Diana From Illinois’ Low Carb Success Story

Success Stories

Diana from Illinois is 52 years old and 5′ 4″ tall. “I used to be 5′ 6″,” she laughed. “See what age and weight can do to you, besides giving you arthritis?”

Diana currently weighs 195 pounds, down from her low carbohydrate starting weight of 290!! She is currently wearing a size 18, and was happy to get rid of her old size 28 wardrobe. Diana follows the Atkins program.

“I am taking a lot of medications due to fibromyalgia and arthritis, HBT, asthma, anemia, and Vitamin B-12 deficiencies. Most of them interfere with weight loss.”

“I guess when I think about it, I have had a weight issue all my life. When I was small, I was underweight. In my early teens my weight slowly started to rise, and by late teens it really soared.”

“I have had many health problems over the years and my weight has always affected those problems. As a child I had rheumatic fever numerous times. Then, as a teen, I developed arthritis and couldn’t go to school because the pain was so bad. Consequently, I had little physical activity and in those days they couldn’t do as much for arthritis. The treatment was very different from today.”

“Weight really became a problem while I was pregnant with my first child. I gained so much weight! I complications which I blame on weight gain and my blood pressure. I almost died because of toxemia.”

“At the age of 21, I started going to a ‘diet doctor,’ who gave out red, green, orange, blue, and all the colors of the rainbow in pills. They didn’t work, but did increase my blood pressure tremendously. This resulted in my seeing an internist who, of course, said I needed to lose weight. What else was new? All doctors know how to say is that you need to lose weight!”

“So in 1971 I joined Weight Watchers and proceeded to lose weight. At that time I weighed over 290 pounds, and I lost 109 pounds. In those days, Weight Watchers was lower carb than the program is today. It mostly consisted of meat, fish (lots of fish), eggs, cheese, milk, fruit, bread and small amounts of fat. Beef was allowed in limited amounts three times a week. Fish meals consisted of five or more meals weekly. Liver was a must once a week. Fruits, bread, milk and fats were limited to small daily amounts only. There were, of course, also both limited veggies and unlimited veggies. Over the years, Weight Watchers has changed and they have added many more carbohydrates to their plan.”

Then I got pregnant for the second time. I managed to keep the weight off and even lost ten more pounds. About a year later, after I had started gaining again, I rejoined and rejoined Weight Watchers over and over only to lose and regain more weight than I had lost. All I wanted to do was eat! By this time, the program was not so strict and it was much harder for me. I kept craving the foods I was allowed to have over and over again.”

“After Weight Watchers failed, I tried every low fat, sugar-free diet that would came along….. and none of them worked!”

“Finally in 1980 I hit an all time high of 364 pounds – possibly even more, but I didn’t have a scale to weigh myself with. I had heard about gastric bypass surgery, and I felt it was my last chance to lose the weight. I was feeling very desperate. My marriage was rocky, and I had to change things for me. I thought if I could lose the weight then I would be happy with or without the marriage. I went through all the preoperative testing, and the doctor said I was a candidate for the surgery. I was happy and so scared at the same time because surgery was a risk for someone as obese as I was.”

“I made it through the surgery fine. I was scheduled for a two-week stay in the hospital, but I developed lung problems and ended up with lung surgery and complications. I almost died. I ended up having to stay in the hospital for six and a half weeks. Even after I was released, I was an invalid for over a year. BUT I lost 200 pounds.”

“I decided to have a tummy tuck and thigh reduction and of course, I had complications again with the healing. I also, lost 2/3 of my hair because of the anesthesia from the all the surgeries.”

“My marriage started to get rocky after I lost weight and we eventually divorced. I was not sorry I had had the by-pass, though. I discovered there was a whole other world out there – and a fun one, too.”

“I slowly started gaining the weight back. Yes, my stomach could only hold a very small amount of food after my by-pass surgery, but I ate that small amount continually – all day! People who have had by-pass surgery must retrain themselves and change their eating habits or they will regain the weight they’ve lost. The doctors didn’t teach me to do this.”

“I tried Redux and lost 40 pounds right off the bat, but had to stop when they took it off the market. I did keep that weight off for a while, but eventually I gained it all back.”

“I developed FMS (FibroMyalgia Syndrome) about 13 years ago and was finally officially diagnosed in 1991. In 1995 I became disabled due to FMS and arthritis, and I could no longer work. Eventually I ended up having to have both my knees replaced. The doctor told me they wouldn’t last long since I was so overweight. I decided to prove him wrong.”

“I saw the Hellers on the “Oprah” show. I took their test and discovered I was a carbohydrate addict. It didn’t surprise me, either. In March of 2000 I started on CALP (The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet), but soon decided Dr. Atkins’ plan would be better for me because CALP just left me wanting more carbs. On April Fools’ Day, 2000, I started the Atkins program.”

“The first week on Atkins I began to notice a difference in how I felt. I had so much more energy, and my FMS had even improved some! I was losing weight without cravings and wasn’t always hungry anymore.”

“There are really no bad parts to this way of life. It just works! The majority of the time, I have no cravings for carby foods. I am not hungry like I was when following the other low fat diets. And I don’t have to think about food all the time like when I was on Weight Watchers. Their plan makes you have to continually focus on being aware of point values of the foods you eat and how many points you have left for the day.”

“Low carbing is easy, once you get past Induction. It is something I plan to do for the rest of my life. It definitely improves my FMS symptoms. No, it isn’t going to make the FMS go away, but it does make the symptoms easier to deal with most of the time. If I cheat, though, I usually feel awful afterwards. Cheating also causes cravings and mood swings as well as weight gain.”

“If I stall out, I evaluate what I am eating and just keep plugging away.”

“The most important thing to do is find a good support group in your way of eating. Without the help of my dear friend Annie and her support group, A Low Carb Support System, it would have been very hard to go it alone. I belong to many online groups that I read occasionally, but I love Annie’s group. I also have started a low carb recipe only group at Yahoo groups.”

Diana’s Low Carb Recipe Only List can be found at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DLC_recipe_only_list