Before I had my children I was 124 lbs, which was not too bad for being 5 ft tall. I had previously experimented with becoming a vegetarian, but substituted meat with pastas, potatoes, rice, and sugar-laden foods. After the birth of my two children my weight had ballooned to 174 lbs, and my cholesterol had increased to levels that concerned the doctors. I had gone from a size10 pants and medium shirt, to a size 18 pants and extra large shirts. For ten years I tried to lose the weight, and the only thing I lost in all those years was my patience. I listened to Susan Powter and tried eating high carbohydrate. This caused me to have heartburn, which needed constant medication. I also tried eating mostly fruit, Slim Fast, replacing meals with protein bars, eating low fat, and including some Jane Fonda aerobics. The weight sometimes started coming off, but I would gain it back usually with some extra poundage to boot. I started feeling tired and winded all the time, and I began snoring at night. I had continual bouts of bronchitis and even needed an inhaler. I was embarrassed out in public and so wore the baggiest clothes I could find. My self-esteem became extremely low, but I did not know what to do to lose the weight.

I had a close friend who was also trying to lose weight and we were always comparing notes on what to try next. She tried the blood type diet and that did not work for her. One day she emailed me with some exciting news. She had started Atkins a couple of weeks before and already lost ten pounds. She told me to look at the Atkins website and get the book. She said that she didn’t think this was for everyone, but it was working for her. I took her advice, and on March 15, 2003 started a modified version of the Atkins diet. I did not eat any red meat so I did induction similar to the beginning stages of owl. I gradually needed to increase the amounts of poultry and seafood I was eating in order to feel full and satisfied. The hard part for me was to believe that it was OK to eat the good and neutral fats that I had been avoiding for so long. I soon learned that the fats were necessary to keep me full, and I was consistently losing weight, which really surprised me.

The first two weeks I lost seven pounds. I then stalled for a few weeks. I was concerned that the weight loss had stopped, and so I wrote in to a LC message board to get some advice. I was told to start counting my carbs on a program like fit day, and to really follow the plan that I had read in the book. I bought a kitchen scale and started weighing my nuts and cheese. I began counting and measuring, and learning portion size. I always drank my eight glasses of water a day. This seemed to work, and the weight continued to come off. I averaged one pound a week loss for many, many weeks and months. I began to take measurements of myself using a tape measure and this helped me continue to have inspiration on the weeks that I did not go down on the scale. I often went down in inches and I kept track of this on a chart. When I was ten pounds from my goal weight, my loss slowed down to one pound a month. On March 15, 2004 I had reached my goal of 115 lbs and was down to a size 6/8 in pants and a medium in shirts.

As I lost weight, I also started an exercise program. I began to do the Firm tapes and Windsor Pilates. I believe the exercise really helped to keep the weight loss coming off, and helped with toning. When I went in for my physical six months after starting Atkins, my cholesterol and triglycerides had come down to normal levels. I also stopped snoring and my heartburn went away. I was beginning to feel healthy again! When allergy season came I did not even need my medications or inhaler. I have not gotten sick, outside of a cold, in the year and one half since I started the program. What a change!

I am so thankful that I tried this plan. My eating habits have changed greatly, and I no longer eat or desire sugar. I have finally learned a moderate, healthy way to eat, and I never plan to gain my weight back again!