Hi Alto,
No, you're definitely not a yo-yo
I wouldn't say so. I'm not an expert by any means, but it seems to me you just steadily increased and didn't really do much dieting at all - which I think is actually a good place to start from. Better than what I've done. You haven't messed up your metabolism.
From your diet history, my hunch is you'd respond very well to any diet program you stuck with. If you look at age 26 and 35, you lost quite easily and, most impressively, you maintained it with little effort. That has not been the case for me, never longer than a few months.
Did you mention that you didn't stick with the diets for long? Did you lose interest? Did I get that right? Do you mean this WOE too?
I wonder if it becomes harder to get on the same old merry go round the more we do it. Maybe that's a demotivator. I certainly found it very hard to motivate myself to do Atkins this time. Especially Induction. I thought, gee whiz, do I have to go through all this again?! Now that I've done this twice, I really don't want to have to do it over. I'm not totally convinced I can keep it up either.
The other thing that struck me was you gained 40 lbs when you became a vegetarian. Well aha! I went through a phase from age 34 to 37, where I went from 134 to 160, and I was very much into Jane Brody and cooked everything in her book. Let me tell you, that was a very carby period. Jane Brody's Carbohydrate cookbook or something. Bet that's what happened to you. well well.
The thing I don't like right now, is that I have to do it for life. I've never quite faced that in previous attempts.
You say, I just ate whatever I wanted. I did that too.
Exercise? I've never done any in my life!
That's one thing I understand: resistance to exercise. I have a treadmill I use as a laundry rack. (See below about this resistance business.)
I don't know a lot about metabolism. You're not hypothyroid are you? Have you ever been tested? That can certainly affect things, as can age, hormones, certain medications. Atkins tells us in his revised book what some of those drugs are -- I think he mentions diuretics, and hormone therapy. Off the top of my head, when I look at your diet history, my hunch is you could lose quite easily, even more easily than me- - since your haven't really played havoc with your metabolism too much. Doesn't Atkins also suggest a fat fast to determine if metabolically resistant? Doesn't sound too appealing, or healthy, to me, eating all that fat. (The Inuit do it, I think)
My sister is 5' and weighs 250. She's ten years older and never dieted and is happy with her weight, which is also very evenly distributed, unlike my belly fat. She thinks my need to lose weight is silly. She can also be observant in a quiet sort of way, and after having spent two weeks with me she said to me one evening, "You know, you don't sleep enough. If you slept more you'd lose weight. You'd see. You wouldn't have a problem." (I don't sleep very much at night.)
Of course I thought this was rather simplistic, like an old wive's tale. Then, coincidentally, I started seeing all these articles on a connection between lack of sleep (and particularly, deep sleep) and the production of stress hormones, cortisol I believe. Furthermore, they've found a direct link between this lack of sleep and accumulation of fat - abdominal fat. There's been a slew of articles about this. I'm starting on a new sleep regimen. (Also, the sleep has to occur at night, because circadian rythmns and all such stuff.)
In terms of exercise, this is something I've heard which appeals to me:
This Jungian analyst claims some people just aren't in their bodies much. They live in their heads. (i.e. a writer as opposed to a dancer is an extreme example). In particular, people with a resistance to being in their bodies (and people with addictions are not in their bodies much) must begin very slowly. And she doesn't mean walking, she means massage. Yes, very passive where you don't do anything at all, and someone else manipulates you so that you can bring full awareness to your body without having to think about anything. The idea being that you first must develop body awareness, and being a passive recipient allows this to occur. Well, I had a 90 minute massage, and when it was over I felt as though I had worked out. (I never exercise) I felt high, like I'd just exercised. I was truly stunned. And I realised I never pay attention to my body.
Yoga people all claim the same thing, that when you pay attention to the body, weight loss issues take care of themselves without diet. Because you are approaching it from the body, as opposed to from the mind - which is what we do when we diet -- we're still coming from our heads. If I look at my bookshelves and count the number of diet and exercise books it's clear to me that I approach my body from my mind as opposed to the other way around. I like to read. Mind over matter. I think there's a great deal of potential in these ideas, if I could just silence my mind long enough to go to a yoga class.
PS:
The Jungian analyst is Marion Woodman and she's written many wonderful books on women with eating disorders, which I don't have, but I stumbled across these books when I was going through my Jungian phase. Some of her books are: The Pregnant Virgin, The Owl was a Baker's Daughter, among other titles. She is considered one of the foremost Jungian thinkers on women and body image. Have you heard of her?
Alto, thanks for being so encouraging with me. I just wish I could make more of this diet history. Yours looked very interesting too. I know there are better experts in this forum, and I'm only offering these ideas that I've stumbled across over the years, humbly. Perhaps some of them might help. Who knows? I'm still trying to figure it all out myself.
A famous screenwriter, William Goldman, once said "Nobody knows nuthin'" He was of course talking about what it takes to make a hit movie and the impossibility of finding a formula that works for everyone. Maybe dieting is like that too.
Thanks Alto,
Ruby