I've hesitated to post because from reading all of the threads, I have a good feeling of what people will recommend. It's all good advice, but I guess I'm still looking for that "a-ha!" to make sense of everything again...or some motivation. Anything, really!

I started Atkins almost 4 months ago (4 months exactly, next Wed), but haven't lost anything for the last 2 months. Despite such a long stall, I haven't had one day off-plan, even through the holidays! Note also, I have not lost inches. All my clothes still fit the same/same size in everything.

Maybe my downfall is I don't track everything in My Plan, but the thing is, my food intake hardly varies (maybe a problem?). When I do try to find things in My Plan, it almost always varies from the nutrition info on the package, so it is just too much time to enter in online when I'm seeing how many carbs, etc are in it straight from the package.

A typical day consists of:
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 cups coffee each w/ 1 pkt splenda and 2 T (measured) half and half

Lunch: either leftover meat from dinner (like chicken, hamburger meat patty, or steak) or often times if no leftovers, I have 1-2 cheesesticks with a 1.5 oz package of almonds.

Dinner: Most nights I treat myself to a steak, or I will have 2 chicken breasts dipped in mustard. For a side dish I almost always have a salad with a homemade lowcarb dressing, topped with blue cheese

Dessert: one square baking chocolate (2g net, 4 total)

I drink plenty of water, hot green tea, and 1-2 diet dr. peppers a day

2-3 nights a week I drink either wine, plain martinis, or bourbon on the rocks. Most people will say to avoid alcohol (I have read all of those threads), but the thing is I drank the whole time I was losing, so I find it hard to believe that it is the thing keeping me from losing. As a trial in weeks' past, I have not drank a thing for 2 weeks and the scale did not move then, either.

This last week I saw all the threads on IF, but I tried it for 2 days and felt miserable. Maybe something to work up to, but at the same time I feel like it doesn't represent the kind of lifestyle I want.

One more thing (sorry, this is getting so long!)
I am feeling so overwhelmed by all the conflicting/varying advice on this forum, such as:
-Drink more water. Other times, don't drink more than 4 cups a day.
-Use coconut oil. Coconut oil causes stalls.
-Eat more veggies. Don't eat any veggies.
-Have less calories. Eat more calories.
-etc, etc, etc.

I am very committed to this WOE, but my positive spirit is disappearing. Any ideas?

**Edit: One more note. I recently tried the fat fast for 2 days but stopped because my weight jumped up!**

Thank you so much, and sorry for the long post!

stop the alcohol. you asked why you're stalled. I swear that's it. In the beginning you can lose with it, not as well, but you can... then you must be more and more strict if you stall.

you won't lose... you will just use that for fuel instead of your own fat.

the ONLY way to do this is clean. You have to remember this isn't just about a calories in/calories out thing. It's a chemical process in your body and you're not getting it to work for you.

I'd also dump the almonds, the baking chocolate (is it sugar free? cuz that would be WRONG)

I wonder how high your carbs are, too.

I agree with Pennink about the alcohol.

One thing you should keep in mind is that everyone is different. What works for me may not work at all for you. Unfortunately, nobody knows exactly what might work for you. All we can do is post our own experiences.

I feel that the best thing for you to do would be to follow the instructions Dr. A. put in his books. If that doesn't work for you, only then should you start looking for ways to tweak the plan a bit. One thing I have found is that I lose much better if I eat plenty of veggies every day. I rarely lose anything on Induction, but as soon as I increase the veggies, I suddenly begin to lose. Again, that's just the way my body reacts. Your experience may be much different.

You might also want to have your thyroid checked. I spent a year unable to lose anything, pounds or inches. Only since my doctors finally increased my thyroid meds a tiny bit have I finally begun to lose again.

ETA: You seem to have done quite well at losing weight. You only have 13 pounds to go, and Dr. A. specifically pointed out that the last few pounds would come off very slowly.

Good luck to you!

Thank you guys, for your tough love!

Re: Alcohol. I am really going to work on this. I'm not making excuses because it's totally my choice to drink or not, but the challenges in this area for me are:

1. Socially, I feel it's "safer" carb-wise to go out for drinks rather than dinner. I'm not singled out, I don't have to worry about sugar in salad dressings, etc etc, and besides, if I did go out for dinner instead, everyone would still drink and I'd feel singled out and left out.

2. I really like drinking. Not in an addictive way, but I love having a glass of scotch as a nightcap or sharing a nice bottle of wine with dinner.

3. Drinking is par for the course when it comes to my friends, and in my experience, my age group.

But ok, enough excuses! I will do better to make daytime plans on the weekends with my friends (we don't drink then!), and I'm going to try not to drink more than one night a week, and if I do drink one night, I will not expect a loss.

Re: Veggies. (and almonds) Since for the most part I have been eating very few veggies, I'm going to increase them for a while and see what happens. I am looking forward to the variety! Plus, if I bring a salad for lunch I won't have a problem giving up the almonds.

Re: On plan, for real! I'm going to go back and read the book (one of the older versions). If I still don't see any changes (after counting real carbs as well), I will get my thyroid checked.

One final thought...I have been trying to limit how much I think about food, which has left me feeling bored and uninspired by what I consume. I really love food, so I need to get excited about it again and have some fun in the kitchen. I think I'm stuck in that I've tried to oversimplify things, and here I am unhappy with my weight and with what I'm eating...a recipe for disaster!

Thanks again!!

Oh and Pennink, it is unsweetened baking chocolate! It tastes sweet to me!

Hi. I had lost way over 100 lbs and kept it off for 10 yrs until last yr. So here I am. The older Atkins plan worked for me. The new one with the 12-15 net carbs of vegetables and 20 total per day,and sweetener limitations and caffeine limits worked for awhile and then got too slow & too bouncy.
I do know that sugar alcohols will stall your loss. Your body will burn that instead of fat first so you are not allowing the ketogenic process to work. Aspertame has stalled weight on many and you may be one of them.Splenda is better for you anyway, and Stevia is the best choice if you like it. Drinking min of 64 oz water is absolutely needed. It will help with the fat burning, flush the toxins that the fat burning creates out of your body. That is plain water and aside from the other beverages. My weight loss was not great as it could be, so I did change from the new strict diet to the older plan of less carbs, less salad or veggies, and increased the water and stopped the other beverages. I have one mug of coffee a week. The carbs add up in that and tea. I use the USDA site for counts and weigh everything. I have started to lose well again since the change. You have little to lose so just increasing exercise may help, BUT the biggest thing is the alcohol sugars. They are a killer!
Hope this may help a little.
Cricket56

Weight loss isn't the same as you get closer to goal. Many of us, especially women, have to get stricter about calories and carbs and so on, have to add exercise, stop drinking, etc.

The reason advice is so conflicting is that different things work for different people. But wasn't it Ben Franklin who said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"? If something isn't working, change it.