[cyslespitocop]

That's one of the things that you have to identify in order to keep it from happening again, even with the success Atkins will give you.

For me it was a collection of early habits that I had. When I was a kid I was reasonably healthy but chubby, if that makes sense. I played sports and such, I was never a super tub but I always had a bit of a buddha belly and I was never super muscled. I was a bit of a loner due to being moved around all the time and never really latching onto friends and having people to do things with.

A lot of my time from age 9-13 was spent by myself in my room reading, or playing with toys. Toys kept me from eating, but reading was where I would get into trouble. I used to sit in my room with entire packages of sliced american cheese, slowly reading while eating it. Reading became and still is one of my eating triggers. Finger foods or anything that you can eat with one hand while reading a book is what you could frequently see me doing. Ice cream and the cheese were probably the two biggest culprits for me in regards to that. I'd tack other things onto that, but those were the two main culprits. Sometimes I would bring in the sandwich meat as well and just wrap cheese around it while reading the hardy boys, or else get a box of Nilla Wafers and the carton of ice cream. If you let the ice cream melt up a bit you can dip Nilla wafers into it and mow down pretty handily with one hand.

Breakfast was the other big killer for me as a kid. My mom was pretty free about what we could have for cereal, and when I was a kid my little brothers and sisters were about 7 years younger than me, so there was always "kid" cereal around, and plenty of sugar as well. One of the things I did that REALLY got me some problems was the powdered sugar. One of the things that I don't blame my mom for, but that I wish she would have put a halt to, was the practice of mine of having Chocolate or Strawberry milk with Captain Crunchberry cereal, soaked in powdered sugar so that you could scrape the spoon on the bottom of the bowl, then pull it up thru the cereal and have the cereal sitting in a bed of sugar goop.

Then I joined high school and got a bit better. I was in football as a linebacker, wrestling at the 189lb upper weight class, and then track as a shotput and 100m sprinter. That was the first two years of high school, where I got in better shape, and was just about reasonably close to the picture I posted where I am the shirtless idiot. Then in my junior year the person wrestling the heavyweight position graduated, and my wrestling coach and football coach got together with me. They wanted me to wrestle heavyweight, and my football coach would be ok with me helping to shore up the defensive line. Both of these positions meant I would have to increase my strength, and that I would no longer have to worry about maintaining a weight below 189.5 lbs.

They worked me out a weightlifting regimen designed to increase my muscle size, and we went to the Nutrition store and bought me some of that Whey Protein GAINER, which is something like 800 calories and 40 carbs per serving. With their assistance, I went in my junior year from 189 lbs and a reasonable build to about 250 lbs, strong but definitely with fat all over me. I stayed at that weight until the last football game of my Senior year, when I broke my knee horribly and was on crutches for almost the rest of the school year.

I never changed my eating habits while I was completely sedentary, and when I came off the crutches I weighed about 307 lbs. I graduated and went to Purdue University, and managed to starve diet myself as it was the only way I knew how from wrestling, with ephedra, back down to about 230,,, where I pretty much stayed for awhile until my brother died. That kicked me back up to a give up attitude, and I pretty much took my share of the insurance money we gained from his loss and ate it.

I think I ate take out for every meal for an entire year, at which end point my Atkins begins. I found my weight out around december of '04 at roughly 317 lbs after a steady summer of 16 inch Italian subs, or Meatball subs, X-large pizzas, chicken strips with triple ranch, ice cream and cookies every day, and entire 12 packs of regular soda.

I found out about Atkins, cut down from over 300 to about 260, then bought a membership at the YMCA and started working out like I had in high school, and cut back down to the Shirtless Idiot picture. You all know the rest. I kept it off till the motorcycle accident in Sept 07, when I got back up to about 260 or so... and went back on Atkins in April of '08. It's now July 23rd, and I'm 188.7 lbs and not going to let my early poor eating habits enter back in.

One of my tricks that kept me at my atkins weight the first time for 3 years was setting in STONE some alarm weight limits for myself. I was 175, at 190 I started keeping a food journal again, and if I hit 205 it was time for full induction again. 205 lbs was my serious alarm weight, if I hit that, everything I was doing stopped and there was a complete review of what was going wrong.

[FYvWldC0]

I think this is a brilliant idea Kyp. It's important to know what happened so you won't do it again. Here I go.

When I was a kid, I was raised by southern folk. Country fried food with extra everything. My grandmother was obese as long as I can remember and she would never hold anything back from the "youngins" so far as delicious food went. You want 3 grilled cheese sandwiches? (Or more appropriately for the south "3 grill cheeses?" lol) No problem! Maw would whip it up in heavy butter and you could have a big bowl of home made mac n cheese with it too!

My mom would say "No, you can only have 2 oreos." I would eat half the pack and she wouldn't stop me, partially because she couldn't. My mom was handicapped physically and while I was a stubborn child, she didn't have any personal will power and would never exert any effort to actually holding rules over me. (The rebel nature really sprung heavy roots in me as a child due to bad treatment from my dad so I never listened to my mom really. )

So I was a chubby child. Never TOO huge, but "overweight" was the right category. As I got into preteens and early teens, I slimmed down with my mom telling me that boys wouldn't like me if I ate too much and that I should lose weight or I would never be happy. (She was a wonderful person... -_- ) This only resulted in my getting a little heavier when I decided a little further onward that I didn't care what people thought of me because they were all mean to me anyway. Then when I was 13, my grandfather died....

As a brief explanation, my grandfather was the only part of what I consider my truly horrible and immoral family that really loved me and was a good person. He took care of me when I was little and made me feel loved and happy like no one else did, just by paying attention to me and being there for me when I needed a hug. He was the best. I found him dead in his favorite chair in the sun room and it nearly destroyed me. I didn't speak or eat much of anything for 3 months... it only slowly inclined for the NEXT 3 months and I was very slim by the year after that happened... at my thinnest appearance since I had been a small child. I was about 145 to 140 at any given time and my eating habits had not improved, but I ate LESS because I had spent the whole summer eating one bowl of Ramen a day and playing on the computer because this was the first summer of my life that people would leave me alone (because of how the tragedy of my grandfather's death had affected me).

At 15, I met Rohan... (my husband) and I was in love with him from the start. He told me I was beautiful and I never believed him. (oooh why did I not believe him???? I look back at pics now and drool with wishing I was that size again!) I was with Rohan constantly and my physical activity picked up. We would walk around together, spar together (martial arts), swordfight, etc. We were on the go all the time. No one EVER understood us lol.

I married Rohan at 17 (long story) and we moved in together. Things changed only a few months later with our roomate and we had to move suddenly. The only place available was my grandmother's basement apartment so we ended up in a miserable, dank and mildewed single room space that had barely room to walk in after the two couches that were there and our few scant belongings. I got, for lack of a better word, sick. Spiritually as much as physically, I was dying while living in that tiny, wet, sun lightless space. I spent all my time on the computer while Rohan was at work and I did nothing of importance. I couldn't make myself get up and DO anything without the light of my love beside me... He was keeping me going. Nothing else was worth it. When he got home, I'd get up and clean the place while he sat down to relax and then we'd go up to my grandmother's kitchen to make some dinner. I'd have eaten little all day... cept junk food. Here is where my weight gain began.

All day long I'd eat little bowls of Ramen noodles, cheese and salsa dip with tortillas, a pan of taquitos and chicken fingers (all greasy fried foods that come from the frozen section) and drink sodas. I didn't know, is the easiest way to put it. I didn't KNOW what was wrong with eating like this because no one ever warned me or told me much of anything and I simply never put two and two together.... I was ignorant and young.

Another key factor: Rohan was TINY and had a HUGE metabolism (growing boy!) and was working as a carhop at Sonic which meant running orders from store to car to store all night. He was the best they ever had, fastest running, hardest worker. He'd run 200 orders a night. He lost weight while piling on the chili and cheese and extra layers of meat... He got to a point of skinny that if you put a pic of him now (quite healthy) next to a pic from then, you'd say "oh he looked sick..." He did. I didn't notice. We somehow overlooked these things in each other... But I was getting bigger and bigger.

My mom had made the kind mistake of buying me a lot of lounge pants for Christmas that year too. I wore them all the time. I loved them. They were so comfy. I never noticed my waist expanding... honestly, I never did. My grand mother barely HAD mirrors in her house and the only one we were commonly near was one that barely showed my face for how high it was mounted. I didn't know I was getting so fat until I hit 257 and we went on a trip to the Botanical Gardens and took pictures of ourselves together.



I came home and cried. I never knew I was this huge until that day. I didn't know what to do. But Rohan, in his infinite love for me, told me that I was still beautiful to him. This was what I needed from my love, but at the same time, I didn't push myself to fix it immediately. I cut back a little on my food and drinks but I didn't really push myself to change.

Many emotional problems arose in me after that which I don't want to get into but I got off my arse and started doing Weight Watchers with a friend after we finally moved out of the basement apartment and into my parent's old home (they'd built a new house). I lost 40 pounds and felt MUCH better but I was still too heavy and didn't like myself anymore.



Yikes! Remember this was me at 19 lol. I figured out some new ways to dress that didn't show my fat off quite so much. The fluffy ears are wolf ears. So I'm an anime geek okay? lol That is also the only period in my life when you'd have seen me wearing glasses consistantly. (I barely needed them at all but I thought they looked good on me at the time.) At about 217-212, I was feeling a little better but I had hit a HARD plateau and the weight wasn't coming off anymore. I can't remember which holiday broke my diet but I think it was Valentine's day. I stopped trying after I gained a few pounds back. I felt like it didn't matter.

A little further down the road and Rohan had to quit Sonic. (He has severe social anxiety disorders, to a disabling point.) So we went on to yet another stage in our lives, the stage in which we learned a lot about ourselves by becoming destitute. Eating extremely cheap food didn't help my diet, but we didn't have much money for anything, less entertainment, so we spent most of our time walking the track at Dora Park. We would go out late at night when no one was around and walk back and forth down this 3 mile track. No flashlights. Just us and the creepy darkness. It was great. I still didn't lose any more weight though.

Then, skip a couple years that didn't see my weight changing much at all... I was on and off of Weight Watchers with little success the whole time... Rohan and I were still walking and had become a LOT more conscious of what kid of food we ate. We decided together that I would GET healthy because I had developed Asthma, Allergies, aches, pains, etc... And we wanted to be able to do stuff together without me getting tired so easily! So we walked every morning for 9 miles on the track and would come back most evenings for a second round. I have no idea how I didn't lose weight, going from eating whatever I wanted to really watching it and walking this much... but I didn't. 212 I stayed for months.

Until the morning I couldn't keep walking for feeling nauseous. It's funny that we were in the habit of walking 9 miles a morning at this point in my life. Otherwise I might not have realized how seriously bad I felt that morning when I felt I couldn't keep my stomach inside itself and had to sit down on the track. I found out later that day that I was pregnant.

So of COURSE my weight inclined again, but this time very naturally! I was careful as I could be about what I ate during pregnancy. Honestly? I barely ate because my morning sickness lasted dawn to dawn through 8 of 9 months of pregnancy! It was HORRIBLE! I barely ate! But if I could eat anything and keep it down, it got eaten! Bisquits with gravy were a common factor. They were one of my only saving graces. What a miserable time it was for me! I gained back to 257 (baby included!) by the 9th month.

(Lol Rohan tried on the belly and boobs to see how it felt to be pregnant at a class. He said he knew it had to be worse than that. lol )
After giving birth naturally, my weight was probably about 240.


I was careful after that to eat well. While my husband and I are bad to grab a burger out, I would try not to over eat and well as soon as I'd recovered we were active again, having moved to an apartment in Jasper the week the baby was born and now being in the middle of down town, and easy walking distance. (Or in many cases, not-so-easy walking distance but we did anyway because gas is expensive and walking on sidewalks is fun! (see also: Jasper is 15 miles or so from our home town and the home town had no side walks. lol ))

But somehow I came to notice after a year since the baby was born, that I still hadn't lost any weight... I had tried and tried to go on Weight Watchers again with friends but they never stuck with it and when they just gave up, I'd just give up... My motivation faltered and I was at 257 again before I knew it... Then one morning, I got on the scale, looked down and say something that changed my life:
261

I was heavier than I had been with baby and all! NO!!!!! I ran downstairs and got on the computer and looked up diets. I had asked a dear friend (a naturalist doctor in the making) how to lose weight and she'd said "Throw out your bread for a while. Yeah, carbs. That's the secret. Just get rid of your bread and pasta and potatoes." So I looked up the Atkins diet (which I had always avoided due to bad rep and all...) and said "I will try it starting tomorrow." Period.

And here I am. 8 days later, 252.5 and declining!

I know what I did wrong. I ate really junky food for TOO long. I was too inactive, too SEDATIVE for too long! And when I needed to make a change, I made the wrong changes.

Junky frozen foods, fast food, lots of carbs and no exercise. There are my culprits. I will never forget their faces! lol



I don't have a full body shot of me recently, but this is enough to glance from face to face and see that my current weight is treating me better than old weights have!

I won't forget and go back to those old ways! I like this picture better! And I want to see even better pictures soon! I am motivated to stay away from the bad stuff.

Shei

[cyslespitocop]

Wow Shei, you really spiced yours up with pics... I only have like 10 pics of myself that are digital in the entire world.. .and half of those are still stuck on my camera.


Yeah I thought it might be interesting for everyone to read each others stories about how we ended up here using atkins. I think we will all have some commonality.

A great big portion of my family was from the south as well, Grill Cheeses and home made mac and cheese was another big one for me as well,, hehe. Big drippin butter grill cheeses still have a warm place in my heart, right next to the coronary.

[Bemapayople]

I have always been overweight, for as long as I can remember anyway.

I have a twin sister who also has always had a weight problem. Not that it's a defense, but I come from a long line of chunky people. All of my female cousins are large as well.

I remember sitting next to a girl in 3rd grade and thinking...my legs are as big around when I stand up as hers are when she sits down...I remember being 100 pounds in 4th grade.

I grew up around fat jokes. From my sister (we were horrid to each other, merciless), some from my dad, but alot from my grandmother. A favorite of hers was "they're almost as tall as they are round". She also referred to us as "well fed" quite often. She didn't mean to be hurtful, it's just the way she was.

My dad was also very over-protective. He was constantly telling us to go outside, but wouldn't let us leave the yard. Outside of gym, we didn't get a lot of exercise. We also weren't made to eat alot of vegetables. My grandparents owned a farm and I was raised on "okie" food - lots of fried stuff, red meat, etc.

We moved alot and making friends was very difficult. I figured out long ago that I'm an emotional eater. Being twins, we were regarded as freaks alot. That made me insecure. Well, that and the constant "joking". Eating made me feel better. Add that to very little exercise..well, it didn't go well.

I was 170 pounds my freshman year. The summer between freshman and sophomore year, we moved again. I decided since I was going to be in a new school, I was going to lose some weight over the summer. Well, it took more than just the summer. I basically starved myself down to about 135 over the course of the year. I'd have a carton of milk for lunch and whatever mom made for dinner. That was it. But it worked.

I kept that off until I met my ex-boyfriend my first year of college. I had just turned 18. Over the next almost 17 years, I gained about 120 pounds. It was a horrible relationship and I should have run after the first year, but I didn't. I grew up under the impression that fat girls were incredibly undesirable and you took what you got and were damn happy you found somebody who would be seen with you. He wasn't abusive per se. There were just alot of issues...and lots of fights. We'd argue, I'd leave, and find a drive-thru. KFC chicken nuggets were my favorite fight food.

Over the course of the time we were together, I tried to lose weight, thinking it would make him more interested in my physically. I went an entire summer eating WeighWatchers frozen stuff at lunch, riding a stationary bike 2 hours a night, and having chicken and rice for dinner. Every day. Lost nothing.

Then at some point about 7 years ago, I kinda just fell into low carb. Basically, I just stopped eating "side dishes"...no pasta, rice, potatoes. I ended up cutting alot of things out and lost about 40 pounds. Then we bought a house and things really went downhill. I ended up gaining it all back, but fortunately not more.

We split up *finally* about 3 years ago. I'd been in counseling and started taking anti-depressants and just...got brave, I guess. Funny thing, my counselor told me I had the lowest self esteem of anyone he'd ever met. He says that I use my size to keep people at a distance. Being overweight puts an extra layer between my and other people, an actual physical distance. As a result of my long-term disaster, I'm very distrustful of people and I guess it makes sense. Most men aren't attracted to overweight women so by being fat, I can keep them away from me and avoid putting myself in the same situation I was in for 17 years. Pathetic I know. It makes more sense to me than I'm explaining here.

I've just gotten to the point where I'm tired of having to pay extra for clothes just because they're a bigger size, having to go to special sections or stores to find things that fit, having to buy ugly stuff just because it fits. I got a small taste of it a few years ago and it was incredible.

It's also getting to the point where it seems that everybody I meet is pushing me to have gastric bypass surgery. I don't want to do that. If I have the surgery, I'm going to have to change the way I eat. So...by that logic, if I'm going to have to change my eating habits anyway, why throw a surgery in there??

Anyway..I'm trying. I have very little willpower and have bounced on and off since January. I hadn't gained back anything I lost until I tried Weight Watchers. I guess in my "off" times, I was still doing better than I thought. I started back up last Wednesday and have almost lost the 8 I put on. There have been some rough things going on at work for the last 6 weeks or so and it's been really hard to not just give in completely, even though I wasn't really following the diet like I should have been. So here we go again.

Ugh...sorry for the length.

[Jeffery]

Well as a child I was underweight. I was quite a picky eater and had a very small appertite.

When I hit my teens I become obbsessed with my weight (my mum said I had a bit of a belly but it was because it was TOM) from then on I almost stopped eating I survived on half an apple a day and run a few miles every evening, it was so bad I was falling asleep in school and feeling faint all the time. I would weigh my self everytime I went to the toilet about 6 times aday. My nan would buy all my favorite foods and I would pretend to eat them but feed it to the dog.

When I met my OH I was 5'4 foot and weighed 98lb. I started eating proberly again but when we went out to eat I would insist on a table in the corner and wouldn't eat if there were more than a couple of people in the restaurant.

Over the next few years my eating habits became more normal and then when I became pregnant with my daughter I just ate everything in sight 3 packets of crisps at a time, 2 boxes of cakes and loads of chocolate. At nine months pregnant I was 155lb.

I lost a little weight aftergiving birth but over the last 7 years I've put it all back on and more again because of all the junk food I was eating

[SHpuntik]

Hi everyone! I've been reading your posts for about a month now, and have been encouraged and inspired by you all. I started induction on June 23, and it has been slow going; I've lost 9 pounds. My OH and BF started at the same time, and the weight has seemed to melt off of them, which was extremely frustrating until I found this site and read about all the different experiences people have had. So thank you all!!

My story: My family immigrated to the US from South America when I was 11. Until then, I was an average sized kid; very active, on a swim team, etc. The one body issue I remember from back then was that I started puberty early and was embarrassed to be "developing" before my peers. The women on both sides of my family have a tendency towards being "hippy", and I inherited that, while my sister is long and lean, a model-type... go figure! So, in the midst of these new body issues I was experiencing, we moved to Northern VA, and were confronted with a new culture. I think my self-esteem issues started then, when I started seeing myself as "fat". Most of the girls I was in Middle School with were slim and, in my opinion the epitome of how yo were supposed to look. I know how silly it sounds now, but that affected me a lot. I just wanted to blend in and didn't want to be noticed or singled out, which also meant not expressing anger or frustration, just holding it in.

My mother went back to work, and our diet changed from mostly whole foods to more convenience items. My parents were under a great deal of stress, and my mother began to "stress eat", gaining a lot of weight in the process. I have always been very close to her, and joined in. When I was 14, we went to Weight Watchers and were successful. I never got back into exercise, but managed to stay around 130 (I'm 5'5") for most of HS. My mom yo-yoed for years, trying every new diet that came along, and I did them with her for support, with little effect. We always went back to eating our comfort foods... chocolate, ice cream, etc.

Like Clutterbunny, I embarked on a 9 yr relationship in college which was quite unhealthy and gained tons of weight, up to 186. Ironically, I was "dieting" the entire time because he was quite disgusted with how I looked. But he also played all kinds of little head games, trying to "help" me lose weight which made me feel even worse, and I'd eat a bag of chips, pint of ice cream, etc. in one sitting to sort of soothe all of these feelings. I finally left him, moved to CA for about a year, and once free of that emotional roller coaster, lost 25 pounds and kept it off for 5 years. I am still susceptible to reaching out for those comforting foods when angry and stressed out, but I am trying to teach myself to express my feelings, to find alternate strategies for de-stressing, and to realize that having something to say and "standing out" is not a bad thing.

Wow.. such a long post! Thanks for reading... I am very happy to be here!

Toni

[eXC3Kvnn]

congratulation on going on your weight loss journey and to those who've made progress. For me, It was a lot of things. Trying to be rebellious and ignoring the thin crowd, depression, bad breakups, more depression. Food just became a friend.

But now, I'm off that. I'm doing cardio, WT and thinking of going Atkins. I'm currently using supplements but I'll hold off on the verdict until a few more weeks.

Again congrats and thanks for sharing.

[cyslespitocop]

I don't mean to be too nosy but what supplements?

Just about every supplement out there minus vitamins and minerals and protein is voodoo nutrition and not worth a damn.


All the weight loss supplements are utterly useless.

[jokiruss]

what a wonderful story..... thanks

I think this is a brilliant idea Kyp. It's important to know what happened so you won't do it again. Here I go.

When I was a kid, I was raised by southern folk. Country fried food with extra everything. My grandmother was obese as long as I can remember and she would never hold anything back from the "youngins" so far as delicious food went. You want 3 grilled cheese sandwiches? (Or more appropriately for the south "3 grill cheeses?" lol) No problem! Maw would whip it up in heavy butter and you could have a big bowl of home made mac n cheese with it too!

My mom would say "No, you can only have 2 oreos." I would eat half the pack and she wouldn't stop me, partially because she couldn't. My mom was handicapped physically and while I was a stubborn child, she didn't have any personal will power and would never exert any effort to actually holding rules over me. (The rebel nature really sprung heavy roots in me as a child due to bad treatment from my dad so I never listened to my mom really. )

So I was a chubby child. Never TOO huge, but "overweight" was the right category. As I got into preteens and early teens, I slimmed down with my mom telling me that boys wouldn't like me if I ate too much and that I should lose weight or I would never be happy. (She was a wonderful person... -_- ) This only resulted in my getting a little heavier when I decided a little further onward that I didn't care what people thought of me because they were all mean to me anyway. Then when I was 13, my grandfather died....

As a brief explanation, my grandfather was the only part of what I consider my truly horrible and immoral family that really loved me and was a good person. He took care of me when I was little and made me feel loved and happy like no one else did, just by paying attention to me and being there for me when I needed a hug. He was the best. I found him dead in his favorite chair in the sun room and it nearly destroyed me. I didn't speak or eat much of anything for 3 months... it only slowly inclined for the NEXT 3 months and I was very slim by the year after that happened... at my thinnest appearance since I had been a small child. I was about 145 to 140 at any given time and my eating habits had not improved, but I ate LESS because I had spent the whole summer eating one bowl of Ramen a day and playing on the computer because this was the first summer of my life that people would leave me alone (because of how the tragedy of my grandfather's death had affected me).

At 15, I met Rohan... (my husband) and I was in love with him from the start. He told me I was beautiful and I never believed him. (oooh why did I not believe him???? I look back at pics now and drool with wishing I was that size again!) I was with Rohan constantly and my physical activity picked up. We would walk around together, spar together (martial arts), swordfight, etc. We were on the go all the time. No one EVER understood us lol.

I married Rohan at 17 (long story) and we moved in together. Things changed only a few months later with our roomate and we had to move suddenly. The only place available was my grandmother's basement apartment so we ended up in a miserable, dank and mildewed single room space that had barely room to walk in after the two couches that were there and our few scant belongings. I got, for lack of a better word, sick. Spiritually as much as physically, I was dying while living in that tiny, wet, sun lightless space. I spent all my time on the computer while Rohan was at work and I did nothing of importance. I couldn't make myself get up and DO anything without the light of my love beside me... He was keeping me going. Nothing else was worth it. When he got home, I'd get up and clean the place while he sat down to relax and then we'd go up to my grandmother's kitchen to make some dinner. I'd have eaten little all day... cept junk food. Here is where my weight gain began.

All day long I'd eat little bowls of Ramen noodles, cheese and salsa dip with tortillas, a pan of taquitos and chicken fingers (all greasy fried foods that come from the frozen section) and drink sodas. I didn't know, is the easiest way to put it. I didn't KNOW what was wrong with eating like this because no one ever warned me or told me much of anything and I simply never put two and two together.... I was ignorant and young.

Another key factor: Rohan was TINY and had a HUGE metabolism (growing boy!) and was working as a carhop at Sonic which meant running orders from store to car to store all night. He was the best they ever had, fastest running, hardest worker. He'd run 200 orders a night. He lost weight while piling on the chili and cheese and extra layers of meat... He got to a point of skinny that if you put a pic of him now (quite healthy) next to a pic from then, you'd say "oh he looked sick..." He did. I didn't notice. We somehow overlooked these things in each other... But I was getting bigger and bigger.

My mom had made the kind mistake of buying me a lot of lounge pants for Christmas that year too. I wore them all the time. I loved them. They were so comfy. I never noticed my waist expanding... honestly, I never did. My grand mother barely HAD mirrors in her house and the only one we were commonly near was one that barely showed my face for how high it was mounted. I didn't know I was getting so fat until I hit 257 and we went on a trip to the Botanical Gardens and took pictures of ourselves together.



I came home and cried. I never knew I was this huge until that day. I didn't know what to do. But Rohan, in his infinite love for me, told me that I was still beautiful to him. This was what I needed from my love, but at the same time, I didn't push myself to fix it immediately. I cut back a little on my food and drinks but I didn't really push myself to change.

Many emotional problems arose in me after that which I don't want to get into but I got off my arse and started doing Weight Watchers with a friend after we finally moved out of the basement apartment and into my parent's old home (they'd built a new house). I lost 40 pounds and felt MUCH better but I was still too heavy and didn't like myself anymore.



Yikes! Remember this was me at 19 lol. I figured out some new ways to dress that didn't show my fat off quite so much. The fluffy ears are wolf ears. So I'm an anime geek okay? lol That is also the only period in my life when you'd have seen me wearing glasses consistantly. (I barely needed them at all but I thought they looked good on me at the time.) At about 217-212, I was feeling a little better but I had hit a HARD plateau and the weight wasn't coming off anymore. I can't remember which holiday broke my diet but I think it was Valentine's day. I stopped trying after I gained a few pounds back. I felt like it didn't matter.

A little further down the road and Rohan had to quit Sonic. (He has severe social anxiety disorders, to a disabling point.) So we went on to yet another stage in our lives, the stage in which we learned a lot about ourselves by becoming destitute. Eating extremely cheap food didn't help my diet, but we didn't have much money for anything, less entertainment, so we spent most of our time walking the track at Dora Park. We would go out late at night when no one was around and walk back and forth down this 3 mile track. No flashlights. Just us and the creepy darkness. It was great. I still didn't lose any more weight though.

Then, skip a couple years that didn't see my weight changing much at all... I was on and off of Weight Watchers with little success the whole time... Rohan and I were still walking and had become a LOT more conscious of what kid of food we ate. We decided together that I would GET healthy because I had developed Asthma, Allergies, aches, pains, etc... And we wanted to be able to do stuff together without me getting tired so easily! So we walked every morning for 9 miles on the track and would come back most evenings for a second round. I have no idea how I didn't lose weight, going from eating whatever I wanted to really watching it and walking this much... but I didn't. 212 I stayed for months.

Until the morning I couldn't keep walking for feeling nauseous. It's funny that we were in the habit of walking 9 miles a morning at this point in my life. Otherwise I might not have realized how seriously bad I felt that morning when I felt I couldn't keep my stomach inside itself and had to sit down on the track. I found out later that day that I was pregnant.

So of COURSE my weight inclined again, but this time very naturally! I was careful as I could be about what I ate during pregnancy. Honestly? I barely ate because my morning sickness lasted dawn to dawn through 8 of 9 months of pregnancy! It was HORRIBLE! I barely ate! But if I could eat anything and keep it down, it got eaten! Bisquits with gravy were a common factor. They were one of my only saving graces. What a miserable time it was for me! I gained back to 257 (baby included!) by the 9th month.

(Lol Rohan tried on the belly and boobs to see how it felt to be pregnant at a class. He said he knew it had to be worse than that. lol )
After giving birth naturally, my weight was probably about 240.


I was careful after that to eat well. While my husband and I are bad to grab a burger out, I would try not to over eat and well as soon as I'd recovered we were active again, having moved to an apartment in Jasper the week the baby was born and now being in the middle of down town, and easy walking distance. (Or in many cases, not-so-easy walking distance but we did anyway because gas is expensive and walking on sidewalks is fun! (see also: Jasper is 15 miles or so from our home town and the home town had no side walks. lol ))

But somehow I came to notice after a year since the baby was born, that I still hadn't lost any weight... I had tried and tried to go on Weight Watchers again with friends but they never stuck with it and when they just gave up, I'd just give up... My motivation faltered and I was at 257 again before I knew it... Then one morning, I got on the scale, looked down and say something that changed my life:
261

I was heavier than I had been with baby and all! NO!!!!! I ran downstairs and got on the computer and looked up diets. I had asked a dear friend (a naturalist doctor in the making) how to lose weight and she'd said "Throw out your bread for a while. Yeah, carbs. That's the secret. Just get rid of your bread and pasta and potatoes." So I looked up the Atkins diet (which I had always avoided due to bad rep and all...) and said "I will try it starting tomorrow." Period.

And here I am. 8 days later, 252.5 and declining!

I know what I did wrong. I ate really junky food for TOO long. I was too inactive, too SEDATIVE for too long! And when I needed to make a change, I made the wrong changes.

Junky frozen foods, fast food, lots of carbs and no exercise. There are my culprits. I will never forget their faces! lol



I don't have a full body shot of me recently, but this is enough to glance from face to face and see that my current weight is treating me better than old weights have!

I won't forget and go back to those old ways! I like this picture better! And I want to see even better pictures soon! I am motivated to stay away from the bad stuff.

Shei

[loyalgagora]

This is such an interesting topic, I've enjoyed reading everyones stories!


I guess I've been chubby forever. In highschool i was at my heaviest and lost a lot of weight when i joined the swim team and was excersizing 2.5 hours a day five days a week, and also eating very little. I got into a bit of a phase where i would nurse a bottle of coke all day but not eat anything until dinner. I suppose my stomach shrunk because come dinner, even though i was famished, i would get full very quickly.

Later, when i went off to college i didnt gain the freshman 15, but gained about 20 pounds from my highschool weight during my four years. That had a lot to do with excessive binge drinking and relationship turmoil. I find that when im happy with life, i have no problem keeping my weight in check, but when i have friend/boyfriend/work/school issues that are majorly stressing me out and making me unhappy, i tend to throw my arms up in despair and say i don't car while scarfing down a hand full of french fries.

During college i would try to lose weight in the summers when i was back home, but i worked as a nanny each summer and would inevitably snack on the slurpees, chips, and fruit snacks that the kids were eating. I would excersize a lot more during summers, though. But i guess in all, thats why it took me four years to gain 20 pounds.

Now I'm out of school and working and my biggest challenge is all of my coworkers. I work with a bunch of women who all profess to be dieting or wanting to loose weight, although it appears that their main strategy is sabatoging eachother as everyday someone brings in bagels or donuts or cookies.

So now, here i am, on the atkins, which gives me a swell excuse to refuse any of the treats being offered. Not to mention, I'm only 5 days in, but i feel great and really feel like i can keep this up!

[12Jasoumemoobia]

Welcome Amber! This forum is a great resource to use during your journey! Everyone is very friendly and helpful. I recommend starting your own thread in the progress section and update frequently. We love to hear how everyone is doing and give encouragement!

Nik

[Jwskwhdo]

I didn't realize this thread was here. I suppose I'll try to dig up mine though and see how many people I can alienate with my issues.

Here goes! I was born a teeny tiny baby (under 5 pounds). I stayed small for 2 years. I mean really small. When I was 2 there was a horrible incident and I received 3rd degree burns on 87% of my body. I was immobilized in a hospital crib for nearly 6 months and was being pumped full of proteins and they purposely slowed my metabolism to give the proteins time to absorb. After that, the chub started to build. By 4th grade I was wearing a C cup and had a gnarly belly. It didn't matter to me, I thought my body was ruined anyways because of the burns. Even now I catch myself referring to my left arm as my ruined arm because of the scarring. Anyways, when I was 14 I started rebelling. I don't think now that I was nearly as large as I thought I was then. I was in a size 8 but I thought I was horribly fat and ugly. I started dressing provocatively. I thought my breasts were the only redeeming aspect of my body so I showed them off. Needless to say, I did bring on a lot of attention. I ended up raped by a 28-year-old man. To make matters worse, I got pregnant from it. My father was pretty much a jerk and thought that women who were raped, "asked for it". That said, my mom left him to protect me and suggested that I started trying to look overweight so no one would guess I was pregnant. I put the baby up for adoption but I ended up gaining quite a bit of weight trying to "look" overweight. When I had my second child I finally hit the 200 pound mark while I was pregnant. (I'm only 5' tall). With my 3rd child I passed 200 and then some. 7 years after her birth, here I am. I got up to 280 pounds. My husband and 17-year-old son are both naturally skinny. I'm afraid though that my daughter is following her mother's footsteps.

Okay, sorry about the length. Hope it doesn't sound all over the place but it's kinda hard to pinpoint the reason I am the size I am.

[Gasfghj]

I was skinny my whole entire childhood. I had nicknames such as Betty Boop (big head and skinny body), skinny minny and Q-Tip. I was always very active and even competed in teen pageants.

I had my daughter in 1999 and have never, ever been the same. I gained 60 lbs. while pregnant (don't ask how because I don't think I ate that much) and went through a bad break-up shortly after she was born....that's when the emotional eating started.

I obtained my first corporate, office job and I think we all know what happens in the office...the Christmas cookies, the bagels every morning, the business lunches, the traveling, etc. Before I knew it, years had passed and I had ballooned to 200lbs.

Then I met someone and fell in love. We'd go out to eat often. We'd stay in the house and cook bad things ALL of the time. We were happy and in love and eating and eating and eating, sharing deserts and such.

Now, here I am...on another weight loss journey, but this one is different. I'm in it mentally now and am choosing to not look at it as a "diet", but as another chapter of my life. I'm feeling really good about this and although I'm still with the same person whom I shared deserts with, he gets it...he doesn't try to hinder me from achieving my goals and that makes it even easier.

[Gaxiciverfere]

My story is a little different. Around the time of puberty, I developed hyperthyroidism (aka Graves Disease), likely because of autoimmune disease (my own body was attacking my thyroid gland). This illness runs in my family (mother, grandmother, great-grandmother), though I am the only male in the family it has struck.

It went undiagnosed for a long time, and as a result I became excessively skinny. For those who do not know about the thyroid gland, among other things, it regulates your metabolism, how fast you burn calories, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, etc.

My thyroid was kicking so fast that I was, essentially, starving. This occurred right at the age where I started developing my own taste in food, and the ability to obtain food for myself, whether it be shopping, cooking, or restaurants. Because my metabolism was flying soooo fast, I was hungry ALL THE TIME. I ate constantly, had 2-3 bowel movements a day, and still was losing weight. I had a paper route and spent ALL my collections on candy at the corner store. It got bad enough that kids at school started teasing me about being too skinny.

During this critical time of development (around puberty, when things tend to get hard-wired), I acquired a taste for quick-energy foods, especially sugar. I ate whole boxes of donuts, whole boxes of cereal each day, etc., anything that could fuel my body until the next meal. Sometimes I stole money so I could buy cookies. Sometimes I'd bake cookies at midnight and eat them all before going to bed. Still, I was losing weight.

Finally I was diagnosed and they treated me with anti-thyroid drugs which essentially killed off part of my thyroid gland. My metabolism normalized and I finally began to gain weight.

I was relatively normal for a handful of years, but slowly began to get slightly overweight--and unfortunately, my taste for carbs and sweets seemed to have been permanently imprinted on my brain.

Unfortunately, the doctors overshot the mark a bit, and my thyroid became underactive instead of overactive. I have had hypothyroidism for about 17 years now. Unfortunately, my hyPOthyroid treatment has never been as effective as my hyPERthyroid treatment was.

After 17 years on synthetic thyroid hormone replacement, my thyroid finally pooped out and I ballooned to 240 lbs. (Actually, there was a one-year stretch about 5 years ago when my thyroid started working again for awhile, and I managed to get my weight down to about 185--I looked great! But it didn't last.)

Flash forward to June this year. I'm fat, fatigued, depressed, achy all over, unable to perform sustained exercise, high blood pressure, thinning hair, intolerance to cold temperatures...all the classic symptoms of untreated hypothyroidism--but I was on a high dose of hormone replacement!

Turns out, synthetic thyroid hormones do not work equally well for everyone, and I was one of those. I switched in June this year to Armour Thyroid, a natural hormone replacement drug made from the thyroid glands of pigs (yes, I know--icky). It's a real drug, regulated by the FDA. (If you think that's icky...female hormone replacement is made from horse urine...).

Whew! What a difference! After the very first dose, I knew I was onto something. My energy level returned almost overnight. The fatigue began to lift and the achiness diminished enough that I could start to exercise again. Depression lifted.

But unfortunately, my weight was not budging. Hypothyroid patients' bodies hold on to fat like it's made of diamonds. Most, especially when treated with synthetic thyrooid hormones, find it exceedingly difficult to lose weight despite diet and exercise.

I tried diet and exercise--futilely--many times over those 17 years of poor thyroid treatment. But for me, it's been different this time. As soon as I started Atkins, I knew it was the right diet. My carb cravings diminished markedly, and I started losing weight for the first time in years.

Mind you--Atkins did NOT work for me when I tried it before, because my thyroid treatment was insufficient. For me, proper thyroid treatment was the essential first step.

I have no doubt that a good number of other overweight people may suffer the same problem I had--thyroid problems are on the increase, and this may have something to do with poor diet and lack of iodine, as well as an increase in auto-immune diseases (which is actually the cause of BOTH of my thyroid conditions).

And most doctors today treat thyroid patients only to achieve certain results on blood tests, and not based on the symptoms and quality of life of the person. Many hypothyroid patients are dying from high cholesterol and heart disease because doctors don't tell them that these conditions are related to their thyroid problem. It's a national disgrace, but that's a whole other topic I could rant about for hours.

Anyhow, Atkin--plus exercise--is working for me this time, and I feel better now than I have in years. I'm down 18 lbs, and have about 22 more to go to reach my first goal of 200lbs. Then I'll reassess and see how much more I want to lose.

Hope my story helps someone.

--Chris

[Cyclicymn]

Before writing this, I thought a lot about my history with weight and eating and I think the two factors that play hand-in-hand with my eating problems are 1) eating as a defense mechanism (sorry about the psychobabble, Kyp; for me that's the truth) and 2) a sensitivity to carbohydrates that approaches an allergy that aggravates the first factor.

First, I know about allergies. I was born with a whopper, an allergy to milk. Kids born much before me died from this, it was known as "summer complaint". Well, I was a skinny baby until my folks found a nutritional substitute named Soybe. I'm grateful to the stuff, it saved my life. But after that I always carried some extra weight.

I don't know when I first started associating happiness or, at least, freedom from emotional pain with food but I am sure it took a good hold by the time I was 11. That was when my family stopped moving and the ways I dealt with the world before (I avoided homework and treated my peers as an audience) didn't work any more. My weight increased and fluctuated well over the amount I should have had all the way through high school.

After that, my weight fluctuated wildly though mostly up over the next three decades depending on my mood and whether or not I had a strong supportive female figure who was willing to coach me and help me discipline myself. (My mother, my grandmother and my mother-in-law in turn each helped me lose enough so I would not have been considered overweight). When the stress from whatever unpleasant situation became more than I could handle, I would overeat. And almost always, my foods of choice were high carbohydrate.

In the 70's, I thought 155 was (for me) mega-huge. By the year 2000, I was topping in the early 220's. Although, by that time, I had been through several weight loss programs (WW, Tops, OA, exercise, laxatives, counting calories, etc) and had learned how imperative it was that I feed only the hunger of the body. Still, I couldn't stop abusing carbohydrates in response to stress. I didn't realize then (my food journals were never that detailed) that instead of comforting me, the carbs I ingested to dull the emotion only increased my vulnerability to further compulsive eating. I thought my emotional instabilities came from chronic depression and tried to cope as best I could.

Since I've started limiting my carbohydrate intake, not only have I lost weight, my emotional life has changed. (I had to check this with DH since I'm not the best judge of my reactions. However he is impartial as well as extremely kind and he verifies this). My emotional reactions no longer seem to overwhelm my ability to deal with situations. Situations or people that formerly upset me or sent me into a tailspin don't bother me now, or at least don't interfere with my resolve to remain healthy. Because of this change, my compulsion to eat in response to emotional stress as subsided in its frequency, intensity and duration. The techniques I've learned for dealing with difficult situations or people come to hand more easily and (I know this sounds silly) I just feel more grown up! I am becoming my own strong support, with the help and friendship of the members here.

To me, an allergy is an unnatural reaction to a natural substance. In that definition, I have an allergy to too many carbohydrates. As long as I limit my exposure to the substance, I have reason to believe I can change my older destructive patterns of behavior.

[MeatteCen]

I grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, doing lots of farm work, like raking hay, carrying pails of water to the livestock, milking cows by hand, etc. People described me as a "sturdy" girl. In the era of Twiggy (the first supermodel), that wasn't very flattering. I was also the first in my class to begin to develop, if you know what I mean. So, when I compared myself to the skinny little girls, I felt fat. I wasn't actually fat at that point, but I think that by believing I was fat, I began to act fat.

When I was fourteen, I got a job as a live-in babysitter so I could live in town instead of on the farm. I used the money I earned to buy snacks, teen magazines, make-up and clothes. I began to gain weight. I was not working hard anymore and I was eating whatever I felt like eating. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I weighed 156 lbs. I was only about 20 lbs overweight, but I was very self-conscious about it.

I had a crush on a guy at school, so I joined Weight Watchers and lost most of the excess weight. Then I started dating and kept the weight off until after high school, when I got married and then got pregnant. When my doctor examined me for the first time, he said that my hips were absolutely perfect for giving birth. I felt like a cow.

We moved to Seattle when I was eight months pregnant.

I gained about 60 lbs during my pregnancy and joined TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) when my baby was about a month old, and I lost the weight. I kept it off until I got pregnant again. I gained about 75 lbs with that child. I found it much harder to lose the weight afterwards. For the next twelve years, I gained and lost the same 50 pounds over and over again. Then, my marriage started to deteriorate and I lost weight, got contacts, got new clothes, etc., to try to save my marriage. It didn't work, but I looked great when we finally separated!

Unfortunately, I began to eat to entertain myself, squash anxiety, treat myself when I felt bad, just about any excuse. I gained about 80 pounds in three years. I remember showing someone a picture of myself from three years earlier, and he looked at the photo and at me, not believing I was the same person. I was really embarrassed and it was a wake-up call for me.

I went back to school to get a Master's degree, and also went on a diet. I remember being so proud when I got below 200 lbs. I graduated about the same time. Both of my kids were grown by then. I kept losing weight slowly, and it seemed to go faster when I moved to California. I bought a bike and walked or rode my bike just about everywhere. I got down to about 165 pounds.

Then I got a different job. It was very stressful, required long hours, supervising difficult people, and involved lots of responsibility. I stopped exercising and having fun. I started using food to deal with unpleasant emotions again. I started gaining weight.

Then I had an emergency operation, and another, and another, all surgeries in my stomach area. I felt like all my abdominal muscles had been disconnected from my body and inexpertly sewn back together. I had no muscle tone left. I couldn't exercise and didn't feel like it anyway. I got depressed and felt unattractive and stuffed myself. Over the next few years, I gained about 70 lbs.

I occasionally went on a diet, sometimes drinking only SlimFast or going very low calorie. As soon as I went off the diet, I gained all the weight back and more.

Then a co-worker told me about Atkins. She was a great little coach. I went on Atkins and lost about 50 lbs. I also started yoga, but I tried to do too much too fast and hurt my back. That slowed down my exercise. I stalled in my weight loss and gave up on Atkins.

I started to gain weight again and within two years, I got up to over 250 pounds. Then I was laid off from my job, the first time I had ever been unemployed. I was out of work for less than a month, but I did a lot of soul-searching during that time.

When I found a new job, for the first time I was not working for a non-profit organization. My previous jobs had all been working for schools, universities and social service agencies. Now, I was in a business environment and it was very competitive. I began to gain self-confidence and I wanted to fit in. I had two weeks off in December, and I used that time to take stock of myself and my life and future.

I wrote down goals for myself for the coming year, and broke them down into reasonable chunks. One of them was to lose my excess weight. I had been successful on Atkins, so I bought a copy of the book and read every page. I went on Induction on January 1 and haven't looked back since.

Looking back, I think I have a history of using food to avoid unpleasant things like tasks, boredom, fear, anxiety, loneliness. The short-term weight losses have often been for other people (especially guys) instead of myself. Also, I have had unrealistic expectations for myself. I will always be "sturdy" because I have a solid, strong bone structure. But it means I am unlikely to develop osteoporosis and break a hip when I'm 70. I will never be skinny, but I find it easier to look fit and athletic than some of my friends. And I know myself better now and am more secure in who I am and what I want from life.

That's my story. I've enjoyed reading others' history. I hope you enjoy mine.

[CAxrrAYN]

Mine is really simple...

I got pregnant & ate for two! Had baby, eight months later pregnant again still holding weight from first baby. Was careful what I ate the second time.... It paid off as Milo is now 6 weeks old & I'm back to the weight I was when I found out I was pregnant with him.

So fingrs crossed, no more pregnancies for a few years will help me get my body back!!

x

[hexniks]

I really loved reading everyone's stories. Thank you so much for having the courage to share!

[DoctorBretonDen]

I was always a bigger guy, but not in the fat sense. Though I was always around 10lbs or so overweight growing up. In college I did some stupid things (lots of weight lifting, protein shake drinking, and hard alcohol drinking) that didn't combine for good results. When I graduated college, I was probably 30lbs overweight. I was doing a good job losing weight until 2004, when all of a sudden, I had no energy, my metabolism slowed immensely, and I started eating a ton just to compensate for the low energy. After going to a couple of doctors, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism (low thyroid hormone levels but high TSH levels). Well, it took doctors almost TWO years to get me on the correct level of medication. During the first 6 months, I gained about 20lbs. Once I was regulated, some of that weight came off. But it has been a struggle ever since. I am hoping to get back to the 230lbs level some time soon, but ultimately, 210lbs sounds great!

Michael

[Arrecteve]

I have ALWAYS been overweight.
When I was 7, I received a diet book from my Aunt for Christmas.
I asked, "what am I supposed to do with this?"
"Lose some of that fat" she told me.

I've never been comfortable in my own skin.
and ate because I thought I hated the person I was.
I can't remember ever being less than 160 lbs.

This is me at age 12:




I don't know what it feels like to be thin. I'm beyond excited to find out.

All my friends growing up were teeny-tiny. They could eat literally anything, anytime and never gain an ounce. I felt obligated to eat what they ate, as I wanted to fit in. I would easily polish off 4-5 slices of pizza at a movie night, not including chips, soda and other snacks.

I weighed 180 lbs in 8th grade, and was not a happy camper.
A Curves opened up in my town, and my mother and I got a membership.
I went after school with her every day. We also did a very loose version of a low-carb diet. Going into high school I got down to 161.

I maintained at this weight, but never lost any more.
In April of my freshman year, I took a weeklong trip to Colorado with a friend of mine to stay with her Uncle.

I could tell he didn't know what to do with a couple of teenage girls, so we basically ordered takeout every night.

This is where I blew my diet.
I started gaining weight back and reached my high of 180 again.
In the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I met and began dating my current boyfriend, Brian.

He always assured me that I was the most beautiful girl ever.
He helped me a bit on the self-esteem issue. The happiness I felt in my relationship led for me to keep gaining weight.

We ate out often, sharing icecream, big bowls of pasta. He stayed tiny. I didn't.

In the beginning of 2007, I went to the doctor to get on birth control.
I needed to be given a full physical exam before she could prescribe it to me.

I stepped on the scale. "204 pounds" she said.
I about died. All self esteem I had, deflated instantly. For the first time, I looked in a mirror and realized how fat I had gotten.

I went home and broke down.
I think I locked myself in my room for two full days before I snapped out of my funk and did something about it.

I didn't follow a diet, per-se.
But I got a gym membership and went everyday.
I ate little, and when I did it was mostly ricecakes (bleck) and salad.
I allowed myself an occasional treat.

I got back down to 170 on this method, but I could not maintain my eating patterns any longer. So I added fruits and vegetables and whole grains to my diet. I didn't gain, but I didn't lose either.

I entered college in September of 2008 weighing in at 165 lbs.
I felt ok with myself, there's a few girls on my floor who are bigger than me.
I hate being the "fattest girl there."
The campus here is 1.5 miles from end to end. So beginning school, I walked. A LOT. The school also has a beautiful fitness center that I had a free membership to.

I decided a few days into my college career that I would change my eating style. I was browsing diet books in my school bookstore and was across a little pink book called "The Idiot Proof Diet."

I purchased the book and read it all that night.
It is a watered down version of Atkins.
There is a 2 week "induction" but nuts can be had the entire time, and artificial sweeteners were not allowed.
After the two weeks was up, you could add wine and alcohol in moderation.

I wasn't completely happy with the diet situation, I like sweeteners in my coffee etc.
so I researched other low-carb diets, remembering that it worked well for me when I originally tried it in 8th grade.

I found Atkins through reading this forum.
I was intrigued by the before and after photos, success stories and on-going weightloss.

I went to Good Will the next day and got my Atkins book. I read it cover to cover and knew I found the WOE that would suit me.

It was difficult implementing this plan into a college lifestyle, as my new friends wondered why I wasn't having pizza or waffles for dinner as they were.

They've accepted it know, and just know this is how I eat.

I'm proud to say I've never tried the pizza, hotdogs, waffles, buttermilk pancakes, icecream machine and pasta bar that is offered in my dining halls on a daily basis.
and I no longer have a craving to do so.

I love this WOE. I always feel satisfied and have more energy than I did when college began. I've even had other girls notice my weightloss and ask for advice.

I am now at 145 lbs. I see my boyfriend once or twice every month or so (Long distance is hard, but we're making it work!) and his jaw drops every time he sees me. He has never seen me this little (and neither have I!)

We're going to Jamaica in March and I would like to hit my goal of 120 by then. But for right now, I'm just enjoying the ride and so grateful to have found this incredible WOE and super supportive forum.

Thank you for reading! I loved every single other story.[/img]