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 Starting weight:  285.2
 Weight Last Entry:  237.8    Weight Today:  237.4
Change today::  -0.4 lbs.         Loss-so-far:   -47.8 lbs.    
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*Dancing around*  *Twirling around*  *Making woot-woot noises*

I’m just happy because I did an hour of DDR last night for the second night in a row and even though my knees are just a little bit swollen, I feel GOOD!  Gonna go for another hour tonight.  =D  Yeah I got a Polar F4 heart monitor for Christmas (the only thing I asked Santa for) and I love how it tells me that I’m in “the zone” (for me it’s a HR between 112 and 147).  DDR kicks butt, I was in that zone pretty much constantly!

My friend Diane has diabetes, she was diagnosed over six years ago.  I have spent a lot of time with her and have watched her when she was “good,” eating what and when she’s supposed to eat, and also when she was “bad,” eating things she shouldn’t or skipping meals.  It was a bit fascinating to me, from an outsider’s point of view, how she would “feel” her food intake.  If she indulged in sugar, she could feel the spike - and then not long after that, the crash.  If she skipped a meal, she could definitely feel that, too.  Kinda like blindness forces a person to be more tuned into their other senses, diabetes forces its victims to be more tuned into their metabolic system.

Well now I’m getting a little taste of what it’s like for Diane - kinda.  Before this year, my recollection of “feeling” my food was limited to two basic states: hungry and full.  Hungry was bad.  Full was good.

This year, though, I’ve opened up my awareness to way more than just the black & white of hungry vs. full.  I feel the full spectrum of satiation and/or satisfaction, and it’s way more varied now - it’s different depending upon what I eat and when I eat. 

Our friend, sterling, she got me to thinking about this with her entry about eating “clean.”  It IS different, it feels different, yeah, in your head, when you don’t feel guilty about what you’ve just consumed, but I’m talking about the physical.  It feels different when I eat what I’m supposed to be eating.  I feel stronger, more energetic, more alert, more aware, more fueled.

Oh, and full isn’t now - and never was - always “good.”  I remember lots of times when I ate waaaay too much and the fullness was SO not a good thing!  I would complain, “Ohmygod I ate too much,” but then next time I would do it again.

Anyway, I guess my point is that it’s good to be in tune with all that.  =D

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————————————————————————————–
 Starting weight:  285.2
 Weight Last Entry:  237.6    Weight Today:  237.8
Change today::  +0.2 lbs.         Loss-so-far:   -47.4 lbs.    
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Peh.  Two-tenths of a pound - it’s just silly.  My poor sad scale playing mind games with me again.  i swear that thing has a personality.  I’d break up with him and never see him again - if I didn’t need him so badly!  I have, from time to time, vowed to back off in our relationship, to only see him on the weekends, but I always come crawling back.  I’m so pathetic that way.  LOL!

Recently I came across a copy of Dr. Atkin’s book, the one printed in 1972.  It was so refreshing to read, compared to the more recent version.  I had a very hard time reading the current one because it was, oh, about 75% defensive posturing.  So many words devoted to defending his plan instead of explaining his plan.  It’s sad because after so many years of being attacked for his plan, he felt the need to expend so much energy and time in just defending it.

Not that the 1972 book didn’t spend some time defending his plan - there’s a whole section in the back devoted just to the FDA hearings that took place back then - but the whole book was not permeated with the Doctor’s rebuttals to attackers.  It was filled with examples and anecdotes, with the explanations of the science and the wonders of the low-carb lifestyle.

It’s sad, what’s become of the Atkins corporation now that the Doctor is gone (and no, he didn’t die from poor health because of his diet, he slipped and fell and died from that injury).  His widow maintains a website that is still in line with her husband’s real actual plan.  The Atkins website is all about marketing the Atkins products - with a nod or two toward the science involved.

Yes.  Science.

I’ve run into a few people in the past seven months who have told me - in tones suggesting their expertise on the subject - that the Atkins diet is terrible health-wise and/or it’s just a gimmick.  The first thing I always ask is:  Have you actually read Dr. Atkin’s book from cover to cover?

“Well, no - but I read in a magazine…” or “I saw this thing on the news…”

*Sigh*

The bottom line for me is this:  I tried calorie-counting from January 2008 to June 2008, and I lost a whopping FIVE pounds.  FIVE pounds in SIX months.  Then I switched to low carb in July 2008 and in the next six months I lost FIFTY pounds.  FIFTY.

During both of these periods of time, I logged my food.
During both of these periods of time, I kept track of my calories.
During both of these periods of time, I kept my daily caloric intake between 1300 and 1700.

The only difference between these two periods of time was the chemical content of what I was eating.

The only difference was the science.  Ketosis is a measurable state, a real physiological phenomenon.  During ketosis (brought on by low carb intake), the body’s default source for energy switches from incoming carbs to fat - incoming fat and existing stored fat.

Oh, definitely I agree - it’s not for everyone, but it does work for me.

*Stepping down off soapbox*

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