With all of this encouragement, how can I not give it one more shot?

Paleoanth and Isiar - I did have the blood work-up and thyroid check. My doctor looked at my chart during my last physical and her jaw dropped when she saw that I was up 38 lbs since my last check up. Everything was normal. I was really hoping for some illness or disorder that could be corrected by taking a pill -- No such luck.

Potatofree, SlimshAdy, SarahWeb, Jesdorka and Tekunoroji - when I was on Atkins I would typically eat a couple of scrambled eggs for breakfast, 2-3 lettuce leaves with tuna salad rolled up inside for lunch, and either shrimp, steak or chicken breast with a couple of asparagus spears or some roasted peppers for dinner. For snacks, I did sugar-free jello (sometimes with heavy cream) or pork rinds, which I read in the Atkins book were okay. However, I see from the posts by cs_carver and prairiegal that both dairy products and pork rinds can inhibit weight loss. What, then, are acceptable snacks? I was also drinking 3-4 liters of water each day.

I am very excited for the opportunity to avail myself of all of your generous offers of assistance. It is 11:40 p.m. right now. Atkins commences at midnight. I will post my menus starting tomorrow and will be eternally grateful if you can help me root out the cause(s) of my ongoing LC failure.

I am glad you are giving it another try! Definately post menus and let us see if we can nail down the problem.

I still think it is weird that you gained so much weight in such a small period of time. Sometimes what is "normal" according to lab values isn't normal for a person. I wish I had a copy of your lab results to look at. If things don't start moving, even with our help-I would suggest either getting a second opinion or getting another set of blood tests. Off to look at your journal!

If that was all you were eating every day, then you probably weren't eating near enough calories or fat. You need to eat a certain number of caloires for your basal rate. If you go below that level your body will hang on to what weight it has and hates to give it up.

Also Atkins is a higher fat diet. On induction typicaly 60-70% of your calories should be from fat. Eating alot of lean protiens such as tuna and chicken with little fat could also be the problem. To get started youmight want to look into signing up for a free account at www.fitday.com It will help you keep track of carbs and show your percentages of fat/protien/carbs. Just watch the serving sizes and adjust them to how much you've really eaten.

For the sugar free jello it usually only effects people who are sensative to asperteme, or find that anything sweet gives them extreamly bad cravings. Same with the dairy. Most people can tolerate dairy fine. I think one of the reasons my weight loss has stalled recently was I added back in dairy such as cheese, cream, and cottage cheese.

Go to the kitchen section of this forum. They have a section devoted to snacks. Things that work good for me:
1/2 avacado mixed with 1 tbsp cream cheese
a plate of deviled eggs in fridge I can grab one fast
Cubed up meat.
serving of baked tofu (can be bought in grocery store)
raw veggies with ranch dressing
Make up a bunch of bacon and keep it in a ziplock beg for quick snack grabbing
LC bratwurst (ok high sodium and cal, but num)
No sugar added jerkey (you can even make your own)

Later when you add things back it gets larger
berries
nuts
cottage cheese mixed with berries
soy slender or unsweetened soy milk (1 net carb per 8oz) The soy slender tastes about like regular milk, not soy milk yummy
riccotta cheese with splenda and cinnimon
LC crackers or other speciality snacks

I've never heard of pork rinds inhibiting weight loss... unless you count water weight from the salt, or accidentally get ones with carbs in the seasoning.

Try keeping track of EVERYTHING you eat for the first few days in your journal. Your menu looks pretty good for starters, but sometimes I develop "snack amnesia" unless I write it down so I can enter it in the journal (Which I just started after a friendly nudge ...or two.. ) in the evening when I get online.

Even just the ACT of writing it in my little notepad can stop a snack in it's tracks. I think I feel more "responsible" for it then.

There's no question Atkins is easier to lose on than any other plan, but where I get into trouble is the mindset that it's a caloric free-for-all. I was fooling myself that I was doing as I was told by "upping my fat"... when in reality, while I was eating 20g or less, I was also eating close to 3,200calories a day!

That may have worked when I was physically active all night as a bartender, but now I'm at home with the kid, and not NEARLY as active. What I thought was a failure of the plan, was MY failure to realize I can't stuff myself, and while it's not a calorie-counting WOE, calories still count!

<sigh> I think I need to go have an argument with myself in my journal or something.

Best of luck!!