Linda Gardner's Blog: “I’m Never Going to End up There Again”

Before and after

Annika emptied the pantry of everything when the sugar cravings hit. Her parents tried to help, but there were always sweet things at home… When she graduated, she weighed 254 lbs. (115 kg). That was definitely not how she wanted to live her adult life!

Today she’s satiated, happy and slim. Here’s how she did it.

The Email

Hi Andreas!

My story actually began a long time ago. I often tell people that I was overweight at birth.

My mother has told me how the people at the hospital told her to dilute the formula with water because I gained weight so fast. I also remember thinking about dieting at the young age of 4–5 and when I went to middle school, the school nurse called my parents and told them to start dealing with my overweight. They wanted what was best for me and tried, but cookies and candy were always available at home and I emptied the pantry of everything when the sugar cravings hit me.

I weighed the most in 2001, the summer of my graduation, and the scale displayed 254 lbs. (115 kg)!

This wasn’t the way I wanted to enter the world of adulthood and I decided to lose weight. I started eating a sort of low-carb diet, even if LCHF hadn’t been coined as a term yet back then.

I took away bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, candy, cookies. I ate non-flavored yoghurt with citrus for breakfast (which I had heard was low in fructose), lunch and dinner consisted of some form of meat and vegetables. I was partly scared of the fat, didn’t eat butter or cream, but nuts, avocados and oil was something I’d heard were good, so I ate those on a daily basis.

I quickly lost weight and from September until April, I had lost 77 lbs. (35 kg)! A little later I went back to “normal” eating, which meant more carbohydrates. I still managed to keep my weight, but it was a continuous struggle. I exercised spinning and bodypump five to six times a week. My weight fluctuated up and down 11-15 lbs. (5-6 kg).

After having given birth to my first child in 2010, I knew there was no other alternative, the pregnancy pounds had to go. The low-carb lifestyle had been starting to make appearances in media by then and I wasn’t slow to jump onto the wagon. The extra weight disappeared easily! I no longer fluctuated up and down weight-wise, until I got pregnant again in 2013. The morning sickness made it hard for me to eat fat, so I had to eat according to the official guidelines. What happened? Well, I gained 33 lbs. (15 kg)…

The summer of 2014 it was time to take care of the excess weight again. I won’t say it went smoothly, because the weight didn’t come off as easily this time, but with LCHF and exercise it slowly came off.

Today I feel at home with LCHF and I run a blog to encourage others. It’s so nice to be able to eat well, feel satiated and be rid of the fluctuating weight. I’m back to the same weight I had before my first child and I usually brag about weighing 22 lbs. (10 kg) LESS as a 33-year old mother of two, than when I was in the seventh grade!

Thank you for a informative and inspiring blog!

Sincerely,

Annika
cleaneatingbyannika.se. (In Swedish)

P.S. They who say you can’t exercise while on low carb don’t know what they’re talking about. My exercise currently mostly consists of running and weight lifting and next year I’m aiming for the Gothenburg half marathon!