Please help me get my motivation back. I started off great, lost 16 pounds, felt like a million bucks, and now I find that I am so overwhelmed by life that this is too much work. I am losing motivation fast. I feel ill half of the time. I'm falling into that low place that got me here 70 pounds overweight.

Depressed. Don't feel good. Starting to go through the drive thru for the ease of it. To make it worse, I am renovating my house, and I am living in almost total chaos. It's hard to function in the kitchen to cook. Atkins and protein bars, etc. are easy (and are expensive - but so is the drive thru!) but cause me long-lasting stalls. Perhaps, though, that is preferable to the direction I'm slipping...

Sound familiar to anyone? All supportive words of advice and motivation are welcome! I need a low carb caterer!

Cass

Hi Cass! I was just recently in pretty much the situation you are describing. My husband & I bought a house and did some renovations. It was pretty chaotic & I used that as an excuse to return to my old eating habits. There is always a way to eat LC if you try hard enough. If you have to buy pre-cooked meats, or maybe get a veggie tray or something, just do what you have to in order to avoid eating the way you know makes you feel bad. It may be expensive to buy ready made foods, but if you add it all up, it has to be as cheap as going thru the drive-thru. Just hang in there until your life settles down, and you are able to cook for yourself.

Good luck!!

Hang in there. Do your best. Don't worry if you're stalled or even if you gain a bit, but... well, they don't call it a way of life for nothing. Take it one day - one meal - at a time. Things will get better - they always do.

I don't know how your physical and emotional health was before you started LCing, but didn't it improve? You need that added 'umph' in stressful times, so try to put your health and your eating first. I know, it's tough sometimes, but ultimately, we handle stress better when we take care of ourselves properly.

Check out Dana Carpenter's www.holdthetoast.com website. The FAQ page really inspired me to make my eating and cooking a priority - I literally schedule other stuff around it. I don't care if the laundry and dishes aren't done, the bed's not made and there are unheard messages on the answering machine: a healthy meal takes priority over everything. To quote her:

Hope that remotely helps. We all have our rougher times.

Thanks for the good thoughts - I'm proud to report that just posting my plight made me take things seriously again, and today I weighed myself and I'm down 5 pounds! I don't weigh myself every week and that makes a huge difference in giving me a better over-all picture of my hard work, rather than a daily fluctuation to obsess over.

Thanks everyone for the support.
Cass

As my dear mother always said, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"

<font color = red> I know exactly how you feel. I have been on atkins since April. I was doing great, have lost 45 pounds so far, but when we moved in June, I started cheating more than usual. I lost some of my zeal for low carbing. I feel so guilty sometimes. I say to myself, this isn't going to get you anywhere, but I always seem to make excuses for myself. Take yesterday for example. I did great, had an omelet for breakfast, chicken salad with mayo and onions for lunch, and b/f bought cookies at target, well, the good news is I didn't have one. So we go down to the office to fax something, and they usually have cookies sitting out. I ate 3 of them. Why? I don't know. I wasn't hungry. I wasn't bored. So far, I have done good today. I am going to have to start taking it a day at a time like I used to. So, in the midst of all this babbling, sorry, I hope you start to do better like I hope for myself. Hang in there and don't give up. We can do it, just know that you are not alone. The stalls and gains will go away.
Peace Out and Have a Great Day, Belle </font>