Hi! My second child is due 2/3/11, and immediately afterward I plan to do Atkins. So, I'm currently 9 months pregnant. I have just started lowering my carb intake, and am hoping that by minimizing them now, the transition will be easier to induction after birth.

Reasons I'm starting again: I'm enormous, fatigued, old-looking, and peeing large amounts of glucose in my urine (glycosuria). My husband just put together a website of all our family photos over the last 6 years, and I have gained an incredible amounts of weight over the years. I have become so hefty, and honestly, ugly. Bloated looking, old. In those periods where I did follow Atkins here and there over the last 6 years, my photos look so much better. So I FINALLY am convinced that yes, I am a fat person, and yes, Atkins (or general low carb) really does work. I don't want my sons to look back at their childhood photos and only see their mom as a fat person. Also, it has seriously limited my activity level -- my husband plays soccer or bikes w/ my 6 yo kid, and I have consistently refrained. I'm missing out on fun w/ my kid, and so is he, for we don't get to share these fun activities together. I'm so ashamed of myself.

Anyway, thanks for letting me purge. I'm going to continue eating as low-carb as possible now, and will come to these boards almost daily. Thanks for the support!

I so understand!! I have the same issues as you and am wanting to restart soon.

Are you sure you will be able to start after the birth? I have always been so busy and sleep-deprived after that (no extended family help), that I had to just grab what I could to eat or what dh made. I hope you will have abundant help with baby and household.

Congratulations and best wishes for a happy birth and weight loss.

You're due about 2wks before I am! I can't wait to hear your birth story.

As for LC, I'm not going to rush. This will be #5 for me, so I expect I'm going to need all the rest I can get for at least the first few weeks. Probably around 4-6wks, I'll begin to slowly reintegrate. I have hyperemesis so at this point, I'm drinking ensure and eating peanut butter crackers. Sometimes, I can eat real food, but I'd prefer to do without than worship the porcelin goddess. ;-) haha. If I feel great and know I can handle it, I'll reach for some chicken or ham or turkey. Beef makes me sick. I just try to get items with higher amounts of protein (like Kashi cereal instead of another brand) and not worry too much about carbs at this point. All this babbling to say, I understand how you feel about your weight, but enjoy your baby time first. Just try to reach for the healthier items that are readily available. Then, when you are more energetic and baby sleeps for more than 10min at a time, look into Once A Month Cooking. It's a real sanity saver with little ones. Two days with hard work provides your family with a month worth of easy breezy meals. Some of the recipes are not LC friendly, but you can always adapt or use your own favorites. Though some of my favorite things can't be cooked in advance, I preseason then freeze. On cook day, I defrost, and cook- so much better than mixing this and that and AH! I don't have the time or patience to do that day in and day out. It's my usual monthly kitchen routine, but with a new baby in the house, it becomes a necessity unless we want fast food all the time- eeew!

As a mama, I am just sad that my kids won't HAVE any pictures of me because I've always been too embarrassed of my weight and successfully dodged the camera or volunteered to operate it...you can do this, mama!

I did the same thing! There were maybe three pictures taken of me right when I brought my baby home, but otherwise there were NONE until this past Christmas. I still look at it and cringe because I was 15lbs heavier than I am now. I'm only just now getting to a weight where I might let someone take a picture without fear that it will come out horrible.