How I Lost 109 lbs. With Atkins!
December 14, 2004
By Kim Droze
The 31-year-old mother of two suffered cruel and not-so-unusual
punishment from the age of 5. From name-calling to "Kick
Me" signs to actual kicks, there was no end to
the meanness she faced. But after years of bearing the
brunt of fat jokes, Tanya is the one with the last laugh
-- she's dropped a stupendous 109 pounds with the Atkins
Nutritional Approach!
Since hooking up with Atkins last January, her weight
has gone from 272 to 163 pounds. Her long-term goal
is to get to 130 and our featured dieter continues to
measure success one pound at a time. It's a philosophy
that has kept her going over the past year. Instead
of dwelling on the big picture, she keeps her eye on
the smaller goals. And right now, that smaller goal
is the 150-pound mark.
Tanya says she never imagined she could come this
far. After all, the Atkins plan wasn’t exactly
her first attempt at weight loss. She’d tried
countless times with Weight Watchers, starvation, appetite
suppressants and diet
pills with a little "modified" low-carbing
thrown in for good measure. Instead of losing, Tanya
found herself getting bigger. It seemed that no matter
what she tried, she was always hungry.
When she wasn't dieting, her eating regimen was a high-carb
free-for-all.
"I ate bread," Tanya tells eDiets. "I
ate lots of pasta. I had a huge sweet tooth. It was
nothing for me to sit down and eat a whole big bag of
Doritos. I ate a lot."
In addition to the emotional trauma she suffered from
childhood, she also had baggage from her first marriage.
Tanya got pregnant in high school and married right
after graduation. But she says the relationship was
rocky and she split after just two years. Over the next
decade or so, her weight continued to yo-yo. Tanya remarried
and the newlyweds had a love affair with food that lasted
long after the honeymoon, she says.
Then came baby number two for our 5'2" slimming
star. Following that pregnancy three years ago, her
weight hit an all-time high of 272.
Tanya had always thought she ate because the food tasted
good. She now realizes food provided her comfort. Whether
she was angry, depressed or frustrated, food became
her friend.
She first learned about the Atkins Nutritional Approach
on television about five years ago. As she listened
to Dr. Robert Atkins speak, she never realized his then-controversial
eating plan would be her salvation from obesity. Tanya
took matters into her own hands and mistakenly began
a meat-and-cheese diet.
"Not buying the book was a big mistake,"
she says. "One of the reasons I failed so many
times was that I didn’t incorporate vegetables
and stuff. I tried it. I lost lots of weight pretty
quickly but I couldn’t maintain because I wasn’t
doing it right. But what I liked about it was that I
wasn’t hungry. That was the most awesome part
in the world."
Years after trying and failing at her own version of
the Atkins Nutritional Approach, Tanya finally got a
copy of The New Diet Revolution (Avon). She read it
cover to cover and something clicked.
"It made me understand how my body utilized all
foods and what was going on," says Tanya, who’s
currently in the Ongoing Weight Loss phase of the four-phase
Atkins Nutritional Approach. "I learned how I sabotaged
myself every time I ate pasta and sugars and stuff like
that. It was a huge help."
Tanya no longer overindulges in unhealthy foods. For
breakfast she has a cup or two of Kiefer, a fermented
milk product that comes in a yogurt form. She also has
an egg and some leftover veggies from dinner the night
before. For a morning snack, she enjoys some almonds,
along with cucumber and green pepper slices. Lunch usually
consists of tuna or egg salad with one or two slices
of low-carb bread.
For dinner, she cooks up a bag of frozen vegetables
and 5 to 8 ounces of chicken, beef or fish. She tries
not to eat after 6 p.m. whenever possible.
With the Atkins Nutritional Approach, there is no reason
to ever feel deprived, she says. There is a healthy
substitute for just about anything from bread to pasta
to candy bars. Tanya says although she doesn’t
regularly eat low-carb snacks, they're convenient when
you want a sweet treat for the movies or some other
occasion. For the most part, she sticks to whole foods.
Throughout her weight loss journey, Tanya received
plenty of support, encouragement and aid from the LowCarbEating.com
website. She says it was just what she needed to stay
the course.
"The people are wonderful there," she says.
"They support you. The information is incredible.
Just when you’re at your lowest, you find somebody
else who’s battled an even bigger mountain than
you have. It’s an inspiration."
While she’s in awe of her fellow low-carbers,
Tanya knows her own accomplishments are no small feat.
When she started following Atkins in January 2003, her
goal was to lose a substantial amount of weight before
slipping into a bridesmaid dress for her cousin’s
October wedding.
"It was the first time I ever got to be the bridesmaid
and not the bride," says Tanya. "All my family
was going to be there. I couldn’t stand looking
at myself in the mirror anymore. I vowed to stay on
Atkins at least until the wedding. By then, I was down
to 195. I stayed on it from there. Over those months,
I was able to reprogram my way of thinking. I’ve
been on it ever since. "I’ve never accomplished
something so big in my life. I’m a typical person
who never finishes what they start so this was huge
for me." For Tanya, this is just the beginning.
In addition to doing workout tapes and following a walking
regimen, she plans on taking up belly dancing and martial
arts. Since losing 109 pounds, she’s physically
and mentally equipped to take on so many more challenges.
Now she's the one kicking butt.
Source:www.ediets.com
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