Knights of the Round Bottoms

I've been accepted as a member of the Knights of the Round Bottoms, a group of noble knights and ladies trying to lose weight. They blogged about me here. I'm just an esquire until I pick a name. How does "Lady Atkins" sound?

To anyone from over there reading here, I'll give an introduction of who I am.

So far I've lost 60 pounds on Atkins. I've been doing this low-carb approach since March 29, 2004. I'm not perfect, but once you get most of the carbs out of your life, you stop craving them. I get most of the carbohydrates in my diet from vegetables and non-sweets fruits. Contrary to what the media says, Atkins is not just about meat and cheese (though you can certainly eat these). Vegetables are the cornerstone of the plan. I've gone from thinking of vegetables as a necessary evil in life to loving them and craving them.

I was headed toward a lifetime of obesity and type 2 diabetes, just like my Dad. Atkins has put a stop to that, resensitized my cells to insulin, and taken away the health issues I had - chronic constipation, adult acne, eczema, and cold sores. Every single one of these issues has completely gone away on Atkins. My tendency to diabetes is still there, so this has to be a lifestyle change.

I cannot thank Dr. Atkins enough.

I enjoy exercise. I started at Curves and am currently a member at 24 Hour Fitness. I go 1-4 times a week, depending on my schedule. I'd says a typical week is 2-3 times. I try to make exercise a part of my life 6 days a week though, even if that just means walking the 1.5 miles from the train station to work. I wear a pedometer and track my steps and miles at Walker Tracker.

I've been stalled on my quest for about 18 months, but I've come to see it not as a stall, but as maintenance. I haven't lost any weight, but I haven't gained any either. :) I've been hanging out at about 145 pounds. My highest weight was 206, and my lowest was 138.

I track my food, exercise, and weight on FitDay. It helps keep me from going off track when I have to stare my numbers in the face.

I am an ex-Witch. I practiced Wicca for about four years in the early- to mid-1990s and belonged to a coven in this area. I am still in e-mail contact with the leaders of that coven since they are good people - we just have very different views on religion now. The story of how I became a Christian is here. There's also quite a bit of stuff in the posts from 1996. Click on my archives drop-down box.

I believe in headcovering for one simple reason - the Bible says to do it. I wrote a longer post on the topic here, and it explains the whys and wherefores of this belief. It's more common than you might think.

Finally, yes there are gratuitous cat pictures here. They tend to be few and far between, but I have two tabby cats who I greatly love, and I occasionally post pictures of them for no reason other than to show them off. My Flickr account has three photo sets of them:
Xena set
Abby set
Xena & Abby together set

They even have their own MySpace profile. Yes, I am a crazy cat lady. :)

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Photo courtesy Ocoee High School.