In case you didn't already know, I used to be fat. Like, really fat. Like, I was literally morbidly obese. At 5'7, 275 pounds, my BMI was 43, which classed me as morbidly obese. The worst part was that I was a sweet and naive 17 year old and I didn't understand how sick I was.
I did managed to lose weight, though. Slowly, in steps, it came off. Some came off when I fell in love with Chad and started treating myself better. Then we started going out and being active together, and more came off. I moved in with him and took over cooking almost all the meals, and more came off.
In 2010, I went on a low calorie diet, started running three days a week and lifting weights once or twice, and within five months, I had lost another 30-35 pounds. By then, I was down to 185. I wanted so badly to lose another 10 pounds so I could shout from the roof tops that, HEY WORLD, I'VE LOST 100 POUNDS!
But low calorie dieting is terrible. I'm sure anyone who has tried it can understand what I'm talking about. I was eating about 1500-1700 calories a day, and later once I'd lost 30 pounds, I shifted to 1300-1400 calories a day to try to lose more weight. My goal was 160 pounds, which would just get me into the "normal" BMI range.
I was hungry all the time. Like, hungry to my core. I couldn't eat enough to satisfy the hunger I was feeling unless I ate over my calorie range. I didn't shun fat, but I also knew that fat was 9 calories whereas carbs and protein were 4, so I tried to avoid it so I would be able to eat more food, because I was so hungry. And being a vegetarian, it was remarkably hard to get enough protein. On days where I was trying really hard, I'd eat about 60g of protein, but it was mostly from soy, low fat dairy, and wheat gluten.
The worst part was the food obsession. I would think about food every moment of the day. I would carefully weigh each and every item. I had to specially formulate recipes and carefully divide the results to make sure I was getting the right amount of calories. I spent hours a day typing in the foods I'd eaten in Sparkpeople.com's food diary. And at the end of the day, I would go and check how many calories I had left and try to get as much extra food as I could. Food was my life. I dreamed about it. Meals were the centers of my day.
That's why I loved the idea of low carb dieting so much, when I finally opened myself up to the science behind it. I wanted to just eat what I wanted of low carb food, stay away from the higher carb items, and watch myself effortlessly get skinny. I did lose some weight. I was 195 pounds when I started, and managed to lose 10 pounds in a month, bringing me back to 185. But I haven't really lost anything since then.
I know this system works, because I've seen what it's doing for Chad. He was lean before we started, but he managed to lose about 20 pounds while also putting on muscle. So I know it's not that this low carb idea is wrong.
Some days I struggle mentally with this. Sometimes all I want to do is lose 20 more pounds and I think I'm willing to do anything I can to get there. But then I remember actually being 175 at one point while low calorie dieting. I had to starve myself to an incredibly uncomfortable level to get there, and then my will power just broke and I couldn't stop myself from putting those 10 pounds back on. Maybe my body is trying to tell me that this is the weight I'm supposed to be at. Losing 90 pounds in very respectable. And I can't expect my body to work the same after being at 275, either. I don't think it's actually capable of being very lean after that.
But that doesn't stop me from wanting to be skinny. I know I've written in the past about how sick it is for us to want to be skinny, that we should be striving for health instead, but I can't help it. I still want it. I want to be one of those beautiful models who looks great in a bikini.
To what lengths am I willing to go to lose weight? I've thought about trying nutritional ketosis, like Jimmy Moore. I've thought about a low calorie low carb diet. I've thought about cutting out dairy and eggs to see if that helps.
But I worry. This doesn't seem safe. Pushing my body to extreme lengths to lose weight that probably isn't causing me any problems. I worry about nutritional ketosis. There are people in the paleo crowd that claim that women need more natural carbs (from fruit and veggies) for their fertility. I worry about low calorie low carb diets, because Chad and I are trying to conceive. What if I got pregnant and I didn't know it? A low calorie diet doesn't just starve me; it starves the baby, too, and the first couple of weeks are when the nervous system are developing. As for cutting out dairy and eggs? What the heck would I eat if I couldn't eat dairy and cheese?
Some days I want so badly to be skinny. So, so badly. But most days I long for something simpler. To be healthy. That's the real goal here. To feed my body. To build up muscle I lost as a vegetarian. To correct the harm I did on a low calorie diet. To be whole. To never be hungry to my core.
I wonder if there's some in between road, where I can respect my body and feed it what it needs, but at the same time start shedding the leftover bulge. I just don't know. I really don't know if it's a fight worth fighting.
Showing posts with label low calorie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label low calorie. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Calorie Silliness
After reading Good Calorie, Bad Calorie by Gary Taubes, I couldn't understand why people were still convinced that the calories in-calories out idea was important. It's especially surprising when I hear low-carb folks urging us that calories still count.
I have personal experience that says calories aren't really that important. When I was a low calorie vegetarian, I was eating about 1700 calories a day, and gaining weight. Once I switched over to being a low carb meat eater, my calories went up to 2300 or so a day, and I lost weight!
The same is true for Chad. He used to eat about 2100 calories a day, and was slowly gaining weight. But after switching to about 2500 low carb calories, he's lost about 20 pounds while also putting on muscle. Are you sure calories count?
A new and really fun example of how silly the calories in-calories out idea is, is Sam Feltham, from Smash the Fat. He's in the middle of a 21 day experiment where he's purposely eating 5000 calories a day (a 2000 calorie a day surplus for him) to see exactly what it will do to his body. It's important to note that the food he's eating is low-carb, paleo fare.
Since I'm on vacation, gallivanting across the countryside with Chad and his family, I'm writing this about a week before it posts. But so far (day 9), Sam has actually lost two centimeters around his waist, and hasn't gained a thing. This might change by the time he's finished, but something tells me he won't come even close to the weight CICA says he should gain. A quick calculation shows me that CICA says he should gain about 12 pounds by the end of the experiment. But he's half way through, and he hasn't gained anything!
Maybe it's true that some people need to cut their calories in order to lose weight. After all, everyone is different. But to say that everyone needs to cut calories is, I believe, harmful to most people. You shouldn't feel hungry, even if you're trying to lose weight. A little hunger before a meal is alright, but constant hunger is a sign of problems. And unfortunately, for most people, cutting calories makes you pretty hungry. So then your body, being smarter than you, turns your metabolism down a notch, and it becomes harder to lose the weight. I've been there. I also know what it's like to be exhausted all the time while cutting calories.
If you want to watch Sam Feltham's experiment, he has daily youtube videos, and also posts updates on twitter frequently.
I have personal experience that says calories aren't really that important. When I was a low calorie vegetarian, I was eating about 1700 calories a day, and gaining weight. Once I switched over to being a low carb meat eater, my calories went up to 2300 or so a day, and I lost weight!
The same is true for Chad. He used to eat about 2100 calories a day, and was slowly gaining weight. But after switching to about 2500 low carb calories, he's lost about 20 pounds while also putting on muscle. Are you sure calories count?
A new and really fun example of how silly the calories in-calories out idea is, is Sam Feltham, from Smash the Fat. He's in the middle of a 21 day experiment where he's purposely eating 5000 calories a day (a 2000 calorie a day surplus for him) to see exactly what it will do to his body. It's important to note that the food he's eating is low-carb, paleo fare.
Since I'm on vacation, gallivanting across the countryside with Chad and his family, I'm writing this about a week before it posts. But so far (day 9), Sam has actually lost two centimeters around his waist, and hasn't gained a thing. This might change by the time he's finished, but something tells me he won't come even close to the weight CICA says he should gain. A quick calculation shows me that CICA says he should gain about 12 pounds by the end of the experiment. But he's half way through, and he hasn't gained anything!
Maybe it's true that some people need to cut their calories in order to lose weight. After all, everyone is different. But to say that everyone needs to cut calories is, I believe, harmful to most people. You shouldn't feel hungry, even if you're trying to lose weight. A little hunger before a meal is alright, but constant hunger is a sign of problems. And unfortunately, for most people, cutting calories makes you pretty hungry. So then your body, being smarter than you, turns your metabolism down a notch, and it becomes harder to lose the weight. I've been there. I also know what it's like to be exhausted all the time while cutting calories.
If you want to watch Sam Feltham's experiment, he has daily youtube videos, and also posts updates on twitter frequently.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
An Email to Tom Naughton
In case I haven't mentioned it, I'm a huge fan of Tom Naughton. He has an awesome documentary called Fat Head out there that literally changed our lives, and he also writes regularly on his Fat Head blog about low carb science. What I love about Tom is that he doesn't just tell you that LOW-CARB WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE!!!!! He goes through the science and helps you understand why it's a good idea and what you could gain from cutting out grains and sugar.
Since the first time I watched the Fat Head movie was about a year ago, I decided it was about time I write to Tom and tell him how he's affected my life. Since I got a little rambly, and it describes my history, I thought I may as well post the email here. Hopefully my story will help someone else take up low-carb eating.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey there Tom!
I've emailed you in the past, but usually just to ask questions or make comments about news stories. But today, I figured it was time I sat down and told you how you've changed at least four more lives. I hope you'll bear with me. I tend to ramble.
I didn't have the best upbringing. My mom was a single mom, worked, was going to school, dealt with my older sister who was probably the worst problem child you could ever have (she kept running away, stealing, and got pregnant at 12). Mom drank a lot and sometimes used drugs, and was severely depressed at least at one time. Needless to say, we didn't eat very well back then. I remember a lot of easy stuff, like frozen meals, spaghetti, pizza, and lots of chips, cookies, and candy.
I think partially because my only friends at that time were my cats and guinea pigs, I decided to become a vegetarian at the age of 14. I honestly can't remember what my thought process was, or what spurred me on to make that decision. My mom didn't protest really. Since I was already chubby at that age, I bet she thought it would help me lose weight. When I told my pediatrician, she was pretty upset (this is the only doctor who ever questioned my vegetarianism, but I was a kid so I didn't listen to her). She asked me where I was planning on getting my protein from, and being 14, I told her I ate lots of peanut butter.
It was that year that my health and my life started taking a pretty nasty turn for the worse. Since my mom didn't have the time or patience to cook separate vegetarian meals, I mostly just ate around what she made for herself. If she made mashed potatoes with chicken gravy, I would eat just mashed potatoes for dinner. If she made a sweet and sour stir fry with chicken and rice, I would eat the few vegetables I liked (which wasn't many back then) with rice and lots of sweet and sour sauce. I ate cereal for breakfast. Lots and lots of cereal. Sometimes two huge bowls at a time. I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. And don't forget all those chips, cookies, and candy I was still eating, because they're vegetarian.
About a year later (right before my 15th birthday), I had to have my gall bladder removed. No ifs, ands, or buts. No one asked if I wanted it done. No one offered alternatives. No one even told me what causes gall stones. I didn't find out what causes gall stones until just last year, and when I found out, I was pretty mad. You know what causes gall stones? Not using your gall bladder (i.e. low-fat diets).
That was also when I started to really pack on the weight. I was already big to begin with. I was a large child; tall for my age, with huge feet and big broad shoulders. I was just big all around. But when I started eating vegetarian, I got really fat. When I had my gall bladder removed, I was 200 pounds. Two years later, I hit my peak of 275 pounds. For a 17 year old 5'8 girl, that's a lot of weight to be carrying.
But it wasn't just the weight that was the problem. I was severely depressed. My hair was falling out. I started growing hair where girls shouldn't be growing hair and my menstrual cycle would skip several months at a time (which I later found out was because I had developed PCOS). I started turning away from the world, and at age 16, I dropped out of school. Luckily I found my future husband around that time, and even though I was morbidly obese and not always fun to be around, he loved me and helped me fight off some of my depression. Also being around him meant I wasn't eating out of loneliness so much, and we spent a lot of time out in nature, so that by the time we moved in together when I was 22, I had managed to get down to 230 pounds.
Then a couple years later, I finally decided to try DIETING! I found a website called Spark People that lets you track your calories and your exercise minutes. I became instantly addicted. I spent literally hours a day on Spark People, reading the nutrition articles, chatting on the forums, and tracking my food. But it wasn't fun. I felt starved all the time. Food was the only thing I thought about. What I would eat, when I would eat it. If I had 50 extra calories at the end of the day, I would plan out what small indulgence I could give myself (not much for 50 calories). I persisted, though, and in five months, I managed to get down to 185 pounds.
Then I got appendicitis. Again, the doctors didn't give me an option. No one offered me alternatives. No one told me what causes appendicitis. I was wheeled into the OR and had one of my organs taken from me. It wasn't until last year that I found out that appendicitis is a "disease of civilization". The worst part is, exactly one year later, my husband had his appendix removed too, and as the cook in our house, I know I did it to him and it makes me sick.
The weight crept back on after that, a little at a time. I would occasionally try low calorie dieting again, but it was almost impossible for me to stick with it. Like I said before, I'm a big girl. Even if I was skinny, I would be big. My hips are big, my shoulders are big, my feet are big. But BMI doesn't take that into consideration, and so to lose weight, I was told on Spark People to eat 1300 calories a day. That's constant hunger.
About a year ago, I was clicking around on Netflix when I saw your movie. I was kind of intrigued, but a little hesitant to watch it because I just LOVED the movie Supersize Me and I didn't want to hear an opposing opinion. But after a week or two, I finally gave in and watched it. Holy cow. It was so life changing. I was like, really? This is how it really works? Why did I have to wait 27 years to hear it? Why did I have to find this information in a documentary filmed by a comedian? Why isn't this information being shouted out across the rooftops for everyone to hear it?
I was excited about the life-changing information, but also skeptical. I wanted to have my husband watch it, but I wasn't sure what he would think about it. So I started just telling him some of the things you said in your film. After about three days of constantly saying, "And something else he said in his movie..." my husband got annoyed and decided to watch the movie for himself.
I can't say we changed our diets instantly. I think it was a couple of days before we really decided to try low carb eating. I was still trying to be a vegetarian at that point, and since I'm the one who cooks, my husband was pretty much vegetarian himself as well. I cooked lots of tofu, seitan (a meat substitute made from wheat gluten....seriously), and some beans. We saw some improvements right away, but nothing huge. After a couple of months, we started slacking off again, and almost completely went back to our old way of eating.
Around last August or September, we decided, you know what? If we're going to do this, we need to really do this right. We cut out all wheat (except for the low carb wraps my husband uses in his lunch), all sugar, and I decided to give up my identity as a vegetarian. The first steak I had was so glorious. It was life changing.
Since then, things have really started changing at the speed of light. For both of us, our energy has increased dramatically. Our moods have really improved, too. My husband used to get really depressed all the time, but now he's so chipper and full of energy when he gets home from work. I have issues with SAD, and even though this winter was rough at times, it was no where near as dark or depressing as last winter. My fingernails are strong and long for the first time in 14 years! I used to always have fingernails that were thin, brittle, and would peel off in layers, but no more. Even though it's gardening season, my fingernails are beautiful.
The most amazing thing to me is the muscles we've both put on. My husband was what you'd call skinnyfat all his life. 6'5, 195 pounds, with absolutely no muscle. Even though I was a weak, depressed vegetarian, I was stronger than him. Now, he's lean and muscular with like a runner's build. He's almost completely lost his belly bulge and is starting to get some definition there instead.
As for me, even though I hadn't lifted weights at all since becoming a low-carb exvegetarian, I put on a lot of muscle as well. I can feel new bulges in my arms and legs, and I don't get winded as much when I'm lifting heavy things. I thought all the "experts" said you can't gain muscle and lose weight at the same time!
My husband started at 195 and is now about 178. Like I said, he's lost almost all of his flabby tummy and the flabbiness around his face and arms. He looks awesome, and I know for a fact that he's eating more now than he did before. He doesn't suffer from severe coldness much anymore, and if he does, he'll eat something really fatty and that helps him get warm again.
I've only lost about ten pounds, taking me back down to 185. But for me, it's not about the weight. It's about my fingernails, my energy, my good mood, no longer having to eat ever two hours, no longer feeling obsessed about food, no longer having crippling wrist pain, or awful IBS, or tons of pimples. It's about eating real whole food that makes me feel like a real whole person. Besides, why do all women have to be stick thin? I think round curvy women are beautiful.
We've been trying for a baby for the last year. Sometimes I fear we'll never be able to conceive, but then I remind myself that my body is still healing from 14 years of malnutrition and carb-overload. And it's all thanks to you, Tom.
I know this email has gone on forever already, but I also wanted to tell you that you've changed more lives than just mine and my husband's. As we've improved and passed on info and shared books with our family and friends, they've been changing their diets, too. My hubby's brother went low-carb and lost at least 20 pounds (probably more by now). My mom's low-carb and has lost 11 pounds and isn't taking her blood pressure meds anymore. My sister, who looks pregnant because she's so fat, is seriously thinking about going low-carb. And even my mother-in-law, who is a complete and total carbivore, has cut out potatoes and pasta, and limits her sweets. Doesn't that make you feel like a rock star?
Thanks again for all that you do. I hope you keep spreading the word. I know I will!
-Julie D
Since the first time I watched the Fat Head movie was about a year ago, I decided it was about time I write to Tom and tell him how he's affected my life. Since I got a little rambly, and it describes my history, I thought I may as well post the email here. Hopefully my story will help someone else take up low-carb eating.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey there Tom!
I've emailed you in the past, but usually just to ask questions or make comments about news stories. But today, I figured it was time I sat down and told you how you've changed at least four more lives. I hope you'll bear with me. I tend to ramble.
I didn't have the best upbringing. My mom was a single mom, worked, was going to school, dealt with my older sister who was probably the worst problem child you could ever have (she kept running away, stealing, and got pregnant at 12). Mom drank a lot and sometimes used drugs, and was severely depressed at least at one time. Needless to say, we didn't eat very well back then. I remember a lot of easy stuff, like frozen meals, spaghetti, pizza, and lots of chips, cookies, and candy.
I think partially because my only friends at that time were my cats and guinea pigs, I decided to become a vegetarian at the age of 14. I honestly can't remember what my thought process was, or what spurred me on to make that decision. My mom didn't protest really. Since I was already chubby at that age, I bet she thought it would help me lose weight. When I told my pediatrician, she was pretty upset (this is the only doctor who ever questioned my vegetarianism, but I was a kid so I didn't listen to her). She asked me where I was planning on getting my protein from, and being 14, I told her I ate lots of peanut butter.
It was that year that my health and my life started taking a pretty nasty turn for the worse. Since my mom didn't have the time or patience to cook separate vegetarian meals, I mostly just ate around what she made for herself. If she made mashed potatoes with chicken gravy, I would eat just mashed potatoes for dinner. If she made a sweet and sour stir fry with chicken and rice, I would eat the few vegetables I liked (which wasn't many back then) with rice and lots of sweet and sour sauce. I ate cereal for breakfast. Lots and lots of cereal. Sometimes two huge bowls at a time. I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. And don't forget all those chips, cookies, and candy I was still eating, because they're vegetarian.
About a year later (right before my 15th birthday), I had to have my gall bladder removed. No ifs, ands, or buts. No one asked if I wanted it done. No one offered alternatives. No one even told me what causes gall stones. I didn't find out what causes gall stones until just last year, and when I found out, I was pretty mad. You know what causes gall stones? Not using your gall bladder (i.e. low-fat diets).
That was also when I started to really pack on the weight. I was already big to begin with. I was a large child; tall for my age, with huge feet and big broad shoulders. I was just big all around. But when I started eating vegetarian, I got really fat. When I had my gall bladder removed, I was 200 pounds. Two years later, I hit my peak of 275 pounds. For a 17 year old 5'8 girl, that's a lot of weight to be carrying.
But it wasn't just the weight that was the problem. I was severely depressed. My hair was falling out. I started growing hair where girls shouldn't be growing hair and my menstrual cycle would skip several months at a time (which I later found out was because I had developed PCOS). I started turning away from the world, and at age 16, I dropped out of school. Luckily I found my future husband around that time, and even though I was morbidly obese and not always fun to be around, he loved me and helped me fight off some of my depression. Also being around him meant I wasn't eating out of loneliness so much, and we spent a lot of time out in nature, so that by the time we moved in together when I was 22, I had managed to get down to 230 pounds.
Then a couple years later, I finally decided to try DIETING! I found a website called Spark People that lets you track your calories and your exercise minutes. I became instantly addicted. I spent literally hours a day on Spark People, reading the nutrition articles, chatting on the forums, and tracking my food. But it wasn't fun. I felt starved all the time. Food was the only thing I thought about. What I would eat, when I would eat it. If I had 50 extra calories at the end of the day, I would plan out what small indulgence I could give myself (not much for 50 calories). I persisted, though, and in five months, I managed to get down to 185 pounds.
Then I got appendicitis. Again, the doctors didn't give me an option. No one offered me alternatives. No one told me what causes appendicitis. I was wheeled into the OR and had one of my organs taken from me. It wasn't until last year that I found out that appendicitis is a "disease of civilization". The worst part is, exactly one year later, my husband had his appendix removed too, and as the cook in our house, I know I did it to him and it makes me sick.
The weight crept back on after that, a little at a time. I would occasionally try low calorie dieting again, but it was almost impossible for me to stick with it. Like I said before, I'm a big girl. Even if I was skinny, I would be big. My hips are big, my shoulders are big, my feet are big. But BMI doesn't take that into consideration, and so to lose weight, I was told on Spark People to eat 1300 calories a day. That's constant hunger.
About a year ago, I was clicking around on Netflix when I saw your movie. I was kind of intrigued, but a little hesitant to watch it because I just LOVED the movie Supersize Me and I didn't want to hear an opposing opinion. But after a week or two, I finally gave in and watched it. Holy cow. It was so life changing. I was like, really? This is how it really works? Why did I have to wait 27 years to hear it? Why did I have to find this information in a documentary filmed by a comedian? Why isn't this information being shouted out across the rooftops for everyone to hear it?
I was excited about the life-changing information, but also skeptical. I wanted to have my husband watch it, but I wasn't sure what he would think about it. So I started just telling him some of the things you said in your film. After about three days of constantly saying, "And something else he said in his movie..." my husband got annoyed and decided to watch the movie for himself.
I can't say we changed our diets instantly. I think it was a couple of days before we really decided to try low carb eating. I was still trying to be a vegetarian at that point, and since I'm the one who cooks, my husband was pretty much vegetarian himself as well. I cooked lots of tofu, seitan (a meat substitute made from wheat gluten....seriously), and some beans. We saw some improvements right away, but nothing huge. After a couple of months, we started slacking off again, and almost completely went back to our old way of eating.
Around last August or September, we decided, you know what? If we're going to do this, we need to really do this right. We cut out all wheat (except for the low carb wraps my husband uses in his lunch), all sugar, and I decided to give up my identity as a vegetarian. The first steak I had was so glorious. It was life changing.
Since then, things have really started changing at the speed of light. For both of us, our energy has increased dramatically. Our moods have really improved, too. My husband used to get really depressed all the time, but now he's so chipper and full of energy when he gets home from work. I have issues with SAD, and even though this winter was rough at times, it was no where near as dark or depressing as last winter. My fingernails are strong and long for the first time in 14 years! I used to always have fingernails that were thin, brittle, and would peel off in layers, but no more. Even though it's gardening season, my fingernails are beautiful.
The most amazing thing to me is the muscles we've both put on. My husband was what you'd call skinnyfat all his life. 6'5, 195 pounds, with absolutely no muscle. Even though I was a weak, depressed vegetarian, I was stronger than him. Now, he's lean and muscular with like a runner's build. He's almost completely lost his belly bulge and is starting to get some definition there instead.
As for me, even though I hadn't lifted weights at all since becoming a low-carb exvegetarian, I put on a lot of muscle as well. I can feel new bulges in my arms and legs, and I don't get winded as much when I'm lifting heavy things. I thought all the "experts" said you can't gain muscle and lose weight at the same time!
My husband started at 195 and is now about 178. Like I said, he's lost almost all of his flabby tummy and the flabbiness around his face and arms. He looks awesome, and I know for a fact that he's eating more now than he did before. He doesn't suffer from severe coldness much anymore, and if he does, he'll eat something really fatty and that helps him get warm again.
I've only lost about ten pounds, taking me back down to 185. But for me, it's not about the weight. It's about my fingernails, my energy, my good mood, no longer having to eat ever two hours, no longer feeling obsessed about food, no longer having crippling wrist pain, or awful IBS, or tons of pimples. It's about eating real whole food that makes me feel like a real whole person. Besides, why do all women have to be stick thin? I think round curvy women are beautiful.
We've been trying for a baby for the last year. Sometimes I fear we'll never be able to conceive, but then I remind myself that my body is still healing from 14 years of malnutrition and carb-overload. And it's all thanks to you, Tom.
I know this email has gone on forever already, but I also wanted to tell you that you've changed more lives than just mine and my husband's. As we've improved and passed on info and shared books with our family and friends, they've been changing their diets, too. My hubby's brother went low-carb and lost at least 20 pounds (probably more by now). My mom's low-carb and has lost 11 pounds and isn't taking her blood pressure meds anymore. My sister, who looks pregnant because she's so fat, is seriously thinking about going low-carb. And even my mother-in-law, who is a complete and total carbivore, has cut out potatoes and pasta, and limits her sweets. Doesn't that make you feel like a rock star?
Thanks again for all that you do. I hope you keep spreading the word. I know I will!
-Julie D
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