Before and after
Weight loss does not have to be a constant struggle. There is a better way, and Clare found it.
Here’s her story:
The Email
Dear Andreas,
I am really bad with word limits, here is my story (the long version). Feel free to edit it to suit your site. A huge thank you for your site, it was how I found out about LCHF and anyone who asks me how I lost 66 pounds (30 kg) gets directed straight to dietdoctor.com.
For as long as I can remember, even into my childhood, I always remember being overweight, and I always remember feeling like I had weight to lose. I don’t remember exactly when I started dieting, but it was probably early adolescence. I was definitely very aware of my weight and what I was eating by the time that I started high school (1989).
I spent twenty years of my life essentially on some sort of diet or attempt to lose weight, and some would work for a short time, but then the weight would creep back, often with a bit extra. I felt very much like the “glutton and sloth”. It wasn’t that I didn’t know the “right” things to be eating. I was following the “conventional wisdom” of the dietary guidelines most of the time but essentially was very much feeling like a “glutton” and a “sloth”, at my heaviest (non-pregnant) I weighed around 265 lbs (120 kg). I’m not saying I ate perfectly all the time. I would get frustrated and I figured that if I was going to work hard and still be overweight, I may as well eat to my appetite (which was best described as ravenous) and enjoy my chocolate and other assorted goodies and be overweight.
In Spring 2012, over twenty years since I had begun ‘dieting”, I began to limit fructose, forms of sugar and nut and seed oils, after reading David Gillespie’s Sweet Poison and watching Robert Lustig’s YouTube video Sugar: The Bitter Truth. I felt liberated by the information. I had spent twenty years of my life ashamed of what I looked like and fearful that strangers in the street would look at me and think that I was a “glutton” and a “sloth”. Suddenly I realised that it wasn’t a weakness on my part. I was doing the best that I could with the information that I had available to me, I just hadn’t accessed the right information until then.
When I eliminated sugar, within two weeks my appetite was under control. I was no longer ravenous all the time and as promised by David Gillespie in his book, a block of chocolate was no more appealing to me than a plate of broccoli. I began to read more and more about limiting sugar and stumbled into the world of low-carb high-fat through Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt’s site www.dietdoctor.com. In July 2013 I began my LCHF journey, eliminating sugar had been really difficult, although very worthwhile, limiting all carbohydrates with the addition of healthy fats was much easier, I never felt deprived and it was effortless, and that was when the weight really just fell off. I lost 10 lbs (4 kg) in the first week and about 5 lbs (2 kg) a week after that. I didn’t exercise at all in the beginning, eventually I felt more and more energetic and I wanted to move, so I just went for the occasional walk. To date I have reduced my body weight by 66 lbs (30 kg).
When I first started adding all those good fats back to my diet, people were really concerned and thought I was crazy (some still do) but as soon as they noticed the change in my body composition, they began to pay attention. I have to admit that LCHF has taken over my life somewhat, it has become a huge passion. I am like a sponge eagerly devouring all the latest information. LCHF worked for me because after the first week or so, it is so simple to stick to, which means that I have easily adopted it as a lifestyle; a way to eat for the rest of my life. At first I was really strict with myself and didn’t stray very far, these days I am a little more relaxed, sometimes more than others, but I don’t feel badly about it, I have come to realize that it is not about being perfect all the time, and mostly I just make the best choice that I have available, or if I really stray off track I just acknowledge it for what it is and move on.
LCHF has directed me towards a primal lifestyle approach to my life. I have relocated out of Sydney to Wodonga in North East Victoria where I have the luxury of a backyard where my chickens free range on my grass and give me the most beautiful pastured eggs, I can walk to work and I enjoy long walks in the nearby hills surrounded by nature. I know when I go to the farmer’s market the produce is local and I actually talk to the farmers about how they produce their livestock. A few months ago I even began running, something that I never thought that I would do, but it turns out I absolutely love it, I even competed in a recent mud run challenge with my colleagues from work and am looking forward to my first 6 miles (10 km) run in February 2015!
LCHF has become so much more than a “diet”. It is not only a lifestyle, it has become a passion. I spend hours and hours each week reading and researching more and more about nutrition. I want others to know that have challenges with their weight and their health that they don’t have to, that there is an answer that works and respects the physiology of their body. In my work as a Registered Midwife I am always trying to provide women with the right environment to allow the normal physiology of their bodies to work to birth their babies. I think that our body composition is the same, if we provide the right environment with the right food, our bodies can work in the way they are supposed to and not be burdened with diseases related to obesity.
I am really excited to get the message out there; the change that I have experienced for myself and the information that I have learnt has inspired me to help others too. I have started a health coaching business to provide individual information and support and in 2015 I am teaching a short course at my local community college to teach others about this way to optimal health and wellbeing. I am not an “expert” by conventional standards, I am not a dietician or a doctor, I am however a tertiary educated Registered Nurse and Midwife who understands anatomy and physiology and knows how to critically read and analyze research papers and evaluate evidence, all of which lead me to follow a LHCF lifestyle where I am now experiencing a healthy body composition with excellent health. Most importantly I am just a person who knows what it is like to struggle trying to lose weight following conventional wisdom and I want others who are in the same situation I was to know that it doesn’t have to be hard or a constant struggle, there is a better way!
Warm regards,
Clare Kendall
More
How to Lose Weight
“Why Was I Still Fat?”
“I Never Knew Dieting Could Be So Tasty”
More health and weight success stories
PS
Do you have a success story you want to share on this blog? Send it (photos appreciated) to andreas@dietdoctor.com. Let me know if it’s OK to publish your photo and name or if you’d rather remain anonymous.