Okay, M...get ready to recoup...

First, let me tell you I hate being fat too! I started at 60 pounds more than your starting weight...it's a nightmare. But I am proudly the "turtle" of this board, having done Atkins since April, I fought the same 10 pounds up and down until November. I'm down quite a bit now, and mostly because of stressful events recently, but I learned a lot about what I was doing wrong, and why it wasn't working for me.

First...if you have to, clean out ONE CABINET for the girls to have all their stuff in...you know, all the junk food you don't want to look at. Most of us can just dump it and never have it in the house, but in your case, at least get it in its own spot, and STAY AWAY from it. Give yourself the cleaned out cabinet for your stuff...beef jerky, string cheese, sugar free jello, etc.

Second, Induction is where your body goes into detox and begins to function on a new system of burning FAT instead of CARBS...it is important to not let anything get in the way of these first two weeks, and sometimes longer.

How do you make that enjoyable? Well, you keep your favorite "allowable" foods readily available, chopped, portioned, whatever, so that when YOU want something, you can grab it. I used to make the whole pound of bacon, zip lock it and put it on my salads, in my omelets, etc. Same thing with shredded lettuce...that's my staple now. A bed of lettuce and whatever else is in there, a plop of tuna, egg salad, etc. Make your meals interesting and fun. Portions are not strictly controlled, but I found that I was eating WAY too much. I was trying to get FULL, not just being content with the real foods I was finally allowed to eat.

Plan your meals. You can adjust anything you have to serve the family, just make sure you get something yummy and eat until you're not hungry anymore.

DRINK water until your back teeth float. This makes ALL the difference!

Check in with this forum every day. It is my inspiration and my accountability factor. There are people on here who have great knowledge of how the body works, etc. It's a blessing.

I really believe now that with all the REAL foods LC'ing allows (as opposed to low fat dieting) it can be a very interesting and fun WOE. It's not a diet...it will take some time to become second nature, but in almost a year, I don't have one single idea what a potato tastes like, or a piece of bread...and I could care less. But I am enjoying real butter, mayo, olive oil on my broccoli, sour cream, cheddar cheese, salami, my Gram's cole slaw !

This is how it will get for you...trust me, I'm a carb addict for sure!!I will check back tomorrow...maybe start a journal for yourself, and check out fitday.com and log in your foods. It will tell you exactly how you're doing on calories, fat and carbs, etc.

You can do this!!!