Hello All,

I have been low carbing on and off (more off than on) for years . I have never lost much weight from it (my fault), but always feel better when on program . Right now I am a size 22-24 and would love to live out my life a size 6. I am a 36 y/o female who spent 18 years on birth control pills steadily getting fatter and fatter. I weigh 278 and focus more on size/body fat % than pounds, but I must admit to big discouragement at my lack of progress. I am a military spouse and while my husband was away for the past 3 months I did really well without cheating much and exercising pretty regularly. Still, I only lost 4-5 pounds total. I know it is me not being strict enough and when my skinny 6' 1" husband's eating habits don't help.

In less than 3 weeks I will be going to visit my parents for a couple of weeks. This is always a really hard thing for me since my weight has always been THEIR biggest failure and biggest embarassment . During my last visit they kept pushing for me to have gastric bypass surgery and leaving websites up if I was going to check my email on their computer. It was a regular, almost daily hint for weeks .

My short term goal is to lose 1-2 pant sizes in the 17 days before I leave . I recently was working out at the gym 6 days a week for 45 minutes on the eliptical machine and adding 45 minutes of heavy weights on Mondays and Thursdays. With that regimen I wasn't really changing my body and want to try something more effective.

Any ideas, hints, menus, recipes, etc. would be so greatly appreciated. I am so glad I found this group! I hope to reach my ultimate goal of a size 6 by Christmas and I really hope I can count on all of you for support and encouragement!

Thanks,

lynnp