Hi Gang,

Here goes my little introduction.

My name is Chris and I'm 30 years old, married and living in Georgia, USA. I've never been exactly obese, but for a number of years I've weighed more than I wanted to, peaking at 195 lbs.

In 1995 I successfully dropped to 180 or 185 on Slim Fast and managed to keep it off for a year or so, but gradual gorging at the buffet and my relatively sedentary lifestyle had allowed the weight to creep back on, with a couple extra pounds for good measure.

Anyway, on July 4, 2002 (triggered by a trip to lake and feeling rather 'fluffy') I decided to take measurements and go back on SF since it worked for me before. After about 2 weeks of a shake for breakfast, a lunch without fries or soda and a similar dinner, I'd lost around 5 pounds. I was trying to just cut back on what I was eating and steer clear of the buffets. I managed to put 2 of them back due to a weekend of permissiveness, I suppose.

A friend of mine sent me the "What if it was all a big fat lie" article via email and after reading it, I found that it seemed to make sense. My other diet was put on hold and I started reading everything I could find on a dietary modification consisting of reduced carbohydrates. When I got around to starting the program, I did not yet have a book to go by, but felt like I had enough to start on, so I did.

Eggs, bacon/sausage, cheese, salad greenes, burger patties, chicken, steak, ranch dressing, etc... became my regular diet. I ate plenty of spinach mixed salad greens and after 6 days I was around 188. The following day my band had a show to play and imagine my delight when the next morning I found I was 185. I weigh at the same time every day.

At this point, I was weighing daily and ketostix'ing several times a day. I just wanted the assurance that I wasn't fouling up and dropping out of ketosis. The first time I did the stick, I showed a moderate reading, while my wife showed negative and my son (who consumes plenty of carbs, but plays basketball 4+ hours a day) also showed negative. I think they both dismissed them as inaccurate due to his exercise and her low consumption of food. I've tapered off on the stix. I only use them now if I want to check to make sure that something I was suspicious of eating (and didn't have 100% reliable info on the carb content) didn't knock me out of ketosis. I have not been as concerned with the darkness of color, as long as there was SOME color on it.

I am now about to go into my third week of 184/185. I was about to be discouraged, but I read in this forum last week how it is not unusual to stick for a couple of weeks after the initial loss, so I try not to worry about it. I keep telling myself this is not a race.

I have a hard time counting carbs because lots of things say '0' and from what I understand, you should pretty much count a serving of anything as at least 1, so I've been trying to keep my intake to 10 or less at each meal, with some meals having basically none. I figured that would keep me under 30 for sure, and I'd be avoiding a spike. I was keeping a journal initially, but its been sporadic lately. I need to keep better care of it so you guys can look it over.

At this point, I'm not sure how I'll be successfull in adding just 5 carbs a day to follow the Atkins plan, since I find it tough to keep up with all the little 1'sies here and there that may be hiding.

I finally ordered the 'new diet revolution' book and it arrived a couple days ago. The first 100 pages or so was all information I'd read multiple times in other places, but I'm about to get into the 'how to do' part of the book, which I hope will have new helpful information.

I've felt pretty good the whole time. There were a couple of days in the first week where I felt sort of 'funny' after meals. Not hungry. Not sick. Sort of hollow, if that makes any sense. Anyway, that passed completely within a few days, only to be replaced with ... ahem... a lack of desire to visit the restroom. that seems to have gone as well after about a week, with everything working almost too good at this point in that department.

My wife initially expressed concerns about my bacon and hotdog diet, but she decided to go along for the ride when she realized that I wasn't eating hotdogs and bacon at every turn like she thought. Since she only wanted to loose a few pounds and did, now she's a little frustrated because I'm still not eating rice, fruit or breads and she wants them. I on the other hand am not having any problem whatsoever eating as I describe.

I go to restaurants for lunch and am sometimes disappointed in the quantity of food available that I can eat, but I've not once faltered while my friends were eating fried/battered fish, burgers, ice cream, gummy bears, sodas, etc... I've had to stop off at McDonalds and grab a double cheeseburger (tossing the bun) because what I ordered had too many carbs I refused to eat, however. No waivering though.

So far the only thing to give me a problem is a McFlurry from McDonalds (icecream and cookie crumb sundae). I have been able to resist. I take that back, I did falter twice. On one occasion I let an M&M sit in my mouth for a couple of seconds to taste it and then spit it out after a second. It wasn't that I quickly grabbed myself. I just took a taste and then released it. On another occasion I shocked my wife by taking a big bite out of a hotdog bun... but I spit it out.

So "what about the pants" you may be asking (wondering about the title of this message). This morning I woke up (late, since my band played last night and I got home around 4AM) and weighed and I find I am (surprise!) 184/185 pounds again. I put on some pants and went to my truck to get my trusty cup which holds 3.5 cups of water and was thinking... "jeez... these pants are a little tight today. What the hell am I doing wrong?"

The funny part came a little later when I realized that I grabbed the wrong pants. The pants I have on I bought a couple of years ago and they were too tight to wear for long. I tried them on the other day and couldn't zip them up. Today they zipped and are too tight, but only for style reasons now and not for comfort. Maybe its time to break out the tape measure.

Anyway, as this is a very long post already, I'll wind it down with a couple other comments.

I never thought I was obese, but I hated going without a shirt and I hated wearing a tight shirt because either showed off my gut and my spare tire. Friends would quip "you're 30... you're supposed to have a gut", but I was never happy about it. Being in a band, I have always felt like the extra weight was hampering my stage persona and affecting my stamina. The desire to play onstage with no shirt or go to the lake and be happy with myself were the reasons that I started this.

I am now feeling like I can do this program for the duration. I miss potatos, and despite the best efforts of radishes, turnips and caulliflower, they aren't easily replaced, but I enjoy being able to eat bacon (although I still buy the brand with the least carbs I can find) and cheese, which were both taboo on every other diet.

Everyone at work thinks I'm a nut, and of course they tell me how I'm eating unhealthily, but I think of how many more servings of vegetables I'm eating than before, and how much less sugar, and I just can't imagine how they could be right.

This site has been a godsend because there is SOOOOO much information in here. While I think a lot of it is opinion, it gives me lots of ideas to think about, and makes me feel like I'm not as much of a nut. Still a nut, but not as much.

(BTW, at the show last night I had half of a Miller Lite, which I read was only 3 or 4 carbs per serving. Water does not in any way keep my throat from getting dry while singing, whereas beer does for some reason. The manager brought my band some hot wings after we finished playing and I initially turned it down but when my buddy told me they weren't sweat and I didn't see any breading of any sort, I gave 'em a spin. I guess I'll check the dreaded ketostix and see if they knocked me out of ketosis)

Thank you all for your unwitting aid on this journey. Hopefully I will have something to give back once in a while.

Cheers!
-Chris

PS: A customer gave me a carbolite choclate-peanut candy bar the other day and it was unbelievably good. I detected no phony flavor at all. I haven't had one since and won't be eating them daily, but if you are jonesing a choco fix, these things are great. I wonder if anyone has something negative to mention about them?