Fourth time a charm?

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LTParis
LTParis Posts: 13
in Introduce Yourself
Hello to the MFP community. I'm striving to finally once and for all get healthy and more importantly stay healthy. I've had some success stories in the past, and failures that has my weight see-saw almost all my life.

Age 20 - From 245 to 165 (-80 pounds)
This was my biggest weight loss. Combine a little bit of depression (hated where I was living, no career at that point) with a ton of vigorous exercise (playing basketball numerous times a day) and I lost 80 pounds in around 6 months (-3 lbs a week). I kept this off for a couple years but it slowly crept back up from a sedentary lifestyle and eating large portions.

Age 27 - from 235 to 200 (-35 pounds)
Working with co-workers who wanted me to eat healthier and live healthier, I did just that for about 9 months. Was exercising 45 minutes a day on the treadmill and counting calories vigorously with a ancient weight tracking program.

Age 36 - from 245 to 216 (-29 pounds)
I was living the consulting-like lifestyle commuting hundreds of miles a week by car, eating terrible fast food and drinking more sweet teas than one should ever have in their life. Then just a couple days before my birthday I did not feel like myself, and turns out I was full blown diabetic (+350 BGL). I quickly changed my diet around going with a very low carb/high protein solution, which combined with near daily exercise allowed my diabetes to go back to a pre-diabetic stage and lost 29 pounds to boot. While I have since stayed away from any calorie drink (drink mostly water) I found I could eat most foods again, and so I did…

Age 37 – starting 242 targeted 190 (-4 pounds to date)
I hate to use New Years as a resolution but I guess it’s better than nothing and hopefully I have learned some important lessons over the years, the biggest one being that this has to be a lifetime commitment. I have been eating healthier again for the past 10 days or so, trying to get back into smaller meals, and also trying to cut my carbs back (but not as drastically as I did last year). So far I have lost 4 pounds, and I have 48-ish to go. I hope this change is permanent but it will be a challenge no doubt.

Replies

  • kristimartiny
    kristimartiny Posts: 62
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    Good luck to you!
  • michelle_mareshfuehrer
    michelle_mareshfuehrer Posts: 312 Member
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    You can do it!! I am insulin resistant, so I can totally relate to the "not feeling like yourself" and the difficulty with eating regular foods. Do you have any helpful recipes or meal ideas for someone who needs to do low carb, since you've done it yourself? I find most low carb foods to be bland and boring.
  • LTParis
    LTParis Posts: 13
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    Oh and I apologize for the repeating posts earlier, my brower was acting quite curiously crazy. :)
  • BK120
    BK120 Posts: 107
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    Welcome. You can do this. Having friends to support you really helps to keep you motivated.
  • sweebum
    sweebum Posts: 1,060 Member
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    It's not how many times to fall off the wagon, just that you get back on :drinker:

    Small changes really do add up (as you've seen) :smile:
  • nikki7805
    nikki7805 Posts: 4
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    I understand what you mean. I have also been having the see-saw effect over the years. In 2007-2008 I had managed to lose 107lbs. Got in a car wreck and was unable to exercise the way I had been. So, without the exercising I eventually fell back into the old way of eating and since then have managed to gain back 84 pounds. (RIDICULOUS) I am back on and going to stay on, I know how good i felt about myself then and how i am feeling terribly about myself now. I am ready to get back to living! Hang in there and good luck to you, we can do it!! :)
  • vyakopian
    vyakopian Posts: 14
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    Hi Everyone! Im kinda new to my fitness pal and too am insulin resistant. Can you please give me some tips on food you are finding out that are working for you???
  • LTParis
    LTParis Posts: 13
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    As a note I am not insulin resistant, but I was reacting very "sharply" to many foods. When I was full blown diabetic I was trying to follow a few rules:

    Nothing with HFCS. This was absolutly evil to me. Problem is it seems to be in at leeat 75% of all foods. My body had a better time processing simple table sugars. A quick spike but quicker recovery.

    Only breads I would eat were rye or pumpernickel. This is because of their low glycemic index. Even good whole wheat breads were setting me off.

    I gave up pastas entirely. Even the whole grain variety was spiking my BGLs.

    The only starchy carb foods I could tolerate were chips. Specifially simple chips like Grandma UTZ which have just basic ingreedients. I had gotten that tip from one of the diabetic forums and it at least allowed me some carb "retreat" when I needed it.

    Drank only water. Especially when dieting, artificial sweetened drinks actually brought on hunger cravings for me (and other people I know). Learn to love H2O.

    I ate a lot of protien. Peanuts, ham, turkey, jerky, anything that I could find that was low or void of sugars/carbs. I would even subsitute fat for carbs.

    Something that some doctors who have a speciality in Diabetes have concluded is Diabetics really need a <100g day allowance for carbs, and even more drastic 50-75g a day. This is so very hard in a world where we are flooded with starches everywhere. I remember I had tracked back to that day I felt awful (12/14/2009) and I had consumed upwards of 5200 calories and 725g of carbs, and 320g of sugars. And quite frankly it's not that hard to get there. Ever just pig out on a bag of chips? That is 100g - 170g of carbs right there.

    Unfortunatly there is no one forumla fits all. I spent 3 solid weeks testing out "good food" to see if it was really good or not, and at least 50% had a negative effect on me. Now I got lucky and I can eat most foods now, but that was also my downfall to weight gain (again).

    Good luck!
  • vyakopian
    vyakopian Posts: 14
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    Thank you for thoses tips..

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