Hello John, You have quite a story--you should be proud of yourself and finally making a commitment!! Its hard to stick with this way of eating if you have a family thats eating lots of carbs. But, you can do it. Sometimes I have more carbs than the 20 per day, but its much less than I had before starting this program. Now my body knows when I have too many carbs. Keep your head up, you can do it!!! You will feel much better! I have a LONG way to go also--but we are worth the challenge!!!