Posted on 01/04/2004 7:26:23 PM PST by SamAdams76
Next time you see a baker begging in the street, feel free to blame people like me for his plight. It seems that sales of bread have fallen so sharply in the US as a result of the spread of the Atkins diet — and what happens there soon follows here — that bakers are pondering a bleak future. One, Sara Lee, is attempting to revive its fortunes with a low-carbohydrate brand — Delightful Bakery Breads — which will go on sale next week; another large company will follow suit in May. Low-carb bread may sound like an absurdly contradictory invention, but I have a pretty good idea what it will be like, since I have already tried low-carb muffins, chocolate cake, crisps, chocolate and breakfast snacks. They have one thing in common. They all taste like ground cardboard.
I’ve eaten them because I am a convert to the low-carb, high-fat Atkins diet. This means I am also a turncoat. Last year, I wrote on these pages — in response to a report which claimed to find that fatties are thicker than stick insects — that “I’m fat, I’m thick and I’m proud.” Fine in theory, perhaps. But it turned out to be a lie. Soon afterwards, I started dieting.
So much for being fat and proud. I plead just one factor in mitigation. Take a look at the picture next to these words. See what I mean? I think the word is “jowly”. Less diplomatic souls might say “porker”.
Let’s make a deal. If you have the heart to forgive me my slide from porker to porkies, then I won’t mention if you, too, need to follow that January tradition and go on a diet. As millions look in the mirror this morning after the Christmas binge, my message is simple: it’s a doddle. Within a fortnight of starting, even I had lost 5lb. Five months on and I have lost more than three stone — with more to come. For the first time ever, I’m on a diet and don ’t have constant hunger pangs. I’m eating plentifully and yet the weight is cascading off.
I’ve noticed a common reaction from people I meet. Some are fascinated and want to know all the details. But quite a few are, well, angry. They seem somehow put out that I am losing my jowls so easily and so enjoyably.
I’m now used to the looks of admiration and surprise at my success turning, when I mention Atkins, to sneering. It’s usually followed by a variation on the theme of “well, it isn’t a proper diet”, as if the only acceptable form of weight loss is one which involves much suffering (let’s leave aside the low-carb muffins for a moment).
If these people themselves were fat I could understand their attitude, but my fat friends are generally hugely supportive. No, it’s normal-size people who seem affronted. It’s also an exclusively male phenomenon. Neither I, nor anyone I know following this diet, has ever had such a response from a woman.
One newspaper diary column became mildly obsessed — and rather offended — by my weight loss, suggesting that its readers send me “gifts of stollen and mince pies” for Christmas.
The writer wasn’t to know that I had already been allowing myself small periods off the diet anyway. I spent last week in Vienna, where it would have been a crime not to eat cake, and stuffed every carb I could find down my throat. But the more potatoes, chocolate and bread I put away, the hungrier I felt. Within a day back on the wagon my appetite had shrunk again and I’m finding it as easy as ever to stick to the diet.
Now that the weight is dropping off, I’ll happily endorse the fathead report which so annoyed me last year. It wasn’t specific about the IQ points lost per pound gained, nor did it say if it worked in reverse.But that’s an assumption I’m prepared, for the good of mankind, to make. And since I’ve lost 45lb, I must have put on quite a few IQ points. So if you have any tricky personal problems that need solving or any philosophical dilemmas which need unravelling, just get started on Atkins — or ask me to apply my now enormous, lean, honed, brain power.
In the gym, I try to lift the amount of weight I have shed and wonder how I avoided a heart attack. So yes, this year I’m now an evangelist for weight loss. Call me a turncoat if you want. I don’t care. I feel better than I can ever remember before. If only I could so easily shed those self-interested charlatans and nutritionists who would stop me and others from losing weight and enjoying it.
I did get up to just over 220, which was mostly gut. I had a 38" waist. Now it is back to 36", which is a little plump, but I can live with it. Oddly enough, 6'2"/200# is considered overweight on most charts that I have looked at. The problem I have is not so much diet, as I eat a well rounded diet including lots of veggies, but instead a lack of exercise. If you move around enough to burn the calories, then carbs, especially in the form of fruits and veggies and even pasta, can't be that bad for you. Unfortunately, I am turning into a slovenly lard-ass computer nerd, and that isn't good for the health of a 45 year old.
Regarding the LeCarb milk -- I'll look into it and try it, but messin' with my milk is pretty close to messin' with my religion ... I love the stuff, and not just on Cocoa Krispies. :)
Agreed. The new issue of People magazine features a cover article on people who have lost significant amounts of weight, and they all did it in different ways.
Bottom line, choice is good. One size fits all isn't going to work for everyone. It's just too bad the government/media/nutritionists/food pyramid has pushed low-fat for so long it's stifled other ways of losing weight that work for some people until now.
I hear what you are saying. I never had any of those low-car "candy" bars and shakes either, but for the reason that my diet is not technically Atkins, but a "whole food" variant of that diet. That is, I avoid processed foods and stick to whole foods - in their natural form whenever possible. I believe the human body is built for these kind of foods and is not well suited for "chemical" foods such as high fructose corn syrups, hydrogenized vegetable oils (trans-fats), etc.
I do have a sweet tooth however, but I satisfy it with natural yogurt, the kind with fruit on the bottom - usually blueberries, strawberries or raspberries. I am partial to the Stonyfield yogurts, which are made with all-natural ingredients. A cup of this yogurt packs about 26 grams of carb but it does take care of my cravings for sweets because it has real sugar (the naturally milled kind and not the refined sugars or corn syrup). I must say that when I eat one of these yogurts, I feel as though I am eating cheesecake or blueberry pie with ice cream on top. So it is much easier to resist other sweets during the day, knowing that I have this yogurt to look forward to.
That is pretty much the only sugar I have all day. I do use Splenda in my coffee and tea but that's about it for sweeteners.
Well good luck with your South Beach diet. I hear that is also a good one that accomplishes pretty much the same thing. What's important is to find a way you can eat for life, for that is the only way it will work long term.
BTW, I've seen lots of advertising lately for low-carb "wraps" at Subway. I plan to try one of those this week at lunch. Has anybody out there tried them? Are they any good? I used to be a regular at Subway when I was still fat and I miss the place. I look forward to going there again now that they have something I can actually eat.
I feel thinner already, and I know that sounds unrealistic afer only two full days, but I swear my pants fit better. Even if it's psychological, it's still given me a lift today.
I guess some people do the induction phase for over two weeks, but I don't think I will... I want a little more variety (in terms of vegetables) than I am getting now, but I can stand on my head for two weeks, so I'll make it.
Like you, I'm not sure how much of this diet is actually low-carb result and how much in non-processed food result. I went to the grocery with my (short) list, and when I got to the checkout, I didn't have anything in a can or out of the freezer.
I need to lose 30 pounds or so, which can't compare to what you've lost, but the point is I'm headed in the wrong direction and don't want things to spiral worse than they are. I can tell you that even now there are things which I can't do that I once could, and I miss them.
I keep hearing the negative comments as well, usually from frustrated fatsos!
Keep the faith!
Seriously, the hardest part of going on the Adkins Diet was the caffine withdrawal, but it only lasted a couple of days and it is critical as caffine triggers a sugar craving.
One suggstion...if you have cream and sugar with your coffee, switch to decaf after the first three weeks and use half the amount of "Sweet 'N Low" that you would have used sugar. In half dose it is good, in equal amounts to sugar it is downright nasty tasting!
It can't be said often enough.
I don't think cyborg meant to offend anybody by saying that. But I should mention that I got a rather startling revelation (about myself) after my weight-loss. Co-workers and other casual acquaintances now have no problem saying how great I look where before, they never said such things. A couple of them even said things like "You don't look like a slob anymore!"
Now one of the things I really notice now that the weight is off is how good my clothes fit me. For those who were never overweight, this can be difficult to understand so let me explain. When you are 100 pounds overweight (as I was) and have a huge "beer gut" protruding out of your midsection, store-bought clothes just aren't going to flatter you. For years, I had to live with my pants falling under my gut, causing my shirt-tails to constantly hang out. Thus I would have to "pull my pants up" and tuck in my shirt so many times during the day, that I started doing it unconsciously. (I'm finally now breaking the habit.)
I can't stress enough how great it feels to walk around all day and not have to re-tuck in your shirt once because your pants stay right where they are. (Looking down and seeing my belt buckle is a new experience too as is tying my shoes without having to sit down.)
Also, when you are a waist size 48/50, you aren't going to find anything your size worth wearing in the department stores other than sweatpants and sweatshirts (reinforcing the slob image). You have to go to the "Big Man's" stores and pay double and triple the price to get anything halfway stylish in your size. But let's face it, when you are wearing a waist size of 48 or 50, you can spend all the money you want on nice clothes but you are still going to look fat wearing them.
Since taking off my weight, I refuse to go anywhere near a "Big Man's" store, I refuse to wear sweatshirts in public and any trousers that say "relaxed fit" or "adjustable waist" because I am ashamed of the way I used to look and don't ever want to be seen that way again.
It feels so good to get standard jeans (waist 34) and shirts off the rack at places like L.L. Bean and have them fit you perfectly.
And I eat meat, eggs, cheese and cream all day long, no thanks to the American Heart Association.
It's been my experience that even more impressive than the loss of actual pounds on this diet is the loss of inches you experience.
Have you seen the Subway ads for the Atkins approved roll-ups? Looks like a paper thin wrap. The burger places should soon follow. I want a burger with all the fixins in a heavy plastic sleeve, or in a push-up tube.
It's all in making the food eating/driving friendly. I must be able to eat and drive. Don't have time to stop and eat lunch.
Exercise is key with or without a diet.
Bears repeating. I tried straight Atkins for three days, but I felt like crap and had a hard time with my runs. Modified it to include some carbs, and felt much better - and dropped pounds in short order.
Bottom line: find out what works for you, and what you can live with. Changes shouldn't be thought of as a diet plan at all. They should be easy enough to be permanent. Then you can still go home for the holidays and cram your face with pie... come home and get back into your routine and you'll be back in your pants in no time.
Actually if you are one of the fortunate ones with a metabolism that inhibits weight gain, you can eat pretty much anything you want. But if you really, really want to gain weight, this might be a winning formula. Let us know how it turns out. It took me years of eating rice, cakes, pies, bread, pasta, crackers, cookies and potatos on a daily basis to get me to where I was just a year ago (300 pounds). When I was a teenager, I was rail thin and able to eat nonstop. It all started catching up to me when I hit my mid-20s.
Btw, I went to T.G.I. Friday's as well this week-end. They have introduced an Atkins menu there as well. Basically, it is for going out with other people. I had the steak with blue cheese, and steamed broccoli. Basically, it was a steak with some blue cheese on top and some steamed broccoli. Not too very exciting, but it does allow everybody else to load up on the other crap on the menu, but gives you a good alternative.
I am way nervous this morning. I havent' weighed myself in two weeks, since I took time off from work during christmas. No scale at home. We have a doctor's scale at work that I like to use. I have no idea what the scale is going to say. Hopefully good news. I dropped another pants size.
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