Starting Out

"A goal without a plan is just a wish."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Even if you make a few detours on the way, how do you know which direction to go if you don't even have a map? Having set my resolution for the New Year, the first thing I did to start my weight loss journey was to head to the local library. Two armfuls of books later, the options generally seem to fall into two camps:

• Eat high protein, low carbohydrate, whose advocates generally seem to be medical doctors.


• Eat along the USDA recommended guidelines (grains, rice and cereals in the largest part and low fat) but get in touch with your feelings while you are doing it, whose advocates seem mostly to be nutritionists, fitness trainers and psychologists.

At 262 pounds, I'm not even sure it's important to psychoanalyze why I got so fat. What I need to do now is lose weight!

One of the most well known high protein diets is the Atkins diet, which has been around since I was in high school in the seventies. Other high protein diet plans include the South Beach Diet, the No Grain Diet and Protein Power.

Though all the high protein diets have their own particular variations, the general idea is to eliminate as much sugar and starch as possible and eat lots of protein and vegetables, especially green vegetables.

On the whole, medical research related to low-carbohydrate diets seems to support them as a good plan for people who have a lot of weight to lose.

Both a Journal of the American Medical Association report published in 2007 and a New England Journal of Medicine report published in 2008 concluded obese women lost more weight on high protein, low carbohydrate diets than any other plan. The study subjects also improved their cholesterol levels and general metabolic functioning.

With all that in mind, I decided I was good to go on the low carb, high protein approach I already had in mind.

This week I've eaten among other things broiled steak, grilled chicken, eggs, scallops, baked fish with crab meat topping, lamb chops alongside mounds of steamed and sauteed broccoli, spinach, asparagus, soybeans, artichoke hearts as well as raw salad, avocados and mushrooms. None of the diets suggest vegetables like carrots and corn (too much sugar and starch), two of my favorites, but if what I have been eating has been making me fat, that actually makes sense.

I've also eaten out three times this week and didn't have any trouble sticking to the plan other than having to scrape the croutons off my salad at Red Lobster, turning down birthday cake for my son's 19th birthday (he didn't seem to mind) and staring down a loaf of hot bread between me and my dining companion at Texas Land and Cattle Company Friday night. My New Year Resolution held firm, though, and I managed to resist carbohydrate temptation.

Along with a multi-vitamin, I've also taken MetaCleanse every day, always in the morning and sometimes before bed. The Atkins plan specifically suggests a minimum of two teaspoons of ground flaxseed a day along with psyllium husks, which are two of the three ingredients in Metacleanse colon cleanse, along with the additional ingredient bentonite clay. Bentonite is powdered clay that has been used since ancient times for natural detoxification.

And I've also taken a couple of long walks with the dog this past week.

The end result?

I lost 5 and a half pounds in a week!

To say I was thrilled is an understatement. That would be half of the weight I've gained over just the last twelve months.

Of course, it's hard to say if I will see those kinds of results every week. But yesterday I stocked the fridge and freezer with no hormone beef and lamb and lots of green veggies from the local farmers market, so I'm certainly willing to stay on the plan and see what happens.

Today's weight is 256.5 pounds and my Body Mass Index is 44, for a total loss of 5-1/2 pounds!