I'm one of those start-and-stoppers. Start, go great guns for three days, a week, two weeks, two days, then I can't stand it any more and go off-LC. Once, long ago, I lost very quickly and very painlessly on Low Carb and would love to recapture that, at least the latter part (I'm not after quick weight loss. I'm older now and would shoot for "healthy" and something under the size of a small mountain).

I usually am felled by one of three things: I don't plan well enough, I get sick of the grease (I'm not a soy substitute person), or, as has happened this time, I am so exhausted by the second day that I do nothing but sleep.

Yesterday, I was perfect. I've got Day One down pat. Felt fine, no side effects, got a good night's sleep. Today, I woke up tired and it got worse. No headache, just a hideous need to sleep that sleep itself does not assuage. Exhausted, I had a shake (with aspartame) for breakfast, which was Very Dumb. The aftertaste stayed with me all day, and by 8:30, between the sleepliness and the whatever-from-the-aspartame, I would have killed for a Coke (my most serious addiction). Not wanting to kill anyone, I merely got one from the vending machine.

Obviously, commitment and willpower are part of the problem, but do any of you have ideas for getting through the first week of tiredness? Eating small meals at two hour intervals? The sleepiness does not seem to be tied to eating -- i.e., I don't get a surge of energy from eating or drinking anything, whether sugar or protein. I vaguely remember the last time I stuck with this for two weeks the tiredness went away at the end of a week.

Sorry for the rambles, but I wonder if any of you have had a similar situation?

Thanks!

Xan