Thursday, January 9

Gain a diet partner, lose the pounds

By Lady Hereford, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 9, 2003

Let me start by saying I've never been thin. The closest I ever came was in high school. Back then, I weighed somewhere between 130 and 140, always on the borderline of swelling up like a blimp.

Blimpdom happened sometime during college. It didn't take long for the late-night pizza and lunchtime french fries to catch up with me.

It didn't help that I worked part-time in the school cafeteria my first two years. Then I joined the newspaper staff, and there I was, sometimes holed up in a tiny office until 2 a.m. I lived on fast food, not to mention the cookies, pies and ice cream I ate to satisfy my giant sweet tooth.

My junk-food-junkie lifestyle continued after I got my first newspaper job in 1996. A couple of times, I made New Year's resolutions to start working out, start eating fruits and vegetables, stop eating sweets. But something always came up, and my good intentions never lasted.

Then, in August 2001, a friend and I were at a restaurant on all-you-can-eat rib night. Over a plate of baby backs, she mentioned that she was planning to start back on the Atkins diet. She had lost nearly 100 pounds on Atkins, but she'd gained some of it back and wanted to start over again.

I told her that if she did I'd do the diet with her. We set Oct. 1 as our starting date.

I had read Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution maybe a year and a half earlier, and I knew several people who lost weight on Atkins. But at that time I wasn't willing to give the low-carb diet a try. I didn't mind giving up my favorite starchy foods like potato chips, pasta and bread, but I drew the line at sweets. I truly was a sugar addict.

My friend had an answer for that -- sugar free, low-carb chocolate and low-carb cheesecake sweetened with Splenda. Both tasted just like the real thing.

OK, I thought, maybe I can do this after all.

Besides cutting out the carbohydrates, I had to get used to drinking eight glasses of water a day and making constant trips to the bathroom. I also had to start taking vitamins and keeping close track of pretty much everything I ate.

The other big change for me was having to eat breakfast every day, which was something I never did. My excuse was that I never had the time. So for the sake of convenience, my breakfast usually consisted of a protein shake or a protein bar consumed in the car on the way to work. I wasn't sure it would work at first, but it's true what they say. It really did make me less prone to overeat the rest of the day.

I ate some of the same foods as before, but with some modifications. I might still have a cheeseburger for lunch, for example. But I'd take off the bread (it's kind of weird at first, but you get used to it) and substitute a small green salad for the fries. Dinner might be chicken, fish or beef plus a vegetable. For dessert, I'd have half a low-carb chocolate bar or a slice of cheesecake. I usually munched on peanuts or cashews for snacks.

With results came the willpower I'd always lacked. After the first two weeks, I went from 225 pounds to 220. By the end of the first month, I was down to 214. On New Year's Day 2002, I reached my first milestone, 25 pounds.

The weight came off quickly at first when I was consuming less than 20 carbs a day, or the equivalent of about two slices of whole-grain bread. Gradually I started adding more carbs back into my diet, as the book suggests, and the weight loss came at a slower but consistent pace.

In all, it took me a year to lose 60 pounds. I'm not exactly where I want to be yet, but I'm getting there. I do eat french fries or a piece of cake sometimes, but only on special occasions. More than losing the weight, I'm proud that I'm finally in control of my sugar cravings.

I know that the low-carb diet isn't for everyone. My friend, for instance, got burned out on it before reaching her goal. Still, having a partner -- a spouse, a friend or a co-worker -- made a big difference to me, and it might with you also, no matter what diet/exercise regimen you choose.

But I know one thing for sure: Size 14 feels a whole lot better than size 20.

For more information about the low-carb diet, visit the Atkins Web site, www.atkinscenter.com.

lady_hereford~pbpost.com

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