Sweden Becomes First Western Nation to Reject Low-fat Diet Dogma in Favor of LCHF

[BillfromIL]

8. Gotta start somewhere

As my first post to the DU forums, I could not pass on the chance to respond to something that I have first hand experience with. For the last 20 years I have had a desk job and a minimum of 3+ 20oz soda a day habit - in addition to all of the other "healthy" food I was consuming. It was almost 3 years ago that I dumped the soda habit and I remember the day as clear as if it happened yesterday. The change in my diet has not happen over-night as it has taken me some time to figure out what works for me and what doesn't. From the time I kicked my soda habit I dropped around 35 lbs in 2 years (from a high of 300 and I am around 6'-0" tall) with not many other changes to my diet - more or less just trying to make good decisions.

After reading countless online forums/articles and also picking up a few books at the "store" over the last couple of years, I stated playing around with my diet in July of this year. My focus was to try and eliminate (as best I could) highly processed carbs and sugar in favor of fruits and veggies - in addition to lean meats and fish. Since then (July 2013 to the present), I am down another 50-55 lbs. One of the most enjoyable factors about this is that, although I do get a bit more exercise now, the majority of the loss I can attribute solely to my diet as I continue to lose weight regardless of my exercise routine - which to be honest has dwindled over the last few weeks. Did I mention that I had no weight loss goal in mind when I started this and was only trying to make a positive change in my life. The weight loss is only a welcome side effect of these actions.

This past weekend (thanksgiving) was a rather eye opening experience. Although I tried to restrain myself, there are just some wonderful cooks in my family and I proceeded to over-stuff myself. This was the first time in a year or so that I had to resort to antacids to calm my stomach. 3 years ago, I typically would pop 2 or 3 Tums prior to bedtime knowing that my sleep would likely be interrupted with pain. That has all but disappeared now - and now I have a much better idea of my limits.

For me it is now easy to pass on the sweets and make much better nutritional choices. This doesn't mean that I do not occasionally enjoy some of those things - because trust me I do - but I use them as treat every now and then as opposed to a staple of my diet they used to be.

Once people around me started to notice the change and comment on it, this also reinforces my commitment to continue on this path - not to mention that it is getting easier every day to look in the mirror and me truly happy with what I see.

Sorry for the long read.

Bill