This is such a long-winded story, I should provide coffee to keep you awake.
It'sages since I committed myself to a diet, even though last year and 3 years ago I went a year (twice) without sugar and bread. My all-time top weight was a few years ago, around 275. I was wheeling my elderly mother around a hospital, huffing and puffing. I realized I needed a wheelchair more than she did. Well I lost a little, my mother died, my son married, and I fell into a rut.
My daughter had a baby shower Feb of last year. Someone who hadn't seen me for years remarked that I looked like I'd lost weight. I went home and weighed, and found I was down to 240. Days later, the scale went haywire. I low carbed for a while, but I was dealing with a load of stress, and I slacked off.
So this October, I weighed again; I had gone up a little and down a little, back to 241. I didn't really feel resolved. I missed sugar in my coffee. I bought a cherry pie at the grocery on Friday night, and the next morning had a big piece for breakfast (instead of my usual avocado on wasa) AND put sugar in my coffee.
That Saturday morning, Oct 18, I piled into the car with my laptop and my dog, going to babysit my granddaughter. I never got there. A woman pulled out and knocked my car across 5 lanes of traffic. The next thing I knew, I was in the emergency room, spitting out my front teeth, with a splint on my left hand and left leg. Two emergency room visits, weeks on my daughter's couch. I was literally in too much pain to eat. Then surgery to put pins in my ankle was scheduled.
I found myself in a hospital bed explaining low carb to hospital staffer after staffer, and was met with blank looks. I was limiting myself to 30 grams of carbs/day. I explained protein, meat, cheese, fish, eggs were ok. Salad veggies ok. Sugar, fruit, starch, bread, potatoes, not. I could not eat 70% of practically every meal they sent. For e.g., for breakfast, they would send a fruit compote, oatmeal, juice, toast which I refused, but there would be eggs and bacon. They hardly ever sent meat,but never forgot dessert, sugar, fruit, starch, bread, potatoes and pasta. Tea came already sugared. I hardly ate for a week. Once, someone realized a chef salad fit the bill, and it took half a day for me to eat what little I could swallow, but it was a welcome sight.
Surgery came and went, and as I waited a few days to go home, my kids came to see me, and noticed I looked like I had lost weight.
I had told the hospital I thought I was 235 when I got there. A week later when I left, the bed said I was 224--and that's including two splints.
Two more weeks taking pain meds on my daughter's couch, and I was back at the hospital for a new cast. I saw a scale in the corner of the room. I asked the tech how much the cast weighed. --8 lbs.
So before I left, I pushed my chair to the scale, stood balanced on my good leg and saw it stop at 212.
212 minus the weight of the cast...I was down to 204. (Not even counting the weight of the cast on my hand.)
So on November 25th, I weighed 204. That was 16 days ago. I am somewhere in the 190's, maybe at the high end because I think I might be eating a little more. For a few days last week, I rolled the wheelchair into my daughter's kitchen and made a broth out of a chicken wing and a handful of frozen (italian mix) vegetables. I had the broth as one meal, and the chicken and veggies as another, and that was all I had all day.
Every day, I am taking a vitamin.
For the first few weeks, I had a bag of pistachio nuts, and limited myself to 29/day (books say that is one oz.) Last week, a friend brought over some sharp cheese, that I had an ounce or so of each day, as a snack. This week's dinners have been a slice of roast beef rolled in a lettuce leaf. Lunch has been a celery stick w/peanutbutter.
Anyway, I know this has been a long account.
I have read most of Atkins books, but I have been following the first one, except keeping loosely to induction numbers.
I probably slowed down the rate of loss a couple of days ago when I set out to cook a few kidney beans to put in a salad, and screwed up and ate a whole cup of them. In butter. Starch city.
And when I tasted an M&M's worth of the peanut butter fudge my daughter bought and left on the dining room table not 12 feet from where I sleep.
I don't expect to keep losing at this rate, approaching 50 lbs in roughly 8 weeks. The real challenge will set in when I am back in my own kitchen, and have my normal appetite back. And when plateaus start to hit, how will I handle if I'm not out of the cast, able to walk off the calories? I wish I had a scale handy too, that would be incentive.
Sorry for the typos. Left hand is out of cast but not up to typing yet.
Anyway, glad to be here. I've been reading all your stories, so I feel I know you all. Thrilled to have feedback from all
Been there, done that, doing again
Hello and Welcome, LolaJane! Wow you have been thru a lot recently! Glad you are on the mend and boy, you type better than I do and I can't use the excuse of a cast! 
Jo
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