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Individual Stories about Low Carbing
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When carbohydrates enter your body, those carbohydrates are metabolized into glucose in your bloodstream, raising your blood sugar levels. The job of insulin is to move in and bring the blood sugar levels down. Under normal circumstances, this is a good thing. Insulin performs a vital function in your body. It works to keep blood sugar under control. But when your blood sugar rises to excessive levels, the insulin has to find a place to put the glucose that your body doesn't need. Simply put, insulin shoves the excess glucose into your fat cells. In other words, too much insulin causes us to gain weight. Excessive amounts of any carbohydrate or even small amounts of the wrong ones can cause you to have excess insulin. 
This is a GREAT lowcarb recipe book by Karen Rysavy
Other books I'm
Awaken
the Diet
Eat
to Live
|
Dee
Adams
Obesity expert Michael W. Schwartz, MD, of the University of Washington, says he is optimistic that new insights into how hormones influence our urge to eat will soon lead to better appetite control drugs. This is exactly the situation I'm trying to avoid in my life, using drugs to "fix" everything. From HRT to eating healthy, there is always someone who wants to get us to take drugs to deal with the most natural phases of our lives or to "help" us overcome years of bad habits. My personal theory is that it wasn't drugs that made me start living an unhealthy lifestyle, so I didn't look in that direction when I was finally ready to face the reality that I needed to lose weight. I was always susceptible to weight gain, but really didn't think much about it until after having 3 kids and being tired of being 40-50 pounds overweight. I'm not going to go into the whole story, but only mention that I did lose it by starving myself for several weeks which was not healthy. Plus I was still young enough to join a softball team so the combination of no food and physical activity helped me lose it. That was 22 years ago.........now fast-forward to 2002. July 2002.....I'm 54, post-menopausal, 80 lbs. overweight and have given up any effort to control my weight. But I was finally ready to consider SOME kind of program to lose weight and create a healthier lifestyle. I bought the Atkins book as well as "The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet" book and really studied both to figure out if I thought this was something I could do. Then I started researching on the web and a whole new world opened up to me.........low-carbing is a VERY prominent activity these days! Then one of my subscribers sent me some info about Dr. Diana Schwarzbein, so I read through her website and found that again, more and more doctors, dieters and medical articles are all coming around to the low-carb "way of eating" being the healthy way to go. Another doctor, Larrian Gillespie, has been pushing basically the same thing since 1999 when her book "The Menopause Diet" was published. Again, I was just not ready to "hear" what anyone was saying about weight loss. After I "got it" about the low-carbs, I went back to her book and found a lot of reinforcement of why this was the right thing for me. The BIG plus with Dr. Gillespie's book, that I was not finding in all the others, was the connection between weight gain and hormones! Duh! Ok, so that's a basic overview of how I got to the point of starting, how I chose the right program for me and how I used information from several different programs to find something I could really DO and stick with. There's been some up and downs (the first two weeks), but overall I'm accomplishing what I set out to do.......lose weight, eat healthier and enjoy my meals. I have more energy and not feel deprived. I never thought I'd be able to give up Pepsi, bread or donuts, but it only took about 2 days to break the carb habit and I swear, the cravings are GONE! I've also cut out all caffeine and aspartame. I've gone from a size 24-26 to an 18. (Update: I'm now wearing size 16!) I still want to lose another 40 lbs. and hopefully get down to a 10-12. The point is, just like everything
else, we all have to make individual decisions on what is right for us
at any given time in our lives. I encourage you to compare the programs
I've mentioned here and see what you feel might work for you. It's always
a good idea to check with your doctor first before making any drastic changes,
but I can't see how anyone could disagree with eliminating sugar, bread,
white flour and other starches since there is so much supporting evidence
that this is what has been making us fat! Please take the time to read
and understand what lowering your carb intake can do for you and your health!
Karrel Buckingham Hi, I am 49 (50 in April) and have been having those old hot flashes for a year now, but am still ovulating. Anyway, I have been on Atkins plan for 5 months now and have lost 30#s and am almost in a size 16 (from a 20). I had gone on Atkins before, only to go off. But now I am really into that eating style and think that I could do it for life. It is my express goal to loose #1-2's a week. I have also been exercising
(something I didn't do the last time). My big idea is to find something
I can do the rest of my life. I was walking 2 miles a day 3 times
a week (I made my own CD with songs that I could listen to over and over
and that made me walk faster) and I was going to the gym lifting weights
2 times a week for an hour. Until 2 weeks ago that is, then I started
doing the Power of 10 (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/20/48hours/main584762.shtml)
I still have about 50 more
pounds to loose to be happy. My goal is to accomplish this by December
31, 2004. I will keep you posted.
Suzi Cox I am a member of Curves and am doing their diet plan and it's working! Their plan combines several of the low-carb eating plans I've tried with one major exception--Phase III (maintenance). I have been on Phase III for 3 weeks now and if I can stay within my high weight and low weight for one more week, I will return to Phase I and start losing weight again. My metabolism will have been sufficiently raised to a pre-dieting level, so I can successfully lose weight. Here's how the plan works: Phase I -- eat only
20 carbs (of acceptable healthy foods) for 2 weeks--listed in Curves Book.
I highly recommend Curves for Women; it is a fantastic exercise, dieting, and supportive environment where lots of women from all walks of life share their experiences, expertise, and fun! I call it an exercise party! One of the girls, Kim, asked me today if my husband, George, understood why I choose to spend more than just 30 minutes a day at Curves...I told her he loves the fact that I am finally climbing out of my depression, moving this post-menopausal body, and talking about the fun I'm having and all the new friends I'm making, Oh, and BTW, I'm losing lots of inches and pounds (painlessly!). Sincerely and happy carb
counting! :-)
Betty Klingemann I began the Atkins way of eating January 19, 2002 at a beginning weight of 132 pounds. I realize 132 doesn't 'sound' fat, but when you're a very small boned woman of 5'3", it really meant I had an ever-increasing weight problem. You see, I was addicted to carbohydrates! I craved them so bad! And I paid the price for my cravings with pain in my joints, migraine headaches, backaches, and overall loss of energy. I suffered with sluggishness (particularly in the afternoons) and inability to concentrate. All of these symptoms I later learned are caused by a high carbohydrate diet, a diet mostly comprised of white flour products and processed sugars. One of my co-workers had been following the Atkins diet for over a year with great success. I watched her in amazement and couldn't believe how well she was doing. And, she was keeping the weight off; something I could never do. I tried sticking to a low-fat diet and ended up gaining weight. I ate so little (of the wrong foods) and was always hungry. I couldn't believe how my co-worker could eat so much and still lose weight. Finally, I picked up a copy of Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution in January, 2002. I read it cover to cover in a day and a half. What he said about the scientific evidence of a low carb diet being an effective weight loss method really made sense. So I, along with my husband, committed to 2 weeks on the diet as a 'trial'. The first few days were difficult with the withdrawal from the carbs. But by the 3rd day, we both felt so energized .. better than we had in years! Gone were the headaches, the sluggishness, the 'brain fog' we had attributed to our middle years! We knew we were on to something great! That was nearly a year and a half ago and I am pleased to say that we are both loving the low-carb lifestyle. I have lost 30 pounds and my husband has lost nearly 25 pounds. We exercise daily because we actually have the energy to do it now!! It has been so delightful to watch our bodies shrink and yet get stronger each day. We don't crave the high carb foods any longer; we relish the fact that the foods we eat now are satisfying and don't leave us hungry and cranky. We tell everyone we can about the many health benefits of this way of eating. We are so grateful to Dr. Atkins for all he has done in spreading the word about the healthiest lifestyle on earth. Since losing the weight,
I do feel alot cooler, in fact, cold alot of the time, which is not climate-related
since I live in Florida. Has to be the low carb lifestyle.
No problem, I just carry a light sweater most of the time and I am fine.
All things considered, this is the greatest woe (way of eating) on the
planet. I am 47 and have been in post-surgical menopause since 1994 when
I had a total hysterectomy. I definitely sleep better and I am not moody
like I was prior to the low carb way of eating.
Bobbie Bowen I found that low carb eating really helped me to control food cravings, water retention and lots of other pms and later meno symptoms. I saw that you too eat low carb. One tip that may help you to drink more water is an old bartender's trick and very simple and yet effective. Use a straw. Bartenders put straws in drinks to have people drink more and it works. Drinking water or slightly flavored water through a straw, I can get much more fluid drank than with just a glass and sipping. Also I have a hiatal hernia, like many middle aged people, I found that if I drink my water (almost a gallon a day due to living in a dry climate and needing lots for my weight) before 6 pm and just sip small amounts after 6 pm I don't have any problem with indigestion when I go to bed at night. My doctor told me that acid likes to float on fluids in our stomachs and if I drink water later in the evening, it gives the acid a new level to sit at. Much cheaper and easier to do than take fancy antacids. Thanks so much for your website. I've sent so many women to it. Sincerely, Bobbie Bowen Linda Fitzpatrick I wanted to call your attention to another book and twist on low-carb eating, this one from Dr. Arthur Agatston, called "The South Beach Diet". It's excerpted in this month's Prevention Magazine. I haven't read every word of the book, but am on Day 6 of the program and have lost 4 pounds! This, from a lifelong (repeat) Weight Watcher who had been struggling with 10 pounds over goal for the past year. Dr. Agatston's twist is a 3-phase approach, strictest version first, then slowly adding back some nutritious, unrefined carbs slowly until weight loss stops and/or cravings and hunger begin again. So far the author has been right-- I have no cravings, and feel great. I like it better than Atkins because the emphasis is on low-fat proteins (Atkins bacon/sausage/whipped heavy cream approach always scared me), and Agatston allows as much as you want of low-GI vegetables (the ones that on Weight Watchers would be zero Points). So it is possible to be full, a feeling I need! I can't say yet what effect this will have on my hot flashes, but I'm hoping they improve. Love your site! Thanks for all the effort you put into it! Best wishes, Linda Fitzpatrick
Let us post your story about how eating low carb has helped (or maybe not) with your menopausal symptoms.......... dee@minniepauz.com |
