I’m betting those of you who’ve followed my Transformation Day 2012 updates thought I’d given up. Well, I hadn’t given up, but I also didn’t have a lot of progress to report. And then there was the issue of photos. Some of you might recall that I’d promised “during” photos, and it wasn’t until yesterday that I dared to allow my husband to take photos of me.
So first things first. We’ll get the matter of these “during” photos out of the way. I have NEVER liked my picture taken, but after having lost almost 40 pounds, I can’t help but with I hadn’t been so camera-shy.
Please forgive the photographer. As you can see, the lighting conditions are far from ideal, and my dear husband is no professional. These photos do give some perspective though, and I’ll likely try and get new photos about every 10 pounds or so.
And now that the pictures are out of the way, I can talk about something that’s MUCH more exciting to me. My weight loss journey has taken an interesting turn. Some of you may remember that I have essentially maintained last year’s weight loss (within a 10 pound range) since last November. In an attempt to troubleshoot, I set out listening to some podcasts that I’d been avoiding for a while, and it hit me like a ton of bricks! I’ve been going further and further away from nutritional ketosis with all my eating plan tweaks, and that was the WRONG thing for me to do.
I got caught up on podcasts, I did a lot of reading, and I reached out to Jimmy Moore over at the Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show (and others). On October 19, 2012, I changed my menus to ketogenic plans, and in the past 11 days, I’ve found myself MELTING! In 11 days, I’ve gone from 250 pounds to 241.8 pounds — a new low for me since starting this challenge back in July of 2011.
Words can hardly describe how I feel. I’m energetic (which is something that I haven’t felt in YEARS), my blood sugar is getting better, I’m NEVER hungry, and I have no cravings at all. In fact, I fixed cinnamon rolls for my youngest child’s birthday, and as I served them, I found myself literally feeling sick to my stomach as I pondered all the sugar in that pan. It was almost surreal!
When I started this journey back in 2011, I came to terms with the fact that my weight loss would be VERY slow. After all, that’s how it’s been for me since I started having kids. When September came around though, I realized that I had to figure this thing out. After all, while losing 30 pounds in 17 months would certainly be better than gaining 30 pounds in 17 months, I was unwilling to accept that it just had to be this way for me.
At the risk of ruining a good thing, I have the potential to be under 220 pounds by the end of this challenge, and that too almost seems surreal. I haven’t weighed 220 pounds since 2001!
In the past, I’ve taken flack from folks. “If your low-carb approach is so good, then why aren’t you skinny?” To them, I say, “I’m not skinny because a low-carb eating plan is only part of the puzzle.” Over the years, with the hundreds of pounds that I’ve lost and regained, I’ve always known one thing to be true. A low-carb eating plan is a must for me. Where it gets really tricky is figuring out the “Sarah” plan. Using myself as a science experiment takes time, and in that process, I’ve learned a ton about what does and what doesn’t work for me. I’ll never give up on the underlying idea that a low-carb diet is the ONLY way I can get healthy. I just might spend some time spinning my wheels as I try to figure out the logistics of implementation.
Related Links:
- New Found Success Through Nutritional Ketosis — claimingliberty.com
- Jimmy Moore’s n=1 Experiments: Nutritional Ketosis Day 1-30 — the Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb blog
That’s outstanding news. Keep up the Great Work! I have been juicing the last four days, I really enjoy it. It is all about finding that individual way of becoming more healthier.
I wish I could get away with juicing. :) There’s nothing like fresh juice straight from the juicer! Have you tried juicing veggies and then cooking/steaming your protein in that juice? AMAZING!
There are a lot of folks out there who think there’s a one-size-fits-all way of eating. I do feel that for certain classes of people, you can get away with some generalizations, but in the end, we all have the responsibility of figuring out the specifics of implementation.
Quite right Sarah. There are VERY few who can eat the crap available in such quantities today without being fat or unwell. A good eating plan which works for you is an investment in yourself. There’s no dollar value for wonderful health!