A Fresh Start

Most of you know my story. For those of you who don't, I'll recap quickly... In July 2001 I joined Weight Watchers. Between that time and the Summer of 2004 I lost a total of 110 pounds and was 32 pounds from my goal. In late Summer of 2oo4 I got a divorce (I was with my husband for 10 years - 8 of them married). I moved back in with my parents and pretty much fed my pain with comfort foods. I also stopped working out during this time. I put on a happy face and tried to act like I was fine, but deep down, I know I was depressed. Looking back, I should have gotten some counseling, but instead of counseling, I worked through a stack of pancakes several nights a week after everyone had gone to bed (Perkins is open 24 hours around here). You can probably guess the rest from there. In just under a year, I gained all of my weight back. I knew I was gaining and kept telling myself I would get a grip and get back with it, but one excuse after the other, I just kept gaining. In the end, I was 5 pounds heavier than when I started Weight Watchers back in 2001. I was so mad at myself for gaining the weight back.

After a long absence from the web, I've decided to start fresh with a new blog. Before I start getting emails from people telling me I've turned my back on Weight Watchers or how bad the Low Carb lifestyle is for me, I'm just going to say what I have to say and be done with it. I almost considered keeping this blog private simply because I don't feel like dealing with the nay sayers and spend all of my time defending my actions, but I'm choosing to be accountable and for the same reason I started Aimee's Adventures, maybe while helping myself, I'll help someone else as well.

Now before the "hypocrite" emails start... I have not turned my back on Weight Weight Watchers. Weight Watchers is a very sound program and it not only worked for me, but it's still helping many others. I will still leave Aimee's Adventures up for others to enjoy and answer any questions you have about it (I'll even still be using it because some of the recipes are actually low carb). I just personally need a change. I know, many of you are asking... if it worked so well, why change? The best answer I can give to that is: I KNOW I am addicted to carbs. I KNOW I could follow WW and just watch my carb intake, but I also KNOW myself very well (it's taken me a lot of time to figure this out). I can slap a points value on a Twinkie and justify that I can have it. I CAN have it, but I also know that I won't stop there. I each too much junk, too much sugar, too much bread, etc.

I've tried many different diets over the past 5 years. Slimfast, Special K, Optifast, I returned to WW probably twice a year until last year, I've tried The Cookie Diet, The Cereal Diet, etc. I've done all of the ridiculous gimmick diets you can think of. I can only imagine the crap I've done to my body from trying to lose weight. Out of everything I've tried over the past 5 years, Low Carb worked the best for me and personally makes the most sense FOR ME. Now you're probably asking... if it worked so well, why didn't I stick with it? The reason for that is because I wasn't doing it the way it was supposed to be done. I tried modifying it to be low fat AND Low Carb (something you just can't do). I lost about 40 pounds in less than 3 months, but mixing low fat and low carb also limited my food choices and I became bored. I felt awesome while on it though and didn't have ANY cravings. That is the part I liked the most - being able to drive down the street past all of the fast food places and not want to pull into any of them, or watch people eat sweets and not want to yank it out of their hands and shove it into my mouth. LOL! I want to get control before I become a diabetic or worse.

I've been following Jimmy Moore on Livin' La Vida Low Carb for a few years now (he lost 180 pounds and has kept it off for 5 years). Even before I decided to try Low Carb I liked what he had to say. If you would like to know more about the Low Carb lifestyle, I really recommend his site (watch his YouTube videos with his wife Christine; who also lost weight), they're educational and entertaining. Jimmy has prompted me to research quite a bit and the more I read (like Gary Taubes Book "Good Calories, Bad Calories", the more I know I am making the right choice for my body (I'll go more into good books later). I am not going into this lightly. I hope most of you will be supportive of my decision to eat a Low Carb lifestyle. If you do not agree with what I have to say, then all I ask is that you do not read (there is a red box at the top right corner of your screen - push it to exit and never come back). Posting negative comments will not inspire me or anyone else. Neither will posting comments from ignorance because you "heard" something and didn't bother to do any research before you typed out a comment. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but please at least make it an educated opinion. For any recipes I post, I will post the Low Carb version and I'll also try to lighten them up and post the points for those of you who are following Weight Watchers.

I have managed to keep off about 25 pounds from my highest weight, so while I'm not starting at my highest, I do still have about 125 pounds to go to reach my goal. I hope you will support me in my efforts and thank you for stopping by my blog. :)