A year ago today - December 30, 2014 - I started my low sugar, low carb, high fat way of eating (WOE). I weighed 280.7 pounds. This morning I weighed 183.8 pounds. That's almost 97 pounds gone. I am not to goal yet, but know that I can get there in 2016. Only 13 more pounds.

A little about my story. I have not always been fat. I was always just 5-10 pounds overweight as a kid/teen. I was in the Army in my young twenties. I met my husband (the Hubs) when I got out. I gained about 10 pounds after we married. Then another 20 after the birth of my 2 kids. Work and kids had me gain up to 195 in 2001. In 2001, I did Weight Watchers at work and lost 30 pounds. I maintained comfortably for 5 years. Then in my late 30's it was like someone flipped a switched and I started gaining a ton of weight. 115 pounds in 9 years. I have always been an active person, but despite working out regularly I was still gaining weight.

I spent most of 2014 trying diet and exercise programs. My weight was effecting my activity level and I didn't like it. I didn't sleep well, had headaches, and was always tired. I started not being able to go up the stairs in our 2 story house without breathing heavy. My husband started commenting on my snoring.

In November 2014, I realized that I had to change my diet. I had been on a pretty disciplined exercise program and lost 10 pounds in a month. It returned after a week of scaling back on exercise.

I went to a presentation by my doctor and it was like the angels in the heavens started singing. My doctor has lost 80 lbs herself. As she talked about her own struggles and how foods particularly carbohydrates and sugar affected the body, there were was not a dry eye in the room. We could relate to what she was saying and I think we all felt more than a little hopeful. We were not bad, lazy people with no will power. Our bodies are carb and sugar sensitive. A lot of foods today are specifically engineered to be addicting.

In December 2014, I started working with my doctor. In addition to being over weight, I was pre-diabetic. I had extremely low in Vitamin D and was extremely anemic. No wonder it was hard for me to get the energy to work out. I also have high levels of inflammation in my body. She also diagnosed me as being sugar and carbohydrate sensitive. My body is carb addicted and will never get enough carbs, but it doesn't burn them off. It stores them as fat. She explained ketosis to me. It all made sense and I was off on my journey to health and feeling better.

I follow Dr. Eric Westman's A Low Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet Manual. I no longer eat bread, cereal, pasta, cake, cookies, or anything that is a low carb version of those. I didn't eat any fruit in the beginning, but have recently added back berries. I try to limit my carbs to under 20g a day and most of those come from lower carb veggies. I eat a green salad almost every day and can use salad dressings that have no more than 2g of sugar per serving. I eat mostly high protein, high fat. I am limited on dairy. No alcohol on this plan either.

The first week was really tough, but I managed to stay on plan from the beginning. The only exception was when we went on vacations to Las Vegas. I got it approved by my doctor to have a few low carb alcoholic drinks. I had one each day and managed to come back a few pounds lighter. I don't cheat. Sometimes I overeat plan foods, but I don't go off plan.

I am sleeping better. No longer do I snore. My iron is up as is my Vitamin D levels. My body is no longer inflammed. I have become a breakfast person and a morning person. I have so much more energy.

I know this has become a way of life for me. Once I changed my mindset things became easier for me. I don't focus on the things that I can't eat. I focus on eating things that I can eat. Steak - yummy! Bacon - yes please!

The other thing that really helped me get to this point is the support I get on the forums. It has helped to keep me accountable in the days between my monthly doctor visits. I also keep a journal here to work through any issues that come up and keep track of my progress.

I am writing this all out, because I lurked on this board for 3 months before joining. If that is you, you can do this and we are here to help you.



Me - approx 280 pounds - Aug 2014, Me - Half way to goal 225 pounds - June 2015, Me - 75% of the way to goal 197 pounds - October 2015



Me, today - Dec 30, 2015 - 183.8 pounds