An Introduction.

Hi there!
If you're reading this, probably you know me already- or maybe you've stumbled across this blog because you're trying to lose weight and have been googling like a mofo.
Either way, here we are.
My use-name is Heaven Descending. I'm about to turn 28 years old, and I'm writing this blog to share with you all my experience with losing weight.

Lets start at the beginning.
Three years ago, I started to gain weight. I was an Australian size eight, then, and I weighed around 55 kilograms. I had thought to start with that this was a part of getting older, and let it go. My size 8 clothing got too small, so I replaced most of it with size 10 stuff. Then, gradually, my size 10 stuff started to get too small too. Again, I wasn't sure why this was happening, and resigned myself to thinking I would never get smaller again.

Then, in October of 2010, something terrible happened. I wouldn't usually trivialise by talking about it like this, but its integral to the journey I took and why.

One of my dear loves took her own life. This was devastating, and for a few months I was unable to function like a normal human being at all. Gradually things got better, and by the end of the year, I had resolve. I had purpose. I decided after a lifelong desire to become an Aerial Acrobat. It couldn't wait any longer, because all the reasons and excuses I had made to myself about why I couldn't become an acrobat melted away and there was no longer any reason not to. I garnered the assistance of a friend who runs a health store, and began to change my diet and excersise regime in order to build muscle.
I weighed 64/65kgs at that time, which was about a size 12, for my frame.
What I didn't expect was that over the first three months of 2011, I lost 8 kilos without even trying.

So lets talk now about how I got bigger. Understanding how I got bigger was a key in understanding how I lost weight without meaning to.
Probably at this point, its important to note that I am an insulin dependent diabetic, and have been for the last 15 or so years. I count carbs. I count them because I have to, so I can calculate the amount of insulin I take with each meal, and in the mornings. Prior to the decision to become an acrobat, my diet was based like so:
Amount of food
decides
Amount of insulin to compensate
= Supposedly even sugar levels.

I had always thought that this was the proper way for a diabetic to go. Calculate the carbs which could be as much as I wanted, take insulin to compensate. My diabetes was consistently shit for the entire time I treated myself that way. As I moved into a higher protein, higher fat diet, my need for insulin lessened. I was taking less insulin with each meal because I was eating so much protein that I just didn't feel the need to eat as much carbohydrate. I took less every meal, and my diabetic control actually started to improve.
I talked to my doctor about it. She said she wasn't surprised, and that many diabetics who'd moved to a lower carb diet were experiencing incredible improvements with their health and wellness. She said I should stay on it, and I have.

So I was eating less than 70 grams of carbohydrate in a day. It wasn't because I really meant to be eating that little, it was just that there was no room in my stomach for more carbs, it was all full of protien shake and eggs, meats, veggies and such. Since I already only had diet drinks, don't drink juice because it is SO sugary (And no, there are no "good" sugars, they all equal the same thing in your bloodstream from a diabetic perspective :P) it was relatively easy for me to cut down the carbs to that level. A Diabetic is used to watching everything that goes in their mouth.
Since then, I've read an interesting article from the New York Times "What if its all been a big fat lie"which talks about the Atkins diet, whose threshold is also less than 70 carbs per day. Its a long but very interesting read about the history of the obesity crisis from a pro-carb counting point of view. I recommend any person who has struggled with weight loss read it despite the length.

Anyhoo- lets get back on topic. I was eating that little carbohydrate, my diabetes was excellent, and I started dropping kilos pretty slowly but steadily. After three months I was down to a 56/57kg weight and my clothes fit me again. Some of them were even a little big!
I was baffled.
So I started to investigate. I read up on everything I could find. That article I mentioned was one such thing I came across.
The things that I found most interesting though, were the medical journals about insulin interaction. According to the research I've done, taking less insulin allowed my body to use up the fat it had been storing. And Insulin was what caused the fat to store itself in the first place! Insulin was bridging the gap between my blood and my muscles, and when my muscles hadn't been using up everything I was feeding them, the insulin then turned the energy into fat cells, stored and ready for later. This is how the human body is apparently geared.
Its a unique thing for a diabetic, because we really can control how much insulin our body receives. A "normal" person can only regulate this through eating more or less carbohydrate.
On top of that... I found out that Fat is apparently good for you! And that you should never trust ANYthing that describes itself using a pyramid. NEVER.


I'll leave it at that, for now, since I think that's enough "Food for Thought" for one day. I shall continue from that point in the story next time, so I hope you'll read it again then.

I encourage everyone who reads this journal to PLEASE, PLEASE- do your OWN research. Don't just take my word for it. I've learned a lot of things this last year, but you need to learn it for yourself.
And don't believe the hype, calorie counting is BALLS and you probably won't lose weight long term using it. :P ;D ~waits for flames haha~