44 Days of Hell

I lost 35 pounds and 1 girlfriend. It was a good trade.




I aggressively applied the Atkins diet on Jul 18 to my 290 lb frame. When I say "aggressively" I am talking 30 carbs or less per day, every day. No creamer, no orange juice, no booze, no breath mints. The only carbs I would take in came from vegetables.

Coconut oil. On a tip from a commenter, I started using coconut oil. Three big globs in my three cups of coffee in the morning, I also used it to saute' vegetables at night. Costco has virgin, organic oil in 5 pound containers. I am a believer. My energy levels shot up almost immediately. After my coffee, I would drink one low carb protein drink, swallow my supplements, ( I am a huge believer in turmeric) and headed out for the gym.

I run/walk 5k every day which took me about 34 mins. I can usually make 4 days in a row before I have to take a day off. As my weight came off, my times improved and my knees hurt less.

I am an over pronator with flat feet. My heel strikes the ground first- so I bought a couple pairs of running shoes made for over pronators from 6 PM. com. I bought an inexpensive pair of Nikes just to walk around in. I bought an expensive pair of Sauconys to run in. I am a big Brooks fan but I find that those shoes break down on me after a month or so.

For lunch, it was usually salad to go- 4.51 cents at Pizza Pie Cafe or chicken. Dinner was usually a big chunk of meat, steak, hamburger, ribs, with sauteed vegetables.

I finally broke down and bought a scale and then I did something really sadistic. When my weight would refuse to go down for three days- I would crank up the exercise to 5 miles and fast on the same day. All I would consume was coffee, 1 protein drink in the morning, and water the rest of the day.

I lost a total of 8 pounds on the 3 days I fasted. Eating nothing and burning 1250 calories forces your body to burn fat. It's not just the 1250 calories you burn exercising on those days- it's all of the other calories you burn during a normal day and while sleeping.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this, I lost a girlfriend. We made a deal, at least I thought we had, to stick this diet thing out. She tapped out at the two week mark and that as they say, was that. I kind of take a que sera view to women and dating. I just haven't found anyone I can't live without. I know that sounds horrible but dating at my age is a different animal than when I was young. At my age people are through raising kids, everyone has had their career and most of us are financially secure. Men and women have learned how to live without asking permission. So people date for different reasons at this age. Mostly it's companionship. It's not easy finding a good companion- or harder yet- finding someone you want to make some sort of longer term commitment with. That's been my experience thus far.

A friend of mine told me recently that the reason I was single was because I was an asshole. That may be true I thought- while silently noting that she too was single and at least two divorces ahead of me. Maybe she just has bad luck...

So what's the long term prognosis? Can I keep gaining weight every two years and then put myself through 6 weeks of hell? I don't think I wanna be pushing 60 and doing this again. I have a friend who eats properly 6 days a week and then on Saturdays- he eats nothing but garbage. I think I might give this a try- this one day a week junk food binge. My big fear here is that my shitty eating habits will spill over into other days.

Atkins works. It's just hard to stick with it although I did it once for 10 weeks and lost 82 pounds. The key I think is finding low carb foods you can tolerate and then combining it with as much exercise as you can. Just walking works well.

I have noticed that this diet gets harder and harder as I get older. The other day I was in the grocery store and looking in people's carts. My gawd we eat an unbelievable amount of pure shit in this country. It almost makes you wonder if the corporate oligarchy, big pharma, big insurance and healthcare, and corporate fast food- do this on purpose.

They keep winning and their customers- keep losing. The rest of us have to find a way out of the matrix. No wonder every parking lot has 20 handicapped spaces. They knew.