Why I Decided to Go KETO

Why I decided to go Keto

Don't have time to read my in-depth weight-loss story? Got ya covered! This article briefly describes my journey to thinness up to the point where I started this blog.

Struggle to change things, inner conflict, and resistance to what life brings your way can make you feel miserable and fat, so the intent of this blog is to show you another way to live:

The Low-Carb Lifestyle!

I was not a fat child.

My struggle with weight actually began much later than that -- in high school. Twiggy was the latest fad, and everyone who was anyone was starving themselves trying to be as toothpick thin as she was.

Even though I was only 10 pounds heavier than the insurance-created height-weight charts said I should be, the kids made fun of me for being fat.

Determined to do something about that, my weight-loss journey began when I bought a weight-loss magazine at the corner drug store and began to digest the dieting information it presented to me.

Like everyone else, I automatically swallowed what the magazine shared about weight loss because I saw the magazine as being more knowledgeable than I was. I believed the writer knew more about my body and losing weight than I did.

Plus, in those days, there was no way to do much research on your own. Without the internet, you were pretty much at the mercy of what the media wanted you to believe. Or whatever books you could get your hands on at the public library.

I'm sure my background story will be similar to yours.

So, here goes:

My Real Weight Problems Began After High School

I spent a good two years trying to keep myself as thin as possible. I did it by counting calories. It wasn't easy because I wasn't in charge of what I ate.

Mom wasn't into nutrition, so I just did the best I could under the circumstances.

Shortly after graduating from high school, I was rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. It was after that surgery that my real weight problems began.

Up to this point, I'd only been struggling with about 10 extra pounds, but after the trauma of going under the knife, even though I wasn’t eating any differently than I was before, and I was just as active and involved in life as I had been before the operation, I began to put on weight -- lots of weight.

I guessed that there was some type of metabolic disturbance that came about due to that operation, but everyone, including my doctor, said that was impossible. There was no room in their belief system for a glucose I.V. causing anything like metabolic syndrome.

If such were the case, then everyone who had an operation or were hooked up to an I.V. for any reason would be gaining weight, my doctor said.

"You're babying your self. Stop being lazy. Get up, and move more."

My First Experience with Weight Watchers

Later that summer, I went to stay with my aunt and uncle who decided I needed a pep talk about my weight. My uncle was starting an exchange weight-loss program called Weight Watchers and they felt I needed to do something similar.

I watched what my uncle was eating and tried to imitate him.

What sticks out in my mind?

He ate all 4 slices of store-bought bread that Weight Watchers allowed him per day as a single side dish for dinner. I wasn’t really excited about eating plain white bread without peanut butter and butter, my favorite combination, so instead of eating the allowed starches, I ate the:

• meat
• salads
• vegetables
• and fruit

I passed up the skim milk and drank an occasional diet soda, but not many because they tasted pretty awful back then.

A classic low-carb meal contains protein,
vegetables, and a side salad.

In essence, what I did low carb, but I didn't know it.

As a result of those dietary changes, and only eating enough to keep me feeling satisfied, I lost 40 pounds that summer without going hungry.

But, weighing 125 pounds again was short lived.

Mom didn’t cook like my aunt did.

Her meals were heavy on sugar and carbs, and I easily regained some of the weight, especially after I started dating. My now-ex liked to go out to eat a lot, and was addicted to junk food. By the time we got married in 1975, I was back up to 140 pounds.

Meeting Dr. Atkins in the Public Library

After the wedding, I tried to go low calorie again. I tried every single diet and fad that came out in all the diet and fitness magazines. I read every article and diet book I could get my hands on, thirsty for results, but I wasn't very successful.

My husband continued with his junk-food diet. He loved to eat out a lot, and I didn't know how to trim down my eating. I do today, but I didn't know then.

All of that changed when I became acquainted with a book called “The Diet Revolution” (affiliate link) by Dr. Robert C. Atkins.

I ran into the 1972 paperback at the public library.

After reading only a few short chapters, I realized that everything I had been searching for was suddenly within my grasp.

Pondering on the summer I lived with my aunt and uncle, as well as the scientific studies and case studies shared in Dr. Atkins' 1972 book, I came to understand that losing weight wasn’t about counting calories.

It wasn’t about eating less fat.

It was about eating too many carbohydrates. Plus, the science presented in the book coincided with my previous experiences. It just rang true for me.

[*Today, I realize this perspective was incorrect. Calories do count, and losing weight on a low-carb diet IS about eating less fat than you need to maintain your current weight. Eating less fat gives your body a reason to withdraw triglycerides from your fat stores. But, this was how I felt after I read Dr. Atkins 1972 book for the very first time. And also how I originally felt when I started this blog in 2007.]

My First Experience with the Atkins Diet

I followed the diet recommendations faithfully.

In fact, I was eating 5,000 calories a day back then and climbed the carbohydrate ladder weekly, just as Dr. Atkins suggested in 1972.

That's not an exaggeration.

I literally measured my food and counted the calories for a few days to see how much I was eating. I really put the diet to the test.

Unlike later editions of the Atkins 72 diet, in the very first edition, readers were told exactly what to add back, and how much, at every 5-carb diet level.

I lost all the weight I needed to lose at that time, about 40 pounds, in less than 2 months.

(For the specifics on how I did that, including exactly what I ate at each Atkins 72 level, see our post on How I Lost Over 100 Pounds Tweaking the Atkins Diet. It goes into this in much more detail.)

However, when my husband lost his job and funds were short, he refused to pay for the low-carb foods I needed to maintain that weight loss. This resistance to low carb continued even after he found a new job.

For awhile, I made due by surviving on:

• chicken backs and salad
• cottage cheese
• green beans
• peanuts
• strawberries in season

But the restrictiveness of the plan, the utter monotony of my food choices, and my inability to adapt Atkins to real life situations led me to gain back all of that weight, and more.

[Yes, I'm blaming myself for what happened. I didn't really realize that until I read this right now. I've been hiding behind the cloak of objectivity, calling it being objective, and it's time to lift the curtain on that just a little bit.]

I wasn't creative in the kitchen.

That's fact.

I was, and still am, a recipe addict, however. I collect way more recipes and food ideas than I'll ever be able to experiment with in this lifetime. I also had a strong tendency to follow the creativity of others back then. I never changed what the recipe told me to do, like I do today.

The advent of the internet did change that.

Watching how others twisted recipes and switched out ingredients for cheaper alternatives freed up a lot of the creative spirit I had hiding inside, but the internet would not come into my life for several more years.

My Weight-Loss Journey Continued

I tried several other diets along the way, such as counting fat grams or going to Weight Watchers. At that time, Weight Watchers was still using an exchange plan, which worked up to a point.

Lowering the fat meant I had to lower my protein intake, however, so I didn't do too well with that. When I got down to 160 pounds, my cravings for sugar went through the roof.

I knew that I needed to eat more meat, but I didn't have a clue as to how to make a low-carb lifestyle work within a very tight budget. I had 4 growing sons to feed, one household income, and a husband who was addicted to not only sugar but also processed crap.

He totally rebelled against a whole foods diet, even a flexible one, so his addiction didn’t leave any room in the budget for me.

[Hmmm. I was playing the victim.]

When I came down with:

• asthma
• multiple chemical sensitivity
• severe reactions to the chemicals in processed foods
• pre-diabetes

our financial situation had improved some. Most of the kids had moved out of the house, but the opposition to low carb didn’t fully end until the doctor who diagnosed me with borderline diabetes told my then-husband that he had two choices:

1) He could buy me the food I needed; or

2) He could pay for the medical expenses associated with diabetes later on.

My then-husband decided that me eating low carb was to his financial advantage, so in 1999, with the help of my doctor, my weight-loss journey continued.

I tried the Atkins Diet again.

My Second Attempt with the Atkins Diet

Atkins 92 brought a few changes to Atkins Induction.
You now got to eat 2/3 cup of vegetables

With the help of the many creative people on the internet and several of the low-carb recipe e-groups available at that time, I managed to lose about 30 pounds following the 1992 version of the Atkins diet.

Atkins 92 had a couple of changes compared to Atkins 72:

You could eat 2/3 of a cup of cooked vegetables on Induction, along with the 2 cups of salad.

OR:

You were free to create your own personalized low-carb Induction diet using any low-carb foods you liked, as long as you stayed below 20 full carbs a day. 

This meant you could eat:

• nuts and nut-flours
• cottage cheese
• cream cheese
• sour cream
• heavy cream
• or any vegetables you liked

Even on Induction.

As a result, I was able to bring my blood sugars under control through diet alone, and at a cost of not one penny more than we were already spending for food. 

What I came to realize was that low carb is only as expensive as you make it.

At that point of enlightenment, however, my then-husband ran off with a woman he met over the internet.

Took a Maintenance Break from My Weight-Loss Journey

To deal with the stress of the situation and my income dropping from over 50K to less than 16K, I decided to move into a maintenance plan.

With over 60 pounds still to lose, I also didn't want to lose any ground due to the emotional turmoil and financial stress I was under, so I moved from the Atkins Diet to Sugarbusters.

This was before Dr. Atkins had publicly supported the low-glycemic theory for maintenance.

[Sugarbusters is a low-glycemic diet, rather than a low-carb diet. You limit starchy carbs to 2 or 3 servings per day, similar to the old Weight Watchers Exchange Plan.]

For me, it was a good decision. 

I was able to not only maintain my losses, while I struggled financially, but I also managed to carve off another 20 pounds without trying.

My Third Attempt with the Atkins Diet

By this time, I had remarried and was ready to go the rest of the distance to goal weight.

Since it was the third time I had seriously started Atkins, weight loss was slower, even though I was far more active than I had been in my younger years. In addition, the Atkins Diet had evolved quite a bit from what I had followed previously.

The 2002 version was less restrictive, allowing a full cup of cooked vegetables on Induction, along with its 2-cup salad, but since I was used to not counting carbs on Sugarbusters, I tried doing Atkins the same way.

It backfired on me.

I didn't lose a single pound on Induction.

As a result, I started over, counting my carbs meticulously, and the weight started to come off, slowly but surely -- until fate struck again.

Vertigo

Three days after being exposed to a rapid series of out-of-control Southern California fires, I came down with severe, disabling vertigo.

At first, the doctor thought I had a simple ear infection.

But, after going through two rounds of antibiotics, the vertigo still hadn't gone away. It continued to plague me 24-7.
I was bedridden and unable to care for myself at all. I couldn't:

• cook the low-carb food I needed to eat
• go to the bathroom by myself
• take a shower by myself
• even dress myself

I couldn't do anything.

I was totally dependent on others, especially my new husband, to take care of me. I had no choice but to go off plan. I couldn't even do maintenance, due to my condition.

At this point in my life, I began an endless journey of visits to specialists, none of whom could help me.

I was literally helpless.

And since my current husband has dyslexia and cannot read, I was once again left at the mercy of someone else’s cooking.

I never could get my Primary doctor to officially diagnose me.

In fact, when the State of California sent me to one of their own doctors for a standard 3-month review, my doc suddenly refused to sign my disability papers. Regardless of the fact that I was unable to walk into his office under my own power, he told me he would not consider me disabled until a specialist told him I was disabled.

The ironic thing was that the Neurologist he sent me to several weeks prior to this had clearly written in her notes that she suspected I had a syndrome known as Meniere's Disease, but since the ENT was totally ignorant of that disease, he told me to:

• stop being lazy
• go back to work
• learn to live with the vertigo problems

As a result, my Primary doctor wasn’t willing to accept the Neurologist’s diagnosis. Instead, he wanted to ship me off to their Internist department for further evaluation.

I informed the workshop for developmentally disabled adults where I'd been working about what the ENT said and recommended, but they laughed.

“This is NOT a sit-down job,” they said. "Please send us your resignation in writing."

With my Primary Doctor refusing to sign my disability papers, the California Disability income ended right then and there, so we moved from California to Utah where the air quality was better.

In Utah, I began learning to live with the daily Vertigo attacks and bilateral dysfunction.

Over the course of the next three years, I gained back all of my weight, and more.

A lot more.

Double in fact because my body didn’t know how to adapt to the situation.

Most folks with Meniere’s suffer only occasional vertigo spells, spend a few days in bed, and then live pretty normal lives until the next attack.

But not me.

I was completely bedridden.

I'm guessing that's why my Primary in California had refused to place the Meniere’s label on me. I wasn't episodic. My head spun 24 hours a day!

Unfortunately, I happen to be of the 1% who suffers with the problem daily. 

My Fourth Attempt with the Atkins Diet - Atkins 2002

Thanks to a holistic chiropractor I met over the internet, who happened to live only an hour-and-a-half north of where we moved to in Utah, I was able to get a neck and back adjustment that allowed my body to start adapting to the vertigo.

After seeing him twice a week for several weeks, I managed to teach myself how to walk again.

When I first started this blog, I still had brain fog, dizziness, and severe off-balance problems whenever:

• my stress level rose
• I accidentally got glutened
• I came in contact with something else I was allergic to
• or the weather was bad

However, I managed to re-learn how to balance myself enough to walk on my own, and I was able to cook safely on most days.

What I struggled with then was neuropathy in both feet, severe inflammation, and shooting pains in my right knee, which I was hoping would be corrected by losing the weight. I had ballooned up to a whopping 257-1/2 pounds when I weighed myself at the end of December, 2006.

And since I am only 5 feet tall, if that, I was grossly obese.

At that point in my weight-loss journey, I decided it was time to go back to Atkins for the fourth time.

On January 3, 2007, I began again to follow the Atkin's diet.

This time . . . for life --

Why I Started this Blog

To help me be more successful in my weight-loss journey this time around, I decided to start this blog.

Over the years, it has evolved from a personal journal, where I shared my daily struggles to ditch the weight and correct my ever-compounding health problems, into a hefty, low-carb resource that covers all low-carb diets -- and not just Atkins.

Here, you'll find all of the information you need to know to start and tweak a low-carb diet for yourself, as well as make it to goal -- and stay there.

I am a research fanatic, and like to pass along all of the information I learn, so you'll also find a lot of low-carb science and theory explained here too.

While I'm a loyal fan of the low-carb way of life, health conditions do not allow me to follow a "very" low-carb diet. I do want to make that clear.

Today (2019) I eat between 60 and 120 carbs a day.

I also do not avoid sugars and starches.

For this reason, you'll find discussions and advice here at Kickin' Carb Clutter that range from how to do zero carb, all the way up to 60 carbs a day. My posts here are based on my own experience with living very low carb.

I also have a sister site, Life After Low Carb, for those who can handle a larger amount of carbs. That blog covers nutrition topics, health, and weight-loss diets that range from about 60 carbs up to 120 carbs, or so.

If very low carb isn't your thing, feel free to join us over there. And while you're there, why not say "hi" by leaving me a comment.

For those with celiac disease, you can also find me at:

Super Sensitive Celiac

as well as my Vickie Ewell blog, which will focus more on living, rather than dieting.

If You'd Like to Read Further About My Weight-Loss Journey:

These two article series go more in depth:

How to Tweak a Low-Carb Diet to Achieve Success

How I Lost Over 100 Pounds Tweaking the Atkins Diet

I've also included a link to my Before and Current Pictures so you can see what I managed to accomplish eating very low carb.