This being the year 2003 I realised that there were 2 biggies on the agenda this summer.
1. I was going to hit the big 40 and............
2. This would mean my next medical was due, with ECG and all the trimmings.
So in January I realised that a BMI of 35.5 was not going to be conducive to a long life full of flying, enjoying my pension fund and see my 5 kids grow up.
My dad has been an avid Atkins follower for 25 or so years but I always resisted going onto the diet as it so completely goes against the grain of all the accepted theories on food and exercise. These were further reinforced by that misspend part of my youth aka my medical training.
However with an ever increasing girth and reducing exercise span I decided to bite the bullet. I did not read the Atkins book but just bought the ketostix and cut out all carbohydrates from my diet.
The results have been astonishing. I am fitter now, am less moody, sleep better, feel less tired, lost 4 inches of my waist and have lost 20kg (just over 3 stone) in 5 months.
But what was truly remarkable of the entire exercise was that I have not had any problem sticking to it. With the absence of hunger I had no problem avoiding the usual pitfalls.
Previous attempts have been the usual lettuce and tomato diets, Slimfast and Weight Watchers. For me they were all short lived attempts (as in max 2 months), as a food junk I just can not cope with feeling hungry.
So you can understand why I am a bit of a convert.
I have 15 more kilos to go and think I will get to that by the end of the year.
FD