Hello everyone. I've been looking around this forum for a few days now, and I'm really impressed, with the content, the people. Looking forward to getting to know you all.

A little about me. I'm a 37 y/o computer programmer living in New York. I started Atkins about 18 days ago--the first diet in my entire life. When I moved to NY at age 24 I was a size 10-12 and weighed +/- 145 (I'm 5'8"). I'm now 208 (after losing 8 pounds on induction), and wear a size 16.

The heaviest I had ever been before coming to NY was just pushing a size 14. I lost that weight not by dieting, but by living the "french paradox". I moved to France for a year and simply ate what they ate, much higher amounts of fat and protein, very few sweets or snacks (It may surprise most people but a typical dessert in France is cheese, yogurt or an apple; the pastries are for special occasions), wine with dinner... (sounds very much like a controlled carb "diet" doesn't it? except it was simply the way of life there.) I never ate so much in my life and yet I was so thin...it was amazing given the low-fat dogma that had by then become so deeply ingrained in north americans.

After moving to NYC--to finish college--I went through a period of about a year where I was very stressed out and very lonely. I was too busy to make friends or date and too busy, I thought, to eat well. I ate more junk food during this time than I ever had in my life, and on weekends, sat alone in my appartment and ate my way through a whole pint of haagen dazs and half a bag of chips while watching TV. The result: I ballooned to over 200 pounds in less than two years.

It's now almost 12 years later and I've never yet tried to diet the weight off; I always felt I could lose it just by exercising and just eating well (it's been over a decade since the haagen dazs by the pint days). But I haven't been able to and I'm finally convinced that the ony way I'm going to lose this weight is to drastically change my way of eating. There was no way I was EVER going on a low fat diet; after my experience with the French way of eating, I knew first hand that fat was not the problem. Controlling carbs on the other hand makes a lot of sense. I just wish I'd discovered it sooner!

So now I'm off down this path, and I was off to such a great start. I lost 8 pounds in the first week of Induction and I was encouraged because I really don't mind eating this way at all. But since then, nothing for about 11 days now. I've been very, very true to the plan--not so much as a peanut or even a cranberry, After reading a lot of the past posts here, I see that this is normal, but the idea of figuring out what has stalled me is just plain driving me crazy.

Caffeine, no caffeine; cheese, no cheese, too many calories? to few? too much protein? This is why I've never dieted. I like to enjoy my food, not obsess over it! I started eating artificial sweetener briefly and suspect that may have been the source. I hate fake food anyway, so I dropped it back out about 5 days ago. Still nothing.

I found a thread that suggests I might not be getting enough calories. I started a fitday journal, and discovered to my astonishment I wasn't even getting near 2000/day--amazing to me because I am so full all the time. So I think that's my next step, to step up the fat intake some more. I'd love to hear from anyone who may have had a similar experience early on. I was so sure this would work, I don't want to be wrong!

Cheers,

Dorothy