Low Carb in the UK Low Carb in the UK Hi there, My name is Nikki. I am just a.n.other typically overweight lass. There are others out there, with similar Web-based stories, that seem to have had it a lot harder than me... I am not married, I have no kids (nor do I want any...), I am in generally good health and have a good job...
I am just a big lass. I always have been. With a big bone structure, and standing 5'10", The 18st 2lbs (My scales said that, but I since discovered they make you about a stone lighter than you are! gulp!) I was carrying around made me an Evans size 26. I didn't really mind... Evans make good clothes, that made me feel and look good, and at the age of 29, and after a lot of soul searching, and self-accepting, beautiful is what I am. Hey, after lots of men told me so, I had to start believing them! lol!. To me, what my bod looks like has always been a secondary consideration to me... Minds are far more interesting!
However, around my Birthday last year (1999), my health started to intrude. I suffer with arthritis in my right knee, both wrists and left shoulder. My knee in particular was hurting large amounts, I was having trouble walking up the stairs at work, and discovered that I had 52" hips! I was also starting to grow out of the clothes I had.
So, some form of diet was in order. I have in the past done the typical Low-fat diets, with some success, hey, when I was 18, I lost three and a half stone with Weight Watchers (Their Exchange system, pseudo low-carb, but low-fat too... However, not a bad scheme at all, considering), to take me down from 15st 2lbs to 11st 10lbs. But over the next ten years, I gained all that back, plus another 4 Stone! As a very hypoglycaemic person, the periods of being hungry and ratty on my attempts at low-fat diets were very wearing. I reached for the raisins, as a fast sugar fix, which I saw as my saviour food. A Typical "High and crash" insulin reaction.
As I lost interest in the diets, I returned to eating "big" meals, Curry, Italian, Greek, Chinese, *lots* of ice-cream and biscuits, and all the other foods that I saw as "Bad, but *wonderful*!"
As I was about to turn 29, Tim, a fella I was working with, who had used Dr Aktin's New Diet Revolution to lose weight, and after he described the principles to me, he lent me the book.
The principles of low-carbing have changed my life! I have freedom from the Hunger monster! As a confirmed carnivore, low-carbing is a way of eating (WOE) where I am eating the foods I love! I can still eat the Curry, the Chinese, the ice-cream and the biscuits, but I now take it without the Sugar and Starch!
I am now 14st 1lb, as at 23/09/2000, still have another 2st 13lbs to go, and I am comfortable with a Low-carbohydrate diet, and confident that this is the way I am going to eat for the rest of my life (WOL).
It was this passion for the way of eating (low-carbers get passionate about this WOE, after all, when the wool has been pulled over your eyes for so long, you just get all evangelical about sharing your discoveries!!!) that led me to "preach" about it so much at work. So far, I have three other people at work who are losing weight with me!
Here is the best Before pic I can find, this is me *extremly drunk* (and that is an understatement) at my 29th birthday party, one month before I started Low-carbing. The man with me was my then partner, Matt.
Here is a Pic taken in Early May 2000, in my guise as an English Civil War Musketeer. I was kicking in about 16st when this was taken, on a very very hot day, hence the red face, to match the coat! I can see that it is already too big for my shoulders, you probably will not though... Woolen coats are very "covering" ;-)
And here I am as at 08/03/01. Looking "business like" in my size 18/20 suit, in my kitchen, and weighing in at 14st 11lbs.
Copyright © 2000 Nikola Howard. All rights reserved.