Burn the Shirts!

When Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez arrived to conquer Mexico, he ordered his men to “burn the ships” that had carried them to the new land. This forced them to decide if they were going to “fight or die” (as it is claimed he said to them).

I did my own version of it today: I got rid of all the clothes that I fit into 6 months ago. Of course I didn’t so much burn them as brought them to the consignment shop, and of course Cortez’s men did not have the option of going down to the local Wal-Mart and buying a new ship, which I could do if I need bigger pants. But it’s a metaphor, so we’ll let the incongruities slide. At least they are out of the house, and buying bigger clothes will be a lot more of a conscious effort than just starting to wear different pants from a different hanger.

At least 50% (probably closer to 75%) of what was in my closet no longer fits. That is actually not uncommon for me; in fact it has been true for several years. The difference is that now most is too big, rather than too small. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but I managed to go from having an abundance of one to the abundance of another without ever really hitting a point where I had a lot of clothes that fit. I guess that’s the “downside” of losing 60 pounds (or “about 3 Ethans” as we call it at home). The upside, of course, is not having enough spare tire around my waist to restock a NASCAR racer.

I have just passed the 6-month mark of going low-carb. Now before everyone tells me to prepare to die of kidney failure (a myth so strong that folks in the low-carb world refer to it as “the vampire myth” since it refuses to die), I should say that it was my doctor who recommended that I get the book and read it. He also referred to it as a “lifestyle change” as in “If you are ready to change the way that you eat….”

Now I will admit what others have observed, that there is a lot of misunderstanding about Atkins/low-carb eating (next time someone tells you they are “doing Atkins” ask them what the 4 stages are. If they don’t know, they aren’t doing Atkins). I think most of it stems from people not reading “the book” and just sort of thinking that they can skip the bun on the hamburger and that will be that. That is not a critique of low-carb as a way of living/eating, of course, it is a critique of culture, of our fascination with fads, with our obsession over losing weight fast & easy without work. That is not what Atkins is about. It may be what you see a lot of people think Atkins is about, but they’re wrong. Atkins is not eat all the meat and eggs you want. Atkins is about changing the way that you eat for life and finding what foods trigger weight gain. For many (myself included) the wrong kind of carbs and simple sugars turn into something not unlike an addiction. Some even say that it is an addition. (I know someone who claimed that the 3 most addictive substances in the world were nicotine, caffeine, and sugar but the government gets their cut of the profits from each, so they don’t care much about those.)

Anyway, to mark my 6-month “anniversary” we went through my closet and took out all the stuff that no longer fits. Or, I should say, no longer fits well. After all, technically this shirt still fits but I think the fact that Ethan and I can both fit into it together indicates that it does not fit well. I used to wear that shirt a lot. You can see it here and here and here. Dear Lord, in that last picture I’m probably wearing a bigger t-shirt than Albert the Alligator! (Note: when you are wearing clothes large enough to fit over a mascot, that’s a WARNING SIGN.)

How is it going? Well in January I posted low-carb before and after pictures. My weight hasn’t changed much since then, although it has definitely shifted around some, as I recently went to 36" pants. The pants I was wearing in the July 12th “before” picture were 44" and my 17.5" neck is now a 16" which seems much more reasonable.

I can fit into shorts that I bought on our honeymoon, so that puts me at about the same size I was in 1995 right after college and before seminary. I’m not sure what my next goal is. Ideally I would love to get back to about a 32" waist, which is what I was when I arrived in college. A couple of charts have said my ideal weight is about 166. Well I don’t know if I can get back to that weight (I don’t ever remember being below 170, and I’m not sure I remember that!!!) so right now I’m setting intermediate goals: 190, 185, 180. After that we’ll see how it goes.

They say no man is an island, but I was getting close.

“Low-Carb: Because being hungry all the time is not an option.” (my motto for why low-fat never worked.)