Atkins Diet – Week Two

Well, I have just finished my second week of induction on Atkins.  I have done the diet before with success when I was much, much younger. The program has been updated in some really great ways, such as a needed focus on green veggies. I picked up a copy of the new book New Atkins for a New You and made sure I remembered the basics and learned the changes.

I spent most of my younger years seeing myself as fat. When I was about nineteen I went on a very restrictive, near starvation diet, especially cutting out all sugar.I was tired of being fat and I had started to show a tendency toward hypoglycemia. I got as low as 112 pounds and, seeing those old photos, it was not the best look for me. By today’s standards I looked great, but by my standards I did not.

After succumbing to a myriad of infections and health problems I realized I needed to get to a more normal diet and got myself back to a  135-140lb range. I walked for exercise and ate mostly healthy foods with the occasional normal splurge we all make. I had age on my side and it was pretty easy to maintain that size. Oh, I was still a smoker in those days as well

As I entered my 30′s, I was a very comfortable 160lbs. No, I’m not ridiculously tall (5’4″), I’m just an Italian girl with big hips and big boobs who likes food. I always felt very healthy at around 160 lbs. I got myself down to 150 when Bill and I first started dating because I ended up working out twice a day on some days because I would take his spin classes at night as well as my usual morning workout. Once the spin classes ended, I went back to my normal 160.

Then I had Gracie. I only gained about 40lbs while pregnant, and lost almost all of it within the first month thanks to breastfeeding and having a sick child that consumed all of my time and energy. Slowly, as I continued to age, and I stopped working out as much, my weight climbed. So I’ve been a happy and honestly pretty healthy 180-185 pounds for about seven years.

If I’m so happy, why Atkins? Well, since MS came into the picture almost two years ago, my happy and healthy full figure has lost most of its muscle mass and in its place is an overly gelatinous substance. It’s not nice healthy girl cushion, it’s just plain fat and it’s gross. On another front, I have read so much about the possibility that a gluten free diet can be beneficial to MS patients, so I decided to combine fat loss with gluten loss.

I hit the ground running on 1/2/12 and have kept myself to a max of 20 grams of carbs daily with most of that coming from salad greens and vegetables. No wheat or non vegetable starch has passed my lips in thirteen days. No alcohol has either. I have been eating lots and lots of chicken, lean beef, shrimp and salmon as well as eggs. Yes, I’m eating bacon, something I normally reserve for vacation, but it’s the only way I’m going to get through the initial cravings.

As I sit here today, ass spreading over the sides of my desk chair, I have lost a total of four pounds and I feel like complete crap. Now, I think four pounds is pretty good for a woman. I have done my minimum of 3 workouts per week. I had hoped to do more, but my legs and body seem to disagree at this point. I am extremely weak and tired and my legs don’t want to take me places.

Now I could sit here and decide the diet is a failure and dive into those Tostitos I found hiding in the cabinet or I can look at all of the variables, such as where I am at in my monthly menstrual cycle and my monthly Tysabri cycle. Lo and behold, I am one week away from my next Ty infusion. Hmmmm….this is usually the crappiest week of the month for me, so maybe it is the Ty not the diet?

My big plan is to wait and see. I get my fix on the 19th and I will give it through the weekend to see if my legs come back and if the fatigue abates. If not, I will call my neuro on Monday. Now last month’s Ty infusion was followed by an awful four days of weakness and fatigue and I’m really hoping that doesn’t happen this go round, but if it does I’m still calling the doctor. This new weakness and burning in my quads has me pretty freaked out and if Ty doesn’t put it in its place, well… I don’t know what the end of that thought is.

The good news is that my short term memory has improved thanks to a reduction in one of my daily meds. I had been getting a little freaked out about my forgetfulness, but it really came to a head when we went to see Mission Impossible. As the movie started I turned to Bill and said, “Wow, they are going right to the  movie without showing any trailers.” You should have seen his face when he said, “We just watched twenty minutes of trailers.” (Insert Twilight Zone theme here!)

If I feel better after Ty, I will continue on the Induction portion of the diet for a total of four weeks, and then I will begin the slow introduction of gluten-free, healthy, high fiber carbs. I have this pair of pants that used to fit quite nicely at this very same weight, but post MS will not button easily and they look horrible. My goal is to be able to button, zip, sit and look like myself in those jeans again. Hopefully along the way I will rebuild some muscle and feel better than I do today.