Nicely put! Plain and to the point. I like that.

I've always had a hard time maintaining my weight. I lost a significant amount twice, but failed to keep it off, and it didn't take very long to put it back on. It was about two years ago that I lost it last time, and I bought a ton of clothes. They're now all hanging in my closet, and I refuse to buy any more at the size I'm in now. That leaves me wearing the same things over and over. My goal is to get back into all of those clothes, and to form lifetime habits to keep me in them!

How I even got started was that I had to move home, because I couldn't afford my apartment any longer and really wanted to buy a new vehicle. So when I moved home, I had realized that my mom had lost a lot of weight, and I was amazed, so I thought what the hell! Lets give a diet a try, so I went to Jenny Craig got on the scale and it said 218lbs! I have always been over weight so I know how I got this big wasn't a suprise, cause when I go out, I would eat at McDonalds, BK, Taco Bell, and Culvers almost daily! Gross!! So, I bought the food, after the first day, I was starving, I new that I couldn't do it, if I was hungry! So, came home and told my mom that I wanted to start Atkins. She said ok and told me to read the book! I read the book and have been on Atkins for 8 1/2 weeks and have lost 22lbs! So, that shows me alot, and I plan to never go back to the way I was eating pre-atkins! This is the WOL for me!!

I remember being right at 200 for what seemed like years, and then one day a little over a year ago I stepped on a scale and it was over 220. I decided I didn't want to go into my twilight years weighing that much, I knew if I did, I would never get it off.

I am really enjoying this thread! Basically b/c most everyone here knows what it feels like to be overweight. There are just so many things that overweight people think about that others wouldnt normally think about- like how fat we look in pictures, the red lines from pants being too tight, trying to suck in your belly roll for hours at a time, etc etc... No one can really understand what this does to a persons' self esteem until they really go through it. So, when I was 2 pounds away from 200, the heaviest I've been my whole life at 24 years of age- I knew I had to do something. I had to sit down and honestly think of all the things I was stopping myself from doing (activities/events) just becuase I was overweight and selfconscious. When I finally figured out that my being overweight was keeing me from being the person who I wanted to be and doing the things I wanted to do, I started Atkins. Thank god I found a different way to eat/live- not only can I fit into my clothes with room to spare, but I finally feel good about myself- as well as having the satisfaction of knowing that I made it happen for myself. Atkins has given me self control- who woulda thought?!?!?

I saw a TV show that was talking about children that have overweight parents are more likely to be over weight. So I decide that I needed to lose the Fat for me and my 2 daughter. The other reason was my husband bought a new Harley Davidson and he could not ride it with me safely. Now I wear a tank top and we have a great time riding...

Kat

One fateful morning, I tried on some pants. I realized my clothes were tight and didn't want to buy a new wardrobe (hence my screen name, "wardrobe"). As it turned out, I've had to buy a new wardrobe because I'm so much thinner! That's money I'm glad to spend though. One more thing: if I can do it, anyone can since I've never tried dieting before and I have no willpower. My one skill is that I can follow instructions if I understand them, and the Atkins book supplied a very clear set of instructions.

When I was 20, I started taking medication for depression, and gained 40 pounds in about 45 days. It was one of the most miserable experiences I've ever had. I saw the scale hovering around 200 - said to myself, "I wont let myself get over 200". At 210, I said "not over 215" and finally at 222 I said OH MY GOD! It finally sunk in that I actually weighted two hundred and twenty two pounds. I was disgusting. I went to PWC got on some scary drugs and a low fat diet, lost about 50 pounds. Decided I felt good, and didnt want to spend the money on more drugs at PWC, so I stopped going.
I gradually gained and lost weight. In 2002 I hit 220 again, but I was so awfully depressed I didnt care. In 2003 I moved out of the state was atrociously poor (2 person household on one income of $8.00/hour) so I lost weight because we had no food. That was easy, I didnt have a choice, there was nothing in the fridge so it didnt matter if I was hungry or not, I couldnt eat if I wanted to.

Move back home with my parents and slowly gained again. In December 03 I quit smoking (weighing about 180 or so) using welbutrin and ballooned again. I got to 210 and said, ya know, I promised myself a long time ago I'd never get up to 200 again, what happened? I started watching what I ate, low fat, low carb, and low cal and exercizing. Nothing happened.

I found out one day that the nasty sugar drops I felt while doing a low carb diet were "normal" and 1 week later I'd started Atkins Induction.

It just sort of hit me one day what those numbers on the scale really meant. It wasnt just some arbitrary number that wouldn't mean anything, and I could fudge if I moved the scale to a different part of the bathroom, or took all my clothes off, or went #2 before I got on the scale. I thought, ya know - if I weighed what I want to weight, 1 or 2 pounds fluctionation isn't going to mean anything, and I wont need to "trick" myself into thinking I weighed less than I did.

I've only been doing Induction for 4 days - but first of all, I'm not starving to death, and second of all I've already lost 2.5 pounds. This is easy, and I love it.

I knew I had gained weight from medications that I had previously been taking.
But for me, it was looking in the mirror one day (after stepping back and really 'looking'), and realizing that I was officially 'fat'.