Hi. I'm Vickie Ewell.
Here
at Just Do You, the emphasis is on living and balance, rather
than dieting. While nutrition is important and restricting calories
is how you achieve your weight-loss target, being overweight is a bit
more complex than simply blaming the type of food you choose to eat.
All
diets work in the same way.
For
that reason, our intent is to assist you in digging up the false
beliefs, mindless habits, and strong buffers that are keeping you
from being all that you can be. Here, the focus is on complete
nutrition for the body, mind, and spirit.
Weight
management isn't simply a numbers game. Your:
- emotions
- inner critic
- childhood conditioning
- and outdated habits
all affect how you look,
feel, and perceive the world. If your feelings, thought process, and
awareness are not all given equal development, losing the weight
isn't going to bring the benefits you're looking for.
We are completely
devoted to tackling the vital issues of life, the senseless habits
that affect your relationship to food, self, family, and the world
around you.
Our
purpose is to assist you in taking charge of your inner state, and
thereby, begin to function on a higher level of understanding and
purpose. It doesn't matter what weight-loss diet you're following.
Everyone is welcome here, even people who prefer to eat a low-carb
diet.
There isn't one single nutritional program that is fit for
everyone. Hence, the name of this blog has been changed to Just do You.
The
major difference between Just Do You and Kickin' Carb Clutter isn't
just the food choices.
Moderate-carb diets do include carby foods
that low-carb diets do not, but only one in three overweight
people have insulin resistance, so there is a need for moderate-carb and alternative low-carb communities.
However,
a well-balanced diet won't bring joy and peace if the rest of your
life is unbalanced, so this blog also offers help with personal
development, as well as diet. Just do You is a safe place to
explore the complexities of personality, habit, behavior, and choice.
And
yet, diet cannot be overlooked.
There
are a lot of people who arrive at the Kickin' Carb Clutter blog who shouldn't be
doing a low-carb diet.
Some
of them are normal weight and just want to ditch those stubborn fat
pockets. Some of them have a poor body image, so they are not able to
see themselves in a good, kind light. Others are not insulin
resistant, so when they take their carbohydrates down to an extremely
low level, they start experiencing weird symptoms of malnutrition.
A
balanced lifestyle can bring some sanity to all of that, but mindful
eating tactics, dieting tips, and a strong nutritional focus still
doesn't address the real problem, so Just do You seeks to go
the extra mile to get to the heart of the matter.
You
won't find any gimmicks here. No low-carb magic. Just the kind of
truth that really does set you FREE.
Who is Vickie Ewell?
- weight loss
- celiac disease
- gluten-free recipes
- health and wellness
- writing and blogging
- awareness and mindful living
In January of
2007, after gaining an additional 80 pounds due to health issues, I
started a low-carb diet. At that time, my major motivation was the
pain of neuropathy. I thought a standard low-carb diet would be a
good fit since it had worked well for me in the past, once I'd discovered Dr.
Atkins original diet book at the public library.
That was 1975.
I experimented with Dr. Atkins’ eating plan, which was much
stricter than the Atkins Diet is today, and reached goal weight
within only 6 weeks. But I didn’t understand the importance of
weight management, nor was I interested in mindfulness and staying in charge of the
emotional eating issues that most of us fight with all the time.
Throughout
the years, I went on-and-off several different diets. Some were low
carb, and some were not. It seemed like whenever I lost a few pounds,
I could depend on being hit with one real-life setback or another.
I had no
problems reaching for new excuses.
When I found
myself bedridden with severe vertigo, extremely fat, and unable to walk
without wearing shoes (I'd been diagnosed with idiopathic neuropathy), the time had
arrived to get serious about my weight and my life.
But when you’ve
been on-and-off of a low-carb diet as many times as I have, there was no metabolic advantage.
No more
golden shot.
No Dumbo’s
feather to encourage and motivate you to keep going.
This time, I had to come face-to-face with myself and admit that low-carb was no different than any other weight-loss diet.
Over
the years, I’ve tried a variety of low-carb eating styles, tweaked
a few of them to fit my personal health issues, and found only
partial success.
I
did lose the extra 80 pounds in 2007, mostly due to Kimkins and Lyle
McDonald’s rapid fat-loss plan. I also managed to shave off another
30 pounds the following year doing a modified Hcg Diet plan, but the weight loss wasn't sustainable.
The body fought back hard, and since I believed
in low-carb magic, I had no buffers of protection. I was helpless to
stop the weight regain. I had no understanding of how weight-loss diets actually work.
Since
then, I have busied myself digging through:
- the research and real science behind low-carb diets
- the truth regarding how and why they work
- weight-loss plans in general
And I have come to the conclusion
that a very low-carb diet is not for me.
Not
only does 20 to 30 net carbs a day raise my blood glucose levels into diabetic territory, if I eat that way for too long, but most of the research I've done does not support the Insulin
Hypothesis.
A low-carb diet works because the high protein reduces hunger and makes it easier to eat at a calorie deficit.
There is no more magic to Keto than that.
In addition, I started seriously questioning whether low carb was a good thing for the
thyroid and adrenals. Along with:
- vertigo
- neuropathy
- celiac disease
I was also diagnosed with Graves Disease a few years
ago, so walking around blinded by a low-carb magic that doesn’t
exist can seriously affect your quality of life.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm not against low-carb diets.
I use low-carb techniques to keep my blood glucose level in line.
Plus, people who are severely insulin resistant do much better on carbohydrate restriction to some degree.
However, some folks don’t do well on a low-carb diet. And for some reason, these people get ignored or swept under the rug.
I was at a loss to explain why many people completely stall part way to target weight. I happened to be one of
those individuals. I stalled, gave up, and then regained almost all of that weight because I didn't take the necessary steps to maintain those losses.
Today, June 24, 2021, I understand that the body fights to defend it's fat stores, that our brain wants to keep our fat stores full, so it will do whatever it can to convince us to eat, and eat some more.
I also understand that from day one on a calorie-restricted diet, the body's picks up the purpose of equilibrium. It doesn't stop adapting to what you're doing until it reaches balance.
Balance is the name of the game.
But that means you'll stall before you reach your weight-loss goal.
What Just Do You Can Do For You
If
you’ve tried a low-carb diet and failed, you are not alone. Failure
is just a learning experience, so you can now cross that possibility
off your list of potential solutions.
If
you have completely stalled and want to know the truth about
carbohydrates and low-carb diets, you'll find that here. There's no
whitewashing the truth about how our body functions. You'll also find information on how to return carbohydrates to the diet without gaining weight.
If
you're looking for the original Weight Watchers Exchange Plans,
including Quick Start and others, you can find that here too.
I've
done a lot of research on the net, trying to gather up all the
information and materials I can find because I was quite
successful using the Old Weight Watchers Plans of the mid '80s and many people have asked me for that information.
If
you're looking for a supportive community of like-minded folks, who
understand what you've gone through, the struggles you're currently
having, and your weight-loss goals, you'll find that here too.
I realize
that I haven't been as active on this blog as I would like, but
I've had a few rough years health-wise that I'm just now
beginning to pull out of.
Having
celiac disease isn't easy, but once I came to some personal
realizations, faced my denial regarding pre-diabetes, and made some strong commitments to my health, things
started to turn around for me.
They can do the same for you.
All it
takes is a willingness to stay aware and dump anything in your life that is not in
your own best interest.
In
addition to health and fitness, I want to expand the blog to include:
- useful tips for living
- weight-loss strategies
- articles on mindfulness
- general diet information
- scientific research studies
- latest health news and advice
- nutritional information
- various dieting plans
All
with the intent of assisting you to reach your goals, no matter what they
may be.
If you have
questions, or want to see a particular topic discussed, leave me a
comment or fire me off an email at:
Lavender.Rose27@yahoo.com
To learn more about me and why I started this blog, check out:
Why I Started This Blog (And a Little About Me)
It details my dieting history, health issues, and what you can expect to get by joining this community.