...your character around an MMO.
In the Spring of 2010 my mother-in-law sent me Gary Taubes book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, and my husband and I were not very enthusiastic about a low-carb diet. I'll be honest, I felt that I was limited in what I could eat, and yes one is. After I found out I had an allergy to casein, my diet became even more limited. However, one must decide what they want. Do you want to eat anything? Or do you want to feel better? Unfortunately, it's not very fair that you can't eat doughnuts without getting fat and my sister can, but you know what? Life isn't fair. The faster you figure that out, the happier you will be.
I've told you my story, but what about my husband? When we first met about sixteen years ago he was normal weight. I'm not sure how much he weighed when we met, but I would guess in the 190s. He's about 6' tall or so and has broad shoulders. Unlike me, he was not overweight as a child. As far as I know, he was normal weight until he went away to college and lived in a dorm in 2002. In the four years that he was away at school he packed on the pounds, but not as quickly as I did. It crept on.
After we both graduated I took a job in Corpus Christi, TX, and he followed me down there. We were there four years and the pounds kept on piling on. When we left Corpus shortly after his mother sent us Taubes' book, he was over 270. It's a very long story, but he was also on SSRIs and didn't want to do low carb. The SSRIs weren't helping him (mentally, emotionally or physically), and the weight was going up and up. He was nearly 300 pounds in the spring of 2012. After reading Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker and seeing the actual research on SSRIs (they help approximately 25% of the people prescribed them, and mostly only in the short-term), we decided to seek other help. If you read this blog and think, 'Gee, she doesn't like the medical/nutritional establishment very much' this is why. SSRIs can ruin your life and MDs prescribe them like they are candy. However, I digress. This post is not about that, except tangentially in that SSRIs can make you gain weight, and it's really impossible to talk about the past without considering this aspect of our story. Weight gain on SSRIs is very specific to the person though, which you will find out if you hang around, that all dietary advice should be specific to the person, and the fact that the establishment gives "one-size fits all" advice is as ridiculous as the idea that congress will balance the budget this year.
I will warn you not to discontinue SSRI use without researching it and being very, very careful. You may consider a liquid version of the medicine in order to reduce the dosage a small fraction at a time. Also don't be in a hurry. It can take several months for your brain to adjust to a lower dosage. I'm not kidding when I say that the side effects of withdrawal are unpleasant. If you do a google search, you'll find support forums for the common SSRIs. Many people wind up back on them because the withdrawal symptoms are so bad. Their doctors often mistake withdrawal symptoms as a sign that they need the drug, rather than for what they are, which is withdrawal. My husband sought out an acupuncturist to help him with his problems, and this was ultimately the best thing that could have happened to him. Not all acupuncturists deal with mental/stress/anxiety, but some specialize in it. He has been off of all medicine since the spring of 2012. He also decided to do a low carb diet at that time. It took approximately two years for him to recover from the SSRI usage, and I don't think it would have been possible without the acupuncturists' help. The first few months were very rocky, but gradually he has completely recovered and his anxiety is alleviated by visiting the acupuncturist every few weeks.
So, why the title of this post? I think that I went a little off what I intended to write, but I think it was necessary. My husband, after getting alternative treatment for his anxiety (acupuncture) and going on a low carb diet, lost over 100 lbs. He went from nearly 300 lbs to I believe the last time he weighed he was about 185. He lost all this weight without any exercise, except for his character running around some MMO world, if playing an MMO counts for exercise. He also lost it pretty quickly. I believe that he has had a stable normal weight since mid-2013. It took him about a year to get to a normal weight on a low-carb ketogenic diet. The same diet has allowed him to keep the weight off for about three years now. No torture-exercise. No trainer screaming at him. No starving. No bull.
Does all this sound absolutely crazy to you? I swear that it is absolutely true and that we have witnesses. And to quote Larry Page, "Good ideas are always crazy, until they're not."
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