Hello, I am simply not comfortable putting my real stats in a public forum my browser tells me is insecure. So please forgive my numbers.

I'm doing the typical New Years resolution thing. Yes, it's cliche, but I have a hard time during the holidays and drink a lot. So I need the fresh start of a new year. Alcohol obviously is one of the really big drivers of my bloatedness and carb intake, so I'll get a big boost in weight loss hopefully with just going alcohol free for months in addition to the low carb foods.

My goal is to lose a minimum of 25lbs and I would be overjoyed with myself if I lost 50 lbs. I realize this is a life change and I will miss all the great carbs I love. I know I can have some of them once in a while, but I hate whole grain and "brown" starches, so those are NEVER going to replace those beautiful white starches I love so much. But the good news is there are a lot of great foods I can enjoy in a low carb lifestyle otherwise.

I'm doing my induction phase trying to stay as close to South Beach's low fat model as possible. I am of the belief that we have been lied to about saturated fats' health hazards and will introduce them, but I know they are also calories. I lost 40 lbs two decades ago with a low fat diet, so I'm familiar with fats. Then as is now, the goal is weight loss and I almost dont care how I do it, as long as it works, but decided the low carb gave me the opportunity to not starve. I have always said in order to lose weight you have to be hungry. I hope this approach proves that wrong and keeps me taking in good foods and fats while doing it.

Depending on how this goes, my thought is to stretch the induction phase to possibly a full month, shifting to Atkins for the second two weeks introducing those fats, and then pretty much sticking with the Atkins concept from then on. Maybe dropping back to 2 weeks of South Beach induction if I start slipping...as punishment!

My first question for the community is a forum question. Am I correct there is no search feature on this web site, or have I not looked around enough? I wanted to search for something before asking a question, and found no ability to do that. It sure would eliminate a lot of redundancy and me having to read the entire forum to find something.

Please let me know if I am missing that feature somewhere.

Thank you!