I was doing the low fat diet for awhile and lost weight rather quickly. By maintaining low fat habits I'd maintained my weight for about a month. I was so miserable and tired all the time that I knew it was time to find something new. I'd gone to NY for the day and enjoyed my last pasta meal in the village (unknowingly at the time). At the train station I was looking around in the magazine/book shop and came across Dr. Atkins book. I'd been wanting to get it and was reluctant to buy (8% sales tax) but the more I thought about waiting, the more anxious I was to read it. After about 15 minutes of considering spending the additional money I decided that it was time to do it. So I broke down and got the book. I was so excited about starting the diet that I read the first half of the book that night and started the next day. I weighed about 197 lbs.

When i started dieting in April of 2001, I weighed 205 lbs and was miserable. I felt tired and bloated all the time, I felt unattractive and was even embaressed by my shadow. Since I've started l/c dieting, my energy level has sky rocketed and my clothes fits me very loosely. The best part is that my boyfriend who manages to shrink everything I own, is actually helping me. I'm happy to report that as of today at 187, my shrunken clothes is starting to hang on me. I even tried on some "forbidden clothes" from that one shelf we all hang on to clothes we'll lose weight to fit in to... Most of it fits.

I'm only 23 years old and have always detested clothes shopping. Even though I never cared for the styles, I had started shopping at Old Navy where they sold size 18 and 20 clothes. 4-5 months ago... that clothes was tight. I've been dealing with Chronic depression most of my life having been plump most of life. This new breaking point brought me back to a terrible place I had not been in since I was a teenager.

The details of what I did to myself (mentally and phsyically) and to those around me aren't important. What matters now is that I brought myself out of that and am actually happy with the way I look. I know I still have a ways to go to achieve my goal of 120 lbs. At 5'2" , I feel that is a reasonable and healthy weight. Mostly, I want to get down to a size 6 again, where I was the only summer of my life that I wore a bikini. I was 17.

I hope that there are other people here that can gain some encouragement from my little story, even though it's just begining... the change I've achieved is amazing to me. A carb junkie my whole life and a veg(an)etarian for 4 years, I know what it's like to not understand what is happening to one's body.

Sincerely, I still need support. There are days when my morale is lower than I'd like it to be and I just start reading the atkins book again, and message boards, and FAQs, anything I can find to soothe my concerns. Anyway, I hope this isn't to long and that someone relates to this and replies...

Good luck to everyone!!

Vanessa

205/197/187