April | 2014 | It's Time To Lose Weight

It’s been slow but I continue on my low carb weight loss. I’ve lost 11 lbs. I’ve stuck with it even when I feel like I’m not getting anywhere. Fortunately, I do not get cravings or feel like I’m deprived. When I look at a bowl of chocolate (my biggest downfall) I think how I will look once I start eating it again. It’s better looking in the bowl.

There have been setbacks along the way. I’ve had problems with acid reflux. I’m having an endoscopy and a colonoscopy tomorrow. My gastroenterologist thinks there could be another reason for my symptoms. Rather than having GERD, I may have Celiac disease. He will take a stomach biopsy to make a definitive diagnosis. I have felt better since I removed wheat and much of the gluten from my diet. It may be that I have to avoid all gluten. Either way, it’s better to know than not.

I’ve tried as best I can to eat low carb and stick to the regimen. Try as I might it is to follow the program, it’s really difficult to get 12-15 grams of carbohydrates from vegetables! It may be the one reason I think I’m not losing as quickly as others. Eating a chef salad the size of a basketball for lunch and having several other vegetables during the day still doesn’t always get me to the goal of 12-15 grams. But I keep trying.

No matter what the medical tests say, I will continue to work on this low carb diet until I get where I want to be. Twenty more pounds to go. If I make it there, I will post a before and after picture of myself. I don’t want the before picture on the web without the after! I’m not that secure yet.

If you’re my age and you haven’t had a colonoscopy, I urge you to do so. The toughest part is the preparation. But it might save your life!

It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I have maintained my low carb diet and continue to slowly lose weight. But in the middle of things, I had a nasty reaction to a new medicine. I couldn’t keep food down for a while so I worried how changing my carb intake would affect my weight loss. Once things cleared up, I managed to keep the weight off and no ill effects from the reaction.

I’m staying on the Induction plan of the Atkins diet. I don’t eat more than 20 grams of carbs per day. I have trouble with insulin resistance and need to control carbohydrates so they don’t break down into sugars. Eating this way has helped avoid cravings and binge-type eating. I don’t feel deprived at all. That’s the part that amazes me. Eating foods with fats in them helps the transition away from sugar a lot easier.

There are so many things that a “mature” woman has to deal with as hormones change. It’s no wonder that so many woman have hormonal imbalances as they pass into their 50’s. Everyone is different but for me, the low carb diet is the only one that is handling the insulin resistance and helping control the hormonal challenges.

It’s been 7 weeks and I’ve lost 10.5 lbs. It’s not coming off fast but at least it’s steady. Every week I can count on some amount of weight loss. So after a year of struggling with why I can’t lose weight, I finally can say that I am losing weight and plan on continuing until I reach my goal. And then maybe more, if it still feels good!