Name: Betsi
Age: 26 (posted Oct '08)
Location: Waltham, MA (near Boston)
Occupation: Disabled/aspiring entrepreneur... that is, I'm an autistic/depressive artist who's trying to find a place to fit!
Hobbies: Art... I enjoy experimenting with lots of things, but my main artistic endeavor hobby-wise is ATCs (artist trading cards) that are trading card size artworks that I trade on an online site (ATCsForAll) and in person at my local Meetup.
Health choices: On the South Beach Diet, and also trying to get more exercise in simple ways like walking more and listening to my iPod while I do housework (it gets me boogying!)
My story: My sweetie (sometimes referred to as just "bf" for boy/best friend) went to the doctor and was told, as usual, that he was too heavy. The doctor suggested he go on the SBD, so he ordered the book when he got home. I agreed to do it with him, since I'm a supportive girlfriend like that.
Of course, it's also because I could stand to lose too - I was on 3fC something like half a year ago, trying to lose through calorie control - consume less, burn more. I wore myself out and lost slowly and eventually burned out. It crept back on so now I'm losing it for the second time; I originally gained a bunch of weight - about 50 lbs - when I moved out of my mother's house several years ago. When Sweetie and I started SBD we lost about 10 lbs each on P1, and as of posting this we are just starting P2. I am nervous about the progress slowly, so I'm trying to squeeze in more exercise.
Complications: I am a high-functioning autistic (Asperger's) which among a myriad of other odd symptoms means that I crave crunchy food on a neurological level. Weird, yes, I know. The worst of it is, the only things that feed that craving is extremely unhealthy carbs like potato chips or pretzels. I deal with this by regularly exceeding my SB allowance of legumes, and also allowing myself a very occasional small cheat. So far it seems to work ok, as long as the cheats are in the evening.
I also have recently developed a fairly high lactose intolerance - I used to have alow level one, but over the summer it abruptly got pretty back. I'm finding it very hard to cut back on cheese, especially on SBD but as long as I try to limit to one dairy per day with LOTS of lactase pills I seem to be ok.
And in case that wasn't tricky enough, Sweetie is gluten-intolerant (aka Celiac, though we have no proper diagnosis) so trying to slowly reintroduce healthy carbs on P2 is HARD since it seems the only acceptable carb is whole wheat which makes him quite ill in the short term and long term would even kill him.
Weight and goals: I am about 5'8" (just shy of, really) and at my highest I weighed 200 lbs. That's what started me watching calories, and after I gained the weight back it never quite got that high. So my start weight on SB is 195. As of 10/21/08 (not quite three weeks on the Beach) I am 182.5 lbs. My initial goal is somewhere around 160-165 lbs. This is the high end of "healthy" according to the BMI - and also the high end of "one size fits all" to most hosiery manufacturers!
I'm a bit fan of funky tights (stripes and polka dots, silly things like that!) but it's almost impossible to find plus sized ones. Ideally I want to get down to 150 lbs, but we'll see how things look when I hit 160 or so.
I'm on 3fC because: I found my way back here when I needed some ideas for snacking on P1. I found the Fake Garlic Bread, and I've been reading recipes ever since. You girls have such great ideas for recipes - even as simple as "this is what I put in my oatmeal" and it really helps to keep from getting burned out.
(Loving SB)
