Health

It's been nearly a year since we have checked in on Suzy to see how she is doing after reaching her goal and maintaining it. I recently caught up with her, still cheering others on at her favorite low carb newsgroup, and asked her to bring us up to date on how things are going.

Some of you, my dedicated fans, know that I recently lost my job, and that I'm pretty bitter about it. After all, when I asked why I was being let go, I was told that I obviously didn't like working there, and that I didn't really want to continue at that company.

SugarBane from St. Louis is 5’ 1" tall and 37 years old. She began her low carb journey weighing 225 pounds and wearing a size 28. By following the Atkins program SugarBane got down to 155 pounds and was wearing a size 12 prior to her first pregnancy and the birth of her son last summer. She is now pregnant with her second child, and is currently weighing in at 185 pounds and wearing a size 18. Her goal is to weigh 135 and be a size 12.

In order to make low carbing a lifestyle and not just a "diet," I've learned to get creative in the kitchen. This is how I stock up my Low-Carb kitchen.

Last time we continued our discussion of the history of diets and dieting by talking about the first low calorie diet plan, and about the beginnings of counting calories. We also looked at diets that were based on 'magic pairs' and on special food combinations said to promote weight loss because of some supposedly long-forgotten-but-now-rediscovered chemical connection between the two foods. These connections were said to somehow fool the body into absorbing less nutrients than the individual foods, eaten separately, would provide.

Everybody is familiar with word search games where you must find words hidden in vast columns of primarily random letters. The words can be written vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. In addition, the words can be written left to right or right to left. I hate those kinds of word games! Unfortunately, the nutritional analysis labels of manufactured food products are a lot like word searches.

Every now and then I get a success story letter that leaves me saying, "I can't improve on that." This is one of those cases. Here is a letter I received from Dee in Iowa about her and her husband Lee’s low carb success.

I have recently (like, last night) become aware that I have a serious forgiveness problem. I carry grudges forever. It's something I've always done. So my mother paraphrases to me in the midst of a mild emotional conflagration of yours truly, "You will be judged as you have judged others." And I said to her, "Do you really think I am any less hard on myself than I am on anybody else?"

I've been on low carb many times in my life, but when I started trying to lose weight in 1996, I finally stuck with it. I weighed 208 when I started. In December 1998 I got down to 137. I've been maintaining ever since then.

Myrna from Pennsylvania is 46 years old, 4 11" tall, and follows the Atkins program. When Myrna wrote to me, she wanted to share with our readers not only her Atkins success story, but also how she fell from grace, and has rebounded after making her goal weight, then regaining from her first time around with low carbing. Myrna started her low carb journey in Sept. of 2001 at 165 pounds and a size 12. She achieved her goal of 125 pounds and a size 6 after only four months low carbing.

We've been discussing the history of diets and dieting. It may seem obvious to you that the idea of the calorie, at least as it pertains to dieting, must have been with us since the beginning of dieting. However, such is not the case. As we discussed last time, it wasn't until the 1890s and early 1900s that chemists Wilbur Atwater and Russell Chittenden did the initial work of measuring food as units of heat that could be produced by burning it. But from the get-go, the calorie concept has never been nearly as scientific as it may appear.

Anne from Tennessee is 54 years old and 5' 4" tall. She has been following the Atkins program for six years.