on nutrition and veganism and was trying out some of the things he suggested, too. He had a few videos that talked about some research that had been done on nuts not interfering with weight loss and I got on board the band wagon. But, you know me, I went overboard with the nuts and started to put back on the happy pounds that I had lost.
I think I did that because just eating vegetables and fruit was simply not enough food. When I added in the nuts, I felt better, but began to worry that I was eating way too many of them. Soon at every meal I was adding nuts. I began to recognize that my behavior around the nuts revealed to me that I was acting like I was addicted to them. Before I knew it I had put on six pounds of the eighteen that I had lost. That did not sit well with me.
As I pondered this I remembered that the only time in my life that I had effortlessly lost weight was when I was doing "The McDougall Program." way back in the 90's when I was living in Houston. So I looked that up again. This program now seemed "dangerous" to me because it was the exact opposite of "low carb" which I believed in, but was never successful with.
How could eating as much potatoes and rice as I want, help me to lose weight? It seemed impossible. But I had that nagging memory of doing exactly that and effortlessly losing weight in the past. My belief in "low carb" or "high protein" was very strong but it had been anything but "effortless." I had so much trouble with that style of eating that it brought me to dispare. Against what seemed like "my better judgment," I, once again familiarized myself with Dr McDougall's program and began to follow it. Thank God, I had already crossed the threshold of "vegan" so this was simply a kind of "tweak" to what I was already doing.
On April 1, 2016, I swapped the nuts for potatoes and rice and suddenly I was back to my happy eighteen pound weight loss, again. It just seemed like magic. I had to keep going to YouTube and watching the McDougall videos to keep reassuring myself that I was doing the right thing. Especially his new program and book which he calls, "The Starch Solution."
Yes, I had permission to eat as much as I wanted. Is that for real? Yes, it is. As much as I wanted of potatoes, rice, veggies, fruit, and beans, which also means: no oil, no dairy, no meat. Since I had already dropped out the dairy and meat, dropping out the oil was a minor step. That meant no more avocados, no more olives, and especially no more nuts. It also meant no more oil based salad dressings, and no more frying in oil, but without meat on the menu there is not much else to fry, anyway.
Can you believe it? Eating steamed potatoes and onions, steamed veggies and rice, and in no small quantities!! I am once again losing weight. I have now lost twenty-six pounds and find it very easy to do this program because I am eating the things I love!!
I did have one more stumble that I need to mention. Dr. McDougall has two programs. One is "The Starch Solution", for ordinary human beings, and the other one is his "Maximum Weight Loss Program" for obese people like me. Once I noticed that and made the necessary adjustments things started moving along nicely once again.
Where I stumbled was with the bread. If you don't have a lot of weight to lose you can eat bread like you eat potatoes, but for people like me the bread will slow the weight loss to a stand still. So I had to step aside from the bread. Pasta can also cause a weight stall if you eat it for every meal. So, I have to be careful with pasta eating it only once or twice a week, and I rarely eat bread at all. Other than that, I have no trouble with the program. I am losing weight at a nice clip and I am happy with my results.
A major side effect of veganism that I noticed was that I am no longer constipated. What a relief to go to the bathroom with no effort at all!! Things are no longer "tubular," if you get my drift, and they literally slide out on their own and fall apart in the water. Nice. And so much faster and easier to accomplish!!
I am happy that my "big clothes" are baggy on me, now and it feels easier to walk because I no longer have pain in my knees. My feet still bother me sometimes, but I'm used to that. Most of the other pains are no longer there. The amount of stiffness I feel in my body when I first wake up has been reduced. I'm still stiff but not as bad as I was. So, overall, I just feel better.
I feel more able to accomplish small tasks that used to be hard for me to do, like standing to wash my dishes (I don't have a dish washer) and moving laundry from the washer to the dryer. My seat belt fits around my belly and I don't have to struggle with that anymore. Even going up and down stairs is easier. My skin is smoother and while I still use Lubriderm on the rough patches, it seems to work better now. It lasts longer, too.
I'm glad I had this to share and hope you click on some of the links so you can see what I am talking about. I don't know how much blogging I will be doing, but I wanted to share where I am right now, so that is what I have done.
Hope you are well!!
Marcia
