Paleo – Gluten Free – Atkins: Follow My Journey

Karin June 25, 2015 2 Comments

I would like to start off my writing to tell you about the different “diets” I have tried and why I have failed.

I was always over weight and tried all different fads and diets.

Remembering back in my life, once I needed to fit into a concert gown, and to be honest, I looked terrible in it. The color was beautiful but the design certainly did not fit anybody, unless you were a stick figure of course.

So I decided to lose weight. I had 4 weeks until the concert, so I first tried only eating salad. Well, after eating salad for a week and not loosing any weight, I switched to a diet that consisted of some kind of fiber bars. I don’t remember the name, but you ate one bar as a meal. I held out the 3 weeks and still did not lose any weight. This should have clued me in that some ingredient was preventing my weight loss. The concert came and I was standing in the second row, so it was not all bad.

Then there was this liquid diet. Yes, I tried that too. Besides being hungry, I still did not lose any weight. I did try that years later again with shakes and at that point diet pills. Yes, I lost the weight. I also walked a lot to work, which was about 45 minutes walking very fast each way. But with all diets – as soon as you stop – you gain the weight back and some.

About 11 years ago I came across the Atkins Diet. I followed it and it started to work very well. But that was the old Atkins, pretty much without vegetables, I was missing some foods really bad. So when I started eating certain foods again, like, pasta, bread and sweets, I gained the weight right back.

I think by now this is sounding familiar, right. I am sure, I am not alone in this rollercoaster dieting.

Then a couple of years ago I found the new Atkins diet and that’s when things started to make sense. This was a completely revised diet. I got the book  “The New Atkins for a New You” by Dr. Eric C. Westman, and it really explained how you are supposed to go about eating. I joined the website and there were the stages that explained which foods to eat, and each stage added more foods.

That’s when I started to lose the weight. My sister then found the book: “Wheat Belly: Lose the Weight, and find your path back to health” by William Davis MD.

For anyone who is interested in living a healthier life, this book is a must read. In future posts I will come back to this book and some other books.

I did have a setback when I started working as a customer service rep and had weird hours. So my eating got on the back burner and a lot of stress made me gain some of my weight back.

But by then I realized that the problem was flour and sugar. Flour and Sugar is in pretty much anything you buy processed. I started reading labels and since then, when they look like the periodic table – stay away from it. The least ingredients something has in it, the better it is for you. There is no need for artificial colors and flavors or corn syrup in our food. The more natural, the healthier. This is what Paleo is all about. Natural food! Not processed. We will talk about the “unhealthy” foods in upcoming posts.

Well, now I am back on track and I also incorporated AquaFit into my life. More about that later.

As you are following me on my journey you will see that losing weight and getting healthier is not about diet, but about changing your eating habits. This is not a quick fix, this is a lifestyle.

But as with any changes to your eating habits, please make sure you consult with your doctor or nutritionist. We all are different and sudden changes can have very negative effects.

For me the changes I made were a life saver. And you are following my journey to a better health through an ‘Almost Paleo’ and Gluten Free life.

Please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email if you have any questions. I will be happy to share my experiences with you.