Hi everyone,

I've tried eating low carb a couple of times but am having a hard time sticking with it. I'm hoping that keeping a journal here will help keep me on track! Look forward to getting to know my fellow LCers. And to finally shedding these extra pounds. And feeling better overall.

- PointReyes

Hi. You're on the right track, I think it really helps to be in an online community of like-minded folk.

I've only been here a few weeks, but I want to welcome you. I believe being on here is very helpful. Best of luck to you! You can do this!!!

welcome................

Thanks for the welcomes, Teaser, Gail and slmrickman! Looking forward to getting to know everyone. :-)

Welcome! This is a great community, full of compassion and knowledgable people.

Welcome! I wish you the best of luck and resolve. There are so many kind people and brilliant people on this forum. They have really helped me and I hope that you find some great support that will help you too. You can do this! No problem, you have got it in the bag!

Thanks, MickiSue and glimmergai. It's been a while since I've been a member of an online forum. I really appreciate the kind words of welcome and encouragement. :-) Even with the best resolve, I at times forget I'm not supposed to be snacking from the great carb cornucopia. My daughter made brownies today - argh, doesn't help. Must stay out of the kitchen! I've started browsing some of the threads - so much great info. At the same time, it seems like it can take a lot of experimentation to figure out what works for any individual.

PR: if you really believe in eating Primal, you won't be able to get yourself to eat carby things like brownies, because you KNOW what poison that stuff is.

Really, the easiest way for me to avoid the carbs is to remember that: most of the things that used to be SO tempting are things that will literally make me sick.

I have to confess, I've not read up very thoroughly on primal blueprint. I ran across a webpage I'd saved that had the very basic outline, and I've just jumped in with that. I'd had some success with Eat To Live (Fuhrman) about a decade ago, and I did study that very carefully, but I couldn't stick with it. Anyway, for most of my life, I've been able to eat brownies, sugar, wheat, etc. and was fine. For me, menopause seems to have been the big game changer.

I am a big fan of Mark Sisson, his website and book, And PB can be flexible and personalized, but his weight loss plan is higher in carbohydrates than many use here to lose.
You might also consider a basic LCHF to start http://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb and then play with buying grass-fed, raw dairy and some of the other Primal diet foods.
All the best,

For me, it's not the "Oh, dear, I'll gain with this food" that keeps me from eating it. Because, clearly, that does NOT keep me from eating it.

I learned as much as I could about the health problems from eating grains and carbs. That makes a difference, for me. I'm well post menopausal, and I want to be around to watch my grandkids grow up. Eating the way I used to, even though it was, supposedly, healthy, was not getting me there.

Hi Janet, thanks for the pointer to the diet doctor site. I just wish every site had a section for women over fifty, post menopause when everything just seems to shut down - or it did for me. As I'm reading about, it seems like I might need to lower protein (can be converted to carbs) - and fat (don't need as much at this age) - and if carbs also have to be kept really low, I start to wonder what I can eat, because if I don't get enough calories, then body goes into super low metabolism. So then, maybe intermittent fasting is the solution? LOL, if only someone could tell me exactly what I needed to do, I'd do it! So, for the first week, I guess I'll just continue on like I am now and see what happens.

Hi MickySue, I focus on health benefits more than weight, too. I hate obsessing about weight, in fact I didn't own a scale for years, partly as rebellion against mainstream media insistence that women should obsess about weight. But at this point, so many things have start to go wrong for me: hearing, eyesight, hair (boohoo), muscle tone, memory, concentration, etc. (Oh how much I used to take for granted. And believe me, how thankful I am for the degree to which I can still see, hear, remember things, etc.) If eating LC can help with any of that, I'm on board! I'm still trying to get my kids through middle school, grandchildren aren't even on the horizon yet. :-)

When I was a child, I decided (the hubris!) I would live to 96! That'd be interesting, but it's seems a tad less likely at my rate of wear and tear.

If there were one simple answer for us older woman, we would all be at our goal and not hanging around here for years at a time Dr Westman treats many, many older women, a LCFH plan plus "meal timing", aka IF, seems to help them the most. And contrary to how how some see the HF part, it has limits on added fats. Kelly Pounds explains it well in this new post, and her previous one linked in this article, Don't Force the Fat: https://lowcarbrn.wordpress.com/201...-force-the-fat/