Atkins Success Stories
Gloria Bianchi
Gloria Bianchi - Ontario
I lost 100 lbs. over 16 monthsdays
My Story
I was a thin child. I married in 1977 at the age of 20, I weighed 108 pounds. In 1980 I had my first child, six weeks after giving birth I weighed 115 pounds. In 1983 I had my second child. After her birth I weighed 119 pounds. And this is where the crazy began. I thought I was huge and desperately wanted to be 103. So I boarded the weight loss roller coaster. Over the next 20 years I did the Slim Fast, the diet pills, weight watchers, no fat, Suzanne Somers, Zone, Fit for Life, a weight loss clinic which told me to eat 645 calories a day (can you imagine?) and exercised like crazy. They all worked but I couldn't maintain those eating habits. I would go off them and gain. Lose 10 gain 20, lose 30 gain 50 and so it went.
MY GOALS:
I finally “dieted” myself to 218 pounds. I had high blood pressure, high blood sugar and had a fatty liver. As bad as my health was, it was nothing compared to how I felt about myself. Words cannot describe the self-loathing I lived with. I felt like a big, fat, lazy, failure who had no willpower. I cannot describe the shame. I never went out with my husband. I would go clothes shopping only when I absolutely had to. I gave up. I didn't care anymore. I knew I would die young. I was grateful to have raised my children, sad that I would not see their children or share in their lives. I just wanted to go to sleep and not wake up.
With every doctors appointment I saw the worry on my husband face, on my children's faces. So there it was, I had to do this weight loss thing one more time. Not only for me, but for them. I know this time I had to be smart, really smart. I had to be able to live with it for the rest of my life. Throughout the years there was chatter about the Atkins diet, it just sounded like another quack diet, after all there were a zillion doctors shooting it down, including my own family doctor.
HOW ATKINS HELPED ME GET THERE:
In January of 2003 my mom called and talked to me about the Atkins diet. She was doing it, it was working and she was loving it.
I purchased the book, I followed the book, I became and still am an Atkins Nazi. I just blocked out all the naysayers. Just like the book said, I began losing weight and I had energy. I climbed stairs like a ballerina. I wanted to live, not just for my family but for me. It was slow, one pound at a time, sometimes only a 1/2 pound – but I celebrated each one like it was 20.
In September of 2003 my husband and I decided to go to England to visit our children,. They had been living there for some time. The last time they saw me, I weighed 218 pounds.
I had been doing Atkins for about 8 months, weighed about 140 pounds. I was feeling good. New clothes, pants size 10, new leather blazer, new leather boots. I didn't need a plane; I could have just floated over that ocean.
Ryan (our son) said to his sister, "Is that mom?” Lindsay (our daughter) said, “It's got to be, because that's Dad.” They didn't recognize me. I did England and Paris and stayed on Atkins the whole time. It was about that time I introduced the Atkins Advantage bars into my diet. I was grateful to have something to hold me over on a long flight. Not only that, they were good. They tasted like something I shouldn’t be eating. The reality is I do not always have the time to prepare a proper meal and sometimes you need to grab something on the go. The Advantage bars do it for me.
As I got down to my goal weight I discovered Endulge bars. How much do I love them? Let’s just say a lot. Having the Advantage bars and Endulge bars made it all a lot more normal and easier.
I started this incredible journey in January of 2003. That year I lost 100 pounds. Today, I shop like a crazy thin happy woman. Pretty dresses, pretty shoes, pretty watches, pretty coats (16 of them) pretty underwear, and the list goes on. In fact my husband turned one of our spare bedrooms into a closet, for all my pretty stuff. I have a life, a real life. I can play baseball; I pick strawberries in the summer. I have been to New York and Montreal with my daughter. I have walked some of the best streets in the world, from morning to night – memories shared with my family that will last until the day I die.
My health has never been better. My blood pressure is normal as is my blood sugar. My liver is perfectly normal. In fact, within six months on Atkins, my health problems became a non-issue.
I wake up every day, get out of bed and look in the mirror and give thanks. I will continue to eat this way forever. I have way too much to lose if I don't.
From my heart and soul, God bless Dr. Atkins.
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