I turned 40 on Nov. 16th. It was a milestone not only in years, but self-evaluation. I look and feel terrible. My attitude is not much better. I know everyone has a year or two throughout their life that they'd just like to pretend didn't exist and I'm afraid this one is turning out to be one of my top 3.
My DH worked for the Boeing Company as a business analyst/computing analyst. We dodged a layoff notice on Dec. 23rd last year only to postpone it until the end of Oct. this year. He's been employed at Boeing for 16 years - never worked anywhere else and he's taking it very hard.
We have been married 15 1/2 years and were high school and college sweethearts before that. We been together about 2/3's of our lives. We have 3 tuxedo cats (age 17 1/2, 5 1/2 and 20 months) and lost another to HCM before she reached her first birthday 2 years ago and still miss her dearly. We also have two nieces that we adore but don't get to visit with as much as we'd like (they now live in Utah). We haven't had children of our own.
I do graphics for FOX Sports Net NW/Detroit and live events graphics for football, basketball, baseball, horseracing and other sports. Since my DH lost his job, I've tried to pick up as much freelance work as possible. I work 10-12 hour days, 4 to 6 days a week...and usually end up grabbing a fast-food salad or small burger. I have to sit for long periods of time when I'm working with very little breaks. With my long commute (about an hour each way) I have little time for exercise.
My husband took me out for dinner at my favorite restaurant - Stanley & Seaforts in Tacoma - for my birthday. At dinner I told him that I wanted to go back to low-carb eating. (We had both tried Atkins in 1999 and had success - about 30 lbs each - before our doctor said this plan was not good for DH's high blood pressure and cholesterol. We both started eating as the doctor suggested, low-cal, low-fat, low-salt and it didn't take long for us to gain all the weight we'd lost back - and for me to put on about 20 lbs more. I'd just changed from a winter job where I taught skiing full-time to a job where I had to sit 8-10 hours per day.)
My DH said he'd support my efforts and also go back on the plan himself. However, since he felt better on about 40 carbs per day after induction and still was able to lose weight steadily he wanted to start there for himself. I agreed as long as those 20 extra carbs didn't find there way into my mouth too. He does most of our cooking at home - he enjoys it. He is now preparing my brunch/dinner/snacks for me with me to work.
From Nov. 17th through Thanksgiving weekend - we started eating low-carb (somewhere between 20 and 30 carbs/day) but didn't start Atkins induction knowing that Thanksgiving at his father's would derail our efforts. (FIL would NOT understand that skipping the potatos, stuffing & pie is on the plan and take it personally...even though he's somewhere between 100-150 lbs overweight himself.) We both had small servings of the worst carb offenders - but my physcial reaction to these about an hour after dinner was horrible. I got the worst headache that know painreliever would touch, my skin felt like it was crawling and my heart was racing...I felt like I was on some powerful narcotic. I didn't sleep at all that night. Wow what a wakeup call!
We went back to low-carb eating the day after Thanksgiving and I've felt much better since. We start "induction" strictly today.
My DH worked for the Boeing Company as a business analyst/computing analyst. We dodged a layoff notice on Dec. 23rd last year only to postpone it until the end of Oct. this year. He's been employed at Boeing for 16 years - never worked anywhere else and he's taking it very hard.
We have been married 15 1/2 years and were high school and college sweethearts before that. We been together about 2/3's of our lives. We have 3 tuxedo cats (age 17 1/2, 5 1/2 and 20 months) and lost another to HCM before she reached her first birthday 2 years ago and still miss her dearly. We also have two nieces that we adore but don't get to visit with as much as we'd like (they now live in Utah). We haven't had children of our own.
I do graphics for FOX Sports Net NW/Detroit and live events graphics for football, basketball, baseball, horseracing and other sports. Since my DH lost his job, I've tried to pick up as much freelance work as possible. I work 10-12 hour days, 4 to 6 days a week...and usually end up grabbing a fast-food salad or small burger. I have to sit for long periods of time when I'm working with very little breaks. With my long commute (about an hour each way) I have little time for exercise.
My husband took me out for dinner at my favorite restaurant - Stanley & Seaforts in Tacoma - for my birthday. At dinner I told him that I wanted to go back to low-carb eating. (We had both tried Atkins in 1999 and had success - about 30 lbs each - before our doctor said this plan was not good for DH's high blood pressure and cholesterol. We both started eating as the doctor suggested, low-cal, low-fat, low-salt and it didn't take long for us to gain all the weight we'd lost back - and for me to put on about 20 lbs more. I'd just changed from a winter job where I taught skiing full-time to a job where I had to sit 8-10 hours per day.)
My DH said he'd support my efforts and also go back on the plan himself. However, since he felt better on about 40 carbs per day after induction and still was able to lose weight steadily he wanted to start there for himself. I agreed as long as those 20 extra carbs didn't find there way into my mouth too. He does most of our cooking at home - he enjoys it. He is now preparing my brunch/dinner/snacks for me with me to work.
From Nov. 17th through Thanksgiving weekend - we started eating low-carb (somewhere between 20 and 30 carbs/day) but didn't start Atkins induction knowing that Thanksgiving at his father's would derail our efforts. (FIL would NOT understand that skipping the potatos, stuffing & pie is on the plan and take it personally...even though he's somewhere between 100-150 lbs overweight himself.) We both had small servings of the worst carb offenders - but my physcial reaction to these about an hour after dinner was horrible. I got the worst headache that know painreliever would touch, my skin felt like it was crawling and my heart was racing...I felt like I was on some powerful narcotic. I didn't sleep at all that night. Wow what a wakeup call!
We went back to low-carb eating the day after Thanksgiving and I've felt much better since. We start "induction" strictly today.
