Low carbohydrate food. Linda loses weight through a low-carb diet. A friend of mine started losing weight through a low-carb diet last year and this has worked great for her. She has lost a lot of kilos because of it and is therefore very enthusiastic. The low-carb diet has piqued my interest. I hardly ever eat potatoes, for example, which is already a plus. But I am a huge pasta lover and I really don't want to think about leaving it alone. However, low-carbohydrate diets can help enormously with weight loss. That's how I met Linda on social media and her perseverance (and the result) inspires me enormously.
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Linda Scheeringa-Ridder is 40 years old, married to Benjamin for 18 years and has two lovely children. A 15-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter. She works as a pedagogical employee at a daycare center in Groningen and thinks this is a wonderful job to be allowed to do! Linda has been (too) heavy all her life. Linda tells her story about a struggle for years and how - after trying everything - she managed to lose so much weight with low-carbohydrate food. Linda loses weight, now 44.5 kilos!
My struggle with the pounds is one that goes back years. My mother sometimes tells me the story of my birth. I am already (too) heavy at birth and also at the consultation desk my weight is always a topic of discussion. Of course I don't remember all this myself, but being fat is starting to become a thing at primary school.
I'm starting to realize I'm fatter than my friends. Besides, I can't handle the nice clothes they wear. When I eventually go to high school, things really go wrong. There is always something delicious for sale in the canteen and I buy this regularly. So I am slowly but surely gaining weight. Every pound goes through the mouth.
I'm not really bullied about it and I always have friends, which makes it fine for me. When I go to MBO I start dating my current husband. My weight has never been an issue for him, he accepts me for who I am. That also makes it feel great.
Eventually I finish my education and go to work. We get married and eat what we like ourselves, and again we add extra kilos….
I am pregnant with our oldest and I weigh 121 kilos at that time. I gain 8 kilos during my pregnancy and after the caesarean section the gynecologist tells my husband that he will not help me again if I don't go on a diet first. My husband only tells me this much later and this touches me greatly. For the first time I am REALLY confronted with my enormous overweight.
After three years I get pregnant with our daughter. At that time I am still 121 kilos and now I am gaining 9 kilos in pregnancy. The moment our daughter turns one year old is enough for me. I really have to do something about it. Time to lose weight by eating low-carbohydrate.
I start at home with healthier food. No more in-betweens. But after the first birthday, my plans are already in the trash.
I'm going to Weight Watchers with a friend. This seems to work fine. I start at 130 kilos and after a year I weigh 107 kilos. Good in itself, but this way of losing weight has one pitfall for me. I save up my points so that I can grab more on the weekend. And I do that a lot. Chocolate and cookies… mmmmm. And on Monday I'll pick up my Weight Watchers rhythm again. Of course, this won't last, because the moment I stop Weight Watchers, all the kilos come back just as fast. I'll be back to square one within a year because I don't actually change anything in my diet.
shakes. Yes I tried that too. Via the brands that are for sale in the store, but also the shakes that you buy through a consultant, such as Cambridge. I find it very difficult to do a shake diet. I don't like it, everything tastes like wet cardboard. At least that's what I think , that wet cardboard tastes like that. In addition, I miss it very much to just eat at the table with my family.
I give up and sign up via the GP to have a stomach operation and I travel to Leeuwarden for an appointment. Once there I see ladies with tube feeding and I hear what can happen. I am so shocked by this that I already decide on the way back that gastric surgery is not one of my options.
So I cancel and I think I'll just have to learn to live with it. Until I am on holiday with my family in the summer of 2016. I've had a very busy period at work and the tension on my body makes me sick. All the time I think it's on my mind. Heart failure is one of my biggest fears and I don't get a bite down my throat anymore on vacation. The fear of dying from being overweight takes over.
When I got home I found that I had lost weight. Well, that's not crazy either. I'm not hungry anymore because I haven't eaten in almost a week. And that's the moment when I realize that the switch has to be turned.
I don't want to die yet and I realize that it is in my own hands. I start with a yogurt in the morning with muesli. In the afternoon I grab two sandwiches and in the evening I just eat warm. It works!
My sister-in-law also just started dieting and I hear from her that she only puts low-carbohydrate food on her plate. She's on a low-carb diet! Of course I am skeptical. I've tried so much and without bread in my meals? I will never succeed! I am a real lover of bread.
Through a colleague -who points me to facebook pages with success stories about losing weight by eating low-carbohydrate food from fellow fighters- I read in. I read even more on the internet about eating low-carbohydrate products and I am encouraged to participate. I am completely changing course.
What seems? I love the food! Every now and then I buy a low-carb sandwich at the bakery. I only do this if, for example, on Saturday I am cheering my children on the football field.
I feel combative and I am very strict with myself. The first month I suffered a lot from withdrawal symptoms from the sugar. I am tired, have a headache and feel listless. But soon I get energy!!! I am unstoppable, everything works and the kilos are flying off.
Of course I also have difficult moments. Especially the weeks when you stand still in terms of weight are very difficult. So you start to doubt. But I have so much energy. Energy I've never felt like this before. I do get cold a lot, though. But do you want to lose weight without exercising but by learning to eat in a different way? I can only recommend a low-carbohydrate way of eating.
I have now lost 44.5 kilos through a low-carbohydrate diet since the summer holidays 2016. This lifestyle works very well for me. I also notice that my body reacts so much better without the sugar! Of course, that also means that I don't want to go back.
A lifestyle or diet must suit you to be able to sustain it well. If this means to someone that the shakes do work, then that's fine. Delving into a lifestyle and finding out whether it suits you or not, that's the start of a successful start!
Are you looking for help and do you want to lose as much weight just like Linda? Then take a look here.
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