About Fogdog's Weight Loss

Don't Focus on the Goal...

If you've followed this blog you know that I've struggled for many years with improving my health. I've finally reached a point where I've managed to maintain a small amount of success. Now it's time to take the next step, but I believe it requires a new way of thinking.

Instead of trying to get healthy, why not shift focus toward learning how to build healthy habits instead. Follow me as I try to teach myself how to Engineer healthy habits that will allow me to take my health to the next level. Let's see where this experiment goes!

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Day #189 - Phase I Complete

This morning I stepped on the scale after 13 days of low carb and no sugar...

Starting Weight - 337
Current Weight - 324
 
Total Weight Loss - 13 pounds
 
 
I'm not sure I can describe how I feel right now.  I'm shocked, elated, relieved, cautious, and hopeful all rolled into one!
 
I have been on a million different diets.  On some of them, I lost a big chunk of weight in the first week, but that was always water weight and the second week usually ended up being a letdown.  Never have I ever lost this much weight over the course of two weeks.
 
What's more startling to me is that I feel great.  No hunger, no feelings of deprivation, no cravings, no lack of energy; all the telltale signs of a "diet" are missing from the picture.  I feel like I could continue on this path without fear of burnout.
 
I've read a lot of literature on the evils of sugar.  I've always held the belief that anything is OK as long as it is in moderation.  I'm not so sure about that belief anymore.  Even though I never considered myself a sugar addict, I am now questioning if sugar wasn't the primary source of all my mental woes when it came to overeating.  Did it cause cravings?  Not just cravings for sugar, but cravings for more food.  Did it make me irritable and cranky when I didn't feed the addiction?  I know the first 4 days of no sugar were a nightmare for me, but since then no withdrawal symptoms.
 
I'm starting to convince myself that no sugar is helping me with the mental aspect of my weight loss while low carb is forcing my body to burn the fat stores I have. Whatever the cause, I can say the effect is that I feel incredible right now!
 
So what's the next step.  That's easy, I'm going to continue on this same path.  I could continue to stay at 20g of carbs and I think I would be fine.  However, the one thing I feel like I'm missing is fruit.  According to the Atkins program I could now go as high as 60g of carbs and still lose weight, or I can stay at phase I and continue to lose weight faster.  I'm only using Atkins as a guideline so I'm going my own route.  For the next 2 weeks I'm going to target no more than 30g of carbs.  This gives me 10 carbs more than what I'm currently doing which means I can probably have one small piece of fruit each day.  I won't be able to have all fruits, some are very high in carbs, but at least I can get a few.
 
My goal for the next 2 weeks is to lose 7 more pounds putting me at 20 pounds lost in the first month.  After that I go on vacation in Maine for a week and that will be my first big test of my resolve.  Wish me luck.
 
Stay Strong! 
 


7 comments:

  1. WOOOHOOO! Congratulations on the loss--and more importantly, sticking to the program! Yo have inspired me. You have.

    I know--I mean, I KNOW--that low carb works for me. My carb number is below 60 NET grams of carb or below 60 grams if I don't do the net math. Everyone has their own number.

    It works. I just have to do it. And you, my new friend, have given me a second wind. thanks for that. :)

    Deb

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment Deb; it feel incredible to see such results in just two weeks. I'm glad I inspired you to stick to low carb living, that's what blogging is all about, we all help each other.

      Stay Strong!

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  2. As long as you're doing something that you can do for the rest of your life then go for it :) Weight loss is the easy part though, it's maintenance that's a B****. For me, I'd never be able to completely cut out foods that I like and keep at this for the next 40+ years. So I learned how to have a healthy, balanced relationship with all foods, including carbs and sugar. But what works for me may not work for someone else-just make sure you're being realistic about what you can actually do long term!

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  3. 13 pounds in 13 days is incredible! I've also dropped my carb intake quite a bit this week - I'd been slowly letting more in and really noticed a negative change in how I felt. I've eliminated all grains, beans, potatoes, and sugar, but I'm still allowing one serving of lower carb fruit (berries, melons) and one serving of Greek yogurt per day. Best of luck to you - congrats on having a great few weeks!

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  4. Brilliant, well done ... so good to read this.

    All the best Jan

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