How Lucien changed his life by beating his Sugar Addiction

By Karen Thomson, May 15, 2015

Lucien changed his life by empowering himself with knowledge and the will to change.

For anyone feeling despondent or losing hope Lucien’s story will  keep you inspired.

I have been overweight most of my life, until I was obese. June 2012 I got myself a gym contract and started eating regular smaller meals a day, two weeks into my diet regime my appendix burst. I was hospitalised for 6 weeks, and during my stay I had caught double pneumonia with septicaemia and a bunch of other lovely things. I spent my 21st Birthday on my back in a bed in Johannesburg General Hospital and had to undergo three surgeries. I dropped out of College due to this as well.

Few months after the above, I had this giant lump on the right side of my stomach that kept growing and was extremely uncomfortable. I had an incisional hernia caused by my size as it wasn’t able to heal fast enough, again. Being so fat caused this, and the fight to lose weight without being able to exercise without a swimming pool ended up trying many diets, from Herbalife to eating less however none of which was sustainable or affordable, nothing lasted longer than 2 weeks.

I spent two long miserable years as I kept gaining weight. My hernia discomfort increased weekly and me being depressed didn’t help with all the comfort eating which mostly happened at night.

I also have ADD/ADHD and battled concentrating without medication with me being in the IT industry, I ended up working longer hours due to this.

On the 8th of January 2015, I had excellent guidance from a friend following a Low Carb High Fat lifestyle. We went through my cupboards and fridge, I was left with a small mango and 3 cans of tuna 🙂

I had recently moved out of home and had no idea how to cook besides warm-up ready made meals and fry a steak (which I still did wrong).

I invested in a Banting cookbook and started preparing my own meals. After my first week of Banting, I finally got a scale and my first recording weight was 142.9 kilograms (1.91meters tall) 40% body fat. I was horrified, scared, and thought I would never be able to get better or be able to be a healthy weight for my birthday, which is the 16th of July, I set myself a goal to lose 20 kilos before my birthday, and told myself “you’re gonna do this” as this was the required weight to have the operation to correct the hernia.

The first few days were a bit hard, it was a mindset that needed to change. I needed to forget all the indoctrination that has been fed to us. I drank about 8-10 cups of milky coffee a day with 3 tea-spoons of sugar, sometimes more. This was a difficult part for me. I had purchased a small 1L of Full cream milk and a few xylitol sachets(5 or 6) and weened myself off my addiction. It took me one day to get used to black coffee, and now can taste the difference between a good brew in the first sip.

My first week of Banting I could feel my clothes becoming loose and people could already see the difference in my face as well with it clearing-up. I also had a stomach ulcer from the anti-antibiotics they nuked me with to get me better, and the re-flux after eating (bad hiccups) I’m not sure what is it, but that went away too. I ate food I knew, and only cooked food myself or ate at friends who were Banting.

Magically after 7 weeks I reached my goal, I had lost 20 kilos… Something that was unimaginable, how can someone lose so much body fat… in a short period of time. I didn’t know how either. I just told people, I eat off this list, I eat when I’m hungry and eat until full. I drink on average 2.5 liters of water a day and take vitamins.I did no extra exercise, however climbing stairs was so much easier and could skip a stair and fly-up them, was amazing. My Hernia pain/discomfort had decrease drastically, and got myself a smaller stomach girdle to fit properly.

My mood changed. I was smiling all the time. Sometimes for absolute no reason, I was so happy, happiest I had ever been my entire life, so happy my cheeks were sore from smiling.I was just a few weeks into this lifestyle had removed the biggest weight on my shoulders, and belly! 😀

After losing 30 kilograms I was lighter than I was in high school. I now wear all my old clothes and have the ability to walk into Edgar’s and get myself a shirt, the feel good factor that I’m able to do that… is impossible to explain, for years I had to get special made clothes or have them altered to fit me. Big and Tall was my clothing shop. Not anymore!

I was averaging a healthy weight-loss of 10 kilograms a month.

Eventually, I got myself to the Doctor who was amazed by how much weight I had lost, and had told me “Two years to lose 30 kilograms is quite impressive Lucien, well done”, he was shocked when I said I only started a few months ago. 🙂

I can now say, that my biggest fear and best accomplishment is near the end, I’m finalising my operation to fix my hernia which should be done on the 17th June if all goes fine with work and medical aid.

To this date, 5 months and 4 days into LCHF Banting, I lost an unbelievable 40 kilograms, I remain dedicated and eat off the green list. I will never go back and want to be in ketosis for the rest of my life.

Categories: Empower Body

Tagged: Banting, LCHF, Low Carb High Fat, Sugar addiction, Testimonial