Hi Tammy,

I'm rooting for you! I don't think anything you've said makes you awful. I think it makes a lot of sense to try to find a solution to your eating first. When you find something that works, then maybe the others in your household will be inspired, too. Or maybe not, but in my experience, these kinds of changes really have to come from inside. Usually the most we can do is help support someone who has already decided they want to make a change. I think a lot of women are brought up to believe they should put their needs last. And of course I'm not suggesting anyone neglect their family, and I'm not a big fan of the phrase 'me time' (I take time to do things I enjoy), but in the long run, we need to take care of our own health, too. It shouldn't be something that's last on the list.

Congratulations on you success with alcohol rehab! Is there any overlap to what made you successful with that and what you need to be successful with cutting out carbs? I hope that's not a dumb question, it's just that carbs are addictive, too, at least to me, so maybe there's something that you've learned in fighting alcohol addiction that can be applied here too? As far as temptations in the house, my only strategy (that's sometimes successful, sometimes not) is to try to stay on top of what I'm planning to eat, get it prepared and cooked before I get hungry. Sometimes I make myself eat before hunger hits, just to really stay on top of it. I think my downfall is that I get lazy about cooking. I just don't really enjoy it that much. I'd rather spend my time doing a hundred other things, so I put it off, end up hungry with no plan of what to eat. So that's one of my personal challenges in this whole endeavor.

I think a lot of us are royally po'ed about the USDA's anti-fat propaganda. They've harmed so many people, it's heartbreaking the struggles and self-blame they've caused. It makes me so angry every time I think about it. But as for whether you're eating enough fat, from what I've read, at the beginning when we still have plenty of body fat, we do not need as much dietary fat as people in the maintenance stage. I mean, it sounds like it's okay to eat as much fat as you want as long as it's on the approved list, but I wouldn't worry too much about not eating enough. At least my strategy initially is to do whatever it takes to try to kill my carb demon. Maybe others can speak to that point, though.

I'm not a success story (yet?) so take the above with some healthy skepticism. :-)

KL