My World … and welcome to it!

I have struggled with my weight for my entire adult life, which, given my age, covers a heck of a lot of territory. About 2 years ago I went on one of those pre-packaged food plans. Your typical low calorie, low fat, high carb, low protein kinda thing. I lost 59 pounds in 17 months.

The problem was the last 6 months I was on the diet I only lost 8 pounds and I was CONSTANTLY hungry. I did NOT cheat. I followed the plan, kept my calories within the 1200-1300 range. I grew so fatigued I couldn’t even do my workouts.

I finally decided to take a break.

This coincided with my discovery of a book by Gary Taubes entitled Good Calories, Bad Calories which had been mentioned in one of hubby’s newsletters. As I read I realized that poor, vilified Dr. Atkins had been right all along. Thus began my low carb journey.

Four months into it I still haven’t lost any weight. As a matter of fact, when I quit the low fat low calorie regimen I gained (and I fully expected it to happen) 12 pounds. First I panicked. Then I got angry. Then I tried to rationalize. Then I discovered my daily body temp averages (AVERAGES mind you, some days it’s actually LOWER) 96.5° a full TWO DEGREES below normal.

I begged my doctor to check my thyroid. Tests showed well within normal ranges. He said my temperature was fine. I cajoled. He capitulated and gave me 4 weeks worth of thyroid. Less than a week into taking them I developed the shakes so tossed the remainder in the trash.

I sought advice from folks on the various low carb forums. One in particular has been extremely helpful. Yes. My metabolism slowed waaaaay down to compensate for the long term low calorie intake. Eat a minimum of 1700 calories per day getting at least 65% from fat and keeping the carbs at about 20g per day. I chowed down on steak, burgers, butter, cream, mayo, all the wonderful stuff “they” keep telling us is bad for us. And I have not gained another pound.

I continued reading. Ultimately had to buy my own copy of Taubes’s book because the library wanted theirs back. found references to a couple of more interesting sounding books and got them in. Now I’m questioning the whole “obese” thing.

I’m currenty reading Paul Campos’s The Diet Myth and within the first 30 pages find myself so incensed I think every single agency within the government that has been touting low fat, the-sky-is-falling-because-the-entire-country-is-obese should be disbanded immediately, their offices torched and the ashes sown with salt.

But I’m getting off track.

One of the things Campos said that really has resonated with me is that the whole diet industry (and make no mistake, it’s a HUGE one and mostly responsible for this madness) is slyly suggesting that by staying slim we will stay young and pert.

Holy cow. That idea has been percolating in the back of my mind the last several weeks. I’d been thinking that when we’re teens we are naturally rail thin. When I was 14 I weighed a dainty 130 pounds and I was, in the words of lecherous uncle, all legs. I was probably about a size 10, the closest I have ever been to single digit sizes in my life. The following year I bounced up to 145 and was in a size 12. I wound up the next year about 165 and I went back and forth between 142 and 165 for about 15 years. At 32 I started gaining and it didn’t stop until I did the diet thing.

In looking back I realize that the only way I stayed around 140 was to basically starve myself. At one point I was madly measuring calories and was thrilled to discover that by eating about 750 calories a day I got my weight back down to 135. holy crap.

I look at the actresses who are all underweight and how if they even approach a normal weight are then pilloried as FAT by the media.

The two thoughts collided and I realized (before reading Campos) that it’s a YOUTH thing. By staying rail thin one can pretend they are still teens.

sick. sick sick sick sick.

Campos also talks about how BMI and wight tables came about. It was someone in the insurance industry trying to figure out some way to measure mortality rates. It has NOTHING to do with health or even with what one should or should not weigh.

Well I’m not that far into the book yet but it’s good reading so far. Because of what I’ve read I’ve readjusted where I think my weight should be … up from 140 (which was my stated goal with the diet company) to a more sane and probably healthier 165. Turns out the older you are, as in over 60, the better it is to have a little extra meat on your bones.

Pass the steak.

Am I the only one who has been left just wordless by all the businesses literally BEGGING for you to give them your “rebate?” I mean I just cannot think of a proper response except perhaps, WTF?!

Then I picked up the library’s copy of Dark Ages America the final phase of empire by Morris Berman and there was the answer staring me in the face not even 30 pages into the book. We have been brainwashed since childhood to be consumers. Strike that. I meant to say “to be GOOD consumers.” To give ALL to the corporate god. And when I say “we” I’m talking about Baby Boomers onward.

Yup, they started with us back in the 50’s with Disney tie-ins (actually it started in the 30’s) to the Mickey Mouse Club. And yes, I remember that clearly. I LOVED that show. I wanted a pair of mouse ears so I could be in the “club” as well.

It sounds innocent enough until you fast forward to today when corporate intrusions into public schools involves 2 minutes daily of FORCED infomercials in the guise of “education.” dear god.

BTW if you haven’t read this book, it’s frankly the scariest thing I have ever read. This country is toast. Stick a fork in us we are done. George Washington and the boys would be so proud of what we’ve done.

Anyway. Since gas prices have begun their upward, and apparently non-stop, trajectory I have been thinking about the way things were when I was a wee lass. Life was way slower. We walked a lot. We ate meals together because no one had ever heard of fast food. Restaurants were few in number and very expensive. We didn’t get “pop” or “sodas” aka those fizzy sugary drinks. We made our own with Kool-Aid and 2 cups of sugar (we liked it super sweet). Root beer from the A&W was a once or twice a summer treat. If Mom had some extra money she’d spring for the big jug and we’d bring it home and have home made root beer floats. Made with home made ice cream.

People ate meat. Packaged or convenience foods were limited to cake mixes which we all laughed at. Everything on the table was done from “scratch.” Nobody had a home freezer so if you had extra meat you rented a meat locker. Produce came from local farms and was not trucked in from a continent away. Many items were seasonal. You only had a narrow window to enjoy things like cherries and strawberries so you made the most of them.

And all that led me to the terrifying thought of what’s going to happen when gas hits $10 a gallon (coming soon to a pump near you).

We live 7 miles outside the city limits. That’s a mighty long walk. And we’re not spring chickens anymore either. Sheridan no longer has a local dairy. No meat is produced locally. No veggies. EVERYthing we eat is trucked in from somewhere else and that somewhere is many MANY miles away.

folks, it’s my opinion we are in a world of hurt and it’s only going to get worse. While the “big boys” are busy making zillions off us poor schmucks our cost of living is skyrocketing. The sociopaths and psychopaths who run the world have more and more everyday while the rest of us have less and less.

Where are the protestors? go look in the mirror. We are all sitting in front of our computers writing angry screeds that no one will read and then wondering why nothing is changing.

I just watched Across the Universe and my god it was time trip back to the 60’s. It was awesome and beautiful and a reminder of what we used to be. Now we’re too busy playing with our Wii’s and X boxes and iPhones to be bothered with reality. We’ve plugged in, turned on, tuned in and tuned OUT.

and corporate America just gets fatter and fatter while we slowly starve … emotionally, spiritually, intellectually.

Good bye America. You barely lasted a blink in the annals of history. Corporate greed sucked you dry.

Without mentioning any names here I have a bit of a rant to go on.

The online lampworking community is a wonderful group of people who rally together when someone is in desperate need of assistance. Like your bead design has been stolen and is being mass produced in China or some unscrupulous dealer is busy stealing photos of handmade beads and putting them on their website and claiming them as their own. Or someone’s studio burns down or someone is having major health problems. This group bands together, raises money to help out or stands firm behind the theft victim.

So what am I ranting about?

This morning I received an email from a well known lampworker who is asking for the community to donate money to help fund their new retail store.

Give me a fucking break. The claim, in the email, was that they have “supported” the lampworking community by developing all kinds of new tools so now, after we’ve all ponied up big bucks for those tools, we should GIVE them more money for nothing so they can open a retail outlet.

WTF?!

I mean are these people SERIOUS?

Well hell. I want a new car. How’s about everyone just donate money to MY paypal account so I can buy one? And while you’re at it, we’d like to retire our mortgage so how’s about you add a little bit extra there.

Judas h. the NERVE some people have.

Did I tell them what I thought? You bet your sweet ass I did. And told them to unsubscribe me from their newsletter. it’ll be a cold day when I buy anything from them ever again.

The adage holds true, the more you have the more people show up to strip you of it.

We got a tidy little bit back from the feds this year. I was holding out for a new LCD tv for bedroom so I’d have something decent to watch 9 months out of the year when Joe’s hogging the big tv in the living room watching football (don’t get me started).

Instead we got to give most of the refund to the vet.

First it was Sammy who, I discovered, had massive amounts of tartar buildup on his back teeth. Turns out THEY were ok but he had 3 “diseased” teeth that had to be pulled. Shiny white teeth? $370.

Then Allie McDog started vomiting. Then she quit eating. All in the course of 3 days. I hauled her butt off to the vet and first they scared me to death with the diagnosis (pancreatitis) then they gave me the bill. $900. Well, she’s still alive and appears to be recovering but I’m still reeling.

And they didn’t update her shots either.

Missy goes in next week for her checkup. She’s the oldest and apparently (keeping my fingers crossed) the healthiest.

So. No new tv.

As for me, I’m ready to do battle with my Doc who says that my thyroid is just fine. Well, um, doc, if that’s the case THEN WHY THE HELL IS THE T3 LEVEL LISTED IN THE ABNORMAL COLUMN of the report? Looks like they’re trying to tell you it’s TOO LOW!!@!!

He also keeps arguing with me that my basal temp of 95.7 is just fine. Um, doc. That’s THREE FREAKING DEGREES LOWER THAN NORMAL.

Judas h.

I’m gaining weight (again) have absolutely NO ENERGY … my sex drive is nonexistent (I know I know more info that you wanted or needed … I’m just SAYING …), my blood work shows I’m on the LOW SIDE OF “NORMAL” on all three thyroid tests … what the hell more do you need?

Anyway, I’m calling him again tomorrow and have already emailed the naturopath clinic in Billings. SOMEbody is going to listen to me.

In news on the homefront, we’ve taken the house off the market. Did I mention that the contractor was going to charge us $339,000!!!!!!!!!! for a modular home? No, it’s not a palace. 1800 sq feet with attached 2 car, oversized garage. Yup. $175,000 for the house itself. Then another $155,000 for the basement, which would have ONE bedroom and ONE bath finished off, the aforementioned garage and the driveway. fuck you.

So now I get to go to the county commissioners office and set the wheels in motion to peel off the front 2 acres of our 4.02 total acreage so we can sell THAT and we need to sell the lot in Osprey. I figure if we can do both we can not only retire the mortgage but pretty much pay for the improvements we’re planning on to finish up this place.

To wit. A new deck off the back, removal of the hot tub (which we never use anymore), installation of a sun room; remodel of the kitchen and the bath.

I’m trying to decide if we should move my studio out of the house because then we could utilitize THAT space for a separate tv room/exercise room.

Well, anyway, unless I get some THRYOID meds and get my energy back up NONE of that is likely to happen cause I’m too damned tired to even give a damn.

Holy moly. These things are absolutely scrumptious! OK OK I can hear you now, what the heck is an oopsie?

Well Cleochatra accidentally added too much cream cheese to Dr. Atkins Rev rolls recipe and oopsies were born. Since I never made the originals I have no comparisons to make but these guys are amazing! You’ll find the recipe and pics on her website so I’m not going to duplicate it here.

Still in a holding pattern with the scale. I’m trying to keep an eye on calories as well as carbs then someone on one of the forums said I needed WAY more protein than I’m getting. You may wonder why I’m bothering but honestly, if I’m not careful I won’t get enough to eat. Sounds crazy doesn’t it?

This morning I had 2 slices of bacon and 2 eggs fried up in the bacon grease. Well, fat satiates so I REALLY didn’t want to eat anymore and put the other 2 slices of bacon in the fridge. I’ll crumble them up on my dinner salad with last nights left over steak. ANYway. I was humming along just fine, decided the dog and I needed a walk so off we went. I almost didn’t make it home. My stomach was complaining and I thought geez am I getting sick?

So I wandered over to the recipe section of the forum and found the mock cheese danish. Whipped it up (and of course did it ALL wrong, but it was tasty anyway) and gobbled it down (it’s cream cheese, an egg, some vanilla, splenda and cocoa). My stomach made happy noises.

OH! I must be hungry. huh. OKEYDOKEY. I had some tuna salad left from the other day and thought I’d eat that. Then I noticed the oopsies cooling over on the counter and thought well, lets try one or two. So I made a sandwich with half the tuna salad (there really wasn’t much to begin with so it was like 1/4 cup) and OH MY STARS. I keep wanting to go have another one but that’s just cause they tasted so good so I’m refraining.

Hmmm. The headache I felt coming on is really making itself felt so I think I’ll go use the massager chair for a bit.

Maybe I’ll get some beads made TOMORROW.

Here I thought I was doing SO well with my low-carb eating. Yup, up another pound (down again today). One thing I discovered was I have to give up mushrooms. Well duh. I’m allergic to molds so why was I surprised that eating sauted mushrooms caused bloat and water retention?

ANYhoo. Was perusing the Atkins forum over on one of my favorite low carb forums when I ran across a reference to a new Gary Taubes article. Here’s a sample:

I avoided bread and pasta like the plague. Soon my friends avoided me like it, too
By Gary Taubes

Give up carbs and prepare to spend the rest of your life on the defensive.

This has been my experience, at least, particularly since researching and writing Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease. For me, it all began in the summer of 1999, when I interviewed a professor at MIT who said he’d lost and kept off 40 pounds by eating a high-fat diet–the Atkins diet, as it’s commonly known. Since this professor seemed like a reasonably thoughtful guy, absent of any obvious self-destructive tendencies, I decided to try the same as an experiment.

I gave up bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals, pastries, sodas, and beer. Instead, I ate to my appetite’s content mostly high-fat, cholesterol-laden foods that are supposed to kill us (if not sooner, then certainly later)–bacon and sausages for breakfast and meat, fish, or fowl at every other meal. I ordered bacon cheeseburgers for lunch and ate them without the bun.

Click HERE to read the whole thing. It’s short, funny and sadly, directly to the point. If it disappears, just email me at beads @ darleenmb dot com (god I hate those spam robots) and I can send you a copy.

So. Back to my diet experiment. After much MUCH whining over on the Protein Power forums yesterday I came to the sad conclusion I needed to really DO the Atkins induction the way it’s written. So. No more cheese for a couple of weeks, no nuts etc. and watch my intake. Which is more to make sure I eat ENOUGH than to curb my intake.

STATS for Friday April 4th

Calories 1252
Fat 85.2g
Carbs 38g
Fiber 5.6g
ECC 32.4g
Protein 87g

So the carbs are WAY high because of all the cream I drank. Yeah DRANK. Won’t be doing that again anytime soon. It was yumilicious though. But I’m back to measuring it out with the tablespoon instead of the cup.

So today I’m striving for around 1500 calories that would be 20-30g of ECC (that’s the carb count minus the fiber if you don’t know), 80g of protein or more and the rest from fat. NOT as easy as it sounds. So far today I’m at 582 calories, 50.6g of fat, 9g of carb minus 8g fiber = 1g ECC and 22g protein. The carb count might be off by 2g because of the Splenda.

OK, enough obsessing about my diet.

Joe’s in Arizona playing with his buddies. He got a call a couple weeks ago from a lifelong friend and when he started whining because Larry was headed to AZ to go gold panning I said “why don’t you go too?” We were going to Colorado that weekend anyway, I figured he could just go with the guys and I’d come back in 2 weeks when the returned to Loveland and bring him home. I think he plain forgot he’s retired and can DO that sort of thing. So he’s off playing and I’m home counting fat grams. When I SHOULD be making beads.

See, BNSF bid us a fond adieu the end of last year on our health insurance. Of course nothing got said by hubby OR the railroad until mid-February. WTF DO YOU MEAN I NO LONGER HAVE COVERAGE?

Do you really want to hear this rant? Let me cut it short by saying that 30 years ago I had full coverage for $5 a MONTH. You read that right. five freaking bucks a month. I had to have my appendix out. Fully paid for. I had to have knee surgery. Fully paid for. Now I get to shell out $316 a month for a $5,000 deductible from blue cross blue shield. oh joy. Just so the CEO can have his platinumtitaniumgoldbonded fucking parachute and the investors can have their dividends.

Well, I say fuck them. Health care should NEVER HAVE BEEN DEREGULATED BY THE REAGAN “ADMINISTRATION.” That is exactly what is wrong with health care in this country. It got privatized. When in the hell are the politicians and citizens going to wake up to the truth that privatization means SOMEbody wants to make a profit and generally NOT a little one? We didn’t have HMO’s until deregulation allowed health care to become a for-profit scheme. It is my NOT unconsidered opinion that NO ONE should be allowed to profit from someone else’s misery. grrrrrrrrrr.

Oh my completely off track. Making beads. I haven’t for weeks now. but now I have major incentive. $316 a month incentive.

The new house. Not gonna happen. Get this. We are looking at a modular home. We have bought a nice lot with view (3 years ago). It’s a little less than a 1/4 of an acre. House is to be 1800 sq feet with a full basement and oversized 2 car garage. Nothing fancy. We paid about $38,000 for the lot (now said to be worth between $85-90,000). It’s paid for. Just doing the house and garage (not including the deck and landscaping?) is estimated at $330,000. FOR A FUCKING MODULAR. 3 years ago when we started down this road we were told $250,000 tops. Figure in 10% for overruns. Why the huge increase?

GAS PRICES

didn’t anybody but me think that rising gas prices would jack up the price on EVERYTHING ELSE.

uhoh. I feel another rant coming on.

It is way past time for the Feds to PRIVATIZE THE OIL INDUSTRY. To REregulate utilities. This country will literally die so the oil barons can continue to enjoy record breaking profits. they don’t care. I say, take the oil industry AWAY from them, and in exchange we won’t jail the bastards AND we’ll let them keep their ill gotten gains. I think that’s more than generous. And while I’m on that subject.

We need to return NOW to locally produced everything. When I was a kid we had a municipally owned and run power plant. We had meat lockers and local farms producing local produce. NOW we have everything trucked in from Mexico. With gas prices climbing wtf are you going to do for food? It’s going to come down to either pay the mortgage and pay to gas up the vehicle so you can get to work and then freeze and starve or eat and live on the street.

I worry about this because we live in a very rural area of Wyoming 130 miles North, West, and South of any major populations. There is NOTHING between but open land and a few tiny clusters of settlements. We no longer have a local dairy. We no longer have a slaughter house. We no longer have meat lockers or locally produced eggs. No farms except back yard gardens. What the hell will we do when we cannot afford to have food trucked in? We will starve.

What will YOU do?

I have to say I feel fantastic on this WOE. I’m NOT hungry. WOW. that’s amazing. for the 15 months I was on the packaged foods I was HUNGRY. And it was getting worse toward the end.

I’m still bummed that the scale isn’t cooperating but OTOH given all the fat I’ve been eating, I’m not seeing a massive weight GAIN either.

Yesterday hit about 2000 calories and that is NOT easy let me tell you. Today I started with

2 eggs fried in a tsp or so of butter
a “muffin in a minute” (recipe follows)
butter on the muffin
a couple of spoonfuls of that “nasty” cream cheese/pnut butter concoction from Bawdy Wench
a sausage patty
cup of decaf with lots of heavy cream

Lunch was my own chicken salad:

what was left in the bag of diced chicken meat from Schwans (about a cup?+)
a diced hard boiled egg
TBS of minced red onion
2 TBS of minced celery with leaves
couple of spoonfuls of Hellman’s REAL mayo
a healthy squirt of dijon mustard
handful of chopped raw pecans

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm TASTY

and no I didn’t eat the whole thing! Gah. Too rich by far. I had, hmmm. Maybe there was more chicken in the bag. I had about a handful. I dunno. Less than half. The rest is in the fridge for Joe’s lunch when he gets back from the VA.

OK. Muffin in a minute:

1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 packet of Splenda®
1 tsp melted butter
1 egg

I melt the butter FIRST, add the dry stuff and stir really well. Add in the egg and stir some more. Nuke for about a minute. Depends on your nuker. Ours is old so I go 80 seconds and it’s still moist. You can do this is a coffee mug, I like to use my 2 cup Pyrex® measuring cup. These are also good toasted after it’s cooked. mmmm mmmm good. LOADS of fiber too.

Bawdy Wench’s nasty cream cheese pnut buter concoction:

1 brick of cream cheese
6 TBS sugar free pnut butter (organic is best)
6 TBS heavy cream
3 packets or to your taste Splenda®

Whip it all together with your mixer. One third is what BW ate for breakfast the other day. urk. Too much for me. So I keep it in the fridge, take it out when I want a snack and have a couple of spoonfuls. yummmmmmmeeeeeeee.

OK. We’re visiting the outlaws this weekend and the cats don’t know how to run the computer so no posts until after I get back on Monday.

And finally, I decided to try and play with the built in camera on my iMac. First I had to find the software to run it (Photo Booth, catchy, eh?) then figure out how to run it (push a button, duh) then process it.

Whaddaya think?

I can’t believe how much the number on my scale is bouncing around. Down 5 yesterday up 6 today. HUH?

My numbers yesterday were (hold on to your hats)

total calories 2057
73% fat
3% carbs
22% protein

That’s a lotta fat, right? Well, according to Atkins and all the research fat is NOT the enemy. Fat is ENERGY not enemy. Protein builds muscle tissue and provides necessary vitamins and carbs provide fat storage for times of famine. Makes sense that eating mostly fat (like the Masai and Inuit) would keep you lean and healthy.

I’m still plowing through Taubes’s Good Calories, Bad Calories and have found this little nugget:

He’s discussing congressional hearings in the 70’s on dietary fat, cholesterol and heart disease which were being chaired by George McGovern. The subject “…that seemed most urgent — thanks in part to the publication of John Yudkin’s Sweet and Dangerous — was sugar in the diet, diabetes, and heart disease.”
“… Peter Bennett, an NIH epidemiologist, testified on the Pima Indians of Arizona, who had the highest incidence of diabetes ever recorded at the time: half of the Pima over thirty-five years old were diabetic. ‘The only question that I would have,’ Bennett said, ‘is whether we can implicate sugar specifically or whether the important factor is not calories in general, which in fact turns out to be really excessive amounts of carbohydrate.’ Walter Metz, chairman of the USDA Human Nutrition Institute, testified, as did his colleague, Carol Berdanier, explaining that refined sugar seemed to play particular havoc with health, at least in laboratory rats. It elevated blood sugar and triglycerides, and caused subjects to become diabetic, Berdanier said, ‘and they die at a very early age.’”

He goes on to recount how McGovern asked Yudkin “Are you saying that you don’t think a high fat intake produces the high cholesterol count? Or are you even saying that a person with high cholesterol count is not in great danger?”

Yudkin’s response was, in part, “If we are talking about the general population, I believe both those things that you say. I believe that decreasing the fat in the diet is not the best way of combating a high blood cholesterol. … I believe that the high blood cholesterol in itself (emphasis here is mine) has nothing whatever to do with heart disease.”

McGovern, who’s committee was instrumental in shoving the low fat, high carb diet down Americans’ throats responded “That is exactly opposite what my doctor told me.”

HUH?

So let’s get this straight, McGovern assumed his personal physician knew more about dietary fat and it’s supposed consequences better than a research scientist who had actually done studies showing that fat has nothing to do with it.

This is exactly what is wrong with most people today. They have been force fed information that was based on OPINION not SCIENCE and now everyone believes it to be true.

here is a new FACT for you to chew on. Insulin has now been proven to be a FAT STORAGE HORMONE. You spike your insulin you gain fat which means the number on the scale goes up.

High carbohydrate diets were NOT how our long-ago ancestors survived. They hate FAT, protein and a few nuts and berries. Then agriculture came along and they started eating grains. and they started getting sick. Diabetes, coronary heart disease, gall bladder disease, cancer, etc etc.

STOP EATING REFINED SUGAR/CARBOHYDRATES, eat more FAT and some protein.

Well, that’s what I keep telling myself.

NO grains, no potatoes, no rice, nothing with high fructose corn syrup in it (that means ANY processed food you’ll find on grocery store shelves), no refined sugar.

YES to lots of meat, fish, poulty, eggs, cheese, butter, cream, and nuts, and yes to low carb veggies and yes to a bit of fruit now and then.

I cannot believe this! Yesterday I was trying SO hard not to be depressed about my weight because it was up yet again. 5+ pounds gained in 3 weeks of trying to keep my carbs to between 20 and 30 grams. BTW, please go to that post (Pass the Butter) and read David Brown’s comment. It is FILLED with really good information on the low fat MYTH.

anyhoo. I was whining over on the Protein Power forum and basically was told to eat more fat. So I did. And today!!! I was back down those 5 pounds. OVERNIGHT my body decided the famine was over. Yipppeeee.

What did I do? Well, in addition to the cream smoothie I had for lunch I ate lots of macadamia nuts, a couple of oz of camembert cheese and a hunk of smoked gouda (not all in one sitting!, LOL but throughout the day). Pre dinner snack was some pepperoni (about an ounce). Dinner was pork chops fried (NOT grilled) in olive oil and finished with a cream sauce (dump the cream into the pan and deglaze, tada), and a before bed snack of a REAL Zone bar (not zone perfect but Barry Sear’s zone bar).

FIVE POUNDS OVERNIGHT! Well I suspected all along it was just water retention.

No exercise today.

I’ve written here a little about my weight loss progress but things have changed. So I’m going to do a quick recap to start then I’m going to start chronicling my new WOE.

OK. September 2006 I had a meltdown where I sobbed hysterically to Joe that I didn’t want our friends to see me because I was so fat. He looked at me like I had lost my mind and then calmly said, “Well, why don’t you do Jenny Craig?”

Apart from the fact I didn’t realize he even KNEW who or what Jenny Craig was my thought was, “why the hell didn’t I think of that?”

So I called the 800 number on the website and got everything set up for when we returned from our trip. Two days after we returned the first box of packaged food showed up and I started my little low-fat, high REFINED carb, low protein journey. I started at 1500 calories a day and lost some weight then stalled out. My counselor finally ASKED how much I was eating and she was insistent that I needed to go to 1200 calories a day. OK. I did. Over 17 months I managed to lose 60 pounds. Almost. I went from 241 to 180 (for ONE day) then hovered around 182.4.

All right. The end of February I decided I had HAD it. I was hungry all the time. I was sick of eating “baby” carrots and trying to fill up on decaf with SF creamer. The first joints on BOTH my pinky fingers had, over the course of 17 months, swollen to 3 times their normal size. I was developing pain in my left foot and my joints just ached in general. It was time to take a break.

So the first of March I started easing off the packaged foods. I missed a call with Barbara (my JC counselor) and during that time decided it was time to stop entirely. I had thought I’d try bumping up to 1500 calories with the packaged stuff but I was just sick of all of it. Too much sugar, too much wheat, not enough fat and not enough protein.

My first thought was that I’d go back and follow the Zone program (60% carbs, 40% fat and 40% protein) but that didn’t last long. Why? Because at the same time I had stumbled across Gary Taubes’s book Good Calories, Bad Calories and I was thinking ATKINS is the answer. So over the last couple of weeks I have moved into low-carb, high fat eating. and here’s the amazing part. My swollen pinky joints? They are almost back to normal. And I feel GREAT. AND I’m no longer hungry.

the downside is I’ve gained back 5 pounds. I’m really trying hard not to panic because I KNOW that having been on a near-starvation diet for 15 months this was bound to happen. My poor body thinks we’re in the middle of a great famine. I just don’t want to gain back 20 pounds before it figures out the famine’s over.

Today’s exercise: one hour at the Y in the pool doing “cross training.”

today’s nutrition: (will add tomorrow)

In the meantime, I’m off to the store to buy more fat. You know. Cream cheese, eggs, etc. Stay tuned.