Hi y'all,
It's me-- I'm sure many of you don't remember me, but I still lurk here every once in a while.
The last time I posted in my journal, I was on my way to Boise, Idaho to take some college classes over the summer.
Since that time, I discovered that I'm not only hypoglycemic (I've known that for several years) but I also seem to be *allergic* to sugar! Weird but true.
It seems that when I eat any kind of sugar-- including Splenda (sniff, sniff... I loved that stuff!) I break out with a nasty painful boil or two someplace on my body within an hour. Needless to say, it's been *very* *easy* for me to stay sugar-free since I made that discovery! Now, whenever I'm tempted, I just remember that that donut may be only a moment on my lips, but the next two weeks on my face!
There's no contest about which I prefer. I've easily given up sugar with no regrets at all.
But what has surprised me the most on this little low-carb adventure, is my cholesterol count! Fifteen years ago I had it checked, and the Health Clinic sent me a nasty "you'd better get on the ball and get this number down" letter with the results, because I was at 208-- eight points too high. A couple years ago I again had it checked after I'd been doing Atkins for a while, and it was a little lower...198 or so. But this month I had it checked again... (drumroll please) TA DA!!! 166!!! (Which is about mid-range of normal)
I'm amazed! All these skinny little friends I have who are eating nothing but oatmeal and lettuce, and running ten miles a day trying everything to get their cholesterol down from 250, and they're overjoyed if it goes down 5 points in a year!
I, on the otherhand, have dramatically increased my intake of eggs, cheese, butter, mayonnaise, hamburger, and steak. And the only time I exercise is when I can't find the remote control, and I have to actually walk across the room to change the channel. And my cholesterol count has gone down 42 points!
My friends shudder at my eating and exercise habits, and tell me I'm losing muscle because I'm not eating enough carbs! (What? I don't understand their logic.) But they're pretty quiet when I show them the cholesterol numbers.
Oh yeah, size-wise, I'm doing all right too. When I first started in June I was wearing size 24 jeans. At this moment, I'm comfortably wearing a pair of size 16 petite jeans.
Weirdly enough, the area I am not doing as well in, is the actual numbers on the scale. No matter what I do (well, I haven't tried exercise yet) I can only lose about one pound a week. So I started in June at 218, and right now I'm at 198. This seems to be going sooooooo sloooooooowwww this time.
But since I'm improving in the most important areas-- my health and my size-- I guess I won't complain too much about the numbers on the scale!

Mae West
"Too much of a good thing can be wonderful." The other Mae West