Christine From Ohio’s Low Carb Success Story

Success Stories

Christine from Ohio is 5′ 2″ tall and 36 years old. Christine has been following the Atkins program since May of 2001. She began her plan weighing 163 pounds, and is currently at her goal weight of 120 pounds. As far as her starting size, Christine said, “Sorry, I can’t help you in this area. I was too scared to get a tape measure out! I do know I was in a size 14 jeans and now I’m in size 3/5. Whooohoo!!”

“I don’t want to sound smug,” Christine continued, “but when I was younger I never had problems with my weight. I married young and had my daughter when I was just 19. When I was pregnant with her I went from 100 pounds to 150 pounds. That is when I started having problems with weight.”

“It took me two years to finally try to lose the pregnancy weight. I lost most of it, and went back down to 125. I was content with my weight then.”

“In 1998, I had surgery to help with some infertility problems. After the surgery, I started taking Clomid to help become pregnant. I never did get pregnant, but I did get some extra weight. I ended up weighing around 165 pounds. I stayed that way for close to three years, until I saw an article in Woman’s Day!! It talked about this ‘syndrome’ that hardly anyone had heard of. Boy, oh boy was it describing me almost to a ‘T.’ It turned out that PCOS was the culprit. Finally, I had a name for how I was feeling and why my weight wasn’t going down. I still didn’t go to the doctor right away, though. (At that point I had never even heard of low carbing.)”

“Early in 2001 my sister-in-law was talking about someone she knew who was going on a low carbohydrate diet. That just sounded plum crazy to me! How would something like that work? Around the same time, I started getting fed up with the symptoms I was having with PCOS. (I was sure that is what I had from the article I read.) I made an appointment with my GYN. I went to see him, and all he told me to do was lose weight and read a few books on PCOS…. Well, DUH!!! I had already started to check things out on the Internet. I didn’t like the advice he gave me, so I made another appointment with a different doctor.”

“This time I went with a Reproductive Endo. I did so much research on the Internet and in books before I went that I had a whole page of questions ready to ask the doctor. I went in there and listened to him talk. Guess what? He answered all my questions but one without my even asking! I knew I was with the right doctor this time. He put me on Metformin and told me to read as much as possible about low carbing. He wanted me to eat about 15 carbohydrates per meal.”

“Previously, I had not tried too many diets. I guess I’m just a lazy dieter at heart. I did try Dexitrim not long after my daughter was born, but it made me feel really jittery, so I quit. Not long after my surgery in 1998 I did try one of those soup diets. (Cabbage – yuck!),” Christine laughed. “I wanted to lose weight, so I thought what the heck I’d try it. I think I knew I wouldn’t stick with it, though. I was on this diet for about 2 1/2 weeks. I did lose weight on it, however (maybe 10 pounds), but I felt tired all the time. I just couldn’t stick with it. I didn’t like the way I felt with the excess weight, but feeling like I’d been run over by a Mack truck was no fun either.”

“I initially began low carbing because my doctor suggested it to help lose weight. Then, in turn, he said it would help my PCOSsymptoms. Those symptoms were/are: excess hair (on my face and neck), thinning hair on my head, skin tags, excess weight, brain fog, no menstrual periods (I didn’t have one for about a year), infertility, and insulin resistance.”

“This way of eating is easy. No counting calories, just counting carbs. It’s like second nature to me now. I don’t really even have to count carbs anymore. It’s also helped my symptoms of PCOS. After I lost five pounds, I started my period after not having had one for a year! The excess hair has slowed down, along with the thinning hair. My memory has also improved. I have noticed, however, if I cheat and eat too many carbohydrates, the excess hair comes back fast. I could also put on the weight easily. I don’t want to find out about the weight gain, so I usually don’t cheat.”

“Low carbing WORKS for me,” Christine exclaimed. ” I didn’t think a way of eating like this would work, but now I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“My daughter and husband have been very supportive. My husband actually cut out a lot of carbohydrates from his own diet! I do run into the occasional person who says low carbing is not healthy and that I’m going to hurt my kidneys. ‘Well, with my insulin the way it is, that’s just the way I have to eat,’ I tell them. If they don’t understand that’s OK because I DO, my doctor does, and he approves/recommends low carbing, and THAT’S all that counts.”

I asked Christine, if she were speaking to a group of new low carbers and seasoned veterans about low carbing, what tips or advice would she give them regarding the following subjects. Here is what she said:

Cheating?

“Don’t cheat. Only on VERY special occasions do I cheat and that’s it. When I first started, if I cheated it was way too hard to get back on the wagon. So wait till your established with your way of eating before you think about cheating.”

Stalls?

“Don’t worry so much about stalls. They only last for a short while (hence the name). If you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do then you’ll get back on track in no time. Don’t give up if you think a stall is lasting a while. Hang in there.”

These are the most important points to remember?

“Support, support, support!! Find someone for support. Family, friends, someone you can trust. There are also a lot of low carb boards on the Internet. Someone might need a friend to help him or her just like you do. Remember you’re not the only one struggling at times. Also, drink LOTS of water!!”