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Today I want to introduce you to my friend Misty Humphrey. Misty’s low carb success story is a special one. She not only overcame obesity, but she took back control of her life and found a passion worth pursuing.
Behind The Scenes
While Misty was a little overweight as a child, maybe 15 or 20 pounds, her biggest challenge as a youngster was her battle with Attention Deficit Disorder, slight tics, and compulsive behavior tendencies. Looking back, she now realizes her life could have been much different had her doctors and parents had understood the importance of nutrition in relation to these issues. Misty is a true low carb success story. 
In the early 1970’s she saw a therapist off and on, but she didn’t find low carb success with that form of treatment. Her tic consisted of shaking her head just enough for others to notice. As a sufferer of compulsive behavior, her only explanation is that the need to shake was there, and the amount had to be consistent, even numbers. Her doctors thought putting her tics on a schedule would fix the problem. “Anyone who has ever suffered and OCD or other compulsive disorders knows that there is no schedule for a tic.” says Misty. This method only resulted in headaches, a greater need to shake her head, and humiliation in front of her peers, due to leaving the class for scheduled “shaking”. Thankfully medications were never discussed for treatment.
Her teen years were just as difficult, if not more so. Despite good intentions, she struggled to focus in school. She says that for some unexplainable reason, she always made the wrong decisions, despite wanting to do the opposite. She became a statistic with a teenage pregnancy.
Fast forward several years, and many diets later, and Misty describes herself as an un-focused, smoking, beer-drinking, 215 pound gal on a 5’4” frame. Weight Watchers worked for her after her third child, but never without the assistance of diet pills. She believed she had a ravenous appetite and lacked discipline. As before, she struggled to stay focused, this time with exercise and diet. Her husband tried to help her with the shopping and making healthful choices, which at the time they believed consisted of low-fat meals like chicken and some form of vegetables. For years they followed the USDA food pyramid and low-fat diet advice. She even tried a stint as a vegetarian! But none of these approaches were helpful long-term.
“If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.” – Latin Proverb
The Best Gift
In December of 1999, Misty’s oldest daughter heard her comment on a neighbor who had lost weight using the Atkins Diet. This resulted in Misty receiving her own copy of Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution for Christmas. She read the first few chapters, and on February 7th, 2000 took the leap into low carb living. About that same time, they had purchased their first computer as well. This gave Misty access to the many, many resources on the internet. “I had real people giving me personal advice!” says Misty. She feels sure she could never have made such a change without the online support.
Huge Rewards
Misty was elated. After all her struggles with health and weight, things were changing. She was satisfied and losing weight, without diet pills or starvation. Even better, many of the issues she dealt with in her youth were finally making sense. Misty strongly believes there is a direct correlation between proper nourishment, behavior, and cravings.
“It hasn’t been an easy road. I didn’t slide right into goal, rather I made many mistakes along the way. These mistakes and stalls have allowed me to learn new things about myself, the food I was consuming, and the choices I was consciously making.” said Misty. She turned the stalls into lessons, and relied on intuitive eating. She realized that when properly nourished, one doesn’t have cravings or food obsessions. Unlike before, she now easily turns down desserts and enjoys that measure of control she’d lacked in previous years.
“Let food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be food.” – Hippocrates
Welcome To The Future
Misty has been living a healthy low carb/paleo lifestyle for the past 14 years and has maintained a loss of 85 pounds. At her goal weight of 130, she now actively works to help others understand the benefits of proper nutrition as part of low carb success. She started her formal education in nutrition at a local community college, but after 6 weeks into what she refers to as a “mundane class” Misty realized she was just being taught the same tired and misinformed information that put her in such bad health to begin with. She moved The Bauman College of Holistic Nutrition and finally found what she’d been searching for. She’d discovered the link between weight, ADD, and OCD. Texts books were a large part of her education, but she also says she got an informal education from books like Protein Power, Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution, Neanderthin, and The Paleo Solution. Her favorite books include The Diet Cure, Know Your Fats, and Eat Fat, Lose Fat.
Misty is now a Certified Holistic Nutrition Educator and runs the Healthy Transitions website.
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