Hello,
I am Caso from Colorado. I am totally new to all of this. This is the first 'diet' I have ever gone on. In the past if I gained 5 pounds I'd quit eating, mow the yard,etc and lose 5 pounds. I always worked where you walked alot and exercised while working. Well...now for the past 5 yrs I have sat at a desk, no exercise. I am not 20 or 30 yrs old anymore, and I have gained weight. I am heavier than I have ever been in my life. I am short and big boned. Five extra pounds on my body is alot. Thirty-five is not pretty. I LOVE carbs. I could eat nothing but carbs. I quit eating carbs about 2 wks ago. I have lost about 15 pounds on the scales, but it doesn't seem to be showing any inches being lost. I have dug the old ab roller and threadmill that I bought and never used out of the back of the storage area. And after losing the initial 15 pounds no other weight is coming off. I imagine the first weight loss is from no sugar in my diet and water weight. So, I decided to join in this for support to keep from back tracking and eating the 5,000 carb (comfort foods) that I want RIGHT NOW! ha. I started looking at this site for some interesting recipes. I am not on any named diet. I just printed off a huge carb counter off of the internet and am trying to eat low carb and not go over kill on the calories at the same time. Again, new to all this so will just have to see if it works.
Looking forward to learning from all of you.
Caso

Greetings and welcome aboard!

Where at in Colorado?

Most people seem to have found that starting off on their own low carb diet is not a very good idea. Yeah, you can frequently get the initial rapid water loss, but that can just mislead you into thinking you are doing it right.

Just as all calories are not the same, all carbs are not the same and how your body responds to the way you consume the carbs (such as all at once or spread out) is not the same.

The general recommendation is to look at the "Which low-carb plan is right for me?" link to the right and pick a plan or two. Then get the book. Then read the book. Then follow the book. The plans in the books have been developed over a period of many, many years and take lots of things into account - so stick to it religously. Then, after a few months you will learn enough about LC'ing and about how the human body in general and your body in particular respond to different foods to begin modifying your plan in ways that make sense and are effective for YOU.

I see that you have already started a journal. That's very good. You will find that they are extremely useful. As will be the support that you will get from everyone here.

Keep the Faith.

wbahn,
I am on the other side of the mountain from you,
in Grand Junction. I have access to the Atkins
books. But haven't bought any books yet.
Just made a store run for some Sugar-Free Jello.
I hadn't thought about that yet. Looking forward
to a guilt free treat!!
Thanks for replying, look forward to talking to you
more in the future. Going to go make hubby and I
a treat now.

Grand Junction is where I was born!

I will be in Montrose next weekend for a Search and Rescue Exercise. It was supposed to be this weekend but they postponed it due to weather and the concern about getting our birds over the hump safely.

I haven't been able to find any SF jello that doesn't have aspartame in it except some flavors from Jolly Ranchers that don't appeal to me. Dr. A recommends staying away from aspartame so I gave up my 8 to 20 cans of Diet Pepsi a day. Am very glad I did. But I have decided to try a snack cup or two of cherry SF Jello with whipped cream every day and see how I respond.

So far, it seems to have no effect on my weight loss and it really did the trick for my sweet tooth. I was starting to have the strong desire to find some SF chocolate (and thinking about the real BAD sweets too much as well). So I settled for the SF Jello and, for now, it looks like it was a good move.

Keep going strong.