Hi, my name is Chris. I live in the Memphis, TN area and have been on/off low carb'ing for the past 2 years. My problem is that I get down to a weight I'm comfortable at and then fall off the wagon and gain it back. Just recently I weighed the most I've ever weighed (260 lbs) and decided enough is enough. I'm down 10 lbs in the past 2 weeks and feeling great. My goal is to get down to 200 lbs but would really like to see a "1" as the first digit. Look forward to interacting on this board!

Woohoo for the loss and a big huge welcome!

This site is a great resource not only for knowledge but support as well!

Wishing you the best in your journey -
Deanna

Thanks Deanna!

You fall off the wagon, is it because you feel that you can finish dieting?? Or that you dont want to do it anymore? Or as happened to me once, you get to the point where, because you've reached your goal, there isnt anyway of monitoring your success - no weight loss???

Jo xxx

Fell off the wagon b/c I had almost reached the goal and felt I could lose the rest the 'non low carb' way. I see the folly of my ways now that low carb isn't a diet but a lifetime way to eat.

I remember almost crying when it dawned on me that I could never eat the things I used to again. No more cake, biscuits, big "blow out" meals..... But 11 years on (with a years break at year 8), I've settled into this WOE - it keeps me slim, healthy and it keeps me in control of food - thats something worth being able to do. I'm no longer slave to carbs.

Have a nose around the forum, so many useful tips and discussions

Jo xxx

I agree Jo. Eat to live...not live to eat.

A lot of people can do that and make it work. Many, myself included, cannot. Of course, I did not figure that out for a long, long time. I did many "low-carb like" diets over the years and lost weight only to gain it back. I never had an end game. I was pretty ignorant about how the lc diet even worked and about how my own body worked. I knew I craved food, but didn't realize it was carbs I was craving. I had no idea what the glycemic index was and how some foods hit your blood sugar harder than others. In this case, ignorance is not bliss. The more you know, the better. This site is a good place to learn. You can reach your goal. The hard part is maintenance. You can do that, too. But to do so, you have got to have a plan that will work for you.

I agree that the hardest part will be the maintenance. I can lost the weight no problem. My problem is what I do when I reach the finish line. I have to get in my head that 'there is no finish line'.

These words really struck me. That is what so many of us need to realize! Thanks for putting it that way.

Also, welcome to the board!

Thanks JAnn.

I've been in maintenance since 2005. I had to get it about this too but once I did, it became the way I eat for life. I found other foods that I enjoy and learned to cook them.

So, yes, there is no finish line....

Jo, there really is such an emotional component to success at losing the weight, and success at maintaining that loss. In a nutshell, it is that realization that forever more how you eat is very very different. For me, it wasn't a particularly quick process, I'm sad to say. I just chipped away at it, and finally I was "there" in the sense that getting the weight off and keeping the weight off has taken priority over the ever so brief moments of chomping down on some goodie or another. I like your idea that "I'm no longer a slave to carbs." That's really it!

So to you Chris, welcome, and I'd recommend working on the head/mind/emotional part of this. You want to get to the point where you view sliding and cheating as backtracking, and you will no longer want to keep going over the same ground, losing the same weight over and over. When you do that, you are like that rat in the little wheel, running and running but going nowhere. That's one point I've gotten to finally that I really love: I simply do NOT want to backtrack any more, and that keeps me strong against temptation. I'll also add that at least for now, I pretty much have zero temptation, I don't want those things any more. I guess you have to be pretty single minded about losing the weight, and that will eliminate all the self arguments you might have about going off plan.

You can do this, IF YOU WANT TO. It's all in your control.

Thanks for the welcome and words of wisdom Carole.