What drew me to Kimkins?

I was reading about this very topic on the Fascination With Kimmer threads at LowCarbFriends.com the other day, and it was funny because I had been mulling this over myself that day as well. (Great minds and all, I guess…)

So what was it that ultimately drew me to kimkins for the brief period that I did do it? I mean, I consider myself to be fairly intelligent. I should have seen that the plan was “nutritionally bankrupt.” What was the draw?

Control.

I kept reading about how people “weren’t hungry anymore” and “didn’t think about food all the time” while they were on kimkins. This was something that, at the time, I thought I really needed in order to conquer my struggles with my weight. I felt like I obsessed about food. If I wasn’t actively eating I was planning the next meal or feeling gulity about what I had just eaten. And when I saw the possibility of not having to think about food all the time, I think that’s what hooked me.

But you know what? It didn’t work. I still obsessed about food. I was constantly worried about how much fat I was eating or how many calories I had consumed for the day whether I was hungry or not. So really, I hadn’t gained any control.

Thankfully, I did start reading the Fascination With Kimmer threads and learned about the scam before I was in too deep. I have been able to move on to my old, healthy, LC way of eating fairly smoothly. (Unfortunately for some, this isn’t the case and they are still in a daily struggle with food. I only hope they can move past this and begin the process of healthful eating once again).

The funny thing is, I still think about food a lot. In fact, educating myself about nutrition has become somewhat of an obsession for me. But, I no longer feel that food controls me. By learning more and more about healthful eating I have gained control over food. I’m no longer obsessing about the food I’m eating and how it’s going to affect my weight. Instead I’m doing my best to make each meal as, or more healthy, than the last. I can do this now because knowledge is power, and with power comes the control I’ve been looking for for so long.

A Serious Case of the Lazies

I was reading a post today at LowCarbFriends.com about falling off the LC wagon and got to thinking about why we do that. I know I’m certainly not perfect, and have gone on and off a number of times over the years since I first discovered LC and the course of my children being born. But over the past 6 months or so, something inside me has “clicked.” While I have an occasional non-LC treat or day, I just “know” inside me that that’s all it is – a treat or one day. I know it’s not going to turn into an all-out month’s-long carb fest, or even worse, an “I give up” attitude where I decide that I’m just not going to eat LC because it’s “too hard” or “too much work.”

And that’s where the lightbulb went off. LCing can be a lot of work. You have to cook for yourself. A lot. And that’s hard for us (society in general) today. We’ve got SO MANY more “convenient” options available to us now, from the drive-thru to the deli or frozen foods section at the local grocery that make life easier and allow us not to have to cook everyday (or any day for that matter).

But I think that’s the crux of it. As a society, we’ve gotten a serious case of the lazies. Being a SAHM now, I know I’m not nearly as busy as I was when I was working, but I’ve fallen trap to the convenience of running out and picking something up for supper rather than hauling out the pans and cooking. And I know better. I do. What I make at home is SIGNIFICANTLY more healthy than most any “convenience” food I can pick up. But yeah, I’ve gotten lazy about cooking on more than one occasion.

Then I got to thinking about my mom. She cooked our meals – ALL of our meals – EVERYDAY. And after I was 10 years old, she also worked full-time. Yet she made sure we had a hot breakfast, a healthy sack lunch for school and a homemade supper. Eating out was rare and a special treat. Eating fast food was even more rare. I have racked my brain trying to think of a day where she just said “let’s grab some burgers from the drive-thru for supper.” I can’t think of one time. The only time we ate fast food regularly was when our family moved from Wisconsin to California when I was 7. We had McDonald’s drive-thru for lunch every day for the 5 days it took us to drive cross country. By the end of those 5 days we were all so sick of McDonald’s just the thought of it made us want to vomit.

It was not until I was in high school, making my own money, that I started to eat fast food fairly often. I was in charge of my money, so I could spend it as I pleased. Then as my life started to get busier, I came up with more reasons why I couldn’t take the time to make a healthy, home-made meal: I had an exam to study for, I was student teaching and up to my ears in lesson plans, I was teaching and up to my ears in papers to grade…. you get the idea.  But really, it was all just an excuse to be lazy.

But over the past 6 or 8 months, I’ve started reading more books on nutrition and dieting. It’ s becoming somewhat of an addiction. DH will ask “what are you doing” when I’m on the computer, and more often than not, I’m learning something new about nutrition. Maybe I need to go back to school for a new degree? I dunno. What I do know is that it is empowering me. And the more I learn, the more I want to learn. Maybe that is what made LCing “click” this time around for me. I’m not sure about that, either, but I do know that my mindset has definitely changed.

And yeah, cooking takes planning and effort, and then there are dishes to do afterwards, but the more I learn about all of the processed crap that is in our convenience foods (and many non-convenience foods) these days, the more I realize that it is worth the time and effort. For my health, and just as importantly for the health of my family. And that’s what I need to remember whenever a case of the lazies starts creeping up on me.

WaterWaterWaterWaterWater

Water.

The dieter’s best friend.

It’s magical, really. Seemingly melts the pounds off. You just have to drink enough of it, and less of other junky stuff, but if you do, your liver will start working like it was designed to work and help you lose weight.

Let’s start letting our livers work for us instead of against us. Cheers!

Losing Weight in 2008

It’s New Year’s Eve and millions of people will be celebrating their last hurrah tonight and hitting the gym or the internet tomorrow to begin their weight loss regimen for the new year. It’s a clichè resolution, yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad resolution. I think anytime a person puts focus on themselves and their health is a good thing! I’m rooting for each and every person out there (including myself and my DH) resolving to finally “lose their weight in 2008!” Hey- what better year to do it than when it rhymes? 🙂

Along those lines, I also hope that everyone carefully researches the weight loss or fitness plan that they choose to follow. Don’t get scammed! Don’t waste your money on a bad product or bad idea, and make sure the plan is safe. Check your local library first, to see if they have the book on the plan you’re looking into.  Google the hell out of the internet to find out everything you can about a plan before you try it. And, as I’ve said before, find a weight loss support group to help keep you focused and motivated. There are quite a few free forums online that are great!

Here are a few books that I’ve found extremely informative about health in general and low carb dieting specifically:

You: On a Diet   by Drs. Mehmet C. Oz and Michael F. Roizen (tons of information on how your body processes food, written in layman’s terms)

Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution by Dr. Robert C. Atkins

Protein Power by Drs. by Michael R. Eades and Mary Dan Eades

Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes (still working my way through this tome, but it is chock full of interesting research!)

And here are some that I plan on reading this year:

Natural Health and Weightloss & Eat Fat Get Thin  by Barry Groves, Ph.D

Living the Low Carb Life by Johnny Bowden, Ph.D

and I’m sure I’ll find more as the year progresses.

It’s becoming an obsession of mine to learn as much as I can about health, nutrition and fitness. It feeds the inner teacher in me. And it seems to be working, too – I’ve lost 20 pounds since August, and have about 40 to go, give or take, so finally losing the rest of my weight in 2008 is an extremely attainable goal.

Cheers to everyone making health, fitness and weight loss one of their resolutions for the new year! I wish you much success!

On Scams and Dieting

As I’ve said before, with desperate times, come desperate measures. However, in the case of your health it is always best to lead with your head rather than your heart.

Take the scam that is kimkins, for example. A soulless huckster named Heidi Diaz (a.k.a. Kimmer) used a low carb weight loss forum, Woman’s World magazine, and eventually her for-a-fee forum to hock extremely unsafe, very low carb, very low calorie diet advice to the unsuspecting and desperate. In fact, she preyed on the desperate with claims of “better than gastric by-pass” and “I lost 198 pounds in 11 months.”

Turns out she lied about pretty much everything – her weight loss “success,” her before and after pictures, her name, and the list goes on.

“But Bufo Dieter,” you may be saying “caveat emptor!” And I’d say, you’re right. But ask yourself this: Have you ever bought something just because you wanted it and it turned out to be not as extraordinary as you thought it would be? Or have you ever tried a diet because you were at-the-end-of-your-frayed-rope-desperate to get the weight off that you’ve been dealing with on and off for most of your life? I know I have – on both accounts. So I can see how a person could get sucked into the scam. As a matter of fact, I did, for 2 weeks. Luckily I didn’t pay for her diet. I found it for free online. But I kept reading and discovered layer upon layer of her fraud being exposed, and continues to be exposed.

As a matter of fact, there is a lawsuit in the works that could (and I believe should) end up having Heidi pay back all of the +/- $2M she scammed through this crazy diet.

So, my point behind this – research, research, research! Be sure what you’re getting ready to plunk down your credit card for and spend your hard-earned money on is worth it’s weight (and can’t be gotten for free elsewhere!). The internet is ripe with scam artists ready to prey on the foolish or the desperate. Be careful out there!

Bottom line: if promises seem too good to be true, they probably are.

To read more about the debacle that is kimkins check out the links in my blogroll. And if you have been scammed by the she-devil in red, be sure to join the lawsuit!

Free Dieting Advice

The new year is just around the corner, and what’s #1 on many, many people’s list of resolutions? Lose weight. So there will be a flood of people on the ‘net on Jan. 1st looking for that magical miracle that will help them shed those unwanted pounds in the blink of an eye. And sure, they’ll find many a huckster out there ready to separate them from their hard-earned money, promising “miracle,” “no exercise,” “eat-what-you-want” diets. And honestly, who hasn’t tried something crazy? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

But with all of the information out there on the internet, why pay money when you can get the information for free? There are many FREE weight loss forums out there offering dieting advice and information, along with a huge community of people on the same journey as you – weightloss.

So before you plunk down that credit card and pay for something that is probably not all it’s cracked up to be, take some time to search the internet and research the product you’re looking into. Better yet, join a weight loss forum (or several) and become a part of a community. Make some friends and learn something too. Plus, there likely will be someone out there who has information on any product you’re looking into and whether or not it is worth the money.

< shameless plug > My personal favorite low carb weight loss forum is Low Carb Eating. It’s full of wonderful, friendly people who will help with all aspects of the weight loss journey. No flaming and no snarkiness. (Not that I don’t enjoy a good bit of snark from time to time…)

Whatever you do and where ever you decide to make your weight loss home, I wish you much success and many visits from the whoosh fairy!

The Bufo Dieter

Swallow a toad in the morning and you will encounter nothing more disgusting the rest of the day.
~ Nicolas de Chamfort

I heard of this phrase about five years ago and it’s stuck with me ever since. Weightloss, and especially exercise, can be like toad swallowing. But, once you do it, the worst is usually over for the day. That’s been my approach with my current weight loss journey, and so far, it’s working. Luckily for me, toad is low-carb.

What follows will be mostly thoughts and information on exercise and low-carb dieting,  but also random musings on what’s important to me at the moment. Hopefully I, and anyone else who happens by, can learn or share something.