I was doing the low fat diet for awhile and lost weight rather quickly. By maintaining low fat habits I'd maintained my weight for about a month. I was so miserable and tired all the time that I knew it was time to find something new. I'd gone to NY for the day and enjoyed my last pasta meal in the village (unknowingly at the time). At the train station I was looking around in the magazine/book shop and came across Dr. Atkins book. I'd been wanting to get it and was reluctant to buy (8% sales tax) but the more I thought about waiting, the more anxious I was to read it. After about 15 minutes of considering spending the additional money I decided that it was time to do it. So I broke down and got the book. I was so excited about starting the diet that I read the first half of the book that night and started the next day. I weighed about 197 lbs.

When i started dieting in April of 2001, I weighed 205 lbs and was miserable. I felt tired and bloated all the time, I felt unattractive and was even embaressed by my shadow. Since I've started l/c dieting, my energy level has sky rocketed and my clothes fits me very loosely. The best part is that my boyfriend who manages to shrink everything I own, is actually helping me. I'm happy to report that as of today at 187, my shrunken clothes is starting to hang on me. I even tried on some "forbidden clothes" from that one shelf we all hang on to clothes we'll lose weight to fit in to... Most of it fits.

I'm only 23 years old and have always detested clothes shopping. Even though I never cared for the styles, I had started shopping at Old Navy where they sold size 18 and 20 clothes. 4-5 months ago... that clothes was tight. I've been dealing with Chronic depression most of my life having been plump most of life. This new breaking point brought me back to a terrible place I had not been in since I was a teenager.

The details of what I did to myself (mentally and phsyically) and to those around me aren't important. What matters now is that I brought myself out of that and am actually happy with the way I look. I know I still have a ways to go to achieve my goal of 120 lbs. At 5'2" , I feel that is a reasonable and healthy weight. Mostly, I want to get down to a size 6 again, where I was the only summer of my life that I wore a bikini. I was 17.

I hope that there are other people here that can gain some encouragement from my little story, even though it's just begining... the change I've achieved is amazing to me. A carb junkie my whole life and a veg(an)etarian for 4 years, I know what it's like to not understand what is happening to one's body.

Sincerely, I still need support. There are days when my morale is lower than I'd like it to be and I just start reading the atkins book again, and message boards, and FAQs, anything I can find to soothe my concerns. Anyway, I hope this isn't to long and that someone relates to this and replies...

Good luck to everyone!!

Vanessa

205/197/187

Welcome Vanessa and congratulations on your 10lb loss! I understand needing support and having those days that are really tough. I've been depressed the last couple of days because I haven't been losing as quickly I expected... I even cried in frustration. However, since I feel healthier, I'm chosing to stick to LCing. I wish you the best of luck and I'm here if you need someone to talk to!

Last week I was feeling slightly desperate when I got on the scale. It's amazing how much 1-3 lbs can make in terms of how one feels about their success on the diet. I find myself elated at 1 lb difference (loss) and defeated at a 1 lb gain. About the only thing that helped me cope with this was when my 1-2 lb differences finally helped me break that damn 190 mark. Meaning, that I'm in the 180s. My short term goal is to lose another 10 lbs in the next 2 weeks. I've started walking at least an hour daily (brisk walking) and have promissed to get myself something once I break through the 180 point and weigh in somewhere in the 170s. I haven't decided what that will be, but it won't be food. I'm sure that I'm setting my goals a little high, but i think i can do it.

I don't know about you Nancy, but it's not the diet that I have a problem sticking to this time, it's the patience required when you start to plateau. I'm back on the induction phase and have lowered my protiens and increased my fat intakes. I have less than 10 carbs a day (meat, cheese, water, and 1/2 a 2 carb bar) in hopes that it will kickstart my weightloss and getting it moving faster.

*sigh* i'm feeling a little down today. I miss sugar even though I don't even really crave it so much. I liked getting a little sugar high from a coke and a snickers bar. Ick.

My remedy today? I'm going to go home, make my steak and then go for my brisk walk. Since I've had less than 2 carbs all day I may treat myself to a tofutti fudge pop (6 carbs each) But I probably won't if I'm feeling pumped... i i don' know. i'm confused.

Hi Vanessa

Welcome to the Forum. Thanks for sharing in detail. I empathise with a lot of what you say.

I was a vegetarian too for 20 years and my health went further and further downhill. The turnaround since I started on Atkins has been truly amazing for me too. I've waved good-by to vegetarianism for the rest of my life.

{"I liked getting a little sugar high from a coke and a snickers bar."} Ditto. Snickers was my favourite too. I stopped the cokes as my health deteriorated.

{"I've been dealing with Chronic depression "} My depressive episodes started when my lifestyle/location and diet changed. Now ALL THESE YEARS later I realise that the change in location meant I had much more access to choclates and sweets and because up until then I had not had this availability I went a little wild and made up for the "deprivation". I hadn't had any moodswings before then.

"The details of what I did to myself (mentally and phsyically) and to those around me aren't important." Well ... maybe not to everyone but they are important. I am at last beginning to heal relationships and building bridges where I thought they were well and truly burnt.

"What matters now is that I brought myself out of that and am actually happy with the way I look. " I can really appreciate what that involved 'cos I've been there. Well Done. You are a WINNER.

Take care now.

I would avoid the "food = reward" habit until you've truly lost a bit. You're just setting yourself up for a downslide if you resort to rewarding yourself with sugar or even sugar substitute.

Why not buy yourself a nice bouquet of flowers instead? You deserve those.

Hi Vanessa,

Welcome to the forum!

Giving up sweets and carbs is one of the hardest things you may ever do, but it's so rewarding when you see that you have truly changed your eating habits and you have lost weight because of your comittment to it.

There are a about a zillion things I've learned about myself since being within a low carb way of life. Here are a few that may be pertinent to you.

1. Do not use food as a reward. A really bad habit.
2. There is no "free" - sugar, or artificially sweetend - "lunch", breakfast or dinner.
3. Beware the carb bar. They are full of hidden carbs.
4. Be patient. You will succeed really well if you are doing this for the long haul.
5. Read as much as you can about the process of low carbing and carb addiction.
6. Start a journal and make entries into it daily. This will help you further down the road when you reach a true plateau. It is also rewarding to look back and realize how far you have come.

Karen

Thank you so much for the support. I'm dealing with a lot of things right now. Mainly the possibility of getting laid off next week. I think I'll be ok, but things are stressful none-the-less.

Anyway, I wanted to clarify that i wasn't going to reward myself with food. I'm super cautious about what I eat and if it's questionable, I just won't have it. As for the l/c bars, I've been looking for all that stuff and like I said, i don't even eat a whole bar.

Today I weighed in at 183. Then again at 185. I think i'm becoming a slave to my scale and that's just not good. I can't help it though.. any suggestions?

Today, my boyfriend made keto macaroni and cheese with lots of ground beef (he doesn't like the keto pasta) and although I really didn't think I should have it, I had some and let me tell you, I ran an extra 15 minutes because i actually FELT gross. Not because it made me sick, but because I was totally wierded out by how good it was and I think my body was creeped out about it. Strange no?

How is everyone else doing?

vanessa

<-- more of puppy dog face than it is sarcasm.

Ask your boyfriend to hide the scales and bring it out once a week on the same day.

Karen

yeah it's a good idea to weigh once a week.. i want to try that too cuz i'm a slave to it too.. also, it makes a person more *patient* which is a good thing. Sometimes i actually feel i'm sabotaging myself..if i lose 0.5 lb i may actually feel overconfident and eat too much or something not l.c. go figure!

I am such a slave to the scale that I had my darling husband hide it away before I started this WOL. He has promised I can have it back for one day when my 3-month gym membership is up for renewal (end of Sept) but only for one day. Sometimes I consider making an appointment with my chiropractor because I know he has a scale that's readily accessible outside his examining room. I only ever weigh myself when I'm there - so next Wednesday I should have a weight update!

Evil scale...evil!!!

Lisa