I just thought I would post what has got me remotivated. I have been on atkins since last July so almost a year. I was a lifetime weight watchers member before that. I spent a lot of time as a weight watchers member coming up with all these different things to make within the points range. When I decided to try atkins I decided not to bother with recipes. I just stuck with the basics. I basically ate eggs and bacon for breakfast, salad for lunch, and either pork chops/steak/chicken etc. for dinner. Now I just wasn't interested in going to the kitchen section of this site and trying to find all these nifty ways to come up with alternatives the way I did with weight watchers. I guess I got tired of putting effort into diets that always failed me. Anyway this diet has not failed me. When I started atkins I was a size 26. I was at a point where I literally had to order most of my clothes off the internet and for the women out there you know that once you get to a certain size good luck ever finding a bra in an actual store that fits. I am now a size 16. It is really amazing but I stalled out a size 18/20 and I stayed there for about 3 months. I got very bored eating the same stuff over and over again so like always I went back to eating a lot of the same old things that were bad for me. I craved donuts I would eat one. That is a slippery slope to go down. So I spent 3 months gaining and losing the same 10 pounds over and over again. I thought I would never get past an 18. Then for some reason I finally decided to try and find some substitutes for the things I was eating. That is when I realized the kitchen section of this website is a gold mine. Yes there are some recipes that are complicated but there are TONS of recipes that are very easy. For me the less ingredients the easier it is to cook the more likely I am to do it. I had no idea of all these little tricks. Like nuking cheese to make taco shells and crackers. Here I have been cheating with real taco shells and all this time I could have been doing this little trick!!! Since I started really going through this forum I have found that no matter what I crave there is someone out there who has come up with a good alternative. I would bet there isn't anything a person can crave that you can't find at least somewhat of a decent alternative to it. That is when it kicked me back into the losing mode and now I am a size 16 but quickly getting to that day where I can see the 14 in sight. For the first time in 10 YEARS I can walk into a store and buy clothes off the rack. OFF THE RACK. I can buy a bra in a STORE!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is amazing. For once I can buy clothes b/c I like them not only because they fit me. For so many years I go in and buy whatever fits no matter what it looks like. What an amazing feeling to actually have a choice. To say no to a shirt or a pair of pants EVEN though they fit you!!! If I had found any pair of pants that fit me a year ago I would have bought them in a snap even if they were ugly. So for those out there who need that extra motivation I would highly recommend getting involved in these recipe sections. They have totally changed my life. Today alone I had donuts for breakfast, crockpot country spare ribs WITH luscious sauce for lunch, a mocha shake and a jello cheesecake. And hardly any of it had a lick of carbs!!!!!! At this point there doesn't even seem to be a reason to cheat. Who needs to?? Not when we have so many people coming up with so much great stuff to eat that tastes awesome!