How do you finally manage to lose weight? Here's Adrian's story:
I would like to share my story of a "work in progress" and some of the ups and downs, backs and forths, that I have experienced in hope that someone will benefit from understanding that it's not always smooth sailing, but also that, just like any other endeavor, making a commitment and sticking to it is worthwhile and necessary. These are my photos to show even what a difference one or two months can make-but really, my story is about what a disservice you do to yourself when you bounce back and forth from one approach to another.
Many years ago, I tried (with little understanding of it) the Protein Power of Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades. Naturally I had been warned against Atkins, but after being a very slender to even skinny child and young woman (with unrecognized disordered eating for some of those years), I gained about 30 pounds in one year. After that, I gained and lost and gained and lost on every diet out there, including Protein Power (now I recognize the Eades for the pioneers and experts that they are and am very grateful that I found them again on this site).
I knew food was at the heart of many of my problems...
I knew food was at the heart of many of my problems, and like many a good American, I began to get serious about what I ate, starting with the high carb/low fat way of dieting. What I find very interesting is that in the early stages of pregnancy, after about a year of having Grape Nuts and skim milk for breakfast every day, I could no longer stand the sight, much less the smell of skim milk, and this was one of the first signs that told me I was pregnant. I lived on pumpkin pie and grilled cheese sandwiches for most of that pregnancy! At any rate, by 39, after bouncing back and forth from strict Ornish-like eating and then indulging in every sweet and carb I could get my hands on I had a hysterectomy at 250 pounds. After that my weight seemed to "stabilize" at 195-205 pounds (I'm 5'8″) for the next 15 years or so.About seven years later, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I was given many different medications, some of which helped with pain, but I didn't like them and didn't take them often. And I began a journey of healing through diet, some of which was disastrous.
About four years ago now, when the "restriction diet" bandwagon hit the Internet hard, I started experimenting. I began with the Whole 30, which a lot of people have been helped by. I am sure that eliminating grains was immediately beneficial, but I began to feel very flat, not energized the way they described you were supposed to. I also found the message boards to be very like AA in lots of ways (one of the authors is recovering and so this makes sense) but also very inflexible if, as many people said, what they were doing was not working. If that was so, you were probably not following it well enough or not trying hard enough. But I knew how I felt, and that wasn't good.
I figured that direction couldn't be right, so I tried the protocol recommended by Ray Peat. I have no idea why, but this actually made me feel better for about a month. Then I found I was drinking milk and orange juice like there was no tomorrow, and of solid food eating almost nothing but ice cream and popcorn popped in coconut oil and drenched in butter and salt (probably the healthiest thing I was eating then!). The weight started creeping back up and mood going all over the place - and I began drinking more than I ever had, and not just wine, but hard spirits. Whatever healed up in that month, things were going south and fast. But I kept on, eating more and more refined carbs including wheat flour and lots of sugar at the recommendation of another internet guru, on the advice that what I really needed were easily digested calories to "heal up" my Paleo-battered metabolism.
I had looked at the Diet Doctor web site in its earliest stages. I remembered that those recommendations looked very good
Within three months, I was sick as a horse, literally dragging myself hand-over-hand to get up stairs and otherwise living in a chair or in bed. I thought the fibromyalgia was simply out of control and that there was too much stress in my life. Depression was severe, needless to say. Then I saw the very popular Ted Talk by Dr. Peter Attia, and remembered Protein Power and that I had looked at the Diet Doctor web site in its earliest stages. I remembered that those recommendations looked very good, but there seemed to be so little "satisfaction" in the food that I had never tried it.By now, though, I was really sick. My sister had full-blown diabetes with seizures, and my other sister reported she was also getting seizures, and she had suffered all her life from horrifying migraines. So it seemed that we each had our own manifestation of probably the same metabolic problem.
Fortunately, I went to a new doctor who did a full blood panel, and we found that my HbA1C was 5.9, "right next to pre-diabetic," she said. I was also back up to 235 pounds (107 kg), which shocked me but also was the wake-up call I needed to make all the connections. I asked her what she recommended, and she said, "Whole foods, nothing processed." I asked if a paleo diet was good, and she said, sure, she followed that herself. "What about low carb?" This she did not recommend because it is "not sustainable."
One thing I knew, though, was that eating wheat was having an increasingly bad effect, especially severe GERD and joint pain. I started modifying my diet based on the Dr. Davis's Wheat Belly book, and though I didn't really lose weight, I did lose a lot of inflammation and a bit of belly (and end-of-day ankle edema). Over the next two years, I went back and forth again, from very low carb, to meat-only, to trying different vegetables to see how they affected me, and so on.
What I see now is that I simply did not want to give up my sugars and my sweets - and my alcohol. When I was doing low carb, I was drinking in the evening as a way to dull my feelings of deprivation and depression. Every several weeks or so, I'd hit the doughnuts and have a weekend of wine, potato chips and ice cream, and then I'd go back to some version of LCHF. It made me feel better, but I still lacked real intellectual understanding and emotional commitment. I did not connect alcohol as seriously as I should have - because it's metabolized in the liver, right? Free ride! But I was self-medicating, and simply would not accept this was so. There are plenty of alcoholics in my family, and I knew I wasn't like them, so it was not possible that I might also have a drinking problem.
Here, I want to agree with Dr. Georgia Ede that there is nothing shameful about taking medication for depression, anxiety, and other severe mood conditions. About the same time I was beginning low carb eating, my therapist recommended a psychiatrist with a thorough knowledge of medications, and finally I was prescribed a combination of meds that help with these problems. So, I can't emphasize enough that, while I commend anyone who has stopped taking unnecessary meds for mood illness, if you need them and can take them, they can likely save your life. (But be sure they are being prescribed by a qualified person, a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner, along with counseling therapy.)
I re-found the Diet Doctor web site and all of the incredible resources there. I did the DD two-week challenge last year and felt great
To end with, I re-found the Diet Doctor web site and all of the incredible resources there. I did the DD two-week challenge last year and felt great, lost about 7 pounds and a couple of inches. I watched all the videos on sugar addiction, and pretty well every video on the DietDoctor member pages. Many of them helped, several of them made me angry for various reasons, but I know I learned a lot from all of them.Yet I still kept going back to my doughnuts and sweets and wine, never really understanding that what was going on was a physiological response that got more intense every time I "went back," feeling good in the moment but followed by hideously negative reactions and after-effects. Finally this spring, when I realized how much I was drinking, and how often these times of eating sweets contributed to starting drinking again, or when drinking "let me" dive into a bag of chips and pint of ice cream, I finally "got" the connection.
Dr. Fung's Intensive Dietary Management blog has helped enormously with understanding why it is that if you "feed" a metabolic disorder with what causes the disorder, you will only increase the disorder. If you try to treat the disorder with something that has nothing to do with the disorder, with restricting calories or foods that don't actually bother you but that you have been told "don't belong in our WOE (way of eating, which I love because it is the ironic opposite of SAD - standard American diet), you won't get much in real health and wellness.
...the sooner you begin to take care of yourself, the better you will age and the more serious diseases you will likely avoid.
Without going into the particulars of what followed, from all of these "light bulb" moments, what I see is that understanding that metabolic disorder is something that does not happen overnight, and that the sooner you begin to take care of yourself, the better you will age and the more serious diseases you will likely avoid. My story is one of exploration but definitely one of encouragement. I know now what works for me. I turned 60 this year, and after two and a half decades of battering my metabolism, I find I have to be very strict. I don't drink at all, eat no sugar, limit starchy foods to occasional (VERY occasional) treats, keep carbs to about 15-25 g. per day, eat as much fat as my GI can handle, and moderate protein.If I go by my highest weight, I have lost 70 pounds, but 50 pounds over the past year and I hope to lose more but am taking my time. I have few cravings, eat 2-3 times a day without having to snack, and finally maintaining my weight in the low 180s. My body composition is definitely changing as you can see from these few photos.
Find your trigger foods, and as the saying goes, "ban them from the hand!" Make the commitment to eating the foods that nourish your body and mind, and don't be tempted to "go back to just one little bite." It's simply not worth it when you know that it takes you to some place you don't need or want to be - and it's for sure not worth one moment of the suffering that comes when your body says, "Wait a minute! I thought we were done with this!" I am done with it and I know you can be, too.
Adrian,
United States
Keep up the great work, Adrian! And thank you for sharing your insights.
