Hi Lynn, Jessie and Mary

Thanks for all the support and information. Lynn, I especially appreciated seeing your month by month break down, and noting how it varies up and down, from month to month. I think I was assuming it would be a huge initial loss, followed by a decreasing, but regular, smaller loss. It was interesting to see the peaks and valleys. I will take all of your suggestions, including the one to set a two year pace to lose the 150 I want/need to lose, and start a log-making myself accountable to me. I've had a couple of 'tests' and have so far been able to handle them and not break with the diet, so I'm feeling pretty much in control right now. I've just moved to the city I'm in right now and one of the neigbours, being nice, invited me over for coffee. She had another neibour over as well, and they were serving fruit and muffins with the coffee. I dreaded how to handle the situation. I certainly didn't want to open my weight/diet up to discussion by saying, "No thanks, I'm on Atkins," and I also didn't want to appear rude to my new 'friends.' I'm one of those people who have never known how to just say 'no thanks' when offered something to eat, feeling it would be bad manners.

Well, as desperate as I was to make a good impression on these two women, being new in the area and all, I decided my commitment to my new way of eating was more important. Once I made that mental choice- to not have to eat anything- it suddenly seemed easy. As the women helped themselves to the muffins, fruit, etc, I just sipped my tea and made small talk. When the plate was passed in my direction, I simply said, "nothing right now, thanks." And nobody seemed to care or even notice. As obvious or even easy as this might seem to the rest of the world, these kinds of situations were the ones that always gave me the hardest time in the past with previous diets. For some reason, just by being able to say 'no thanks' to food that one time, I've since had similar situations come up and have felt totally comfortable saying no, and not feeling like I owe some kind of explanation.

I feel a lot of shame about my weight, so to get into any kind of discussion- which I thought would happen if I refused food- was really concerning to me. I see sugar as the REAL enemy now. And I'm vowing to never let it win over me again. On the other hand, when it comes to potato chips...just kidding! Thanks for listening everyone. I love how I can be totally honest here.
Kathy